The sword and fist and many of the published supplements, however have me a bit concerned. Afterall, you would expect at a price of... someone would have read it before sending it to the printers?

Within 20 minutes of flipping through the book, I had already spotted no less than 5 typos. It appears as if relying on a Word Processor is enough to publish something these days.

Overall, I am excited about many things from this book such as many of the feats, new Weapons and the Castle maps. The jury is still out on the extreme amount of Prestige classes. While the idea of prestige classes is good, the monk certainly is no ideal candidate for it due to its restrictions in multiclassing and 21 Prestige classes seems a bit much for this book. 28 pages out 96 goes towards Prestige Classes! Instead it might have been nice to have more explanation of how to better your fighters within the rules. For Example, how to best utilize Rapid shot or Rapid shot and Rapid Reload together or how to take advantage of multi-classing into a fighter for other character classes.

The 4 pages of tactics almost hit on a really solid section within this book but was just too short! While the section on fitting prestige classes and their organization into the campaign seems like filler material and any DM could do this without these 13 pages.

I have been a bit surprised at the prices of the supplements with there size. They seem to be about half the size of supplements for the same price in the past?

Here is the breakdown of each sections.
Feats - 5 pages (Approx 30 new feats)
Skills - 2 pages (0 New Skills)
Prestige Classes - 28 pages (Approx 21 new Classes)
Working the Classes into a campaign - 13 pages (Really neccessary?)
Tactics - 4 pages
Monstrous Fighters -4 pages (section for gms and Monster fighters)
New Weapons - 5 pages
New Magic Items - 2 - 1/2 pages
Vehicles - 2 pages
Castle Plans - 17 pages (Perhaps the nicest section, especially for GMs)

All in all, if your a collector or an avid fighter player this book might add value to your collection. I think any gaming group could get by with 1 copy as there are only about 25-30 pages in the book that might be needed in a given gaming session and could be easily ....


Terrific Help   January 31, 2001
 40 out of 42 found this review helpful

I'm not a big fan of fighters and monks, so I was expecting to be slightly disappointed by this D&D accessory. I'm happy to say that I was underestimating the writers of "Sword and Fist". This is a wonderful accessory to anyone who wants to create a character -- PC or NPC. I love the fact that this book added rules, rather than replacing rules in the game system. That practice was the thing I hated most about the Second Edition Handbooks and what I was secretly dreading. Sometimes, it's nice to be wrong.

The high points of the book for me include the feats, prestige classes, new weapons, and castle plans. Before I describe any of these, let me say that my absolute favorite thing about "Sword and Fist" is that you can use the feats, skill ideas, new weapons, and prestige classes for characters beyond monks and fighters. It's perfectly possible to apply the new stuff in the book to rogues, wizards, or any other standard class. The prestige classes even detailed which classes were most likely to precede them. An admirable effort to make this book useful to everyone. Now on to the sections...

The feats included weren't that original at times, but since I think feats and skills help personalize the characters to an incredible degree, I was thrilled with all of them. It's neat to mentally picture some of the feats and I think they help make combat much more descriptive. The prestige classes were also nice and I wanted to try quite a few of them out. I'm glad so many were added because again, it brings a great amount of customization to the player characters and to the NPCs. My favorite section (which was entirely too short) was the new weapons. I love the new weapons, especially the "war fan". I can't wait to try to create an NPC monk or rogue who wields that. The castle plans section was also useful to DMs (like me) who have no clue how a castle is built or what the upkeep on one costs. (Each plan lists how much time and gold is required for construction and how much gold is required for maintenance.)

What are my least favorite sections? Tactics and organizations within a campaign. The tactics were all common sense put down in written word. I was slightly unnerved that the writers didn't think the readers would be able to determine simple concepts on their own. However, the section is so short, that it's not a big deal. Now, onto organizations within a campaign world -- it's nice that the book lists some sample organizations that can be used and changed to fit into any campaign world -- but I just don't see myself ever using them. They had just enough ideas within them to make them useful, but if any section could have been dropped from the book, then it was definitely this one.

Overall, this was a great product and I'm so glad I got it. Now I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the accessories that are similar to this one.


The gloves are off...   January 13, 2001
 31 out of 32 found this review helpful

In WotC's first major rules expansion, they have produced a product that adds new options to the existing rules and still manages to add flavor to the game. This book gives you more prestige classes, new feats and skills, new weapons & magic items, and in perhaps the most useful section- examples of how the combat rules can be used to maximum advantage.

The new prestige classes serve two purposes: they instantly give DMs and players more options for PC and NPC play, and they show DMs more examples of how prestige classes can be built. Most of the new classes in this volume are the standard cultural variants (samurai, ninja, cavalier, archer) with a few fantasy-themed exotics (ghostwalker and perhaps the silliest of the lot, the drunken master-a character whose attributes increase with the consumption of alcohol) thrown in for flavor. WotC goes the extra yard and describes some of these prestige classes as organizations with goals and initiations so they are ready to insert into a existing campaign. The Knights of the Watch (a chivalrous knightly order) and the Ravagers (a group bent on violence and destruction) are typical fare, but like everything else they are easily customized.

The new feats and skills broaden the fighter class to the point that fighters can progress along entirely different paths and evolve into vastly different fighting machines. The core rules made this possible, but new feats like spring attack and "5 foot blindsight" can really lend weight to a player's wish to be different. Sure - you can SAY your fighter seems to have eyes in the back of his head, but if the character takes the feat of the same name, you have rules to make your fighter's persona have a real game effect. This is undoubtedly what the WotC folks were shooting for, and more power to them.

The new weapons and magic items provide tools for the diverse characters that PCs can now create. From Fukimi-bari (small needles that ninjas spit at people) to the Mercurial Greatsword (an instant favorite of the power-gamer) - the weapon selection has broadened considerably. Most of the weapons seem to have avoided the common pitfall of simply being differently shaped versions of the same stats. WotC has also thought to head-off this kind of thing by providing equivalents for new weapon types (e.g. "A Katana is equivalent to weapon X" for stats). This gives a DM much-needed guidelines to handle the player whose character simply has to have an Atlatl.

In the section titled "The Game Within the Game" WotC takes the nebulous collection of combat feats and skills and gives a player examples on how to use them effectively. As any player in their first 3rd Edition mass combat knows, the new combat rules are much more complicated than they first appear. Sure they're easy to use, but when a lot of feats and skills collide in battle, new combinations are bound to come up. WotC provides some very basic advice about attacks of opportunity and movement, and follows it up with two wonderful examples of feat-oriented combat, complete with explanation and character stats. In my experience, these kind of examples are the best way to teach people how to game properly (WotC should have put TEN of them in this book, along with one a week on their website - there's really no substitute for seeing the rules in action). They also take the time to impress on you how truly fearsome a creature with reach can be in combat, (DMs, try this: Give all the trolls in your campaign the new "Large and in Charge" feat and watch all your players suddenly develop an interest in polearms....*grin*)

The worst thing I can say about this book is that it costs as much as the core rulebooks. One look at the contents convinced me it was worth having, but its clear that WotC is bound and determined to make some money off the expansions. But so far, WotC has managed to avoid TSR's recurring problem of superceding the core rules in a supplement. By adding rules within the main framework they have created a really useful addition to the game...and they've made combat in D&D a whole lot more interesting.

So...watch your back.


Sword and Fist is good, but could have been great   July 19, 2001
 21 out of 22 found this review helpful

One thing I like about the 3E core rule books is it seems like WotC play tested the hell out of them. Nearly everything is fairly well balanced. Many aspects have been simplified from the 2nd addition in a good way (though sometimes too much.) Overall, I really like 3E and consider it worth buying.

Enter supplimental material like Sword and Fist. Here we have a book under 100 pages that costs $20.00us. Based on price alone, it better be one damn solid book for 20 cents per page! Unfortunately, for me, it's only worth maybe $10-15. Think of it this way, the core rule books go for $20-25, and this is about 1/3rd the size. Enough on prices.

THE ART: WotC employs some of the finest fantasy artists in the business. The core rule books take full advantage of this, Sword and Fist does not. Don't get me wrong, the art is decent, but it's not in color, nor is up to what WotC could accomplish using multiple artists and color printing.

THE CONTENT: Primarily covers Prestige Classes, with some space devoted to new feats, skills, weapons, etc. There's a nice section in the back for vehicles and structures. How valuable is all this to your adventures? Here's my take: we'll need ALL the class books to rebalance the game. Having one class book means those players (and NPCs) who are Fighters or Monks have access to more powerful combinations. Unless each class has the potential for such expansion, it throws off game balance. Granted you don't _have_ to be a fighter or monk to use these prestige classes, but they are most suitable for those classes.

Fortunately, all the rules in this book are optional. As a DM you can pick and choose what to use. I strongly suggest you do just that! Otherwise, expect everyone in the group to take the exotic weapon feat: mercurial greatsword. ;-)

This class book (and all the other class books thus far) feel rushed. They seem like they are still in beta. There is some really cool stuff though. Use these books for inspiration, and think of the impact before you introduce aspects of Sword & Fist to your game. Done in this manner, I think we can walk away with some valuable additions to the core rules.

Also, check out the D&D website for supplimental material. You'll see what I meant about these books being published while still in beta. There is an errata link dedicated to this book. Like the bladed gauntlets have a threat rating of 19-20, not 17-20, etc.

WotC: get off your ..., and put the same effort into your accessories as you did with the core rules. And for the love of God, stop charging $20 for the class books. Fellow Amazons: if you think I'm being too harsh on WotC, head to your favorite gaming store and flip through the 3E Forgotten Realms book. THAT is what they can do when they push their capabilities to the limit.


Aspiring to Mediocrity and Failing   December 13, 2002
 20 out of 29 found this review helpful

Sword and Fist is the first book in one of the worst series of supplements to ever be released for D&D.

Sword and Fist has the following significant problems:

1) There are six pages of errata for a 95 page book.

2) An excessive amount of space is wasted in repetitive charts.

3) The feat section is a handful of feats that seem to have been chosen at random for their "cool" factor.

4) Many of the feats are either incredibly useful, or not useful at all. For example, Power Lunge could allow a third level character to inflict 14 extra points of damage with a single attack while on the other hand Dirty Fighting requires that a character forego all his extra attack to get 1d4 extra damage. These benefits are not equal in any way, shape or form.

5) Some of the prestige classes, like the Fist of Hextor and the Ravager, absolutely can not be used by a player character, so why are they present in a player oriented book?

6) Other prestige classes, like the Duelist, Devoted Defender, Ghostwalker, and Gladiator are obviously copies of movie characters without giving any credit to the source of inspiration.

7) Some of the prestige classes, like the Fist of Hextor, Knight Protector of the Great Kingdom, Ninja of the Crescent Moon, Order of the Bow Initiate, Red Avenger and Warmaster are tied to specific organizations and/or locations. It simply makes no sense to put them in what should be a relatively generic source book. For example, the Warmaster and the Knight Protector should be in a supplement for the Kingdom of Furyondy or the Great Kingdom respectively.

8) The organization section takes some of the organizations from the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and rewrites them, and then adds new organizations that have nothing to do with the World of Greyhawk. Focusing either on Greyhawk material or on generic material would have greatly improved the book.

9) The "Game within the Game" chapter is just a basic tutorial on tactics. Not very interesting and it's recommendations are mediocre at best.

10) The tools of the Trade section is probably the single worst section of the book. The stats for most of the weapons are wrong, and many of the weapons are either bizarre, inappropriate or both. The "cool" mercurial weapons are a joke, because mercury reacts with steel to create a brittle alloy. Thus the weapons are not only impractically difficult to manifacture, they'd be worthless in combat.

11) This is a player oriented book, thus there is no reason for any magic items to be in the book at all.

On the upside:
1) The Cavalier, Duelist, and Weapon Master are among the best prestige classes in this entire series. They are generic enough to be adapted to any campaign world, and useful enough to be worth the costs to a variety of character types.

Overall, I received the impression that the author did not try to write "a good book", but merely one that was "good enough". He failed. I heartily recommend to anyone who is thinking of buying this book:

Save your money and buy something good.