There is much too much material in this wonderful book to give a thorough review, so I will only touch on the highlights that really made the book useful for me. I bought this product about the same time as the new DMG II, and actually prefer this one. It is written more for the experienced GM, unlike the DMG II, which is more for a journeyman GM. I won't use much of the optional combat material, but the character background section and how to upgrade the power levels of a campaign are something I had been struggling with in my homebrew to balance (I run what could be described as a +1 level adjustment game, i.e. that all +1 races are considered +0 races in my world, thus the +0 races are needing to be buffed a bit, and the AGMG gives a balanced way to do this). The magic items, especially new rules for various craft levels beyond masterwork and the sovereign materials are very welcome. I was especially charmed by the lenses, which are basically a gem like item that you wear on your hand and a spell keeper can expend a spell slot into the lens to output a specific spell. Highest recomendation to experienced GMs.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Character, magic and material options<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: didn't need the reprint of the initiative cards (only thing I didn't print)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Second only to the core rulebook, this is the most thumbed through source book I own. An absolute necessity for any GM, as it has all of the SRD and most of the OGL armor and weapon properties that I have seen or that are needed, all in one place and, best yet, alphabatized. It also lists damn near every weapon ever created or found in history. I consider this book to be my FOURTH Core Rulebook.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: the organization and material<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: the scion classes...absolutely useless and a waste of space (even if they were reprinted in Unearthed Arcana)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

While I am impressed with this book, which I had thumbed through in my local bookstore, I didn't find a whole lot that was extremely useful for me. BUT, the barbarian totem powers were something I was looking for, and was very glad that the publisher offered this section alone as a resonably priced PDF.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: barbarian totem powers<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: adds a level of complexity to familiars that I think is unneccessary.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

"Don't judge a book by it's cover" was never more true than with this product. Frankly, the cover sucks and looks amateurish, something a 13 year old gamer might come up with on his home computer for his home rulebook. That said, the insides are very professionally produced, with decent artwork of average to exceptional quality. The material itself is well thought out and, as far as I can tell without play-testing, seems very balanced. The arcane sections of Metablades has been somewhat eclipsed by WOTC's Complete Arcane, with some duplication in the flavor of various PRCs. That said, the psionic content is VERY welcome and useful. The book has been completely updated to 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook. This book is a great companion resource for the XPH. Highly recomended.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Psionic content<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: cover<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I like this product very much, and while I have yet to really use anything in it in my campaign, it is more because the product is so specialized. But, I know it will prove useful later in my homebrew, as I used the much of the information within to design martial artist spiked chain wielders. Like with everything created by Hellhound, it looks to be very game balanced. If you ever wanted to utilize chain weapons of most any sort in your campaign, especially specilized martials artists or magic, then this is the book for you.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>