Contains new rules material for players of fighters and monks (and anyone who might get into combat). Contains prestige classes, feats, combat tactics, weapons, and a discussion of the role of fighters and monks in the campaign world.
The supplement for 3rd edition fighters and monks is rather weak.
It offers new feats, but they are only marginally interesting with a few being downright NPC only since they're so specialised that no PC would waste a feat on it. The prestige classes are poorly done, again mostly useful for NPCs and people running oriental campaigns only. And some new exotic items round up the options that this sourcebook provides.
The two useful sections are tactics and fortifications. The section on tactics is wasted potential. I liked it a lot and would've wanted more. The fortifications and their maps are useful to most campaigns but felt out of place and more like filler material.
In short, it tried to provide a bit of everything but each of those bits were not meaty enough, ending up with a mediocre whole.
As a testimony to my lack of wisdom...in my period of time playing D&D 3rd edition...I seem to have purchased most of the books that came out for it. Of course the irony here is that the edition lasted about a year and a half before it was replaced by edition 3.5, with all new book!
I was in 2 games then, player in one and DMing the other. I switched my game to 3rd, but did not buy the 3.5 books. This book and it's ideas could I suppose be adapted to 3.5 or the new 4th edition if you wish. I have decided to go back to 2nd edition if and when I can get another game started. This book as I said might be adaptable, but I don't intend to use it.
Another creditable entry (combat is not my favorite aspect of RPGs, but this also has some cool character development ideas, and I particularly liked the section on strongholds--lots of maps! Plus, the combat stats do their job and put me right to sleep). I should probably take a look at 5th Edition at some point, but I found 3rd so much more intuitive than either 2nd or 4th, that I can't imagine switching up.
Basic Premise: A supplement for D&D 3.0 for fighty-type characters.
Much like all of the books of this type, it gives new feats, abilities, and sundry details to add to the game. It's a combination of mostly crunch and a little fluff to make things interesting. The book is useful to players, but not indispensible.