But in any case, the cover is rather cool.
For this review, I am considering the PDF version of this book from DriveThruRPG. I did have the hardcover of this book but I downsized my 3.x collection a few years back.
PDF. Color cover and interior art. 244 pages.
This book is the first monster supplement for the new "updated" 3.5 version of the D&D rules. Honestly, I used 3.0 and 3.5 interchangeably, so for me, it was another monster book.
This one gives us roughly 170+ new monsters. We get some new demons, and more old favorites from the Yugoloths return (one of the reasons why I wanted this one). This book gives us the Warforged outside of their origin world of Eberron. There is a creature called a "Witchknife" that caught my attention as well as a "wood woad" but both of them disappointed me. I rather liked the new undead in the Bone Claw, Bone Drinker, Charnel Hounds, and Necronaut. The Eldritch Giant is also rather cool.
Some of these monsters I did not meet in this book first. Many I ended up getting in packages of mini from Wizards of the Coast before I even knew what they were. The Chraal and Blackscale Lizardfolk are two perfect examples. I thought the Chraal was a sort of demon at first. I did not play the minis game, so I rarely looked at the cards in detail.
For me, the monsters I liked made it worth the price to buy the book. But it was not enough to have me keep it when I downsized my 3.x collection.
The art is still all quite good and what I expect from WotC at this stage.
2 comments:
I never had this one, but I knew various people that did. Looking back at it, it was basically the Eberron monster book but genericized, wasn't it? Even discarding the ones that came directly from it, the little bits of lore for Eberron were almost always more detailed and interesting than the Forgotten Realms ones which tended to be more "yep, this creature lives in this area." Had some good monsters in there, though even in my edgiest teenage years, I found the Death Giant just a little too comically edgy. Good undead selection, as you said. I should pick it up at some point, 3e is my first and I love it still, though I'm currently more focused on more old-school rulesets.
Yeah, that is a pretty good way to describe it, though the Yugaloths go back to 1st Ed.
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