These are very attractive, have good guidelines for assembly, and cover a wide variety of large creatures. This is one of the best small purchases I've ever made. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is because some of the selections are a little quirky; a giant in ancient era armor is probably less useful than one in mail or leather, for instance. This is a great set for snagging things, like a giant skeleton, you would have a hard time keeping around in lead or plastic.
The Genius Guide to the Talented Fighter took a solid concept and developed it into something excellent. This product elaborates from there. If the Talented Fighter is a tasty, perfectly textured cheeseburger, this guide is like the grilled mushrooms, bacon, and extra cheese choices that will make sure you go home fat and satisfied. My only complaint is that I now finding myself wanting the cheese fries, both literally and metaphorically.
This product makes three basic observations. First, a feat is roughly equivalent to a talent or a standard fighter class feature. Second, almost every other class gets a new ability at each level, so there is no reason the fighter shouldn't as well. Third, most fighter archetypes are restrictive, and their abilities generally don't have much mechanical or logical connection to each other beyond an extreme specialization. The result is a straightforward rewrite of the fighter class that simply gives them a talent at every level(a combat feat being an available choice for every level, if you wish). The poor man's class feature, Bravery, now takes up one slot, as it should. Many of the talents were gleaned from existing fighter archetypes; others are new. Weapon mastery is now one of several grand talents available at 20th level. This book is fantastic, and you should buy it.
The only reason this book doesn't get 5 stars is its relatively buttoned down nature. It doesn't do anything radical or game-changing, which is not a defect in a product of this nature. However, there just weren't a lot of things that made me say, "Gosh, I wish I had thought of that." Still, it's hard to identify many more worthwhile purchases, especially for the price.
The APG may not be for everyone, but those people are evolutionary dead ends. Tons of class options, class variants, handy feats, trait system, new classes, new equipment, new everything. My old 3.5 sourcebooks will see less use in the future. For the most part, new options are well-balanced and interesting.
