Rating: 
Summary: fantastic charts
Review: A wonderful book for the starter player or for that matter for the the experienced player who isn't used to the new rules. Helps greatly in the character generation process. The charts make it easy to whip out a character in 15 min. or less but I think it is mooost useful in the creation of npc's which are little more than shellsof characters dungeon masters use for combat. A useful tool but it seems to lack the emotion of going back and forth through out a 3oo page book to find every last skill feat or animal companion you want your character to have. NO replace ment for the players hand book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for New Players!
Review: Although I thought this book was overpriced and worthless at FIRST, I now realize that it is valuable as a resource for brand new players who have no clue what D&D is all about. My friends and I just started playing D&D 3E after playing 2E for several years. My girlfriend became interested but she had no clue what we were talking about half the time. This is the perfect book for someone in that exact position who needs to understand the differences between a fighter and a monk, or a cleric and a wizard. It also explains races, and professions as well as giving the DM and players guidelines for creating a detailed character background. If you can find it for a decent price online, snatch it up. But don't pay full price. *wink*
Rating:
Summary: TSR giving lots of attention to newcomers
Review: An excellent resource for beginning players. True, this book at first glance appears to be of little use to experienced gamers, but in my personal experience as a DM, it's always nice to have a few random tables to quickly detail an NPC; I'm sure we've all had groups of players who were more interested in Jasper the village alchemist than Lord Destroyer Versharel of the Nine Skulls. The tables in the book are good for filling out those minor details. As for new players, this book is quite helpful in making their characters come to life; newbies seldom worry about their character's background and focus on hack-and-slash. This book is also a great way to introduce them to the game itself, and complements the Player's Handbook well. It's actually good that newcomers get much attention, so they stay with the game, which we all know is the greatest RPG ever.
Rating:
Summary: Buy some masking tape with your purchase...
Review: Buy some masking tap with your purchase of the Hero Builder's Guidebook. This, if used properly, will be the most used and abused book at your gaming table. I suggest every Dungeon Master purchase this book at throw in on the table the first night... I can promise you it will dominate conversation.Some crusty old vets may poo-poo this product as being for the Newbie, but the discription of how to play a Half-Orc bard are worth the price alone... This is an excellent supplement (though guidebook is a bit strong) for newbie and vet alike. If you need a new twist on your old favorite character type... this is the book for you... And about that Half-Orc Bard? Picture trabal kettle-drums and chant echoing through your bones... better go buy a Kodo CD while you are at it.
Rating: 
Summary: For the new player only
Review: I am a new player and even I can tell that this book is not worth your time nor money. The background generator and the list of names are the only items of value. Most of the text is fluff and not useful to the newest of players (a.k.a. me). I was shocked when I saw how thin this book is.
Rating:
Summary: A great resource for beginning players!
Review: I awaited the Hero Builder's Guide with a certain degree of suspicion and have to admit it was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Much of the book IS spent giving ideas for each race and class combination. The back half of the book has a really nice alignment test. (36 Questions that help guide you to picking and alignment for your character and help you understand what your alignment really means.) Then there are several charts for fleshing out your character's past. This is reminescent of other products such as the old Central Casting books, but is not as comprehensive. Even so it is still a really good starting point for new players, or maybe even for some of the older hands who just want the challenge of trying something different.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for everyone
Review: I bought this book against the opinion of everyone I knew. It turned out that this book really changed my perspective on characters in role-playing games. As a long time player of D&D, I found that the insights on different class/race combinations was extreamley helpful in overcomming my fantasy realm racial stigmas. I never really liked to play anything except human characters till I read this book and explored the interesting flavor of the class combos.
If you want to get a really helpful book for creating a memorable character, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great for everyone
Review: I bought this book against the opinion of everyone I knew. It turned out that this book really changed my perspective on characters in role-playing games. As a long time player of D&D, I found that the insights on different class/race combinations was extreamley helpful in overcomming my fantasy realm racial stigmas. I never really liked to play anything except human characters till I read this book and explored the interesting flavor of the class combos.
If you want to get a really helpful book for creating a memorable character, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste
Review: I bought this thinking I would be buying something that would assist in making powerfull NPC's for my realms. I was terribly wrong. This book did nothing for me or do I think it would for any decent DM. It was basicly just a character generator. This would be great for any DM not wanting to do their job. It describes what each character is to players, suggests stat placement, and gives a background generation system that is grossly too detailed. The descriptions of characters can be found in the PH and any DM that doesn't know how to describe a character class and race should not be DMing. Stat placement, again, should be a DM's job. Any DM that can't suggest stat placement...well, you get my meaning. I got to the background generation and thought I had finally found something worth the price of the book....wrong. I found the system to be TOO detailed. It went right down to telling you where the area your character was from. Any DM worth his weight will already have that information made. The player will know what area he is from and the GM will either choose it or organize this with the player to reach a reason they are in the area. I do NOT recommend this book at all. The game is the DM's game. Make him/her do their job. It is a game of imagination. If the DM has no imagination just think what the game will be like.
Rating: 
Summary: New Players will benefit, but lacks depth...
Review: I didn't particularly enjoy this book. It basically gave you information on where to put ability scores for different characters. There were, however, some interesting history ideas and such, and some of the character ideas were very interesting (half-orc bard, anyone? Elf barbarian?). The last section was extremely small, though. That was supposed to be the section on what skills and feats to select, depending on the direction you want to take for your character. Not a great idea, but beginners will love it.
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