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True20 Warrior's Handbook is the last – and shortest – of three supplemental books to be used in conjunction with the True20 core rules, providing additional combat related information regarding the Role of Warrior.

The Book Itself

True20 Warrior's Handbook is a 64 page paperback printed in black and white. A quick flip through shows much of every page devoted to text explaining how the game works, interspersed with B&W art.

The print is a shade on the small side, but that allows for that much more information to be presented.

Chapter Breakdown

Chapter One: Warrior Creation

The chapter begins with over a dozen sample backgrounds to help develop Warrior characters, nearly a dozen new Core abilities for Warriors and two modified Warrior Role variants: Fighter and Mystic Knight..

The rest of the chapter is devoted to the description/implementation of about thirty “Fighting Styles,” largely in the vein that the “Supernatural Philosophies” were presented in the Adept’s Handbook; by combining various Feats that the Warrior may or may not have normal access to a particular style of combat is approximated, which gives similarly designed characters a chance to be mechanically different, as well as provide some flavor for the otherwise dry mechanics.

Chapter Two: Skills and Feats

There is only a little bit of this chapter that actually covers different uses for Skills, and the majority of those uses are with regard to either military structure or action-movie-stunts. The military specific Skill uses all seem very well thought out, but I’m not certain how much use they would see in a game either I would run or play in.

The Feats are again plentiful, and with over 40 General and over 60 Warrior-specific Feats there is no shortage of ways to make your character work the way you would like. I will say that I wished some of the Warrior-specific Feats had been included in the Core rules (particularly the ones relating to more modern combat), but having them definitely makes for less houseruling and thus more play time.

The vast majority of the Feats deal with combat, but given the nature of the Role covered this is not to be unexpected.

Chapter Three: The Arsenal

This chapter goes into the specifics of weapons and armor through the various tech levels previously covered in the Revised Edition of the Core rules – from the earliest (Stone Age) to most futuristic (Energy Age), the equipment seems well done.

There are some odd omissions with regard to the descriptions; why some items are described and others not is somewhat puzzling, but the omitted items for the most part could be construed as “self explanatory.”

Chapter Four: Expanded Combat

The chapter opens with “Advanced Damage,” rules for tinkering with criticals, margins of success for Combat rolls, having “ping” damage introduced and how to deal with instant death (if desired). The small section on the margins of success relating to damage actually provided an answer to that I had been considering, and it was good to know that I wasn’t the only one that was wondering about the potential viability of that sort of mechanic.

The next section details “Free Attacks,” i.e., Attacks of Opportunity, and how to reintroduce them into True20. I was personally pleased to have seen that AoOs had been removed in the first place, but I can understand why there was a desire to want to integrate them back in (hello, D&D 3.5 compatibility!).

”Knockdown and Knockback” rules are briefly covered, followed by sections for use with miniatures, vehicle combat and mounted combat. Dealing with weapons getting stuck or broken in combat is covered next, and while I would personally not want that level or detail in a game I played or GMed, the option of it there is nice.

”Combat Challenges” (much like “Skill Challenges”) and “Stunts” are next described, and while I like the idea of integrating “Stunts” I’m still not 100% certain of how they are supposed to work; the text isn’t particularly clear as to where the line between Feat and Stunt needs to be drawn.

Variants for initiative and infection are covered next, as well as making the Toughness Save into a Damage roll and turning the rest of the Saves into static Defense Scores – much as they are in D&D 4E. I could see where having the players roll for just about everything could save an online GM a lot of headaches.

The chapter finishes off with rules for Mass Combat, which are pretty much just the normal Combat rules with minor tweaks.

Overall

The inclusion of the Feats make this an invaluable resource for both players and GMs alike. As with the True20 core rules, not everything presented is designed or intended to work together, so some care is needed when introducing this to an ongoing campaign or when taken into consideration for a new campaign.

As I know that my group enjoys combat quite a bit, having all the extra fiddly bits to make each character mechanically distinct – while at the same time not having mounds of additional actual rules – is something that will be referenced heavily at the table and during chargen.

Style: 4

Substance: 4.5