Rating: 
Summary: Rather Amused
Review: It amuses me (after reading all the other reviews) that some people really take a almost personal offense to the new edition. I would like to point out that gamers around the world have been crying out for alot of these changes to the rules for years. And a lot of us have been using some of these "updates" for ages anyway. Sure the new rules may not be for everyone, but the whole point to these "Guides" is that they are just that... Guides.If you arent happy with the new rules, dont use them... I for one am quite impressed with the thought that has gone into this edition... You must remember that Role-playing is not just about getting the best "Stats"(unless you are a particularly boring player) And a lot of us fall into the trap of deciding our characters skill advancement well before we have played those characters through the levels to gain those advances... which if you think about it is pointless and also not so "reality" based. Things seldom happen the way we expect them too (especially in RPGs)and I for one think the new Skills system caters a lot better for the real Role Players out there... I do agree a little with the comments about the layout. It does seem to be a bit cluttered with Surplus Artwork, but then if I was learning the game all over again then i think it would probably inspire me more than anything... Remembering that this game is about imagination. And a few visual aids never hurt anyone.. Oh well... I believe that it was Winston Churchill who Said "you cant please all the people all of the time....." (or something like that.
Rating: 
Summary: An entirely necessary revision that real players will love
Review: In review of this list, the primary argument concerns issues of brand loyalty more suited to carbonated beverages or a style of running shoe. This overlooks what the function of this product, like the ones which preceded it in the series, is: to allow the player to have an entertaining experience as the controller of a character in a medieval fantasy environment, with guidelines and procedures established to suspend disbelief and personalize each character. In every sense, it is a triumph in addressing the flaws of the old system while retaining its original character. The system preserves character classes while restoring the barbarian and the monk from previous editions, and it preserves the spectrum of races while giving you a reason to be human other than the absence of negatives. Everything is based primarily on a d20, with higher results being better than lower ones. Armor class increases in value as it improves, overcoming one of the early cognitive dissonances for any old-school player who ever sat and pondered THAC0. There are now skills, rather than proficiencies, and it is now possible for a character to invest points in them as a defining characteristic. One of the problems with old-school D&D for me was that two naked fighters of equivalent level and attributes were precisely the same in every respect. Proficiencies were an afterthought, and did not serve to distinguish characters with different experiences and training than another. Personalizing your character is possible to a much greater degree than before. Feats permit the characters a wide variety of choices in terms of broadening the character's abilities and making him different from his peers. While Conan and Inigo Montoya are both examples of fighters, their style and physical gifts differ vastly and a selection of feats appropriate to them will reflect it. Conan prefers two-handed greatswords whose weight alone can devastate opponents, so he would choose Power Attack and Cleave. Inigo prefers his father's slim-bladed rapier to attack with speed and precision, so he would choose Weapon Focus: Rapier and Improved Initiative. In a class as previously generic and faceless as the fighter, this clearly shows improvement. To address the arguments of the pretentious old-school gamers: 1) Having a greater hand in the design of one's character is not power gaming, which is essentially a meaningless term anyway; 2) If you don't like obviously needed improvements in mechanics, rejoice in the fact that AD&D will become a clearance item in your local hobby shops; 3) The superb art direction was actually accomplished with some of the contributing artists from the AD&D 2nd Edition Player's Handbook and DMG, not to mention other projects in recent times; 4) If Gary Gygax says that the new Dungeon Master's Guide has provided wonderful new insight, how much of a poser are you to contradict him? :) An excellent value in terms of content, design and cost, and a welcome return for roleplayers who enjoy the medieval-fantasy environment which began the entire genre.
Rating: 
Summary: The game mechanics are great, the feel is gone
Review: D&D's archaic rules have finally been updated! WoTC have to be given credit for this. The game system is excellent. The material is clearly presented. However, as usual, the WoTC crew has missed the point. The "atmosphere" or "feel" of the game has been lost. Its not the D&D old-timers remember, and its not a change for the better. With that said, it is a much better game, at least as far as the rules go.
Rating:
Summary: Best Edition to Date!
Review: By far, 3rd Edition D&D is the best system TSR has come up with. The skills system is a lot better than the old proficiencies. The rules are very simple. Once you understand the basics, the rest come very easy. One thing that makes the system so simple is the fact that making a to hit roll, making a skill check, and rolling an ability check, is all the same! All you do is roll a 20-sider, add any modifiers. If that is higher than the difficulty class, you hit. It's that simple. Any race can now be any class, and multiclassing isn't limited. Yes, a Gnome Ranger/Paladin/Monk/Wizard/Cleric can really be done. All of the classes were well thought out, and very balanced. Action is fast, and since the system has been simplified, there's a lot more room for role-playing. With 2nd edition, half of the game was spent arguing about rules and the like. Not with the new system. I highly recommend the new edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a disappointment
Review: Well, I went out over the weekend and I picked up the players and Dm's for the 3rd. After reading over the books for the 5 hours that I took to take in most of the information and rolling changes to the game I feel I have a pretty good understanding of how the game now works. I will say this off the bat, the changes to the rolling system are at the very least a VAST improvement over the old school. The stats system as well is much more balanced. The class system and mutli classing is rather well thought out and implements player stats on a much better scale, including for the first time in the history of the game actually game usage of CHA. At this point I was rather impressed with the progress the game had made. Without getting into the details the way experience and cross class powers are done is also very very well balanced. So this is why I all in all think it sucks. They have made one change to the heart of the game that is in my opinion the death of the system. The WHOLE system is based off of PC's picking skills that they are able to train. In short skills are a combination of all class powering like tracking, hiding in shadows, special weapon attacks, use of more complex weapons etc. I.e. the heart and soul of what make your guy special. the math behind placing points into different skills works fine albeit it seems to promote very powerful PC's. Trust me when I say even I would not allow some of the power that this system can allow a PC to wield. The flaw to this system though is the fact that the skills list is a total of a one page chart. While reading it I was able to come up with 30 skills that I feel they missed. ( I wrote them down as I went along ) The problem that a skills based system creates is what I will be classing Version 1.0 Characters. Meaning that as the skills list is so visibly inadequate TSR will of course publish more skills and things like dragon magazines and new books. Well this may help their future sales it does cripples to performance of any character made who could benefit from a skill that will be published some months down the road. Now we all know we can come to the DM and say hey skill XZY was just published in the skills and powers book can I change "mounted attack" to the new "air based riding" and the DM can say sure. Of course this tosses character continuity out the window. All in all my opinion is this. The work they did on the "math" end of the game is a great improvement but the core of the character system is about as solid as mud on a good day. So unless you would like to be married to either creating all your own skills for every lvl each PC gains or buying every new book TSR throws down the pipe the new system will not work, and I will can honestly say I will NEVER use it.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, Simple and easy to read
Review: In response to a few complaints about the layout of the book: Its great! I have experience with AD&D2, and the new PHB is no worse than it, it took me 1 hour to almost completely learn the rules for 3rd edition, however for the younger and less experienced gamer, I would recommend getting the D&D Third Edition Adventure game first.
Rating:
Summary: DA BOMB BOOK
Review: It is a cool book i like the illustrations and the betters customization of characters. Alot more organized and understandable than other D&D books. The ability to actually see what type of weapon you are using makes it alot better. Also the spells are very interesting and different. Thank you WIzards of the Coast for coming out with Third Edition
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much To Care
Review: Though I have been a large fan of AD&D for years, I've enjoyed the core rulebooks for their expert layout and their simple and straight-forward rules-system. Not that it can't get complex, but comparing D&D 3rd Ed to all other AD&D core rule products, D&D 3rd Ed is hard to read and hopelessly redundant with obscure terms and lack of clear or even easy-to-reference charts. Even knowing the D&D system, I find myself looking in the somewhat helpful index to find the actual meaning of the terms they've come up with. I do like the way they've handled skills (i.e., more like most skill-based RPGs on the market) and freeing most Feats from class-specifics (though most feats are clearly for fighters, who get more of them than any other class) is a good step away from class-based RP. This completely turns around by giving every spell its own level depending on your class, tying spellcasting tighter to classes than in any other AD&D game. Trying to look at the system from a first-time-gamer aspect, the terms used can far better benefit the confused player (explaining them in more depth would have helped, too) as well as starting with simple concepts first and expanding on those. 172 pages of rules (the rest being spell lists and appendicies) is daunting at best. The actual technical writing is far too technical for a causal gamer (though thankfully never talks down to the reader). Though I do like many of the examples, the Skills/Feats and the beautiful and helpful illustrations, there is little else in this new rules system that would make me want to explore it by running it as a game system. In a nutshell: Revamped, yes. Simplified, not at all.
Rating:
Summary: A terrible re-hash of the Rules Cyclopedia
Review: Am I alone in thinking that D&D gaming reached perfection in the Rules Cyclopedia? I hope not. Needless to say, I was very excited to see that 3E was going to incorporate skills rather than "proficiencies" as well as a number of other long-awaited changes. Talk about disappointment! The third edition is a complete disaster. Here's why: 1) Art work. D&D used to be about high-fantasy medieval role-playing. Now its some disgusting mix of "Mad Max" and "The Matrix." For those of you how might have been wondering, no character in their right mind would look like the picutres in the book. 2) Layout. Is there a point to all those annoying brown lines running across every page? If I wanted that, I could just read my course notes from Introductory Astronomy. In addition, there is just way too much pointless artwork in the book. 3) The monk class. Its like WotC just threw that one in just to get everybody excited over the new edition. Why is it that no other class has the sheer number of special abilities as the monk? Grossly unbalanced. Is there anyone who isn't playing a monk? 4) The usual spell-list complaints. 5) The usual complaints about the game not being oriented toward new players. 6) MARKETING! WotC said that they weren't going to make the same "mistake" as with 2E; that is, saturating the market with books. Let's see, so far there's the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monstrous Manual, the Character Record Sheets, the Gazeteer, the adventure game, and the Hero Builder's Guide. I'm probably forgetting something else, and the game has only been out for a month! 7) Transition. WotC also said that there would be no "Time of Troubles-like" events that would cause the transition between systems in campaign settings like Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. Already, King Azoun IV of Cormyr is dead ("Death of the Dragon"). Are Elminster and Paladine next? Woe to the Inn of the Last Home!! Overall this book is bad. Don't waste your time and money. Instead, get a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia by whatever means you can and use that. You'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: Good structural changes, a few format problems
Review: Overall, the changes made in 3rd edition are wonderful, such as to magic systems, skills, etc. The artwork is wonderful, but the organization, while in some parts a good change, in others are a little confusing, specifically, concerning tables. They're neither boxed nor compiled at the end (as would make for handy reference), and in cases where the text perhaps goes to the next page, sometimes small sections are put at the very top above a table or between tables, it can get confusing as to where the text continues. Also, the smaller font makes it a little harder to read. Still, the changes made to rules and such are impressive, allowing so much more flexibility. The character record sheet is also MUCH better organized.
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