Customer Reviews

Advanced Bestiary (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

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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!

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.

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.

This book is entirely composed of racial templates for dungeons and dragons v3.5e. The first template in the book allows you to combine any two monsters (from any two books of your choice) into a single hybrid race. The remainder of the templates in the book fill various unique and fantastic niches and also demonstrate the same bold creativity. Perhaps a downside, this product can keep a DM busy playing mad scientist for hours upon hours upon hours.

A great addition to any game master's collection. Throw something at the know it all players. Buy it. Buy it now!