'Masters of the Wild' is the fifth and final of the class sourcebooks from Wizards, a series of products which has been the cause of much debate as to its overall quality. I would be lying if I said I was entirely satisfied with every book in the series, but I feel that overall, each book has been a worthy buy and an interesting read. This installment deals with the nature-loving classes, the Barbarian, the Druid, and the Ranger, and fits in well with the others: good but not perfect, and undoubtedly will be found satisfying by some and disappointing by others.
Chapter 1 deals with each of the three classes in some detail, examining the strengths and weaknesses of choosing certain races and how each one tends to relate to the other classes. This information will be most helpful to newer player, but veteran players should find it amusing as well. Each class also has a section giving advice on using its "primary" ability: Rage for barbarians, Wild Shape for druids, and Favored Enemy for rangers. Although I would have appreciated more, such as possible character backrounds for rangers and druids, each of these was well thought out and executed, and overall the chapter delivers.
Chapter 2 presents us with about 40 new feats, none of which I had any objections to. There were "meta-rage" feats, like Extended Rage and Extra Rage, designed to allow barbarians to get more milage from their tantrums, as well as feats for the druid to use concerning wild shape, and feats which fighters may take as bonus feats, like Power Critical and Greater Two Weapon Fighting. A number of these feats also appeared in "Sword and Fist." Prominent among the feats is Supernatural Blow, which allows a ranger a damage bonus against favored enemies who are immune to critical hits, like undead. All in all, a strong chapter.
Chapter 3 is the obligatory equipment chapter, and provides little new info. A few interesting new weapons and some new magic items are found here, as well as a new magic item type, the infusion. These are basically magic herbs enchanted with spells that are activated when the druid eats them. Sort of like a tree-hugging combination of scrolls and potions. A brief and rather uninspired chapter.
Chapter 4 is about animal companions, containing guidlines for their care. This is a must read for druid players, as it contains useful info in addition to the normal common sense stuff. Also included are stats for new Dire Animals and a new animal type, Legendary Animal (the horse that no one could tame, etc.) Good stuff.
Chapter 5 is the ever contraversial prestige classes. As always, there are some that I like, some that I hate, and some that I am indifferent towards because I would never use them for my characters. A few that stood out to me as being particularly good are Bloodhound, a kickbutt bounty hunter, and Geomancer, a spellcaster who unites divine and arcane magic.
On the other hand some of them gave me major reservations, like the Deepwood Sniper and the Tempest, warriors who specialize in in Woodland Archery and Two-weapon fighting, respectively. These Prestige classes are a transparent attempt to give a ranger more combat abilities without having them take levels in fighter. Also in this chapter is the absolute worst idea for a prestige class that I've ever seen, the Exotic Weapons Master, whose only abilty is that he gets bonuses when using exotic weapons. This is senseless on so many levels it astounds me.
There are also a few cool prestige classes which seem to be meant for NPC, like the Oozemaster and the Hexer.
A mixed bag of a chapter to say the least.
One item of note is that Wotc did not address the fact that many players feel the ranger is underpowered. I feel they made the right choice in this by not pandering to popular opinion and sticking to their guns. All in all a very readable and worthwhile, albeit far from perfect, book.
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