Customer Reviews

Elder Evils (Dungeons & Dragons Rulebooks)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Elder Evils is one of the last few 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons books and due to the publishers focus on the newer edition, this book feels unfinished and is missing much of the stuff common to 3e books.

The focus of this book is "End of the world" evils, like Cthulhu and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Chapter one is a basic guide to "So you want to end the world" and Chapters 2 - 10 are different "Elder Evils" you can unleash.

The book provides plenty of new ideas and opportunities, but what is missing is from the book is the basic rules for incorporating these ideas. There are very few new feats, most here are reprinted from the Book of Vile Darkness, and there are no new spells, prestige classes and only two magic items. It is like a cake without any icing.

The art is good, not recycled, but the book is a fixer-uper. You are going to have to do much of the work to actually use these Elder Evils. Each Elder Evil chapter does include stats for the Aspect of that Elder Evil, some example minions and a short adventure to try and stop it. The adventure is presented in the newer spit format, with the text on one set of pages and the encounter on a different set of pages. Personally I find this very anoying and difficult to use, I prefer everything together in one place.

Overall, it is a good read and has lots of good ideas, but since the writers leave adapting most of those ideas to the DM, I only gve it 3 stars.

Bolothamogg, "Him Who Watches From Beyond the Stars." Holashner, "the Hunger Below." Piscathces, "the Blood Queen." Shothotugg, "the Eater of Worlds." Y'chak, "the Violet Flame." These were the Lovecraftian entities described briefly and tantalizingly in the supplement "Lords of Madness," Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement) the Elder Evils of the ancient aboleths - not gods, but ancient and dreadful powers preceding the deities of the world. Since the publication of Lords of Madness, the Cthulhu fan in me has eagerly awaited the sourcebook that would flesh out these intriguing characters and help me introduce a bit of their cosmic horror to my game.

This is not that sourcebook.

This misleadingly titled tome describes some *other* Elder Evils. The villainous characters described in its chapters range from inspired (Atropus) to downright silly (the, ahem, Hulks). All that said, it is a useable book to crib for campaign ideas. Its just not what those whose appetites were whetted by "Lords of Madness" have been waiting for. Buy it used, and buyer beware.

I bought Elder Evils expecting not much more than was found in Fiendish Codex I, and found just what I was expecting. And this is not a bad thing. It has plenty of different hooks for your campaign, NPCs to go with them, and a decent selection of feats. I was disappointed that there were no prestige classes, spells, or even a real monsters section, but it did exactly what it set out to do: Give the DM a half-dozen or so storylines that make the PC's feel heroic (or villainous) without making them take on the stereotypical dragon, pit fiend, or deity.

Like previous reviews, Elder Evils has completely new art for each of the elder evils. It includes the lore on the birth of each elder evil and what its goals are. The book supplies information for both Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaign settings. Each elder has a specific sign its presence and influence upon the world. They are marked with DCs ranging from Faint to Overwhelming. Faint is the hardest to detect and overwhelming is the equivalent to stating the obvious.

There are some incredibly terrifying monsters that exist in this book. (My personal favorites are Atropus followed by Pandorym.) There is one section of monsters that really should be re-tooled, I.E. the Hulks. To me, this is the only negative of the book.

The writers do leave a majority of the work to the DM but with a bit of creative manipulation of a campaign module, a DM could work the elder's presence into the campaign. Or for those who prefer to construct their own campaign, these creatures will make the event very entertaining.

Demon lords, devil princes, dark gods, ha! They all pale next to Elder Evils, the latest hard cover supplement designed for the ultra high-level player. Oh seriously now, if as the book describes, that even Gods are wary of standing in the way of Elder Evils, what chance do even the mightiest of player characters have? The first thing that is well evident is that this is WOC's attempt at creating cosmic monstrosities in the mode of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Even the name `Elder Evils' freely borrows from Lovecraft's Elder Gods and Old Ones, mythical creatures whose hint of existence can drive men insane. These Elder Evils are not merely monsters to battle and gain treasure from, but rather these are threats on an epic scale, such as a Morgoth or Sauron, if not even more threatening. These are what challenges epic level characters when there is nothing left to challenge them. Elder Evils have no interest in life other than to destroy it.

Chapter one provides an introduction to Elder Evils. The arrival or awakening of these being is usually foreshadowed by signs of its presence. These can be things like drastic changes in weather, outbreaks of disease or infestation, the dead returning to life, and so on...Cults soon spring up devoted to the Elder Evil. Dozens of new feats are included that can be acquired by the servants of an Elder Evil.

The next nine chapters spotlight a different Elder Evil being. Each chapter provides a background on the being, its goals and motivations, the signs of its arrival, tips on running the being in a campaign. The Elder Evil have several powerful minions which serve them and would be the likely actual foes of the PCs. These servants are also included in each chapter with full statistics and abilities included. Finally, each chapter comes with a mini-campaign that is fully developed and comes complete with maps and locations.

The Lovecraft influences are again very obvious as you read about each of these ultra-powerful foes. Father Lymic, for example, seems to be a bit of an amalgam between Cthulhu and Azathoth. He sleeps, dormant, in an icy prison, locked in a glacier, yet his alien thoughts are still lethal to mortals.

Leviathan is a great sea creature which owes its influence to both biblical writings as well as the Norse Mythology of Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent which is large enough to completely encircle the world. Ragnorra, Mother of Monsters is almost certainly based on the Babylonian myth of Tiamat who gave birth to all manner of dragons and serpents.

As you can see, there's not a great deal of originality to Elder Evils. These are creatures that seem mainly built on existing myths and legends. But how does it all come together in D&D land? Well, that's a tough question. Even with very high-level characters I can't see where a good DM would have to resort to the use of these mega-powered threats in order to provide a challenge. On the other hand, the mini-campaigns are actually very good and I can see taking these, and adapting them for use without incorporating an apocalyptic-style of campaign. This is another WOC product that falls into the category of being well designed but is it necessary?

When I picked this up, I was hoping for something useful in the sense of incorporating Elder Evils into one's game; a resource book for a Game Master who might find the idea of an ancient and blasphemous Horror to be interesting, but who is unsure of how to build it into a campaign.

I was disappointed. It falls in the same lackluster vein as much of the later books for D&D 3.5, with one chapter only even skimming over the notion of how to create and incoroporate Elder Evils into a campaign. The rest was nothing but chapters of 'sample' EEs, presented in the horrific 'Delve' format that someone at WotC needs shot for coming up with - something which was plainly designed to try to force people into playing with miniatures, while failing to provide the necessary materials to actually do so without excess work on the GM's part.

Seriously, unless you want a book of prepackaged and laughably uninspired material, don't bother buying this. I found it much more useful to go over to Paizo and snoop through their Pathfinder and (before Wizards yanked the lines) Dungeon/Dragon magazines for inspirational material on creating epic and inspired sources of ancient villainy. (I particularly recommend the final issue of Dungeon, as their take on Demogorgon is magnificent.)

The book came quickly, unlike my review. sorry. It was in perfect shape, just as they said it would be. I would buy from this seller again in a heart beat.

This book is amazing. Even as 3rd Edition chafes at me compared to 4th, the content in this book is beautiful. High levels never receive enough support, and this book endeavors to remedy that beautifully.

Good assortment of borderline epic level big bads in here. everything you need to plop them into any campaign.

I had a chance to preview this before buying it, and it was a great disappointment. NONE of the "Elder Evils" from the book "Lords of Madness" is covered, and neither are any of the "Eternal Elder Evils" of the Forgotten Realms (Kezef the Chaos Hound, Dendar the Night Serpent, and the Elf-Eater). What we get instead are a few -- a very few -- NEW "Elder Evils" (as if we didn't have enough trouble with the others already!). And fluff. Lots and lots of fluff. And Atropus, the god-head (literally: he's the head of a god!) who floats through space destroying entire worlds as he reaches them; HE is a great "Elder Evil." The others? Meh... Buy a copy for six dollars and you probably won't be disappointed. Did I mention the fluff?