Rating: 
Summary: It just keeps getting better
Review: I switched my home campaign over to 3rd Edition last August. I run 14 players in two different groups, and despite some initial grumblings during the character conversion process, we are finding that the game just gets better and better. The combat rounds are fluid and dynamic, spells can be cast almost as fast as weapons swung, the movement-during-combat system finally makes sense, PCs love being able to create magic items at lower levels, and the fact that a run-of-the-mill goblin might turn out to have a few levels in sorcerer or that the doppleganger is also a high level rogue, has put a fresh new spin on what was once old and wearing thin.From a DMs perpective, I can't praise 3rd Edition highly enough. Finally, all the systems work together, seamlessly. Magic resistance (now accurately called Spell Resistance) is clearly explained and the mechanics are simple yet allow for great variation. Monsters get the same kinds of feats and skills as characters, so I only have to learn the mechanics of the system once and they apply across the board. A salamander uses the same basic grappling rules to constrict with its fiery tail as a half-orc who just wants to pin someone to the floor. It all interlocks and works together so well, I find myself playing the game more and enjoying the consistency of the rules. We have very very few rules 'disputes' in our games -- not only because the mechanics are clearly explained but also because the rules are fair, balanced, and fun!
Rating: 
Summary: A great book... if you can read it
Review: I admit it. I'm a newbie. I have never played Dungeons and Dragons in my life, and I only know a few people who do. However, I bought this book hoping to learn more about the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game. The problem? I never played 1st or 2nd edition. This book truly confused me at first. For a while, I found myself looking back at previous pages quite often to make sure that I hadn't missed the one paragraph that would explain how you determine a skill modifier, for instance. The font is very small, and there are numerous tables inserted into the middle of paragraphs or even sentences. Many abbreviations are used and forgetful people like me have to keep looking in the convenient glossary to remember what they mean. However, once I started to understand the basics of the game, the book was fun and informative to read. The descriptions are detailed and the numerous page references are helpful. Any time more information is needed, the Player's Handbook directs you to another page or book. The illustrations are beautiful. And there are some sections that made me laugh... I never knew that gnomes could have names that strange! Creating a character is a simple step-by-step process, going to different chapters for different statistics. Overall, this is a great book... but I wouldn't recommend it for younger children or people who have never played role-playing games. For the rest of you-- enjoy the dungeons!
Rating:
Summary: 3.0 is STILL better than 3.5
Review: I wouldn't listen to anyone that claims the "new and improved" 3.5 is any bit "new and improved". 3.0 is truly the right blend of D&D tradition and sound game mechanics. 3.5 is a pile of garbage house-rules for actual D&D crafted by a new batch of "limited" designer minds. This book is D&D 3rd edition, no other.
Rating:
Summary: Great looking book with great rule changes...
Review: The quality of this book is about 50 times that of the older, original D&D books. Even the newer, 2nd Edition books are not as nice as this one. The illustrations are great and the text is small, but readible. The only problem is certain pages have graphics in the background which can make some text harder to read. The new rules are a giant breath of fresh air for this venerable game system. The gameplay mechanics have become much more simple, yet still retain enough realism to make it fun. There are 3 simple saving throws now, instead of 5 complicated ones. Each ability score has only one modifier, instead of the multiple modifiers of the old system. Character classes are more broad, and you are much less likely to experience the "cookie cutter" character of the past. The fighter who is just like every other fighter kind of thing... By taking different skills and feats (new "super skills") you can become any type of fighter you like, and the options are plentiful. Some old character favorites are back including the barbarian, monk and bard. All the classics are there, and there is now a new type of spellcaster... the sorcerer. She can cast spells with no memorization needed, and no spellbook!! Overall, this new system incorporates VERY little of the old system. They even change the names of certain things for no apparent reason. "Backstab" is now "sneak attack"? It may seem difficult to learn alot of new rules, but I have had the book for 2 days, and I already feel comfortable enough to play. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who has played D&D in the past, plays D&D now, or wants to learn the roleplaying game that started them all.
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous Product With Clear Writing, Excellent Artwork
Review: The new Player's Handbook (PH) D&D Design Team has created a marvelous product--filled with generally clear writing and excellent artwork--containing a major change in game mechanics. The PH nonetheless manages to retain the spirit of the D&D game created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. The 3rd edition replaces the old movement system, denoted in confusing scale inches--which goes back even before D&D to Gygax's Chainmail rules for medieval combat--with a clear system of speed denoted in feet. Yet the 3rd edition includes familiar races and character classes. It retains the bard, cleric, druid, fighter, ranger, rogue, paladin, and wizard, and resurrects the barbarian, monk and half-orc. Fans of clerics and druids will cheer the addition of 8th- and 9th-level spells. Clerics will love the 9th-level Miracle spell, similar to a Wish. Barbarian fans will rejoice that the 3rd edition removes the unplayable restrictions of the original barbarian, even at the cost of somewhat reduced physical prowess. Fans of the monk and druid will celebrate elimination of limited levels. Each class now requires the same amount of experience to advance in level. Regardless of which class you choose, your character initially will advance rapidly because reaching the lower levels requires relatively small amounts of experience; earning a mere 1,000 experience points, for example, will gain your character second level. The 3rd edition grants each 1st level character full hit points. Combining easy advancement at lower levels with full hit points at 1st level will help keep characters alive through their fragile early days. The 3rd edition introduces a sorcerer class. The sorcerer gains access to the same spells as the wizard, gets more per day, and needn't carry spell books or prepare spells, but can't learn as large a repertoire. The sorcerer can't specialize in schools of magic like the wizard, while the wizard specialist now has some control over the school from which she can't learn spells. All spellcasters except the ranger and paladin now have access to zero-level spells, the way Gygax intended in 1982 when he introduced cantrips in Dragon magazine issues 59-61. The spellcaster will find that she's more effective because a touch spell no longer needs to penetrate an opponent's armor. She also gains the ability to counterspell an enemy's spell, which, when successful, negates the enemy's spell entirely. A rogue will find that his sneak attack comes into play more often than did the old backstab, making him more useful in combat. Your rogue or barbarian will learn to avoid a surprise attack which leaves the rest of the party flat-footed. Your warrior continues to grow in power at higher levels by gaining up to 4 attacks per round, substantial bonuses to hit, and even more hit dice. Characters continue to gain hit dice right up through 20th level. All character classes also eventually get more than one melee attack per round, but the warriors get more and get them faster than anyone except monks. Any character, regardless of race, can now belong to any class. You can play hafling paladins, dwarven rangers or anything else you choose. Any character, regardless of race, can belong to multiple classes. The 3rd edition removes limits on class combinations and maximum levels. It allows you to decide in which class your character will advance with each new level she gains. Best of all, your character gains all the skills and benefits of each level she gains in each class! You can decide, for instance, that when your 4th level wizard reaches 5th level she should take her new level as a fighter. She will remain a 4th level wizard and become 1st level fighter, adding the hit points, skill points, and combat bonus normally gained by a 1st-level fighter to her existing hit points, skill points and combat bonus. She can train as a wizard or fighter, or in another class, each time she earns a new level. Humans gain small advantages over non-humans when advancing in multiple classes. Humans gain a small advantage in acquiring skills too. The 3rd edition divides the old non-weapon proficiencies into skills, which you can "buy" with points your character earns at each level, and feats, which your character acquires more slowly. Skills include more ordinary abilities like Climb, Swim, and Wilderness Lore. Feats include more extraordinary abilities like Alertness, Endurance, and Lightning Reflexes. The 3rd edition fully integrates skills and feats into play, making often-neglected ability scores more important. Your barbarian, for example, may find the Intimidate skill quite useful, but if he has a low charisma he'll find that it won't work as often as he might like. The 3rd edition bases the results of virtually every attempted action on the roll of a 20-sided die (d20). You roll a d20 to determine initiative in combat, whether your attack hits an opponent, whether you successfully save against a spell, and whether you successfully use a skill or perform a feat. In the 3rd edition, the higher you roll on the d20, the better. A higher roll hits a higher armor class (which now sensibly rises as it improves), performs a tougher feat, gives you a faster initiative (which likewise rises as it improves), and saves against a more powerful spell. Unlike the old system, which varied between high and low rolls being better, the new system always makes high rolls better. The 3rd edition simplifies combat by generally limiting the initiative roll to the start of each encounter and eliminating weapon speeds and numbered casting times; it complicates combat with rules on movement, surprise attacks, partial actions, attacks of opportunity and being caught flat-footed. I believe that players will tend to have the most trouble adjusting to the new combat system. After a cursory examination, however, I think they'll find the adjustment worthwhile...
Rating:
Summary: 3.0 is STILL better than 3.5
Review: I wouldn't listen to anyone that claims the "new and improved" 3.5 is any bit "new and improved". 3.0 is truly the right blend of D&D tradition and sound game mechanics. 3.5 is a pile of garbage house-rules for actual D&D crafted by a new batch of "limited" designer minds. This book is D&D 3rd edition, no other.
Rating: 
Summary: 3.5 edition has arived
Review: Woc has done it again. They have released another editon, and it is supearior. Edition 3.5 is very like third (Hence the .5), but realy cleans up the classes and makes things more balanced. This book is good, but the new Players Handbook 3.5 Edition just blows it out of the water. They tweaked all that needed tweeking, and left the good stuff there. Toss your third Edition and go buy 3.5!
Rating:
Summary: The book that starts and runs the game
Review: This book for most people is the only book you will ever need for Dungeons & Dragons. While there are many more accesories expanding the game, This is the ancor, and the only book needed for a player. It includes all of the Races, Classes, Spells, Feats, and Items you need to make and run a Charactor.
The best art of this book is that not only does it list all the things you need to know, it explains in full detail how all things are related to each other. If read like a book, (front to back not just paging for specifics) It spells out what you need, need to do, and how to. You start with the abilities, go into races, classes, and then skills, and items. Finsihing with spells, and feats.
Over all, i would rae this 5, because of what it offers, and its necesity to the game it serves. i recomend you buy it, even if you dont buy it here.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of good stuff, some (significant) holes
Review: D&D 3E is a massive improvement over previous editions in a number of ways ... D&D has finally embraced skills, a big plus; a lot of the arbitrary and annoying restrictions of previous editions have been eliminated; the whole thing has been streamlined greatly at a fundamental level (there is still a lot of rules grit - attacks of opportunity anyone? - but this has always been the case, and by using a much cleaner and less arbitrary basic system, the game is now more intuitive). The problem with D&D 3e is that it requires a *lot* of work on the part of the gamemaster. This is not a ready-to-play game by any stretch, unlike WotC's Star Wars d20, say. You have to go to some lengths to create a campaign setting, and realistically you're going to have to throw some of those arbitrary restriction back in. Why? Because D&D 3e has some significant imbalances, and you're likely to be playing with one player who is going to be looking for rules loopholes to create an unbalanced character. A big culprit here is the multi-classing combined with the fact that many classes are front-loaded with a lot of cool abilities at first level, so it's not unusual to find characters with 3 or 4 classes so they can cherry-pick low-level abilities from each. This is not only aestetically displeasing and unbalancing, but makes it impossible to keep a coherent character vision. The prestige classes are a cool and interesting feature, but are for the most part egregiously broken and, in the words of a fellow-player, "pure munchkinism". Another complaint of mine about the system is that characters are simply too hard to make distinctive; the only real tool you have is this problematic multi-classing, and that is at best a blunt instrument. The Feats are a very cool concept, but not well-balanced with respect to each other so many will simply never show up (and characters who are not Fighters and Wizards acquire them far too slowly to be of much use in distinguishing characters). Characters of some classes (notably Paladins, Monks, Druids, and Barbarians) are going to be essentially indistuinguishable from each other - an 8th level Monk is pretty much an 8th level Monk, and the variance will be quite small. I find the list of which skills can be bought by which classes unduly restrictive and occasionally bordering on the nonsensical. The restrictiveness of the class sytem, and the stereotyped nature of the classes and lack of advancement choices, is to my mind the most significant failing of D&D 3e. Some classes are now almost acceptably flexible: the Fighter has a huge number of choices with all their bonus feats, even if the basic class concept of a heavily armed and armored fighting machine can't be fundamentally altered; Wizards of course have a massive spell list, and can specialise in various schools; Clerics now can pick from a dozen or so dieties, all of which serve to flavor the class; and Rogues have immense numbers of skill points and a wide variety of skills. But if you want somthing a little more specific or flavorful, you're stuck with cookie-cutter classes. Anyway, from a pure systems standpoint, the d20 system is fundamentally a good one, but from a pure gaming perspective it has been done better by other games. I actually like Wizard's Star Wars game better, as it addresses many of the problems I've mentioned here; but that doesn't help you much if you hanker for heroic fantasy. D&D 3e is cool, better than previous editions (often significantly), and is popular because it is so open-ended. It has rules for everthing, and a bazillion skills, feats, spells, monsters, magic items, etc. - everybody is going to find a cool idea in here somewhere that they're ready to run with. All those options don't always work together, though, and the choices are sometimes odd, so be aware that the gamemaster is going to have to do some work for D&D 3e to be truly robust.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent new edition!
Review: I was a diehard 1st and 2nd edition fan for many years and when 3rd edition came out, my first inclination was to totally ignore it. I finally overcame my prejudice and looked over the 3rd edition players handbook... I was happily surprised. This version of the game is much more detailed, a lot of thought went in to it's design. Some of the highlights include, an actual skills system that works (I never cared too much for the non-weapon proficiencies of 1st and 2nd edition), spell descriptions are very well thought out (the knock spell is an example of this) the artwork is very nice (late 2nd edition artwork was the worst), the combat system is simplified... and you can multiclass your character to your hearts desire. These are just some of great things about 3rd edition. I highly recommend you check it out!
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