The Complete Priest's Handbook: Player's Handbook Reference Supplement (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons/Phbr3)

Rating:
Summary: Priest's Handbook not half bad
Review: The priest's handbook has quite a bit of useful information that is easy to expand into a system. The system for creating new priesthoods is interesting but quite limited in the types of powers they make available. Its a lousy resource for players but it makes a decent resource for dms who want to create an entirely new set of priesthoods though there are much better ones.

Rating:
Summary: If you have gods, you NEED this book!
Review: This book has been essential for me in designing and implementing numerous religions, parthenons, and plots pertaining to priest characters. If you want something other than a run of the mill cleric this book is for you. As useful for a Priest player as it is for a DM.

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: This book was definitely a great and wonderful suppliment to the Player's Handbook. I love it, man. :]

Rating:
Summary: Not at all useless, but not entirely useful either
Review: This could have been a lot better. I don't own it. There's a reason for that. I am DMing 3 campaigns and playing in 4 right now. I play every character imaginable. For players, this book doesn't help much. A few ideas to get started on a new priesthood for a new character, but that's about it. For DM's, it's a great way to help customize your own world if you tire of Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, etc. However, owning this book is not necessary for that. Check it out at your public library for a week.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: This is a must-have resource for any campaign run in a polytheistic setting. It's an especially good book for the DM to have, as the section on designing faiths to specific gods is extensive and extraordinarily useful.

Rating:
Summary: Whoever wrote this hated priests
Review: Where 2nd Edition AD&D endows fighters with the ability to (at first level) swing a longsword in each hand, potentially doing 28 points of damagae in a single round without counting Strength bonuses, the 2nd Edition Priests handbook cuts a Priest's power in half. I didn't find a single Priesthood that allowed it's followers to cast spells from all spheres, and many were reduced in combat ability. The special abilities added often come at the cost of the Priest's ability to Turn Undead creatures.

In short, ignore the sample priesthoods, or at least give them more spheres and/or abilities, if you want your players to still be your friends.

The rest of the book is good. It provides mythos creation guidelines, so if you don't wish to play in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, you can create your own pantheon and mythology using the guidelines in this book.

The kits are not all that great, one of them even relying on the heavily flawed Martial Arts system from the Player's Handbook. But with a little tinkering, you can use them. Just about everything in here needs a little work, but it's not unusable.

It's a good reference for DMs who are creating their game world. For players, they will probably get little use out of it.

Rating:
Summary: Whoever wrote this hated priests
Review: Where 2nd Edition AD&D endows fighters with the ability to (at first level) swing a longsword in each hand, potentially doing 28 points of damagae in a single round without counting Strength bonuses, the 2nd Edition Priests handbook cuts a Priest's power in half. I didn't find a single Priesthood that allowed it's followers to cast spells from all spheres, and many were reduced in combat ability. The special abilities added often come at the cost of the Priest's ability to Turn Undead creatures.

In short, ignore the sample priesthoods, or at least give them more spheres and/or abilities, if you want your players to still be your friends.

The rest of the book is good. It provides mythos creation guidelines, so if you don't wish to play in Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, you can create your own pantheon and mythology using the guidelines in this book.

The kits are not all that great, one of them even relying on the heavily flawed Martial Arts system from the Player's Handbook. But with a little tinkering, you can use them. Just about everything in here needs a little work, but it's not unusable.

It's a good reference for DMs who are creating their game world. For players, they will probably get little use out of it.