Martial Power: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement (D&D Rules Expansion)

Martial Power is a sourcebook for 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons that offers more powers, feats, paragon paths, and other options for the martial classes: fighters, rangers, rogues, and warlords. It is not a stand-alone book; it builds on what's presented in the Player's Handbook.Martial Power is 180 pages, and the production values seem pretty good. The font, layout, and general format is very close to that of the core rulebooks, keeping things consistent.The content is laid out in an orderly and logical fashion: there's one chapter dedicated to each of the four classes, plus a fifth chapter that deals with feats and epic destinies suited to martial characters.Each of the class chapters contains one to two new build options. The new fighter builds, for example, are the berserker-style bloodrager and the two-weapon-wielding tempest. Each contains a pretty broad assortment of new powers, usually between 4 and 6 at each level (and of each type, for level 1 powers).Each contains a few flavor-text sidebars, which range from the interesting and thought provoking (Signature Weapons, Fighters in the World) to the banal. These take up very little space, though.Finally, each contains a dozen new paragon paths suited to its class. The quality of these varies, but each class has at least a few that are both intriguing and broadly useful across many styles of game.The fifth chapter contains dozens of new feats of all character levels, plus ten epic destinies, the quality of which likewise varies.For the most part, the content lives up to its promises. There are a few bizarre and unexplained decisions -- why, exactly, do human fighters excel at wild, panicked swings, and dwarves excel at the shield bash maneuver (but not the shield slam maneuver)? For the most part, though, the design seems solid, and the book does add some much-needed options, including the beastmaster ranger and a rogue paragon path that's among the best D&D treatments of the swashbuckler I've seen.The biggest weakness is the lack of any index. Coupled with a very minimal table of contents, it can be somewhat difficult to find a particular feat or paragon path you're looking for. The presence of a thorough index would make this book much easier to use. And that's a shame, because the content is relatively strong.Overall, I think this book is a success. I expect to allow much of the material in my game. It could have been better -- but if the rest of the books in the Power line are this good, I'll buy them and have no regrets. It serves my needs, and if the content needs a little vetting, I expected as much -- that's no different from those supplements for earlier editions.

If I knew this book was all about feats, I wouldn't have purchased it. The title of book is misleading. I'm not at all judging players who use feats.What's in the book?It's basically a catalogue of feats (Level 1-29 and 30?) for fighters, rangers, rogues, and warlords. An additional 12 subclasses are available for each of those four classes.What it is not?Not really a book on history, traits, and quirks of each class. Each class gives just 3 short paragraphs on those subjects. By the title, I was expecting an in-depth description on each class, which this book doesn't do.

As usually, following the new edition of the D&D, flood of expansions is hitting the market, covering the area left uncovered by the core books. Martial Power is designed to give more options for those classes that use "martial power" as their power source - meaning fighters, rangers, rogues and warlords. They are given more options in powers, feats and archetypes in their advancement paths. Essentially, while there is always feeling that something more could have been introduced, it does it's job pretty well. One thing that had the feeling of somewhat lacking was equipment section - some more options in it would have been nice.Overall, impression is good - poligraphy, as always, is on high level, price is apropriate for the hobby book and artwork, provided you like the style is fine.

I probably don't have anything to add to what has already been said, but here's why I like Martial Power.Each of the four martial classes has interesting new options, and they all have a significant impact on the way you play your character. And many of the new powers and feats will be useful to you whether you choose the new class features or stick with the original ones.I really like the new racial feats and paragon paths. One of my concerns with the Player's Handbook was that there was very little differentiation among races. With Martial Power options, you start to see a big difference between, say, an eladrin warlord and a tiefling warlord.Now I finally feel like there are enough gameplay options to flesh out my martial character the way I want. I'm definitely looking forward to similar books for arcane, divine, etc.

PRO'S; The expanded feats are a good addition to my limited selection with just PHB. The Rangers "beastmaster" build. I found it very balanced and awesome that they have animal companion for 4th edition. The Fighter gets a few new builds the "Battlerager" and "Tempest Fighter" the concepts of both are cool.CON'S; While there are new fighter builds neither help the once feared fighter (in 3.5) kick a** and take names! Infact; it's the opposite, both the newly offered fighter builds weaken your defense. The Rouge gained NOTHING from this book beyond new feats that is worth squat. The warload gets some new ability's, but they all feel like the same old, same old.Other Thoughts; I get the feeling allot of what this book offers was held back for just this expansion, I'm guessing that all the expansion books are likely going to be like this one. However it does have overall good content for the ranger. I would suggest to anyone to not buy this book and stick to the player"s handbook 1, 2 and 3.EDIT: I've had this book for a 7 months now and my 7 players and I have never used it ones beyond flipping through it, DO NOT BUT THIS FAILURE OF A BOOK, It's worthless, all it's good for is collection dust.

If you are the melee type this book is likely a knock-out. There are many useful additions there. However the only reason I don't give this a 5 star rating is because Wizards of the Coast continues to treat the ranged martial types as second class players. If you enjoy playing a ranged character this book will only have a handful of additions for your character, most of which are only moderately nice.

Love this book

Not the best, Martial power 2 is better. The artwork is as good as ever.

A good supplement for the casual D&D player. Came like new.

Good item as described and delivered on time

Book is in Very Good Condition.Very useful book, thank you very much. I do really enjoy having great reference books.Cheers,George