Rating: 
Summary: Another Excellent tool for the Novice, or Expert
Review: Sword and Fist is another excellent example of WoC's attempt to revitalize the gaming genre. This book takes a deep and detailed look into the Fighter, and Monk class of the 3rd Edition rules for D&D. The new list of added feats is extensive, and are for the most part excellent. I cannot wait to incorporate them into my next character. The manual also introduces new weapons to specialize in, and includes many new prestige classes to allow players a chance to customize their characters even further. My fave is the Samurai, but then he always was anyway! The art within the book is quite good, and helps to put a face with the character so to speak. We even get quotes from the "iconic" characters that were presented within the Player's Handbook. I thought it was nice touch, and I hope that the trend continues to help personalize each book in the set. I can't wait to see the Cleric book!! Enjoy it, and Keep Gaming!
Rating: 
Summary: Aspiring to Mediocrity and Failing
Review: Sword and Fist is the first book in one of the worst series of supplements to ever be released for D&D.Sword and Fist has the following significant problems: 1) There are six pages of errata for a 95 page book. 2) An excessive amount of space is wasted in repetitive charts. 3) The feat section is a handful of feats that seem to have been chosen at random for their "cool" factor. 4) Many of the feats are either incredibly useful, or not useful at all. For example, Power Lunge could allow a third level character to inflict 14 extra points of damage with a single attack while on the other hand Dirty Fighting requires that a character forego all his extra attack to get 1d4 extra damage. These benefits are not equal in any way, shape or form. 5) Some of the prestige classes, like the Fist of Hextor and the Ravager, absolutely can not be used by a player character, so why are they present in a player oriented book? 6) Other prestige classes, like the Duelist, Devoted Defender, Ghostwalker, and Gladiator are obviously copies of movie characters without giving any credit to the source of inspiration. 7) Some of the prestige classes, like the Fist of Hextor, Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom, Ninja of the Crescent Moon, Order of the Bow Initiate, Red Avenger and Warmaster are tied to specific organizations and/or locations. It simply makes no sense to put them in what should be a relatively generic source book. For example, the Warmaster and the Knight Protector should be in a supplement for the Kingdom of Furyondy or the Great Kingdom respectively. 8) The organization section takes some of the organizations from the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and rewrites them, and then adds new organizations that have nothing to do with the World of Greyhawk. Focusing either on Greyhawk material or on generic material would have greatly improved the book. 9) The "Game within the Game" chapter is just a basic tutorial on tactics. Not very interesting and it's recommendations are mediocre at best. 10) The tools of the Trade section is probably the single worst section of the book. The stats for most of the weapons are wrong, and many of the weapons are either bizarre, inappropriate or both. The "cool" mercurial weapons are a joke, because mercury reacts with steel to create a brittle alloy. Thus the weapons are not only impractically difficult to manifacture, they'd be worthless in combat. 11) This is a player oriented book, thus there is no reason for any magic items to be in the book at all. On the upside:
1) The Cavalier, Duelist, and Weapon Master are among the best prestige classes in this entire series. They are generic enough to be adapted to any campaign world, and useful enough to be worth the costs to a variety of character types. Overall, I received the impression that the author did not try to write "a good book", but merely one that was "good enough". He failed. I heartily recommend to anyone who is thinking of buying this book: Save your money and buy something good.
Rating:
Summary: Doing the numbers
Review: The book should have been called 'The fighers/monks book of probability'. The book is essentially a character maxing book, with sparse artwork, bland descriptions and little weight in both writing style and actual pounds and onces. It is a shallow attempt that is far surpassed by its earlier incarnation made for 2nd edition. All the character and grit most of us were expecting of this new player's guide is sadly not here. This is a great how to book, but lacks style, origionality and playable prestige classes. Overall I would say; buy it, read it and send it back.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good stuff,some VERY BAD
Review: The cost of this book is too high for the amount of material that it contains. It contains a bunch more prestige classes. The prestige classes presented pretty much allow for a character to specialize in a type of fighter or monk combat style, which I liked and my players missed. More feats are presented, but I was VERY disappointed in the apparent lack of editing on the feats. I foresee a lot of wrangling back and forth between DMs and Players as a result. I liked the section on combat tactics, which will allow players a bit more visualization I think, but it was a little too short for my liking. There are about 10-12 pages of Castle descriptions, which are nice, but struck as being just filler. There is a discussion on "doing the math", how to calculate what magical weapons do the best damage etc. This _INFURIATED_ me. This sort of nonsense encourages "min-max" strategies where the game gets reduced from roleplaying to just another wargame. 4 out of 5 for the prestige classes, 2 out of 5 for everything else. Negative 5 out of 5 for "doing the math"
Rating: 
Summary: Unfulfilled potential....
Review: The first and hopefully worst of the class guidebook series, Sword and Fist is not entirely without value. The general tone of the book favors somewhat more fantastical campaigns that place less emphasis on internal consistency and logic. Additionally, the book is tailored to players seeking to maximize combat potential and sadly decreased emphasis on broadening a fighter's role playing experience.
The number of new and interesting Feats is one of the few good features, but the poor balancing and editing throughout the book is quite visible in often contradictory or unclear feats. The prestige classes are formulaic and poorly executed, but potentially salvageable with moderate modification. The heavy "oriental" influence is also unbalanced and uninspiring (higher hopes for the upcoming Oriental Adventures sourcebook).
Bland "ki" abilites, mostly disguises for the same formulaic attack/damage bonuses, abound in the lackluster prestige classes. The notes regarding tactics and skill selection were spotty and sometimes of questionable value.
The weapons, errata considered, are powerful additions to a fighter's arsenal. Most are superior to the well balanced selection in the Player's Handbook. Most also test the suspension of disbelief. This is only a problem for campaigns that prefer internal consistency and some degree of believabiliy. 'Mighty' whips of 6 lb total weight that reach 15 feet and permit strength bonus, hollowed out swords with mercury filling that do significantly more damage, dagger length claws superior to rapiers, or nonsensical flail/sword combinations are, for "realists", unfortunate violations of game logic.
17 odd pages of regrettable filler of fort and keep maps finish the package. That room could have been better spent on a well thought out cost/labor system for building structures with fewer examples.
Final Thoughts? The few good ideas and salvageable concepts are not enough to justify the price. This poor value was clearly rushed and pales in comparison to the three core rulebooks.
Rating:
Summary: BEWARE: FIRST PRINT ERRATA!!!
Review: The info in the guide is great, it's just that there are innumerable mistakes. This is not just an opinion. Check www.wizards.com for the extensive list of errata. I would recommend that you wait until the second printing before you purchase this item.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not everything and a kite, but it serves well
Review: The kicker for this book was the errata sheet. Most of the so-called "balance" questions people have problems with were nixed by WotC within a month of printing. In fact, the errata somewhat makes the weapons less than useful. Since just about every weapon in that book requires Exotic Weapon--(insert weapon here), it's no wonder most of them had some sort of advantage over the standard EQ. The errata pretty much strips them of advantages--in most cases, you're better off with the standard equipment list. The PrCs are like any other--the more general-purpose ones will instantly see application, but you'll have to work for reasons to use things like Acolytes of the Bow or Warmasters. I played a game where a wizard and Devoted Defender teamed up to make a vicious pair, so it is possible to find applications for some of the stranger things they put in. As for the magical items, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The DMG gives a pretty comprehensive listing of magical weapons. The new weapon mods don't really need to be here, they just are. The scary stuff turns up in Misc. Monks get a short ton of new gear designed to make them even more powerful. Depending on who you've got in your games, this can be either a really GOOD thing, or a really BAD thing. I just hope your Munchkins aren't Monks if you decide to throw this stuff into your game. And it can be a lot of fun to give a Fighter an amulet that makes his bare-handed attack more capable of smiting damage-resistant villainy than his sword... Ah, memories of having to punch demons to death... The long and the short of this book? The best stuff to come out of it are the PrCs. After that, the new feats. Then the magical gear. Then the EQ. But, truthfully, there's nothing here that can't be reproduced by someone with the time and the imagination. Of course, that statement applies to the whole of D&D anyway.
Rating:
Summary: It's not everything and a kite, but it serves well
Review: The kicker for this book was the errata sheet. Most of the so-called "balance" questions people have problems with were nixed by WotC within a month of printing. In fact, the errata somewhat makes the weapons less than useful. Since just about every weapon in that book requires Exotic Weapon--(insert weapon here), it's no wonder most of them had some sort of advantage over the standard EQ. The errata pretty much strips them of advantages--in most cases, you're better off with the standard equipment list. The PrCs are like any other--the more general-purpose ones will instantly see application, but you'll have to work for reasons to use things like Acolytes of the Bow or Warmasters. I played a game where a wizard and Devoted Defender teamed up to make a vicious pair, so it is possible to find applications for some of the stranger things they put in. As for the magical items, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The DMG gives a pretty comprehensive listing of magical weapons. The new weapon mods don't really need to be here, they just are. The scary stuff turns up in Misc. Monks get a short ton of new gear designed to make them even more powerful. Depending on who you've got in your games, this can be either a really GOOD thing, or a really BAD thing. I just hope your Munchkins aren't Monks if you decide to throw this stuff into your game. And it can be a lot of fun to give a Fighter an amulet that makes his bare-handed attack more capable of smiting damage-resistant villainy than his sword... Ah, memories of having to punch demons to death... The long and the short of this book? The best stuff to come out of it are the PrCs. After that, the new feats. Then the magical gear. Then the EQ. But, truthfully, there's nothing here that can't be reproduced by someone with the time and the imagination. Of course, that statement applies to the whole of D&D anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to snuff (though "snuff" is would mean 5 stars)
Review: There are some fine ideas in this book, including new feats and prestige classes, but the execution of those ideas is frustratingly flawed. The rules are not as clearly and rigorously worded as those in the core books, rendering too many of them unusable without considerable patching from the DM. In some cases (e.g. the Red Avenger prestige class) the rules in one place directly contradict those in another! Come on, you can do better than that, Wizards! Plenty of useful fodder for the DM here, but you'll have to work unnecessarily to make use of some of it.
Rating:
Summary: It just keeps getting cooler!
Review: This book has taken some really cool things from popular culture and added them to the D&D setting. Some are things I have always wanted to see. Check out the new weapon - Spring Loaded Gauntlet!! How many times have you seen that in a movie or read about it in a book? Yet no rules for it previously existed in D&D... until now. What about the War Fan? And if any of you are Jackie Chan fans you will LOVE the new Prestige Class - Drunken Master. I HATED Oriental Adventures in the old system - too many opportunities for abuse. But his book as managed to add a lot of cool new weapons, feats and classes while still keeping the game balanced. I expected to immediately ban my players from using anything out of the book. Instead I am chomping at the bit to throw in some of the things shown here. The only complaint I would have is the size of the book for the price - too little book for too much money.
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