New WotC product & review: Tome of Battle

Here is the first of several products that came out during my house induced hiatus. The Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords was released in August and the official description reads "Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords introduces new rules for players who want interesting combat options for their characters. The nine martial disciplines presented within allow a character with the proper knowledge and focus to perform special combat maneuvers and nearly magical effects. Three new martial classes allow a character to develop his or her discipline even further. Also included are new feats and prestige classes that build on the disciplines, new magic items and spells, and new monsters and organizations."


I first spent about 5-10 minutes glancing thru this and thought "It's a cool idea but nothing to get overly excited about." Then I really read it and starting playing around with the rules and concepts. The more I get to know these rules, the more I lke them. It looks overly complex at first glance but like so much of the d20 system once you mess around with it for a bit they aren't bad at all. These have much of the feel of the old AD&D Oriental Adventures martial arts rules but much better balanced and usable. A campaign that has been going for the last 2+ years is ending in the next few weeks and we have started developing our next campaign. I'm working on a character based on one of the classes in this book, so as the campaign goes on I will report back on the playability of these rules. IMHO, this is the best book WotC has published since the Spell Compendium and in sme ways I like this better. As always please leave comments or questions. Yes, I do have some in stock if anybody wants one.