Critter Cache 3: Animals & Beasts

Critter Cache: Animals & Beasts, is the third book in the popular series. The PDF is written by Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel and wonderfully illustrated by Jesse Mohn. Clocking in at 24 pages, the book includes a cover ,table of contents page combined with a credits page, the bulk of the work, and ends with two tables. First table is mounts, including name, cost, and carrying capacity followed by monsters by level. Giving that a quick look, monsters range from first level lurkers to 25h level elite brutes. Book marks include links to each monster type and the specific monsters found under each beast.

I don’t know if this product has the awesomeness that previous books did though. It starts off with apes. I know I'm not old school like some people, but have Apes ever been used in a D&D game? Heck, do apes have any history in the fantasy genre?

There are three apes, common, dire, and tyrant. The first two I can see some practical use for for. But the last is a huge level 17 solo brute. What type of story could you possible make using such a creature?

After that completely out of place start, the book then moves into another way out left selection, eagles. We get a golden eagle, greater harper eagle, and a dire eagle. The nice thing about the dire eagle is that it's not only a level 6 skrimisher, it's also a mount. In this case, it gives the rider a +5 bonus to perception checks. The only thing is though, that's such a niche idea , never used in any fantasy material that D&D is based on.

I'm thinking at this point, surely the next monster will have some use right? Well, it's the elephant, and we get an elephant, a mammoth and an olyphant. The first two I can see, especially the first one as it's an old school beast of war from historical times and has some relevance. But an olyphant? A gargantuan beast with an illustration of some massive elephant with a viking longship on it's back? Where are these crazy ideas coming from?

At this point, I'm losing my faith in the author. These monsters with no history to the game, with no game hooks, with no utility or story to them, are worriesome. Surely the next monster... nope, frogs. What type of game would be crazy enough to use giant frogs or dire frogs or a venomtoad swarm? Not old school at all. Heck, I'd bet that even if at one point such a concept was used, it would never be touched on again .

Okay, I could do that with the whole book. There's a ton of monsters here that should have been in the core monster manual. Giant lizards, saber tooth tigers, and dire wolverines stand out in the rest of the section. The art is top notch, probably some of the best that Jesse Mohn has brought to the series thus far. The dire ape on the cover is a particularly good piece, especially when you see the illustration full in the book and realize there's a person hiding under the tree.

Game mechanics include some interesting bits. For example, those dire frogs, being large and in charge, have the ability to swallow whole. The lion and it's ability to use pack tactics to take down prey with the cooperative pounce, dealing a little extra damage and giving allies a bonus to hit the struck target. In terms of mechanical accuracy, I'm not John Cooper and such things usually round themselves out in the 'wash' so to speak. Still, since the stat blocks don't take up half the book, it's much easier to make any minor changes in 4e than it would be in 3e.

The only problem with the book is that it's too small and could have much more. For example, those apes? Where's the old dreaded winged ape? The other problem is that I want a Critter hardcover with the additional monsters that the old writer has been putting on the En World Blog. Heck, while I'm putting out the wish list, more illustrations.

Those looking for the latest and greatest in strangeness or outrageous material will be disappointed with this book. There's rarely even a call out to the odd named critters that 4e is so fond of. There's no golden-toed hopping tiger. There's no smack your face up frogs. If you want more material for your campaign that goes back to the roots of what used to make Dungeons and Dragons, well, Dungeons and Dragons, this book won't disappoint.