PLAYER’S HANDBOOK
Apart from the classes and spells, don’t expect to see a lot of new stuff in here. Sure, minor stuff has been tinkered with elsewhere (half-elves have been mildly improved, and they’ve got rid of partial actions), but it’s very much not the emphasis. One of the little changes does make life slightly harder for those trying to run without miniatures/counters (diagonal movement is rather complicated), but the DMG does provide a generic dungeon map for you to use in such situations (more on that later).
Rangers will be especially pleased with the rule update. Their front-heaviness has been scaled right back, and they get the option of an archery combat style rather than two-weapon fighting. Their tracking abilities have been emphasised, as have their sneakier side. Animal companions for druids and rangers have been completely reworked (a 20th level druid can no longer be accompanied by 80 cats) – they now only receive one companion who improves in ability like a wizard’s familiar (although they can trade them in every so often for a better model).
Rogues and Barbarians have become slightly better at avoiding traps, and Bards and Sorcerers can lose a spell every time they get a new level of spells in favour of a new one of the same level (so sleep and summon monster are a lot more realistic choices). Monks unarmed attacks have also been reworked, making them much more streamlined.
A lot of new feats have been added, although most of them are ‘+2 to two skills’. Ambidexterity has been incorporated into Two-Weapon Fighting, boosting up the prerequisites for the latter but all in all making it a much more feasible choice for non-rangers. A few new skills have been added, and a couple of old ones have been dropped – nothing earth-shattering.
The spell section has undergone a minor revamp. A lot of the old unbalanced spells have been altered (harm does 10 damage/level and allows a save, for example), and all the stat boost spells give you a straight +4 bonus. All of the lesser and greater spells have been listed underneath their normal counterpart, and mass spells have been introduced.
There really isn’t any new artwork for the PHB (although the diagrams are done with top-down photos of the new D&D miniatures), which some will find disappointing. For the PHB – Style 4, Substance 4.
DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE
This was really a disappointment. If you have the Manual of the Planes or the Epic Level Handbook, expect to feel déjà vu in a serious way. Mostly, the new material consists of stuff culled from supplements and a new picture of ioun stones (which in no way makes up for the dozens of other magic item pictures they dropped). Unless you have money to burn, are out for a sake of completeness or are really desperate to play a Mystic Theurge (one of the rare new Prestige Classes in the book), I really wouldn’t bother with it (assuming you’ve got a copy of the 3.0 version, of course). And, of course, they’ve shuffled the contents page, so don’t expect to find anything where it was before. Yipee-ki-yay.
Style 4, Substance 3.
MONSTER MANUAL
Even if you don’t plan on fully converting to 3.5, I heartily endorse buying this book. It trumps the old Monster Manual in about every way possible. My only problem with it is a desire to call it ‘Monster Manual I II!’…
First off, we have a lot of new art. The Magmin no longer looks like a constipated, immolated baby, and the vampires don’t look like… whatever the hell it looked like before. A lot of the time they’ve used the old stuff, but a lot of the time they’ve done new stuff (but think of an excuse ahead of time to explain the stains on the Nymph page to your gaming group…). But the Nalfeshnee has bigger breasts than the succubus. Eww.
Second, we have new organisation, but in a good way. Templates have been fully integrated with the normal monsters (which I reckon is a good thing), and have great new illustrations. Celestials have been separated into categories (Angels, Eladrins and Guardinals). But, best of all, all the pictures are annotated. Gone are the days of trying to work out which demon is which from a picture of three of them. Most monsters also have a Level Adjustment and all have descriptive text for when your PCs encounter them. Monsters suitable for use as PCs (aasimar, teiflings, mind flayers [?], etc.) have full racial stats so you don’t have to work them out from the main block. Spellcasting monsters have typical spell selections. In the back, there’s also a hefty section on advancing monsters and creating new ones.
All in all, the 3.5 monster manual is one of the best RPG books I’ve read to date. It earns a 5/5 rating, as far as I’m concerned.
SUMMARY
If you don’t have 3.0 and want to get started on D&D, now’s an excellent time to start. If you do already have 3.0, however, it’s debateable whether you want the new books. As I’ve said above, I recommend the Monster Manual regardless and discourage you from the Dungeon Master’s Guide. As for the Player’s Handbook? If you have the money, I’d recommend buying it. If you don’t, it’s probably not that worth saving for. And if you didn’t like D&D3E in the first place… Well, I’m afraid you’re still not going to.
-Chris Chave (aka Ringwraith)
