I remember, back at the nadir of the OGL publishing glut, there were shelves and shelves of half-baked monster manuals. Typically, these consisted of page after page of unnecessary variants on classic monsters, ridiculously overpowered titans that nobody could ever use, and monsters so specific to the in-house campaign setting as to be useless to GMs looking for new monsters for their established games. The result was countless wasted pages for five or ten interesting new monsters.
If this were the year 2002, Tome of Beasts would probably fall neatly into that trap. Fortunately this is not the year 2002.
The authors wisely followed D&D's lead on presentation, giving a brief description of each monster followed by two or three notes about habitat, culture or roleplaying, followed by the stat blocks. Large, high-quality illustrations are provided for each monster. Stat blocks seem reasonable, and many monsters have unique and interesting abilities rather than simply reskins of abilities from the Monster Manual. It's difficult to gauge the balance of the new creatures, but nothing jumps out as particularly egregious power creep.
Most of the monsters seem to hover around the middle of the challenge rating scale, which is much appreciated. There are a handful of extremely powerful, high-challenge rating monsters, but the authors clearly were trying to make a general bestiary that a GM could use throughout the entire life of a campaign.
Most of the monsters are quite good. Some of them are variants. There are new hags, new trolls, new ghouls, new kobolds, but each feels like a useful and interesting addition to the game rather than a simple palette swap. There are new dragons themed around elements, which breaks the chromatic/metallic dichotomy and provides a solid thematic hook to slot them into a campaign. Also, the Void Dragon looks like something from the cover of a power metal album, which is pretty awesome. As others have noted there is perhaps a preponderance of fey (and one too many "sexy dryad" types), but overall the various monster types are well represented.
There are around 400 new monsters, which will no doubt please people who wished Volo's Guide had been a little heftier, and while not all of them are knockouts (Hedgehog men? Evil Ioun stones?) they at least well-crafted with 5th edition's design philosophy in mind. That said, there are a lot of really fun monsters in this book. If the Doppelrat doesn't give you an evil GM chuckle, check your pulse. And if you were dying for 5th edition stats for a Shoggoth, now you're all set.
Physically the book is sturdy and feels well bound. Kobold Press forewent glossy pages, which I'm sure keeps the book's cost down but makes me even more nervous about spills. I can live with it. At $50 it's right at the edge of what I would consider acceptable for a game supplement of this size and production value.
All said, if you want some new monsters for your game, this is an easy buy.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2016
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2017
Last but important note, how the heck do you mix a troll and a gnome (Moss Lurker of 298)? I think they need explain this a little more.
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Great Compendium
By Lady of Knives on October 11, 2017
I thought, at first, that this was going to be a compendium of all the monsters in the D&D realm but I quickly found out that I was wrong, but not to my disappointment. The book is huge and offers a lot of different ideas for new creatures. I have seen a few of the creatures in other various books to aid in game play, but I am unsure if they come from the same people. That being said, if you like being unique, get this book!By Lady of Knives on October 11, 2017
Last but important note, how the heck do you mix a troll and a gnome (Moss Lurker of 298)? I think they need explain this a little more.
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