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The Player's Handbook 3 is Wizards of the Coast's latest Dungeons and Dragons player supplement. Like the Player's Handbook 2, it introduces the player to new classes, races, feats, items, and character generation rules. While these rules are well-implemented and generally thoughtful in concept, a few oversights decrease the book's overall quality. The PH3 adds the long-awaited Psionic power source to the player's arsenal, and this new resource is very different from the past 4e power sources. Every role is filled, and the overall game mechanics are changed notably by three of these classes in order to provide a unique play experience. Instead of gaining encounter powers, Ardents, Battleminds, and Psions gain power points, a per-encounter resource that can be used to augment many of their daily powers, replaceable at-will powers, and even item powers. These augments might change the range, damage, or control effects of a given power. While it may take a while to fully understand the balance implications of these revisions, at first glance this mechanic appears fresh and useful. To complement the new classes, WotC included four races for player use. The Githzerai, Minotaur, Shardmind, and Wilden are all in this source book, and are given PH2 style racial paragon paths. These races fit the new classes well, and as usual grant the player a +2 to two ability scores. The twist is that, in all cases, the player is given a choice between two ability scores to increase. For example, the Shardmind always receives a +2 to Intelligence, but the player can choose between Wisdom and Charisma as a second ability score bonus. This flexibility increases the player's control over the character and provides more possible variety in the race roster. In terms of feats, items, and skills, it appears that the PH3 has the usual fare, with one notable exception. Skill powers allow players to swap utility powers for new powers that correspond to trained skills. This new option is flavorful and makes your character's skills more useful both in and out of combat. As usual, expect to find interesting new items and feats that work well with the new classes and races. Perhaps the most far-reaching development in the PH3 is the addition of Hybrid class rules. These rules allow an effective combination of character classes starting from level one, and result in more of a 50/50 split between the 2 classes than the PH1's multiclass rules. Every class is given a hybrid write up (features only, so you still need another source for powers), and the player is given rules for picking two of these write ups and combining them into one class. Many notable class features are lost, but some can be regained through the Hybrid Talent feat and more powers and features can be gained by forgoing a Paragon Path (much like Paragon Multiclassing). Hybrid rules do not stop a player from multiclassing into a third class, and this feature could result in some truly interesting three-class characters. Indeed, these rules will strongly affect every player supplement released in this edition of D&D, as every new class and class feature will need a hybrid version printed to be compatible with this rule. Finally, I have a few critiques to note. First, as I read, I ran into many powers and class features that are not well-edited. The Battlemind in particular may have real problems if the DM does not allow for some slight rule flexibility to make his features work as the rules clearly intendRead full review
This book is only an addition to numbers 1 & 2, so cannot give you all that you require by itself, but the info in it is quite valuable for the begining D&D player. The Races and Classes in this book is more on the "fantastic" side so not truly necessary unless you'd like to be thorough, even then, an experienced DM would be able to provide the necessary info. I like this book because I enjoy knowing all I can before hand, and the different Class descriptions give the player a much wider variety to decide upon once you create your character. Overall, while this book really cannot work alone, the provided additional info can be worth while and enjoyable, especially for those who need or want the reference guide. Don't forget to get the first book too, and the second book will be more useful to beginners as these books have more of the basic rules (book 1) and Classes (1 & 2) than this last book as it is more of an add-on.Read full review
If you like 4E, this is a solid book. It expands on the tried and true AEDU model developed in core 4E to include Psionics that use power points. It's not a huge alteration in that you no longer get Encounters and Dailies, but instead get power points you can spend to upgrade your at-wills. This is an interesting balance because firstly, you get access to more at will powers. And secondly, you can upgrade them to the equivalent of Encounters (1 point) or daily (2 points). So power output is about the same (points recharge on the same schedule as encounters/dailies). But you get more at will versatility at the expense of encounter/daily variety. Also included are some interesting classes.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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