Rating: 
Summary: So-so
Review: I didn't particularly enjoy this book. It basically gave you information on where to put ability scores for different characters. There were, however, some interesting history ideas and such, and some of the character ideas were very interesting (half-orc bard, anyone? Elf barbarian?). The last section was extremely small, though. That was supposed to be the section on what skills and feats to select, depending on the direction you want to take for your character. Not a great idea, but beginners will love it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: I didn't really see much that was dramatically new or different from things I already knew. I suspect this would make a good book for someone just starting RP'ing and needed some guidelines on how a particular class or race should act.Not all that useful for veteran players, possibly useful for DM's in developing some quick NPCs.
Rating:
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: I didn't really see much that was dramatically new or different from things I already knew. I suspect this would make a good book for someone just starting RP'ing and needed some guidelines on how a particular class or race should act. Not all that useful for veteran players, possibly useful for DM's in developing some quick NPCs.
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly Useful For Any Occasion
Review: I first bought the Hero Builder's Guide with great expectations for it to do something for future characters for me and the characters that I created. Now that I look back on my expectations for it at the time, this was about the worst investment for what I had in mind. Let me say this right off the back: If you are a player and you like sticking it through with one character and developing him from Lv. 1 to Lv. 20, this book is not going to do a whole lot for you. If you are like me and you find yourself creating a multitude of characters because yours keep dying or because you play D&D with a lot of different parties and have to create multiple adventurers for different campaigns, this book is slightly more useful. Especially the chapter labeled "Creating Your Personal History". If you're like me you want to get into your character and provide him with a background. This provides you with a lot of different scenarios that your adventurer can come from, whether you want to role a dice to determine a background or you want to get more ideas. Now for us dungeon masters out there, I would highly recommend this book to those that find themselves teaching newbies how to build a character and how to build a character history. With this book you can have players scan the "Choosing Your Race And Class" chapter of the book to provide descriptions for each race's class. You want to be a half-orc cleric? Get a quick history of the things that they go through and their motivation. This book is especially useful when the newbies are creating a personal history of their character. I can't tell you how many times I ask my player to think of a history for their newly developed character, and 4 out of 5 of them describe how their parents were killed by some sort of evil and they're on vengeance quests. Variety is an important key to a DM's campaign, and this book is great at providing an alternative way to "force" your players to take a pre-determined basic history and use their imagination to build it from there. There's a quiz in the, "Selecting Your Alignment" area that I find useful here and there, but I typically don't use since the Player's Handbook has a pretty self-explanatory alignment description anyway. The "Planning Your Future" chapter is rather basic and gives beginners a peak into prestige classes, but it's the most useless chapter of the book, and is the reason why I give it a 4 out of 5. The "Appendix of Names" is helpful when I or others start running out of names to use for our characters. There's definitely plenty in there for you to choose from. Altogether, I suggest buying this if you are a DM that anticipates teaching newbies the game, or if you are constantly creating new characters. If you aren't these two, you're better off sticking with the core books...
Rating:
Summary: A very good book.
Review: I have been a Game Master for over 8 years and I can say the following about this book:
It is a -great- addition to anyone who really wants to learn the concept of roleplaying and the way roleplaying was meant to be: building your your character's personality, traits, background etc. This book is one of the few books that actually promotes -roleplaying- and character depth. My compliments to the writers!
Everyone who thinks this book is bad are all powerplayers who mostly play to Win a game and/ or play to get treasure and defeat monsters. If you want a hack and slash game, play games like Diablo II. The word Roleplaying should get its value back and by reading this book you are really encouraged to roleplay with an in depth character. Creating a great background is a good idea. Also the illustrations, eventhough they are black and white, are cheerful, fitting and well placed.
A lot of people disadvice this book because they are not -real- roleplayers, which is a bit of a pity. But anyone who wants to play roleplaying as the word was meant to be should buy this book as a supplement. The content is good.
The only thing that is not in there which I would have liked to see are character advantages/ disadvantages/ flaws. They have been in the second edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Kind regards,
Chris van Zuiden
Rating:
Summary: Good book, may not be worth it for all
Review: I liked this book because it offers quick creation methods for PC's and NPC's. There is a chapter on backgrounds where you can roll up a background for a character. I think this is good for DM's to make up quick NPC's and offer them a little more depth than just physical descriptions. For players, it's good for a beginner or a person who would like to see some options that are available with the new rules. It can help someone learn to think outside of the box of the PHB. Overall, I think it's got enough in it to be useable for DM's. Quick background options are helpful for some NPC's. The names itself make the book worth it. How often have you as a DM wondered what to name that elven tavern owner. Instead of racking your brain, you've got a book right here with names set on a somewhat consistant style of rules. I also think that it's good for the stats section for DM's. It can help you understand what type of campaign you want to run depending on the stats you allow your characters to have. You can see how they affect your players and how your players can overcome with lower stats as long as they plan well ahead. For players, I'll admit this is definitly not for the expert 3e player. The names are good, but you've probably got plenty of favorites from other sources that are just as good if not better than the ones provided in this book. For a beginner or moderate player, it can help you with feat selection thoughts (not as much as I would like it to have). It can also help you get a handle on your character's background based on race and class. There are a few specialty characters presented based on regulare PHB race class combo's, but that could've been expanded. It may be helpful for someone just switching from 2e to 3e in order to get a handle on the new rules and feel of the characters. Bye the book of you're a DM so you can allow your new players to look it over and get into their first characters. That's the infectious part and will lead to better role playing rather than having them just run a character sheet without thought to the depth of the character. If you're a player, be careful about what level you play at already. If I were just a player, I wouldn't have bought the book because I already do what it suggests. Players may want to thumb through it at the bookstore to see if it has things in it that might be useful. If so, buy it or see if your DM has it, if not, don't waste your money on it.
Rating:
Summary: Really needs two reviews...
Review: I really need to direct this review to two audiences. First, the newcomer. You've heard about role-playing, but never really looked into it. Fantasy settings are pretty foreign to you and you don't know the difference between a gnome and a dwarf. For you, treat this as a 4 star review. The concepts in here will help you get an idea of what the basic, fairly stereotypical character types are. For any combination of race (human, elf, dwarf, etc) and class (fighter, wizard, bard, etc.) a brief summary is given, giving you an idea or two as to how to play your character (or to avoid, if you want to break type). This is especially helpful to newcomers, since this newest set of rules allows for characters not common to mainstream fantasy (for example, a gnome barbarian)that vcan be fun, but daunting for newer players. Other info helps create a background for your character (a dounting task for some, easy for others), and understand alignment. There is a lot of info on the game mechanics as far as getting the most out of your character, helpful to beginners but boring to my next audience... If on the other hand you are like me and remember dice you had to use a crayon on to see the numbers, this book gets a single star- well, maybe two if you have newer players in your group. Don't waste your time if you're getting it for yourself. I found nothing in this book that was an aid to my play. Now, if you want to bring new players into your group, this may be worth the investment. It will definately help newbies or casual beginners get into the game a little more (hence the second star).
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment for an experienced player.
Review: I was fairly disappointed when I received this suppliment. This will help players and DM's that are new to the AD&D world as a whole but will provide little new or useful information for an experienced player. I feel this suppliment for the new 3rd Edition AD&D and may prove useful in character creation and devolpment for new players but will provide little for those who have been gaming for some time. The alignment section is a little interesting but overall I would not recommend this for those of you who are experienced gamers. I am glad though that Wizards of the Coast have gone back to Greyhawk where AD&D should be.........GREYHAWK LIVES!!
Rating:
Summary: This book marks the end of my collecting.
Review: I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons since 1980, and I readily admit that I love the new edition. This book, however, marks the end of my purchases of books in the 3rd edition series simply to have the entire system. All of the classes and races were given in the Player's Handbook. It was quite clear in the Player's Handbook that although certain races tended towards one profession or another, that any race could be any class. This book spends half its pages pairing all the races with all the classes in case you couldn't figure out what 'any race can be any class' meant (That tidbit will cost you $6.00 of your purchase price with a hefty Amazon discount). It also gives one example of each pairing in case you couldn't think of a background for the pairing that fit in your campaign. Even this is hardly useful, however, since only one background is given so the second pairing you be back on your own. This seriously limits its usefulness as a spur-of-the-moment background generator. This book also includes a Cosmopolitan-type quiz to determine your alignment. (For instance - if your parents arranged your marriage, what would your reaction be, A. B. C. or D. - score points in the appropriate column). I ran across this quiz while looking for anything resembling new information and thought it was a joke. Now I just think it was filler. Speaking of filler, I also noticed that all of the tables go into exhaustive detail describing some items. I don't knwo why they would do this if it wasn't to take up space. For instance - in determining the terrain you came from: 31-45 Forest. Whether it's a tangled jungle or sparser pines, trees are the dominant feature of the landscape. They fill the few pages they dedicated to random backgrounds to similar explainations of well-known things. I am still enamored of the system and will continue to collect the books in it, but after Hero Builder's Guidebook I'm willing to accept some gaps in my collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh!
Review: If you have played D&D before don't waste your time or your money. A filler for novices.
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