I few precious few combat enchancements of any sort in 3.5 apart from the new spacing rules (those I like very much, for they finally remove facing from the game) and the odd mounted combat rules (which work well in most cases, but grow to be absurd when pushed).

I'm mixed on the 3.5 ed. A) I live in Canada and the books are $41.95 each. B) It seems a bit soon for new books to buy. C) and so on :)

Harm needed fixing, rangers were weak (we used Monte Cook's version for a while) and a few other things, but I don't see myself spending nearly $150 on new books. I bought my 3 core books back when they first came out and were a reasonable price.

I like the Damage Reduction change...or I think I will when I snag the 3.5 DMG or MM from the one guy in our group who bought the books. I felt that Sure Striking was a too powerful and made DR pointless....

"Aha! [insert some demon name here] has DR of 15/+3 ....oh wait, half of the party have Sure Striking weapons...shit."

I don't like the fact that a minotaur or ogre (for example) takes up a 4 block square now. Thats a lot more hitting room for large parties. A horse takes up the same 4 blocks.

end rant :)

I bought the set of three from Amazon.com. I paid 21 $US for each. With shipping and handling free, I got one manual free.

I would look around on the web. I have heard of sites offering the Players Handbook v3.5 for 18 $US.

Just a thought.

I went to a local game store who was selling 'em for 1/2 off, if you signed up for it in advance. Unfortunately, even spending $30 US for 2 books, I feel ripped off. *sigh* They're prettier than the 3.0, but still, ya know? I should have known better than to pick 'em up, being that we play with mixed rules anyways. (Our old DM got us started on what we dubbed 6th edition--combo of original, 2nd ed, & 3rd ed.)