Customer Reviews

Hero Builder's Guidebook (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I awaited the Hero Builder's Guide with a certain degree of suspicion and have to admit it was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Much of the book IS spent giving ideas for each race and class combination. The back half of the book has a really nice alignment test. (36 Questions that help guide you to picking and alignment for your character and help you understand what your alignment really means.) Then there are several charts for fleshing out your character's past. This is reminescent of other products such as the old Central Casting books, but is not as comprehensive. Even so it is still a really good starting point for new players, or maybe even for some of the older hands who just want the challenge of trying something different.

On the whole, it's not bad. If I'd never played D&D before, I'd've really appreciated it.

Basically, the book details character races and classes, and helps out with background information. There's also a nifty alignment test to take, as well, so you can figure out which alignment would best suit your character.

Now, most of this information will be old hat to anybody who's played much at all...everybody knows what dwarves are supposed to act like, elves, etc. Any experienced player should be able to generate their own background, and act like their alignment...but it's still handy, anyway, just for a few things you may've forgotten, or ideas when you can't think of any. The best thing to do, as has been mentioned, is to have one person buy it, and then everyone reads it at their leisure.

When I first cracked the cover of this book, I realized almost immediately that I wasn't going to get much use from it. I was sort of expecting some rules clarifications and as such was really disappointed. For veterans of D&D, the Hero Builder's Guide is pretty much a waste of cash. The only thing that looked remotely useful to me were the character origin generators and the names lists at the end of the book. As far as origin generators are concerned, the Heroes of Legend does as much, much better job, in my opinion. The one is this book is way too simplistic for my tastes. Aside from a few nuggets, this book probably won't get used much.

On the plus side, the Hero Builder Guide would be extremely useful for novice players and DMs. The sections on defining roles (half-orc sorcerers, elven monks, etc.) looked to be quite handy for breaking traditional fantasy stereotypes. Enough can't be said about the aforementioned origin generators and name lists. There also tons of tips and advice for making PCs more three-dimensional and less paper characters.

In summary: very worthwhile for newbies, veterans can take a pass.

Obviously Wizards of the Coast is trying to attract new gamers to the D&D world and as such much of the materials they have put out for 3rd edition is geared towards doing just that. It appears that the Hero Builder's Guidebook is another product designed solely for those newer users. For anyone with some fantasy RPG experience and a shred of imagination there is very little in this book that will prove of benefit.

If, on the other hand, you are new to fantasy literature & RPGs and are unfamiliar with what a half-orc, paladin or gnome is, then this book will provide a brief overview giving you some direction on how to role-play your new character. In addition some useful info may be found on how to give your character a background and will place alignment in a more "real-world" application. Oh yeah, there's also the three do's and don't do's of naming your character - in case you were wondering! Overall I'm sure some new players who may be little intimidated by fantasy roleplaying will find some comfort in this book. It will definitely get you up to speed and put you on the right track regarding PC classes and races and what motivates them.

For the rest of you (unless your a completist like me) - save your cash for when WotC puts out some more materials and adventures providing benefit to longer running RPG campaigns that have adopted the much improved 3rd edition rules. Or better yet, put the money towards a subscription to Dragon or Dungeon magazines!

The Hero Builder's Guidebook doesn't scream "Experienced Players BUY ME!" and it shouldn't, either.

After all, the first line is: "The D&D game is a game about heroes."

No, this is a book for newbie D&D players, and thank you for it, Wizards of the Coast. When I bought this book three years ago, I didn't need a good lot of it because of my own previous experience with the game. However, the ENORMOUS class & race combinations amazed me and my comrades. We were so excited to see Variant ideas for each race and class (unexpected and so good).

The Personal History Creation section may seem a bit wishy-washy for some of the hardcore veterans, but I can tell you straightforwardly and proudly: I created the most in-depth character using the basics in that section. After all, D&D is about using your imagination, and the tables allowed me to get a huge group of ideas and expand even further on them. The cleverness of figuring out why things occurred together - IE. your character lives with a wandering troupe, but owns a home and has bad ethics - is fun, too.

The Alignment Test never fails to prove my character's alignment, and my DM secretly uses it when no one's looking for his NPCs.

The Hero Builder's Guidebook is a very good buy, regardless of your level of experience. New and moderately new players can get a lot from the book, but veteran players may feel the book beneath them.

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.

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).