Song and Silence: A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues (Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition Accessory) (Dungeons & Dragons Accessories) [Paperback]

This 96 page handbook is less of a Guidebook and more of an appendix to the Dungeon Masters Guide... but that's a GOOD thing.
Song and Silence cuts through the effluvia and gets down to business on page one.

First presented are the Prestige classes (including the much missed Thief-Acrobat) and moves straight to the Feats and Skills. As you can see below, the book is laid out in a economical and no-nonsense manner.

Chapter 1 - Prestige Classes
-Dread Pirate
-Dungeon Delver
-Fang of Lloth
-Outlaw of the Crimson Road
-Royal Explorer
-Spymaster
-Temple Raider of Olidammara
-Thief-acrobat
-Vigilante
-Virtuoso
Chapter 2 - Skills and Feats
-Primer on Poison
-Do-it-yourself Traps
-New ways to use skills
-Feats
Chapter 3 - Bard and Rogue Equipment
-Bards and their instruments
-Undead Bards
-New Weapons
-Thief Gear
-Magic Items
Chapter 4 - Organizations for Bards and Rogues
-Ten Thieves Guilds
-Bardic Colleges
Chapter 5 - You and the world around you
-The Rogue
-The Bard
Role in the Campaign
-Role in the Game
-Motivations
-Relationship with Others
-Special Combat Options
Chapter 6 - Spells
-New Assassin Spells
-New Bard Spells
-New Spells

Finally, Song and Silence is of equal value to players and DM's alike, the artwork is first rate and the prose is entertaining as well as enlightening.

Another win for WOTC.

Of the 10, none seem like loosers outright, but none of them are particularly gripping either. Dread Pirate is interesting but seems much more useful as an NPC pClass outside of very specific pirate-oriented campaign settings (in which most everyone would want to take it). The Dungeon Delver gets some pretty cheesy supernatural abilities with no apparant source (IMO spell-like and supernatural abilities should have some source of origin and not just be handed out to dial in the cool factor); further it doesnt compare well to some of the 3rd party material out there in supplements like Traps & Treachery. The Fang of Lolth is (Im sorry) asinine from the top down. Outlaw of the Crimson Path is quasi-interesting and helps a player that wants to be a Robin Hood highwayman sort of character but seems ill-suited to an adventuring PC; again another NPC-centric pClass. The Royal Explorer is somewhat interesting and one of the few classes semi-friendly to the Bard, but mostly focuses on lots of bonus languages and a very weakly justified skill boost with a list of applicable skills expanding every 2 class levels; the class does give a free Exotic Weapon proficiency at 1st level and the supremely useful Track feat at 2nd which helps fill the class out. The Spymaster is a super-sweet class with very useful abilities that essentially serve to allow a character concept that the rules would otherwise hamper or make impractical; unfortunately it also seems most well suited to an NPC (but PCs in a city campaign with heavy political overtones could get some benefit from it as well). The Temple Raider of Olidammara is a decent class, but thier connection with Olidammara doesnt sit well with my mental image thru the years of Olidammara as a Dionysius-like deity that is also a patron of the arts; a Thespian of Olidammara friendly to Bards in thier role as actors would have been more fitting (particularly if slanted to the aspect of spy-actors that use acting troupes as thier cover); however the actual pClass is solid and would better fit the demi-god Rudd or one of the other more straight-rogue gods IMO. The Thief-Acrobat returns once again and are sure to be a popular choice for pure-rogues as they get a plethora of good abilities; a Rogue 10/T-A 10 would be formidable; however the class as a rather pointless requirement of membership in a thieve's Guild. The Vigilante is next up and basically serves to waste a really good pClass name on a rather lackluster pClass; the class is okay (except for a dependence on 'home turf' ie a single city for one of thier better abilities) aside from a cop-out reliance on spell casting as a sorceror for a collection of spells to help them track down and catch baddies; sorely lacking in the classes criminal hunting repetoire is the Track ability or the GATHER INFO skill as a class skill, even though one of the classes preRequisites is 8 Ranks of Gather Info {stupid but true}. Finally the Virtuoso basically is just a better bard; there is absolutely no reason for a 10th level Bard not to take this pClass for his last 10 levels; trading thier Strong Reflex Save, Bardic Knowledge, and Intermediate BAB, the Bard/Virtuoso gains full spellcasting progression and gains 9 new Bardic Music abilities.

A long chunk on designing Traps follows and seems okay at first blush.

The Feats are short and sweet, with a couple of Winners like the much needed Dash (which adds +5 Movement, although as an aside no blurb exists stating that the Feat can be taken more than once though IMO you should be able to take it multiple times up to 60 feet of movement), and Fleet of Foot (which allows a single up-to-90 degree turn when running or charging but requires the otherwise lackluster Run feat), several +2 this and that skill feats, an erratad Expert Tactician, a few 'trade Sneak Attack for X' feats that are very cool (read 'very open to abuse') and sure to cause many arguments in days to come. My favorite is Snatch Weapon (Martial Takeaway anyone?) which is a better form of Disarm. The Bards get a few goodies as well that enhance thier Bardic Music abilities in several useful (Subharmonics) and non-useful (Green Music) ways.

The rest of the book is pretty much lackluster IMO, with a lot of description of musical instruments, some lame magic items, some sctick-laden Bardic Colleges, a rather laborious explanation of unusual flanking situations, 4 new Assassin spells, and a mixed bag of Bard Spells.

Despite some flaws, I thought Tome & Blood was superior to this splatbook in every area. If you are a hard-core Rogue or Bard player you might want to buy this, but you would be smarter (and more in-character) to sucker your DM or another player to get it and then mooch off of them on the rare occasion when you gain Feat.

Still, I noticed fewer errors and editing mistakes at first glance than any of the previous splat books and this book, while not gripping, was at least not as bad as Defenders of the Faith.

If the rating system allowed it I would rate this a 3.5, but since it doesnt I will round up to a 4.

I do feel, as another reviewer mentioned, that it traps the characters within a human or half-elven standard, and I think that's being extremely limited. I've found the feats quite nifty in this book, and the trap-making extremely informational, but I really wasn't that impressed with the prestige classes as a whole. They just kinda seemed there, and having watched someone play a Shadowdancer, they pale in comparison, IMHO. Of course, this might change if I see someone pull it off.

Reading the book, I felt that just about everything, except for the trap making, seemed much more geared toward bards than rogues, and perhaps that's what's disappointing me. Lots of great stuff for bards in here. Particularly feats against undead, and the subsonic music. Quite cool.

Regardless, I think that for the feats and ideas with trap making, the book is worth a read. And perhaps someone will find some sweet... way to get a rogue through this book.

--Mel.