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41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very good starter, Rehash for experienced players., December 17, 2000
This review is from: Hero Builder's Guidebook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Paperback)
The Hero Builder's Guidebook does some in-depth exploration of each class by race, and offers some excellent food for thought in creating new characters. In general, all roleplayers should use this kind of character creation process. However, there is just not enough new material for experienced players. The tables of birth location, community, relatives, background elements, and story hooks are all useful, but may not justify the purchase for every player. The alignment quiz is a nice touch, especially for player-DM arguments about "I am so Chaotic Good!" "Well, you're acting Chaotic Neutral, buddy!" and so on. I recommend making one purchase of this product for a gaming group, and then sharing it around the table. --Steve Semler, RPG Editor, SciFiHaven.com
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60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great For New Players and Those Who Lack Time, December 8, 2000
This review is from: Hero Builder's Guidebook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Paperback)
Like many others, I was very anxious to see if third edition D&D would do something similar to second edition, by adding tons of new classes and rules with each new book. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was the not the case (as of yet). This book was relatively interesting to read since it gave a small description of each class/race combination and gave a quick idea for nearly each one. This quickly sparked some ideas in me for races and classes I would not ordinarily play. The guide to creating a character's background was interesting too, but the tables did spend a little too much time describing obvious things and filling up pages. In fact, most of what I would say about this book boils down to the fact that if you're not a very creative person or you're often stumped while trying to create a character, this is definitely the book for you. It will help a player pick a race and class, create a background, choose which feats and skills the player wants to choose, and even think of a name. In a sense, this would also be a terrific book for a newcomer to D&D. Another person it would benefit is someone who wants to create a unique character in a hurry. It would be very easy to just pick a race and class combination and then just choose the skills and feats suggested while determining if the advantages and disadvantages are worth it. However, I could honestly not suggest this to an experienced player who is creative and has the time to create a history, concept, and name for a character. It was relatively short for the money I paid and much of it was packed with filler. The most annoying thing about the guide (to me) was that a few race and class combinations listed to "ideas" or variants because the race/class combination was too unique. Considering the price of the guide, they could have at least tried to given an idea for a player to use. I have the feeling I'll use it a bit, especially to make NPCs or to come up with a concept for a character. I might even use the suggested feats and skills for certain character concepts, but I doubt I'll use the family/history background for my PCs. So, those who don't have much time, who are not very creative, or who are beginners, buy it. Anyone else, consider this purchase carefully.
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46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This book marks the end of my collecting., December 3, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Hero Builder's Guidebook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Paperback)
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.
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