Dark Sun Creature Catalog (Dungeons and Dragons: Roleplaying Game Supplement) [Hardcover]

Richard Baker (Author), Bruce R. Cordell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2010

Monsters and other threats from the world of Athas.

This supplement for the Dark Sun® Campaign Setting collects the most iconic and dangerous monsters of the Dark Sun campaign setting into one handy tome. It also contains other hazards and threats found in the desert wastelands and dungeon tombs of Athas. The creatures and threats presented herein make worthy encounters for Athasian heroes or the heroes in your “homebrew” D&D® campaign.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast; 4th Revised edition edition (August 31, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786954949
• ISBN-13: 978-0786954940
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Baker is an award-winning game designer and a best-selling author. He's worked on the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game lines since 1991. Rich traces his D&D experience back to 1979, when he began playing the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game as a 7th-grader. He spent a significant amount of his high school and college years playing D&D at every opportunity, and after serving as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, Rich decided to take a shot at working on the game he grew up playing - and so he joined the staff of TSR, Inc., and became a game designer. Rich's list of D&D design credits numbers over 50 game products, including the Origins Award-winning BIRTHRIGHT Campaign Setting, the ALTERNITY Science Fiction Roleplaying Game (which he co-designed with Bill Slavicsek), and the newest edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game. He has also served as creative director for the ALTERNITY and FORGOTTEN REALMS game lines. As an author, Rich has published eight fantasy and science fiction novels, including City of Ravens, Forsaken House, and the New York Times bestseller Condemnation. Rich is currently employed as a senior game designer at Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and works every day on new products for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chitinous Creatures, and a brilliant DM Toolkit for Dark Sun campaigns, August 31, 2010

By 

William M. Wilson (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dark Sun Creature Catalog (Dungeons and Dragons: Roleplaying Game Supplement) (Hardcover)

I was torn between 4 and 5 stars for this, but in the end, I decided to round up because the price is so insane. For less than every other 4e book to-date, you get...

* A *hardbound* book with about a hundred pages of tough, scaly, chitinous, psionic, spiky, mutated beasts perfect for Dark Sun. (According to WotC, it was supposed to be softcover, but the printer's error is our gain!)
* A 20-page section on Important Personages, including all the Sorcerer-Kings and a few other notables from Heroic to Paragon levels. (This section also has stats for some templars for several of the cities.)
* A very nice, very important section for adapting existing monsters to Dark Sun. Monster Themes are included - many of which include trade-offs, where the monster loses one thing to gain another.
* A bevy of hazards for travel through the Wastes, fighting in the Arena, etc. The latter two sections take up the remaining 20 pages.

Overall, it's impressive as heck - especially for the price.

Naturally, it's not perfect, and for a few minutes, I was downright peeved. I couldn't find my favorite Dark Sun monsters - the Dwarven Banshees, Elf Dune Runners, and Athasian Sloths. Well, the Sloths still aren't here (doh!), but folks looking for those brilliant undead can check the Wight section. No idea why they're there, but they're still very true to the originals.

I also wish that more of the Sorcerer-Kings had had MM3-style tricks to throw off conditions. At high levels, I can see the Dragon of Tyr getting stun-locked, and that just makes me sad. Some of the Sorcerer-Kings have these sorts of tricks and some don't. Also, oddly, some are Solos and some are Elites. Those with a bent towards simulation might get distracted by this, but I think it makes sense - the Elites are just more likely to have fully-capable retinues. And, as one more tiny gripe in the "just to annoy us Dark Sun oldtimers" category, some monster names have been simplified (b'rogh -> brogh, hej-kin -> hejkin), and the plurals have all been normalized.

Overall, I'm thrilled with this purchase. I would have readily paid a few more bucks for this same content. It's a must-have for anyone running Dark Sun...

...but if you're not running Dark Sun, it's likely not be worth it. About a third of the book will be mostly-useless to you, and a lot of the monsters might feel incongruous in Forgotten Realms or the Nentir Vale. You could always reskin the cooler stuff, but you'd likely be better off just using the DDI Monster Builder. Still, for the price, it could be tough to resist.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More of the good stuff, August 31, 2010

By 

Markus Gerhard "roboclerk" (Brühl) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dark Sun Creature Catalog (Dungeons and Dragons: Roleplaying Game Supplement) (Hardcover)

Well don't expect many surprises, most of the creatures and monsters in this manual have been around since Dark Sun was a second edition setting. Still it is nice to see them in colorful illustrations, although it would have been nice if there were more critters that were well more innovative. Most creatures either come in the savage beast or psionic user flavor. I would have liked more undead.

A nice and unexpected touch was the section with stats on the Dragon kings. So we finally get to see them and they are not even all that powerful when compared to such creatures as the terrasque. But then again I don't think it good to have them actually fight the player characters.

Overall a nice book, if a bit slow, but I guess if this is your first taste of Dark Sun, you will enjoy it more.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WoTC actually shows interest in Dark Sun for Dnd, September 9, 2010

By 

Jeffrey Prall (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dark Sun Creature Catalog (Dungeons and Dragons: Roleplaying Game Supplement) (Hardcover)

The Dark Sun Creature Catalog is well done. It took a while to arrive for us all, but in the end, we got a great hardcover book. I am very pleased with this book. DSCC brings the goods.
For hardcore Dark Sun players from back in the day, this book serves well. Yes, it doesn't have all our favorite's, T'Chowb missing hurts me dearly, but it does give most of the old enemies new life for the 4th edition. I agree that I could have skipped most of the personalities in the end for more templates or more monsters, but some day, you will be thankful that someone else did the work on the Dragon of Tyr and the Sorcerer Kings. The Template, added in Dungeon Master's Guide II, is put to good use here.
Oh, we all want more monsters, I in particular want more Gith, but this book is well written and serious about Dark Sun. If you are a fan of the genre, are looking to become one or are in need of new monsters to challenge your player's, get this book.