Rating: 
Summary: Generally Mediocre
Review: "Defenders of the Faith: A Guidebook to Clerics and Paladins" was decidedly mediocre for some reason. It contains useful information for playing a cleric or paladin in third edition, but for some reason it just didn't seem as useful as "Sword and Fist". Some of the nicer ideas included the different type of paladin's mounts (or cohorts), new (but slightly repetitive) feats, prestige domains, and new spells. The different suggestions for playing clerics and paladins were generally interesting and helpful, but nothing really new. Not quite as good are the prestige classes. It seemed many of them were almost repetitive or boring. Unlike "Sword and Fist", none of them made me want to try to build a character so that eventually I could use the prestige class. A few of the magic items seemed to be unrelated to the cleric or paladin class, in general. In fact, that's part of the problem with the book. It feels like the book was cobbled together at the last minute so that there would be a book for clerics and paladins. Unlike "Sword and Fists" brilliant little additions, there's nothing in "Defenders of the Faith" that really makes it really interesting. It feels more like a second edition "Player's Handbook to Clerics" for third edition and that is not a compliment. I would say that if you're like me and you like to own all the third edition books, feel free to pick it up. It'll probably be useful in the long run for DMs to use for NPCs. Or if you like clerics or paladins best out of all the classes, again, give it a go and buy it. Otherwise, there really is no need to pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Generally Mediocre
Review: "Defenders of the Faith: A Guidebook to Clerics and Paladins" was decidedly mediocre for some reason. It contains useful information for playing a cleric or paladin in third edition, but for some reason it just didn't seem as useful as "Sword and Fist". Some of the nicer ideas included the different type of paladin's mounts (or cohorts), new (but slightly repetitive) feats, prestige domains, and new spells. The different suggestions for playing clerics and paladins were generally interesting and helpful, but nothing really new. Not quite as good are the prestige classes. It seemed many of them were almost repetitive or boring. Unlike "Sword and Fist", none of them made me want to try to build a character so that eventually I could use the prestige class. A few of the magic items seemed to be unrelated to the cleric or paladin class, in general. In fact, that's part of the problem with the book. It feels like the book was cobbled together at the last minute so that there would be a book for clerics and paladins. Unlike "Sword and Fists" brilliant little additions, there's nothing in "Defenders of the Faith" that really makes it really interesting. It feels more like a second edition "Player's Handbook to Clerics" for third edition and that is not a compliment. I would say that if you're like me and you like to own all the third edition books, feel free to pick it up. It'll probably be useful in the long run for DMs to use for NPCs. Or if you like clerics or paladins best out of all the classes, again, give it a go and buy it. Otherwise, there really is no need to pick up this book.
Rating: 
Summary: If you are serious...
Review: ... about the cosmology ad religion in your D&D world, this the "Defenders of the Faith" plus "The Manual of the Planes", plus "Deities and Demigods" are an absolute must! "The Defenders" will be probably most appreciated as they appeal not only to those who are interested in the cosmology, but also to those that just want to build an interesting cleric character. The information given is practical and answers many questions tham my DM left unanswered: "So what does the temple look like? Are the cleric quarters in the same building?" or "What would a typical cleric of Pelor think about that?". All the new things - prestige classes in particular - are most fascinating. They just make you abandon the idea of cleric as nothing more than a healing expert. They show how a non-cleric character may become closely associated with the churches. This is something you cannot miss if you play a cleric/paladin character or if you want to create an church-related adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: A welcome Book
Review: Defenders of the faith is a welcome book to anyone who wants the best from the Paladins and Clerics. He gives new ways of acting, feats, domains. It's a complete book to anyone who wants to play one good character who has faith. Not only a Paladin or clerics would think thsi book a good choise, anyone with any faith and the will to learn a little bit more.
Rating:
Summary: The older book was better
Review: I am referring to the Complete Guide to Paladins for 2nd edtion. That book had far more material in greater depth than Defenders does. Again, this book also seems underdone, like so many 3rd edition books. The most useful material was the section describing how the faiths of specific alignments, and deities, work. As for the rest, it is "overbalanced". Most of the feats are so "balanced" as to be worthless, as are the prestige classes. The kits found in the Complete Guide are better, I think, with real balance, not +'s and -'s canceling each other out. The organizations listed were a little better, but again, the Guide had more interesting ones. Although I have focussed on Paladins, the same holds for priests. The Complete Guide to Priests wasn't that good, so I can't recommend looking for it. Overall, I wouldn't bother buying this again just four about 10 pages of useful material.
Rating:
Summary: worst so far... BUT...
Review: i got this book for a paladin so i was really disappointed. the only good parts was the section on dragon mounts. but this book has great stuff on clerics, i look at them in a whole new light now. but if you want paladins, back order Dragon #199
Rating:
Summary: don't buy and expect to find useful information
Review: I have mixed feelings for the book, I like the fact more spells, dragon mounts, new mounts, new items, etc.. I am disappointed as always on the prestige classes (the ones in book vs sword and fist are not even interesting but still have the ridiciulous prerequistes and not worth effort special abilities and the book doesn't even deliver a good multiclass paladin/ prestige class character). It seems that wizards has developed more hideous broken material for metagamers to hide fact rest book worthless: divine sacricfe (I fell out my chair when read this, unbelievable), haste armor (all the time, no charges, no 1/day), metamagic feat (deals +cha modifer damage, unbelieveable) and everything else seems feeble. It seems wotc can only make unbelievable unfair and broken items/feats/spells or totally worthless feats/spells/items. If wotc doesn't produce something worthwhile with realms books, they will have proven the naysayers right.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of filler
Review: I own several of the new class guides (Sword and Fist, Song and Silence, and Defenders of the Faith). As a player, I find this one to be the least useful. After reading Defenders of the Faith, it was obvious the writers had some sort of quota on the book's length, and ran out of good material well before they reached it. There are lengthy amounts of text repeated word for word, large chunks dedicated to information that would be better suited for other books, and stuff that should be obvious to anyone owning the Player's Handbook. Now that I've expressed my disapproval of the nearly commical amounts of filler in this book, here is what I think of the useful stuff: Feats/Skills - The feats are about what I would expect. Around a third are viable while the rest are overpowered or useless. A large chunk of the feats focus on turning (either new things turning can do or making turning more effective). There are practically no new skills, just suggestions for using existing ones. Prestige Classes - Most if not all of the prestige classes will likely be unappealing to players. However, DM's might make use of a few of them for NPC's. New Spells - A lot of the new spells are variations of ones found in the Player's Handbook, and few if any will get frequent usage by my cleric. New Magic Items/Equipment - This is a real weakness in the book. There is little new mundane adventuring equipment, just price listings and descriptions of things found in churches (candle snuffers, incense, candles, etc). While I wasn't impressed with the mundane equipment, the new magic items were truly terrible. A large chunk of the magic items are way overpowered, and market prices and creation stuff seem out of whack.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of filler
Review: I own several of the new class guides (Sword and Fist, Song and Silence, and Defenders of the Faith). As a player, I find this one to be the least useful. After reading Defenders of the Faith, it was obvious the writers had some sort of quota on the book's length, and ran out of good material well before they reached it. There are lengthy amounts of text repeated word for word, large chunks dedicated to information that would be better suited for other books, and stuff that should be obvious to anyone owning the Player's Handbook. Now that I've expressed my disapproval of the nearly commical amounts of filler in this book, here is what I think of the useful stuff: Feats/Skills - The feats are about what I would expect. Around a third are viable while the rest are overpowered or useless. A large chunk of the feats focus on turning (either new things turning can do or making turning more effective). There are practically no new skills, just suggestions for using existing ones. Prestige Classes - Most if not all of the prestige classes will likely be unappealing to players. However, DM's might make use of a few of them for NPC's. New Spells - A lot of the new spells are variations of ones found in the Player's Handbook, and few if any will get frequent usage by my cleric. New Magic Items/Equipment - This is a real weakness in the book. There is little new mundane adventuring equipment, just price listings and descriptions of things found in churches (candle snuffers, incense, candles, etc). While I wasn't impressed with the mundane equipment, the new magic items were truly terrible. A large chunk of the magic items are way overpowered, and market prices and creation stuff seem out of whack.
Rating:
Summary: Good Paladin info
Review: I really liked it because I had always done Wizards but decided to make a Paladin. This was sitting on my shelf and was incredibly helpful.
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