I'm a big fan of Monte's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved system, and how he manages to make a variety of small but simple tweaks to D&D3 to give a far more satisfying game.

So naturally I was interested in what he had to say here, and at the price it is well worth a look.

The specifics are covered in other reviews here, some (such as 20 spell levels) are ideas that, according to the Design Diaries on his website, Monte has been pursuing since being part of the 3rd Ed design team. Most of the elements are designed to stop the 'fight/rest/fight/rest' cycle of standard D&D by making resources more resilient. This is kind of the goal of 4th Ed., but I think Monte cocks a snook at the new edition by getting there first with a simple little inexpensive add-on that doesn't require a massive upheaval from the past ten years of gaming.

I've started using the Grace/Health system in my latest game, and it really helps remove that pathetic fragility of 1st level characters without in any way making them uber-gods. And it means as a DM you can treat them to more original opponents than dire rats and kobolds.

This is nothing short of brilliant. It pretty much completely obviates the need for things like the Tome of Battle. The original BoXM may or may not have worked for the average game, but this belongs on every d20 fantasy table.

I think I am realizing I am a fanboy of Monte Cook. It is an embarrassing admission of a reviewer. I see his name on a title and I expect greatness, the way that I do when Magic Johnson used to touch a ball. Most of the time I am satisfied with the outcome though I have to admit, I have seen both flub a few times as well.

The first Experimental MIght book, was phenomenal, even with its extreme change to the nature of D&D 3.5. Despite being a 5 star book many stated that it was a bit difficult to integrate into an ongoing campaign. Thus I wondered what type of monumental change would take place with Monte’s redesign of fighter classes.

And once again Monte surprises me with the Book of Experimental Might II: Bloody, Bold and Resolute, as it supersedes the original by bringing simplicity to the project and a strong not so monumental change.

In the first book, Monte introduced a concept of every feat a level. With this one, he simply introduces fighter domains, which break down old and new fighter feats into categories such as Domain of Ranged Weapons or Domain of Leadership. Each Domain comes with a basic power and a bonus power that you receive once you obtain 8 feats in that area. Another ability of selecting a Feat Domain is that it allows you to swap out one feat for another provided a day of training. From a mechanical point of view it is a nice touch, however, forgetting abilities always makes little sense to me from a role playing point of view.

Though the system works stronger with the every class gets a feat per level introduced in the first book, it still flows very well with the traditional 3.5 rules. The book introduces many new fighter feats to round out any type of fighter you were hoping to build. From military battlefield leaders to swashbucklers there are enough additional “strong” feats to bring that aspect out in any fighter. They really unvanilla the fighter. Might II also introduces three new kinds of feat in the Double Feat and the Uberfeat. The Double Feat takes two feat slots but are usually far more powerful than two or three feats combined. Uberfeats are extraordinary feats that can be picked only when a player has gained 8 feats within a domain. This uberfeat usually replaces a few of the feats you have already selected. Obalation Feats require a bit more book keeping from the players, asking them to keep a running tally of the damage they have done. In return players may spend this damage to increase or activate abilities of the feat.

But all of these new options are not just restricted to the Fighter. There are quick integration rules for paladins, barbarians, rangers and rogues to use them as well.

For the Player: If you have been playing D&D as long as I have, the fighter may come off as pretty bland. Oh, there is power attack again or oh there is Cleave again. Now you are able to make that rangerish Archer or that Monkish Streetfighter without being locked into a class. The other day, I was statting characters for an event I am running at Gencon that called for a bunch of rangers, well instead I used the Domain of Ranged Weapon feats and the build came out a bit stronger than the ranger. I had a tribe of warriors that were able to do some neat tricks with the bow and yet still go toe to toe in melee.

For the DM: The fighter is one of the easiest classes to work with in terms of flexibility and a book of new and innovative feats really gives a lot more options. I especially like the double and uberfeats as they eliminate the clutter of having too many feats by combining and rolling feat abilities cohesively into each other.

The Iron Word The Book of Experimental Might II: Bloody, Bold and Resolute is a great followup to hash out melee characters. With both books of Experimental Might, you have a complete system that shows a distinct evolution in dungeons and dragons without sacrificing traditions or adding pointless mechanics.

As a PDF - like most Malhavoc products, simple and clean so easy to read and print.

As a product - this is a good fun adventure. It's major weakness is that it is, pretty much, a stand-alone. That's it's purpose, so you can't fault it on that but it does mean that it exists purely for those times when not everyone can make it, or for when old gamer friends visit.

The adventure is very dense, taking place over a small number of rooms but with complex traps and puzzles to overcome. The twist is guaranteed to please, confuse and amuse all at the same time.

If you need an evening's fun with good gamers, run this adventure.

As a PDF - good quality, as is typical of Malhavic it is mainly black and white with few large images and plenty of white space, making it clean to read and easy to print. This one's quite a large book.

As a supplement - This is a planes-hopping handbook, providing an alternative D&D planes setting to the 'Great Wheel'. In this case, it owes more to Moorcock's multiverse than anything based on D&D alignment.

Seventeen different planes are detailed here, to varying degrees of depth, plus further notes on running alternate universe versions of the DMs own campaign setting and planes-hopping in general (including a host of nexus-style locations).

The planes are varied in quality, interest, wierdness and utility but they are all pretty good. As you might expect from some of the authors of the original Planescape setting.

A brief overview: Avideral - a dark plane of a dead star, where even the idea of light is a fading thing. Carrigmoor - a sort of asteroid city full of decay and cut-throat politics. Also has many portals to other worlds, if the PCs can gain access to them... Curnorost - a desolate place where angels go when they die. Deluer - a webwork of crystal and a sort of elemental earth plane. Dendri - aranea and formians battle for control of a forest world. Faraenyl - an alternative land of the fey. Kin-Li'in - a hellish plane of tunnels filled with fire and ice. Lizard Kingdoms - almost a shameless Dinotopia rip-off! (I mean, homage). The Maze - A strange multiplanar city that almost seems to be designed for adventurers... Mountains of the Five Winds - Law and Chaos locked in a very physical struggle. Ouno - flying ships, psionics, pirates and an acid sea. Palpatur - tieflings in a land of living matter. Sleeping God's Soul - a realm of clockwork. Ten Courts of Hell - a hellish domain with a Chinese element. Tevaeral - land where magic is almost extinct. Venomheart - mainly centres on a gang of pirates who steal sleep. The Violet - alien demiplane of no gravity, vines, snakes, low magic and an eerie purple light. Yragon - A sort of Planet of the Apes world.

Of these, some suggest immediate adventures more than others. Ouno and Deluer are quite traveller freindly, whereas Avidarel, Curnorost and The Violet would all serve as good places to go to seek a McGuffin of some kind. Some, like Carrigmoor, The Maze, Tavaeral and Five Winds would almost serve as campaign settings in their own right.

If you like this kind of gaming, then you'll like this. There are enough mechanical details and maps to spark ideas - the only problem is how to use it all without crowding the campaign!

As a PDF - good quality. As with all (most) Malhavoc products, it has a clean, black and white layout making it easy on the printer and quick to scroll through. This one is quite a big product, though.

As a supplement - This is really two books in one. It is part of Malhavoc's 'Event Book' line (also including When the Sky Falls and Requiem for a God) that give guidelines on how to incorporate huge world-changing events into your 'd20 fantasy' game. In this case: War.

So the book includes some of the usual splat-book elements of prestige classes, items and spells, plus some useful notes on what player characters can do during warfare that isn't just endless fighting. These are reasonable, but nothing special.

Then it's also a wargame. Almost two wargames, really - one dealing with small scale skirmishes and another for large scale combat. They're pretty much the same system with a bit of scaling. I don't know how they play out as I haven't used them.

There is a third level of wargame, which covers about three pages, which is a much more abstract system used for fights in the background. It's almost paper-scissors-stone with tactical maneuvres. I've used this when I ran a Dragonlance game (it is very useful for the Battle of the High Clerist's Tower) and it works quite nicely. But perhaps not worth buying the whole book for.

A little too late in 3rd Edition D&D's life? Not really...

While this would have had far more impact a year ago, Monte Cook seems to have a strong following and undoubtedly the 3.5 die-hards will be interested in what he has to say here.

Options, options, options... The book is jam-packed. Some are better than others, not all will suit every game style. But by the sheer wealth of ideas, many of which have gone pretty much untouched in WotC's official books, it's clear that Cook has a damned good handle on the system, and the many ways to use it.

I won't go point-by-point through the many options here. But the familiars and healing options are excellent, and stood out as something I'd likely use. As it is, this book gets a high rating, and is well worth the £5 asking price.

As a PDF: Most Malhavoc products have a clean design, mostly B&W with reasonable white space. This makes them quick to read and lighter on toner. This one is no exception.

As a product:

This is a sourcebook covering possibilities of a deity dying, or being resurrected, and how to implement this into your campaign. Bearing in mind this is written by the author of the Planescape adventure Dead Gods, you can see Monte Cook recycling his ideas.

As is typical for this kind of book, there are new spells, feats, items, prestige classes and monsters. Most function around the concept that the body and soul of a deity have residual power that can be exploited. If you don't like the concept that dead gods can be carved up and used to fuel spells, you probably won't enjoy this book, as it doesn't offer much in the way of alternative approaches.

What it does offer is solid enough. Whether you like it or not will depend on how your ideas mesh with those presented here.

As PDF: Good quality. Typical of Malhavoc products there is a clean design with much white-space, making it fast to read and easy on the toner to print.

As a supplement:

Of reasonable interest. Covers the events surrounding a 'skyfall' (i.e. meteor strike) and how it could be implemented in an ongoing campaign. Three different types of skyfall are covered - a mundane meteor strike, a magical meteor strike and an 'engram ark'. Other options, such as a fallen angel or monsters similar to The Blob, The Thing and The Colour Out of Space are also given brief notice.

As is typical of these kinds of books, a smattering of new feats, spells, items and prestige classes are covered. The concept of the Sky-Callers, an apocalyptic cult dedicated to calling down meteoric ruin would make for a good adventure or campaign. Other rules elements are fairly so-so. The Engram Ark concept is one that you will either love or hate. It draws on Bruce Cordells psionics work for Malhavoc, with a dark star-spanning Cthulhoid entity known as the Dark Plea (perhaps more Galactus, actually) that destroys entire worlds. Several monsters and items relate to the failed attempts of one world to send out their racial memories in 'engram arks' before the Dark Plea got them. Unlike other aspects of this book, this one plotline is to specific for my tastes.

If you ever need to shake up your campaign with a little natural disaster, buy this book. It will literally rock your world.

The book starts by describing how your campaign world will be physically altered by a significant meteor impact. It then goes on to describe several directions in which a post-disaster campaign can go. The book includes new rules and prestiege classes for version 3.5 tailored for a Skyfall campaign.

Monte Cook's Ptolus was a well thought-out incredibly detailed product. However, his campaign world suffered from unfortunate timing. When the bottom dropped out of third edition, it kind of left his books stranded.

If you want to know about Ptolus, this is a good place to start.

This product is exactly what I expected: a whole slew of spells (most of which are familiar to any D&D veteran), updated and formatted to fit into the AE magic system.

I have a real problem with sourcebooks that provide little more than mountains of descriptive text, and this is one of those products.

Sure, there's a sparse overview map, and a few illustrations, but mostly this product is page after page of description and setting background. If you're a hardcore fan of all things Malhavoc, I expect you'll love it regardless. For the rest of us, not so much.

Technically, it provides what it promises, but in no real way does it take the burden off of the Game Master, who has to distill it all down into details which can be used readily and easily at the gaming table.

So, I flag my bias: I'm dead-sick of supplements which promise to flesh out an interesting area or setting for game use, and then proceed to bury you in text description -- leaving the actual hard and tedious work of player-scale mapping and practical setting implementation for game table use all on the GM's shoulders. Basically, I paid them for a travel guide textbook, and that's not what the ad copy implied.

Since Ruins of Intrigue technically does what it promises -- it does deliver a setting (and a setting which seems oddly reminiscent of RuneQuest's "Big Rubble" boxed set), albeit almost entirely in text -- I suppose I should, technically, give it a passing grade.

But you know what? I'm really tired of buying supplements which don't actually help to alleviate my GM workload, the way they imply they will.

So it's a 2 out of 5 -- Malhavoc, of all publishers, should know better than this.

A very good read and definitely worth the money, but not perfect. My only real objection is that Monte seems to have this strange idea that casters are underpowered and needed a boost and that Fighters are overpowered and could stand to be toned down. I'd hope it would be obvious that the complete opposite is true, but whatever. Combining this with a few house rules of my own is producing a very good and playable ruleset, so I'm happy!

There really are a lot of excellent rules in here. The changes to Paladins, Rangers, and Druids are my favourite, and the little changes like Trip and how Poisons work are quite useful as well. It's also nice to see some of my houserules validated by knowing Monte Cook does the same thing. Definitely worth picking up, even if you don't use everything in it.

Few books have inspired me like Monte Cook’s The Book of Experimental Might has. It is as if he took a lot of the good things that designers have talked about in 4e, merged it gracefully with 3e and still retained the Role playing game feel that early playtesters of 4e say WOTC’s new system lacks.

If you are waiting to play the next version of Dungeons and Dragons, there is no need to wait until June, Cook has already created it.

Dubbed by many in the fan community as 3.75, this book feels like it should be 3.99. It is fully compatible with 3.5, making it possible to utilize to new system and its mechanics with your current game. There are three major changes in Experimental Might. The biggest overhaul is to the spell system, which is changed from a 1 to 9 to a 1 to 20. Spellcasters can spells that equal to their level. It is a much more fluid delivery for magic. The Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Paladin and Wizard are given a small revamp. Whereas saves are not covered, you can use the PHB version, their special abilities have been stripped away. Instead, players may choose disciplines every even level. Some of these disciplines replicate abilities such as wild shape and turning, whereas as some represent spells such as healing and magic missile. They are all standard actions.

Another overhaul is that players receive a feat every level. Another fascinating concept that does not really change the game much in hindsight. Considering that most feats can only be done at specific times the players feel more balanced in this system. Along with other brilliant changes to the poison and skills, there is a pretty balanced spellcasting fighter class whom uses ruins to enhance his fighting. A lot simplier than the Book of Nine Swords, though just as effective.

For the Dungeon Master I really enjoyed making NPCs with more feat choices. It gives me the chance to round out the character without overpowering them. I also loved the changes to spells, as many of the changes eliminate save or die spells and make some of the traditional spells different than just damage dealers. My favorite spell change is the one that finally makes raise dead special. Whereas it is easy to cast, you have to put more effort into it. There is also a 10th level “quick” revive” spell that allows a player to wake up a downed player who fell in an encounter.

For the Player The new class is the perfect antidote to those with the gimp disease. It does not lean too far one way or the other in terms of magic and fighting. The ruins feel very creative, covering defensive moves and attack options.

The Iron Word Buy the Book of Experimental Might. It is amazing and will change the way you play 3.5. I’d even go as far as to say that this book, combined with Malhavoc Press’s Book of Iron Might, is a spectacular choice for those not interested in 4e but want a better version of 3.5.