Advanced Bestiary (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) [Hardcover]

Matthew Sernett (Author), William C. Eaken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 2005

Awaiting you between the covers of the Advanced Bestiary are over 100 new templates that put the power back into your hands! With concepts ranging from the apocalyptic foru horsemen to the bizarre id ooze and stone idol, this book offers unprecedented flexibility for campaigns of any style. These templates can be combined with monsters from any other source to create an endless variety of new creatures, making every monster book you already own even more valuable. In addition, to enchance this book's usefulness, each template includes a sample creature, showing ways to overlay templates on a variety of creatures, while giving monster stats ready to play right out of the book. Used by itself, or in conjunction with Green Ronin's Advanced Player's Manual and the Advanced Gamemaster's Guide, your games will never be the same. Inside the Advanced Bestiary you will find: Extensive guidelines for applying templates to any creature in the d20 system. Over 100 new templates with CR modifiers ranging from -4 to +6. Dozens of new templates applicable for players character use. Templates within templates, with variations among existing templets like the devil bound, demon possessed, and metal clad creatures. Templates to create all you favorite undead, from ghouls and mummies to their more powerful varieties like dread morghs and dread wraith sovereigns. Sample creatures for every template with CRs ranging from 1/2 to 24. Beautiful illustrations by top artists like Julian Allen, Kent Burles, Mike Vilardi, Kev Crossley, Toren "Macbin" Atkinson, Tyler Walpole, Ilya Astrakhan, Caleb Cleveland, and Britt Martin. Each template identified by complexity level to enchance the books utility for time when you need a template in a hurry. The ability to surprise your players with an assortment of terrifying foes! Written by Plot & Poison author and Dragon Magazine editor-in-cheif Matthew Sernett, the Advanced Bestiary is a monster-building toolkit like none other! Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product utilizes updated material from the v. 3.5 revision.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Green Ronin Publishing (November 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932442162
• ISBN-13: 978-1932442168
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Movie buff, fantasy-film fanatic, game designer, writer, geek--oh, and foodie. I've written for Magic: The Gathering, designed for Dungeons & Dragons, worked on some board games, and helped create a Facebook game.

Go to Sernett.com to check out my latest ramblings or follow me on Twitter (@sernett).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Go beyond the base monster!, January 14, 2005

By 

Dice-Blooded - See all my reviews

This review is from: Advanced Bestiary (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

The core creatures of D&D are well known to every player. That's as it should be. Everyone would rather fight a minotaur whose legend extends back to the dawn of civilization than a smeerp which the DM thought up on the spur of the moment because he was frustrated that his players always knew all the abilities of the monsters in advance.

The Advanced Bestiary offers a great solution: a host of templates that can add surprise to any of the classic monsters. By using these guidelines to modify a base creature, DMs can let their players experience the satisfaction of fighting a legendary creature like a bulette - and re-experience the fear that comes from not knowing what its limits are, since this bulette has the War Machine template and is thus actually an artificial construct.

Each template comes with a sample creature that you can use right out of the book, just like the Monster Manual. But it's also a toolkit that you can use to soup up your own monsters, aided by the authors' notes and guidelines. There's not a lot of "fluff" - but if you've got an active imagination, you'll find plenty of inspiration here as you come up with stories to explain how this remorhaz became a Thunder Child!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Top of the Line Supplement, November 6, 2006

By 

Kevin J. Robinson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced Bestiary (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

There are many, many supplements for the d20 system out there, to the point where being a solidly written book simply is not enough to warrant a purchase. You can buy dozens of different monster books, many of which are very good. In order to stand out, a product needs to find way to be exceptional, which is exactly what the Advanced Beastiary does.

The concept is simple: the book has zero orginal monsters and instead has about 100 templates. This could be boring, but many of the templates are engaging and interesting. The series of "dread" undead templates are wonderful, allowing for non-humaniod undead creatures in ways never before possible. The outsider touched series is also very interesting. Many of the templates are unique twists are are inspired by a specific source and really illustrate the mechanics of creatures that many people might have always wanted. The book does has its share of fillerish stuff, namely the para-elemental templates, but the vast majority is useful and inspiring. Some let help me make what I've always wanted, others make me want to make new things.

The book has two main weaknesses. First, the CR/LA on the templates are very haphazard. They can't be used as anything other then a very loose guideline. Notes on setting these would have helped a great deal, in many cases they are practically useless. The second is the poor editting. For whatever reason, this problem abounds in most roleplaying books, regardless of company.

Generally, this book is wonderful. It makes every other monster book you own better. I highly recommend it, certainly moreso then Monster Manual II, Monster Manual IV and most 3rd party theme compilation books. It takes more effort then ripping a monster out of a hat, but with pretemplated examples, you can actually do that too. All in all, its the best monster supplement I own.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book For 3.5 Monster Designers, September 11, 2009

By 

Gabriel X. Rogus-jones "Mr. Ro-Jo" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Advanced Bestiary (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) (Hardcover)

If you are the sort of GM that loves to add templates to your monsters then buy this book, because that is the whole gist of it. In context, as a book of monster templates not an MM, it seems well done but there are so many I do not think I will ever use them all. It is good to know that if I need to slap an 'Icy" template on say a hobgoblin, I now have the book to do it.