Rating: 
Summary: Where's the Song?
Review: 3rd Edition is supposed to be dedicated to providing good materials, not making products for mass marketing. WOtC are supposed to be making money on the PHB, not through mass supplemets. Although the Guidebooks in this series have some decent material, this one seems to digress back to 2nd edition theme of "pump out the material as fast as possible". The book is centered on the theif class and, aside from instruments, has little of value concerning the bard. In fact only one bard prestige class is present. As for the details on theives, the material lacks imagination. While very new players may find the supplemental interesting, experienced players will place it on the shelf next to the D&D Basic Set. It is becoming abundantly clear that a single book with every prestige class could have easily replaced these multiple guides. The notes on societies, guilds, knighthoods, colleges, monasteries, brotherhoods, and everything else designed to fluff the fluff could have been included in the Hero Builders Guidebook (and then maybe someone would buy it). There are plenty of other prestige classes out there that would make a far more intersting theif or bard than anything in this book. If you, like me, are one of those unfortunates that feels compelled to collect everything that comes out - then pick it up. If you are serioulsy interested only in materials to aid your gaming then skip this book. You ain't missin' nothin' baby!
Rating: 
Summary: Song and Silence:
Review: After enjoying SWord and Fist and Tome and Blood, I was realy looking forward to the opportunities that this book would offer for my fighter/rogue. While the book does go into great detail on the art of trap-making (practically pointless and prohibitively expensive for my rpga campaign) and what different types of instruments are available for bards, the book does little to extend thecombat abilities of the rogue.This book may make an interesting supplement to a home campaign where you want skilled professionals (temple raiders, royal explorers and spymasters) but doesn't seem to hold much value for someone playing under rpga rules where a swordfight is much more likely than a locked chest, pickpocket opportunity, or a magical spider amulet that is the only way to access theneat (but unplayable) Fang of Llolth prestige class.
Rating:
Summary: Unimpressed
Review: After enjoying SWord and Fist and Tome and Blood, I was realy looking forward to the opportunities that this book would offer for my fighter/rogue. While the book does go into great detail on the art of trap-making (practically pointless and prohibitively expensive for my rpga campaign) and what different types of instruments are available for bards, the book does little to extend thecombat abilities of the rogue. This book may make an interesting supplement to a home campaign where you want skilled professionals (temple raiders, royal explorers and spymasters) but doesn't seem to hold much value for someone playing under rpga rules where a swordfight is much more likely than a locked chest, pickpocket opportunity, or a magical spider amulet that is the only way to access theneat (but unplayable) Fang of Llolth prestige class.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: All the prestige classes are great, The new feats are pretty good and the traps section is just awesome. Its for sure the best class guide till the moment.
Rating:
Summary: DnDFreak1's Review
Review: As the rouge is my favorite class, this book is a very good book to have when using rouges. You should buy this book if you are interested in rouge and bard pcs. Or for dms, you could use this to make an excellent adventure having to do with rouges and/or bards. So overall I think this is a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: DnDFreak1's Review
Review: As the rouge is my favorite class, this book is a very good book to have when using rouges. You should buy this book if you are interested in rouge and bard pcs. Or for dms, you could use this to make an excellent adventure having to do with rouges and/or bards. So overall I think this is a very good book.
Rating:
Summary: It's not that bad!
Review: Coming from the perspective of an only occasional D&D player, I find the information in this guide to be useful and fun. I don't immerse myself in this game the way some of my friends do, and so this gives me lots of good insights and ideas about how to play my rogue. I look forward to convincing my DM to allow me to choose some of the new feats and acquire the new equipment listed in this book.
Rating:
Summary: It's not that bad!
Review: Coming from the perspective of an only occasional D&D player, I find the information in this guide to be useful and fun. I don't immerse myself in this game the way some of my friends do, and so this gives me lots of good insights and ideas about how to play my rogue. I look forward to convincing my DM to allow me to choose some of the new feats and acquire the new equipment listed in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Traps
Review: Compared to the other guidebooks, this one definately falls short. The prestige classes are nothing spectacular, and the only truly redeming quiality was the section on traps. Furthermore, the book even failed to answer the argument pertaining to sneak attacks applying to attacks of opportunity. All in al the book was not a good buy.
Rating:
Summary: Technique, but no panache
Review: Flavor-wise Rogues and Bards are definitely the most 'with it' classes, street smart and savvy. Rules-wise, they do okay single-classed; Rogues get some decent scratch at higher levels with thier special abilities and ever-increasing Sneak Attacks while Bards flesh out into reasonable spellcasting capability, plenty of Bardic Music to go the distance, and near omniscience from Bardic Knowledge. Bards are also very friendly to Multi-classing since thier Bardic Music is skill based rather than level based. Thus, perhaps it isnt that big of a deal that there are only 10 prestige classes presented herein. Of the 10, none seem like loosers outright, but none of them are particularly gripping either. Dread Pirate is interesting but seems much more useful as an NPC pClass outside of very specific pirate-oriented campaign settings (in which most everyone would want to take it). The Dungeon Delver gets some pretty cheesy supernatural abilities with no apparant source (IMO spell-like and supernatural abilities should have some source of origin and not just be handed out to dial in the cool factor); further it doesnt compare well to some of the 3rd party material out there in supplements like Traps & Treachery. The Fang of Lolth is (Im sorry) asinine from the top down. Outlaw of the Crimson Path is quasi-interesting and helps a player that wants to be a Robin Hood highwayman sort of character but seems ill-suited to an adventuring PC; again another NPC-centric pClass. The Royal Explorer is somewhat interesting and one of the few classes semi-friendly to the Bard, but mostly focuses on lots of bonus languages and a very weakly justified skill boost with a list of applicable skills expanding every 2 class levels; the class does give a free Exotic Weapon proficiency at 1st level and the supremely useful Track feat at 2nd which helps fill the class out. The Spymaster is a super-sweet class with very useful abilities that essentially serve to allow a character concept that the rules would otherwise hamper or make impractical; unfortunately it also seems most well suited to an NPC (but PCs in a city campaign with heavy political overtones could get some benefit from it as well). The Temple Raider of Olidammara is a decent class, but thier connection with Olidammara doesnt sit well with my mental image thru the years of Olidammara as a Dionysius-like deity that is also a patron of the arts; a Thespian of Olidammara friendly to Bards in thier role as actors would have been more fitting (particularly if slanted to the aspect of spy-actors that use acting troupes as thier cover); however the actual pClass is solid and would better fit the demi-god Rudd or one of the other more straight-rogue gods IMO. The Thief-Acrobat returns once again and are sure to be a popular choice for pure-rogues as they get a plethora of good abilities; a Rogue 10/T-A 10 would be formidable; however the class as a rather pointless requirement of membership in a thieve's Guild. The Vigilante is next up and basically serves to waste a really good pClass name on a rather lackluster pClass; the class is okay (except for a dependence on 'home turf' ie a single city for one of thier better abilities) aside from a cop-out reliance on spell casting as a sorceror for a collection of spells to help them track down and catch baddies; sorely lacking in the classes criminal hunting repetoire is the Track ability or the GATHER INFO skill as a class skill, even though one of the classes preRequisites is 8 Ranks of Gather Info {stupid but true}. Finally the Virtuoso basically is just a better bard; there is absolutely no reason for a 10th level Bard not to take this pClass for his last 10 levels; trading thier Strong Reflex Save, Bardic Knowledge, and Intermediate BAB, the Bard/Virtuoso gains full spellcasting progression and gains 9 new Bardic Music abilities. A long chunk on designing Traps follows and seems okay at first blush. The Feats are short and sweet, with a couple of Winners like the much needed Dash (which adds +5 Movement, although as an aside no blurb exists stating that the Feat can be taken more than once though IMO you should be able to take it multiple times up to 60 feet of movement), and Fleet of Foot (which allows a single up-to-90 degree turn when running or charging but requires the otherwise lackluster Run feat), several +2 this and that skill feats, an erratad Expert Tactician, a few 'trade Sneak Attack for X' feats that are very cool (read 'very open to abuse') and sure to cause many arguments in days to come. My favorite is Snatch Weapon (Martial Takeaway anyone?) which is a better form of Disarm. The Bards get a few goodies as well that enhance thier Bardic Music abilities in several useful (Subharmonics) and non-useful (Green Music) ways. The rest of the book is pretty much lackluster IMO, with a lot of description of musical instruments, some lame magic items, some sctick-laden Bardic Colleges, a rather laborious explanation of unusual flanking situations, 4 new Assassin spells, and a mixed bag of Bard Spells. Despite some flaws, I thought Tome & Blood was superior to this splatbook in every area. If you are a hard-core Rogue or Bard player you might want to buy this, but you would be smarter (and more in-character) to sucker your DM or another player to get it and then mooch off of them on the rare occasion when you gain Feat. Still, I noticed fewer errors and editing mistakes at first glance than any of the previous splat books and this book, while not gripping, was at least not as bad as Defenders of the Faith. If the rating system allowed it I would rate this a 3.5, but since it doesnt I will round up to a 4.
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