Anyone who has ever played D&D with me knows that I play magic-users. Wizards. Sorcerers. Even played a Cleric or two, but usually, my armor choices are limited, my weapon is a staff, knife, or the occasional small crossbow, and my hit points aren't much to write home about. I am truly a novice in the realm of Warriors & Weapons...
Which is perfect, as it turns out, for evaluating this book, as Dungeons & Dragons: A Young Adventurer's Guide - Warriors & Weapons is intended to entice the uninitiated and spark a desire to try their hand at characters who "wear armor" and "use weapons" and actually "have hit points," or so I would imagine...
Catering to those who have never created a character before, the first half of Warriors & Weapons covers character races and character classes, complete with a neat flowchart that can suggest a character class in a mere three questions. It may be a bit of an oversimplification, but it's not bad. If you've never played before and you're trying to decide on what type of character to build, I highly recommend using the chart to select a character class for your first character and just going with it. Sometimes you have to try something out to see how it fits and, anyway, it's unlikely that the first character you create will end up being your all-time favorite character. Try it out. Make some mistakes. Learn something and move onward and upward. (Okay, in the spirit of transparency, my first several characters were first level magic-users, with between one and four hit points. That would be somewhere between the endurance of a small dry twig and, perhaps, a wooden ruler. Players of low-level magic users probably roll a lot of "starter" characters. Just sayin'.)
Now, while I do agree that the section on Races is catering to first-time players, I haven't yet played 5th Edition, so some of the races found within Warriors & Weapons were new and intriguing to me, such as the birdlike Kenku, feline Tabaxi, and the hard-shelled Tortle. (Yes, the first thing I thought of was playing a teenaged ninja Tortle... hmmm... or perhaps a Monk?)
The classes touched on in Warriors & Weapons include Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger and Rogue, giving a description of the typical outlook of each, their strengths, armor and weapon proficiencies and limitations, as well as special attributes and, for some, specialization options. After each two-page section on a character class, there is a two-page write-up of a specific, legendary example of that class. These legendary examples do a good job of illustrating good characters based on those specific classes and are fun and worth a read.
After the Race and Class sections, there are a few pages on selecting details to make your character stand out, which are worth the read, and the last couple of pages touch on using these characters to tell your story, which is also interesting, aimed at developing a more immersive and realistic world for your fantasy story to fill. Between these, the last half of the book's content covers players' equipment: clothing, weapons, armor and gear.
Weapons are broken out into categories: Swords, Polearms, Other Melee Weapons (including Axes, Flails, Hammers, Maces and Whips), Ranged Weapons and Special Weapons. The section on swords does a good job of explaining the difference in power, finesse and cost of short swords, long swords and great swords, while the Polearms section gave me a newfound appreciation for these weapons and the Special Weapons section has an interesting aside called Crazy Combinations that combines everyday weapons in unusual and unexpected ways, creating effective weapons that could definitely be the hallmark of an interesting and noteworthy character.
Within its own section, Armor is similarly categorized and has nice illustrations and descriptions of the fit, weight, and function of some of the features, such as the benefit of rings on ring mail leather armor or studs on studded leather, as well as what armor you're likely to be able to sneak around in and what you're not. The short, two-page section on Shields shows different types of shields, explains their advantages and disadvantages, points out the different parts of a shield (you know, such as the umbo, enarmes and guige) and even shows examples of some improvised shields. At the end of the Weapons and Armor section, there is a two-page write-up on the dreaded Rust Monster. It may seem odd to you to have an entry for this single creature in a book devoted to weapons, armor and equipment. I would agree, except for the fact that this particular monster is known to eat weapons, armor and equipment. And, yes, your Dungeon Master will already be aware of this creature. You have been warned.
The remaining tenth of the book covers gear that adventurers will need to go about their business. Adventuring gear. Survival gear. Tools of the trade - whether it's the trade of Dungeoneering or a Burglar's Pack. Or even simply a Cook's Utensils to prepare meals for your party while you're on a quest, Mapmaker's Tools to make sure you know your escape route, a Forgery Kit to get you in to "inspect" the king's vault to, um... "verify the authenticity" of certain treasures ...or a Disguise Kit to help you slip past the guards when that particular plan doesn't work out. (You knew that plan wasn't going to work!)
Warriors & Weapons feels like a great primer on what a young, aspiring adventurer would need to know if they hope to don some armor, pick up arms, and seek their fortune as an adventurer, presenting information that a rogue or fighter just starting off would likely know about weapons, armor and equipment. If they hadn't heard of a Rust Monster before buying their first sword or battleaxe, I can totally see the weapon merchant warning them in the hopes of bundling in a wooden staff or some cheap diversionary metal scraps to the sale.
In the end, did Warriors & Weapons make me want to play as some type of fighter and leave my sorcerous ways behind? Hmmm... Well, it's definitely made me long to play again - and I still am interested in trying my hand at a Tortle Monk. Or a female Tabaxi Rogue. Perhaps. Just, perhaps...
