Rating: 
Summary: Darn good book
Review: I liked this book! The selection of feats and prestige classes was decent, and the ranger finally doesn't seem like a useless class thanks to this book. However, there are DEFINITE errors in each section of the book where ECL is dealt with--however, anyone with a brain can figure out how to properly add up ECL.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine book?
Review: I was looking forward to see this book. I was exspecting
something more like Barbarian Shaman, and not eiher many priestige class for Barbarian.
Rating: 
Summary: best of the class books
Review: In my opinion, this book was very well done and had a lot of work put into it. The feats are really cool and the infusion magic item was also a creative addition. The prestige classes here are all bizarre and interesting. The new spells here are nice too. I especially like the regeneration ones. A lot of good options are given here for barbarians, druids, and rangers.
Rating:
Summary: Last, but not least!
Review: It's like they do their best work for divine spellcasters.Masters of the Wild is the last of the D&D3 character class splatbooks, being for the barbarian, druid, and ranger. I happen to think that it's the best one of those that they put out, too; loads better than Sword & Fist or Song & Silence. You'll find the usual content: Discussion of each class's party role, stereotypical interactions with other classes, and ideas for play strategy, new feats, new magic and mundane items, new uses for skills, prestige classes, and new spells to cast. New to this supplement are the legendary animals...amazingly tough animals to replace dire animal companions when your druid gets to a high level. What's good? Almost everything. The prestige classes, which I've always thought were the best indicator of quality of these books, are very nicely conceived and presented, and are in fact quite creative. I'm particularly enamored of the Tempest (the ultimate two-weapon fighter). Even those prestige classes obviously meant for NPC usage (Eye of Gruumsh, Bane of Infidels, Blighter, Oozemaster) are good. They have a tremendous feat selection, many of which are applicable to all classes. The legendary animals are useful (our party currently includes two), and the magic items and spells are good. Even the class discussions are entertaining and have good insights. What's bad? Honestly, nothing to prevent me from giving it 5 stars. The Deepwood Sniper pales in comparison to Arcane Archer (from DMG) or Order of the Bow Initiate (S&F), and the Watch Detective suffers from something of a too-modern viewpoint in regards to evidence, but that's it. By and large, this is well worth your purchase, even if you don't play a barbarian, druid, or ranger. (If nothing else, you never know when your character will wind up in a Bane of Infidels' wicker man...)
Rating:
Summary: Take it with a grain of salt
Review: Like the other class books, it provides a variety of interesting ideas. Also like the other class books, it doesn't seem to be game balanced terribly well. I recomend each DM consider carefully which portions of this book to allow, and whether they need modification. For example, in my campaign I've added two prerequisited for the Natural Spell feat, which allows a wildshaped druid to cast spell in wildshape form without worrying about the forms ability to speak or make somatic gestures. A bit overpowered, in my opinion, but acceptable with Still Spell and Silent Spell as prerequisites, basically requiring the Druid to devote three feats to this powerful ability.
Rating: 
Summary: For DMs not players
Review: The bread and butter of any guidebook is to (a) flesh out classes in rich detail (b)have new/cool feats (c)have really new/cool prestige classes. Unfortunately, this book fails on two fronts. Any player, except for the very new, would consider the information plebian. My biggest disappointment is in the prestige classes, which are geared for NPC's or, at best, solo adventures. For example, Deep Woods Sniper, Geomancer, Bloodhound, Foe Hunter, Verdant Lord, Forsaker, Windrider, Watch Detective, are all too specialized, requiring a severe limitation of campaigns. And don't get me started on the Oozemaster (what were they thinking?). I did like a couple of the prestige classes (Tempest, Animal Lord). Finally, the feats are solid, but favoring barbarian classes, which is good because barbarians were ignored for prestige classes.
Rating:
Summary: For DMs not players
Review: The bread and butter of any guidebook is to (a) flesh out classes in rich detail (b)have new/cool feats (c)have really new/cool prestige classes. Unfortunately, this book fails on two fronts. Any player, except for the very new, would consider the information plebian. My biggest disappointment is in the prestige classes, which are geared for NPC's or, at best, solo adventures. For example, Deep Woods Sniper, Geomancer, Bloodhound, Foe Hunter, Verdant Lord, Forsaker, Windrider, Watch Detective, are all too specialized, requiring a severe limitation of campaigns. And don't get me started on the Oozemaster (what were they thinking?). I did like a couple of the prestige classes (Tempest, Animal Lord). Finally, the feats are solid, but favoring barbarian classes, which is good because barbarians were ignored for prestige classes.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Uninspired Trash
Review: The last of the 'builder books' to come out it is by far the worst. While all the 3E builder books do away with TSR's old Complete Guide's concept on personality, motivations, roleplaying ideas, etc, etc, etc, in favor of 'feats,' 'prestige classes,' 'tactical strategy,' and 'skills.' Im not saying that the 2ndE Complete books didn't have thier sins such as 'kits' and a tendency to add more rules for more situations, but the focus was on roleplaying. Not so with the builder books, especially the Masters of the Wild. First they cram three classes into one book. Now this didn't have to pose a problem, especially since ROLEPLAYING-wise the three classes share much. But when the book is on only spells, feats, über abilities, ect the sole utility of the book, that would of rased the score to two stars, is lost. The Complete books included both kits AND personalities, but of course this book has only the special classes, that dictate personality, history, ect. This counter-intuitiveness is why this book fails. Players= foucus on a persona and roleplay a character without the 'goodies' provided in this book. They only force you to create your character in a specific way, make him/ her roleplay a certain way, etc. There are some kits in here, like the Frenzing Bezerker that give a barbarian uber skills without any real penalty. Still don't take it. DM= This book adds many more annoying rules to the table and should be banned. You don't need to accomidate these classes, animals, and weapons that further add complexity to what should be simple rules that allow immersion.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Uninspired Trash
Review: The last of the 'builder books' to come out it is by far the worst. While all the 3E builder books do away with TSR's old Complete Guide's concept on personality, motivations, roleplaying ideas, etc, etc, etc, in favor of 'feats,' 'prestige classes,' 'tactical strategy,' and 'skills.' Im not saying that the 2ndE Complete books didn't have thier sins such as 'kits' and a tendency to add more rules for more situations, but the focus was on roleplaying. Not so with the builder books, especially the Masters of the Wild. First they cram three classes into one book. Now this didn't have to pose a problem, especially since ROLEPLAYING-wise the three classes share much. But when the book is on only spells, feats, über abilities, ect the sole utility of the book, that would of rased the score to two stars, is lost. The Complete books included both kits AND personalities, but of course this book has only the special classes, that dictate personality, history, ect. This counter-intuitiveness is why this book fails. Players= foucus on a persona and roleplay a character without the 'goodies' provided in this book. They only force you to create your character in a specific way, make him/ her roleplay a certain way, etc. There are some kits in here, like the Frenzing Bezerker that give a barbarian uber skills without any real penalty. Still don't take it. DM= This book adds many more annoying rules to the table and should be banned. You don't need to accomidate these classes, animals, and weapons that further add complexity to what should be simple rules that allow immersion.
Rating:
Summary: You should definitely give it a look
Review: The troubled series of 3e class books come to a close with Masters of the Wild. As most readers probably already know, each of the previous installments of the series has been marred by some significant flaw. Sword and Fist was inventive and creative, but laced with broken mechanix and editorial errors. Defenders of the Faith was a little more rules-solid but boring and uninteresting. Tome & Blood was rules-solid and had significant additions to the game, but stepped all over the minimal Mary Janes of the Psionicists (the many Meta-Psionic feats which are cloned for wizards in T&B), had some organization and editorial issues, and had some very poor pClasses. Song & Silence turned out to be the most polished product from an editorial and rules standpoint but was thought by many to be content-deprived, with limp prestige classes and not much else to make up for it. So, how does Masters of the Wild measure up? Well it might just be the best of a mediocre lot. Tome & Blood has heretofore been my pick for the best of the set, but MotW seems more solid typographically (from a cursory read thru), and I didnt notice any of the glaring editorial flaws that were so apparant in several of the past books, plus the organization of the book seems to be better than the others in the set as well. From a content perspective, MotW steps up with a slew of great feats, most of which are actually attainable by most characters (as opposed to some of the feats in Sword & Fist frex), a whopping 20 pClasses, some awesome Druidic spells, variant rules for Rangers (including the Urban Ranger and 3 variants for favored enemy) and Barbarians (Intimidate based on Strength and an Intimidation bonus when raging), some new weapons and magic items, and the obligatory 'advice' on the three classes covered by the book. In an improvement over the previous class books, MotW is thankfully short on describing Organizations, opening up quality page space for useful additions such as a new category of Animals: Legendary Animals. Also presented is a full page errata'd version of the Druidic Wild Shape (much needed), and an expansion on Animal Tricks rules. The feats are great. Ill say it again. The feats are great. Even if you discard all other portions of the book, the feats are a great expansion of the core rule set. Some of the feats are retread from other products, but unlike some people I actually prefer the subject-applicable reprint methodology; its so much easier to find things if they are grouped together logically. There are a lot of Rage oriented feats, some Wild Shape oriented feats, an expanded list of Toughness feats with scaling Base Fort requirements that grant correspondingly higher hitpoints. Of course, some of the feats are so-so or of questionable usefulness, but they are many, varied, and flavorful. My fave is Instantaneous Rage, which lets a Rager rage whenever they want, even if its not thier turn yet; thus a Barbarian about to be dropped below 0 hp can choose to Rage for the extra hp on his enemies turn, of if a Barbarian really needs to make a Fort save he can rage for the +2 bonus before he rolls the save; while not massively powerful, it certainly opens up some interesting scenarios for a Barbarian. The magic items & equipment is actually the weakest part of the book, but the items that are here are on-theme and the addition of a new kind of magic item, the druidic Infusion (similar to potions), along with a pretty cool interpretation of Standing Stones shores it up. The prestige classes run the gamut, and are mostly useful with only few odd-ball ones such as the Ooze-master to tarnish the tally. With 20 to choose from however, the couple of losers dont stand out as much. Some of the classes seem a tad underpowered unless in a specific terrain, but then they are nature-oriented classes. One strange pClass is the Exotic Weapon Master, which seems much more roguish or fighterish in nature; its only connection to any of the three classes covered in this book is an inexplicable (and unnecessary) prerequisite 'Ability to Rage' despite the class having nothing to do with raging; looks suspiciously like an add-on slipped in to get it printed with a single prereq added to make it look on-theme. The Forsaker is an eyebrow raiser that eschews magic in all form (in fact, thier damage reduction class ability only works if they destroy a magic item worth at least 100gp each day), and inexplicably gets much tougher (a +1 ability score bonus every level). Hmmm.... Anyway, there are some real winners here, including the Frenzied Berserker, the Shifter, Tempest (a Ranger-friendly dual-wielding...class), Foe Hunter, Deepwood Sniper, and Bloodhound. Some of the other classes can be easily made good with a little tweaking, such as the above mentioned Exotic Weapon Master (uh....drop the Rage preReq; viola: great general purpose pClass useful to some Rogues and many Fighters). Finally, a short but solid list of new nature oriented spells wraps up the book. There are some really great spells in here for a Druid. There is a new chain of Regenerate Wounds spells which grant Fast Healing to a recipient for 10 rounds + 1 round/lvl but only vs damage inflicted during the spells duration; these spells scale identically to Cure spells (ie Regenerate Light, Mod, Serious, Crit). There are several viscious offensive spells such as Thunderswarm and {shudder} Epidemic. Several variant buff spells that grant a flat bonus to one ability at the cost of a flat penalty to another for the duration. A real key spell is Embrace the Wild, a 3rd level spell that allows the caster to take on aspects of a chosen animal without actually changing shape into that animal. There is even a sidebar expanding the Adept spell list. So; all in all, much better this time around. Im very happy with my purchase of this class book (whereas I regret having shelled out 40 bucks on Defenders of the Faith and Song & Silence), and have even toyed with the idea of playing a Druid since I got it, which is my least favorite class. I highly recommend its purchase or at least perusal to any D&Der interested in Barbarians, Rangers, or Druids.
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