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Summary: Change
Review: Many reviews of this book have complained that D&D 3E "wasn't AD&D" or "involved change". DUH! Were you expecting to get an exact copy of AD&D rules? It's called "3rd Edition", not "AD&D"! I enjoyed this book a lot. I liked all the illustrations, and the way the statistics were organized. Essentially, I liked everything about it. Well, ALMOST everything. My only problem with it is those little brown lines through all the text. Is there any POINT to those? There's really nothing to say that hasn't been said already.
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Summary: great book-ignore all those whiners
Review: Many people are complaining about all the modifications made to 3E. Don't listen to them. All the modifications are improvements. For example, now the AC's are better when higher, which makes much more sense(No more dragons with -8 AC). Also, IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE MODIFICATIONS,DON'T PLAY 3E! It's that simple.
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Summary: Explains The Game With Perfection
Review: Im new to D&D, and i have just been recently introuduced to the game through this book. At first, i thought the book and D&D all together was a bit overwelming. But after a few hours of reading, and rereading the book, i caught on. I am now a DM and i use the book everytime my freinds and i sit down to play. It has the basic information to play D&D and learn how to play.It has all the basic classes, races, weapons, equipment, spells, and the like that you would ever need to play a normal D&D caimpaing (not Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms Caimpaing settings.) It is the key to tons of fun with your freinds. The only flaws I found (meby i overlooked something) :( were that sometimes it was very troubling and frustating to find a certian chart or information. Otherwise the book is great! :)
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Summary: Well, not bad
Review: I am what you might call a d and d newbie. When I got this book, i was impressed by all the pictures and stuff, but as I got into reading it is got kinda confusing. It tells you tons of information, and it gets hard to remember. I had to keep re-reading chapters to figure it out. Overall its pretty good, but could be better. If you are interested in playing D and D, you should buy it!
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Summary: A very good adaptation
Review: I joined 3rd edition just recently, after years of playing CRPG's rather than the table-top versions of my youth. I bought this book with great trepidation; I liked 2nd edition a lot, I don't particularly like or trust WoTC, and many people I know complained. I like it, though. The art is great, the action is just as quick and exciting. The other books in the set (Monster Manual, DM Guide, and now the Forgotten Realms book), along with the improved Dragon and Dungeon Magazines are all very well done. Oh! And play Mage Knight!
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Summary: Some good, some bad, a lot pointless.
Review: Unlike a lot of people, I was really looking forward to the 3rd Ed. I bought into the hype of streamlined rules and more logical systems . . . however, I didn't realize just how 'streamlined' it would become. This game is great for people who just want to make a character and start whooping monster-butt . . . but it's too simple for my tastes. There's no real penalties for decisions and you can pretty much do just about anything you want with little too no consequence. The potential to create unbelievably powerful characters is way too high for someone who actually thinks a bit. Many of the changes made were great. THAC0 was a great thing to go bye-bye. Stat limitations were a great thing to see disapear. The new adjustments to multiple swings were quite well done. The new ways of combining classes was quite well done and I like that you can train in any class at any time. However, with all of these good ideas, I think a lot of it was poorly implemented in relation to variables. Everything is just so simple that it's lost all of it's soul. Do I agree that a wizard should be able to spend a few years learning a weapon and, for those three experience levels, gain the benefits of a 3rd level fighter added to their wizard abilities? Yeah. But it should all be one base minus. changing from a wizard to a druid should have a heavy penalty while druid picking up clerical arts, especially a god of nature, should have little to no penalty. Many of the feats were great, but many were pointless, way to difficult to get for their ability and extremely overpowered. In the end, I loved the art and I liked many of the concepts they introduced, however, I won't be switching to the new system. Instead I'll just be using the new rules as fodder for new ideas to work into the better and more detailed 2nd edition. I suppose if I look at the book as a supplement then it was (almost) worth my money. It is great for quick and decisive combat but devoid of the vast options that actually incorporated roleplaying in the second edition. If I were to try and use this system as my core gaming platform, I agree with many others in that it simply comes off as Magic: The Hack 'N Slash. I'd either have to spend hours converting tons of old stuff into this new system to make it a roleplaying game(instead of a battle simulator), or spend maybe two hours stealing the good ideas from this and incorporating them into 2nd edition.
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Summary: D&D book 3
Review: This book is awesome since it is so informative. I love knowing as much as possible about this stuff.
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Summary: Beautiful Cover to Cover Reference
Review: The Dungeons and Dragons 3e Player's Handbook is a great reference to all beginners in the Dungeons and Dragons gaming world. I, myself, have only been interested in Dungeons and Dragons for a few months and just recently got this product and the Adventure Game, but this is more than I could have expected. This book has a complete list of feats, skills, basic classes, and tips on just about everything in the game. I have not read the whole thing, but in playing just a few adventures, it has proven its worth already. The artwork is brilliant, the descriptions are thorough, and the whole book is well organized. However, I wish I had gotten it in paperback (if it ever comes out that way), because sixteen bucks was a dent in my "D&D Fund." Flaws were few but prominent. For one thing, I'd like to know what a prestige class is, but I don't think it is in the book. I heard about special classes such as Arcane Archers and Blackguards, but I don't know anything about them from the material inside. The information was complex and hard to follow at times as well. A bonus to the score was the fact that I received the Character Generator Demo for the upcoming Master's Tools CD-Rom, and I can't tear myself away from it. All in all, a good buy.
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Summary: YOU NEED THIS BOOK
Review: Ok I'll make this simple. If you've nver played any dnd nefore start with the boxed set and then move on when your ready. If you played earlier dnd but have shifted because you thought it sucked/got bored then come join the party! This is a HUGE improvment . nowhere near as complicated but far far more versitiatilty. If you have the boxed, enjoyed and now crave more then GET THIS BOOK ASAP! Oh man does this book rule! It has 10 classes and gives step by step creation. It is very well layed out (looking better than the 2nd ed handbook and the information easier to find). Admitingly the layout could be better but overall this is DA bomb!
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Summary: Definitely the best rules to date
Review: When designing a game, there are two rules to stick to. The first is to make it interesting, or else nobody will play. The second is to remember that it's a game. With the first edition rules, TSR pretty much ignored the first rule, opting to make more and more overpowered character templates, ultimately making the game far too large and unwieldy to use. With the second edition rules, they forgot the second element--I'd rather read most of the second edition rules than try to use them in the game--and the game became equally difficult and unwieldy. Now, just maybe we finally have a system that can stand on its own and still be deep and interesting. These are certainly the best base rules I've ever read for any gaming system, bar none. The classes are balanced and the rules are clear and easy to understand. Most of all, a lot of the arbitrary restrictions (which most DMs ended up waving anyway) from 2nd edition are gone now, giving you the freedom to create the character that you want and cutting back on the house rules phenomenon that was encouraged to destructive levels with previous editions. I own most of the supplementary products that they've released to date as well, and I still think that I'd prefer to stick with the base rules--they're interesting enough as they stand, and they make the game much easier to play than it has been in the past. While the presentation can get a little hard to deal with at times (those lined pages only through me once or twice), overall this is an excellent product, and a great new edition.
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