Our buddies at WoTC are at it again. Back when I was young an naive (ok, so I was jaded yet optimistic) they released a tome by the name of “Sword and Fist.” They billed it as a great resource for players seeking to play Fighters and Monks better than ever. Instead we got a bunch of prestige classes and feats. Woo-hoo. But that was D&D v3.0, and we have an older, wiser WoTC with D&D v3.5. Their new release, slated for November release, is entitled Complete Warrior: A Player’s Guide to Combat for All Classes and is advertized with the following lovely blurb: “Forge your name in battle! The Complete Warrior provides you with an in-depth look at combat and provides detailed information on how to prepare a character for confrontation.”

Does this mean we’ll get information about how combat in D&D can be most closely related to real melee combat? Will it be chock-full of clever tactical advice? I fear that won’t be the case. They’re going to be trying to milk USD$39.95 out of us again for a hard-bound tome-o-feats & prestige classes. None of which are usable without explicit DM cooperation, which means they aren’t useful to a player at all (unless that player has a very gullible or wealthy DM). It also apparently will include some information on running a martial campaign. Tips for running campaigns are always very helpful for players, I’ve found. What kind of “Player’s Guide to Combat for All Classes” is this to be, exactly?

Give me good, descriptive fluff, or give me real tactics. Don’t give me more rules. I defy you, WoTC: this player won’t use them.