Shawn_Kehoe
First Post
Advanced Bestiary is a 256-page hardcover which is authored by Matthew Sernett, the former Editor-in-Chief of Dragon magazine. It is also the first volume in Green Ronin's Advanced Rulebooks series, which is patterned after the core book set of PHB, DMG and MM.
What's it about?
The Advanced Bestiary is a book of creature templates for D20 games. While the book is primarily aimed at the traditional fantasy market, there are many templates that could be used in horror games as well. Each template also includes a sample creature.
Format / Presentation
The cover image by William C. Eaken is an atmospheric depiction of a desperate battle against (what else?) a red dragon. The cover design itself is quite elegant and striking, placing the focus on the artwork rather than the faux tome look that the D&D core books have popularised. This design harkens back to the hardcovers of AD&D - and the name "Advanced Rulebook” is already playing the nostalgia card.
The pages are non-glossy paper of good quality, and all artwork is in black and white. The grayscale illustrations are detailed, but some seemed a little too dark. The artwork itself is quite acceptable - the Amalgam Displacer Gnoll, Dread Mohrg Hydra and Blood Knight are especially cool. The margins and text density are about equal to current WotC products. Hordes of the Abyss was used for this comparison. The production values and style are very similar to Green Ronin's previous D20 hardcover offering, Book of Fiends, although that volume had an abnormally-high text density.
Organisation
The templates are presented alphabetically by template name. This is in contrast to Goodman Games' Book of Templates Deluxe Edition, which was divided into several chapters that each described a different type of template - undead, augmenting, etc. On the other hand, Advanced Bestiary contains an index that references both templates and sample creatures. It also has an appendix that lists all of the templates by CR modifier, and all of the sample creatures by CR. Also, each template is rated in complexity, with a 1 indicating a simple addition and a 3 indicating a major overhaul. The rating is prominently displayed on each template entry, allowing a DM to select a template that suits his or her time constraints. I cannot fault the organisation of this book.
Content
The templates span concepts both familiar and bizarre. On the well-trodden path there are several templates that create half-breeds (drow, giant and plant), or which change a creature's type (to fey, construct, undead etc). These templates fill in logical roles that were not explored in the Monster Manual, but they may not be enough to make you sit up and take notice.
Advanced Bestiary really hits its stride when it blazes new ground. The "Four Horsemen" template has been mentioned in other reviews on this site, and rightfully so. It is a collection of four templates, for the Horsemen of War, Death, Famine & Pestilence. Each horseman is a disembodied presence that must possess a nearby creature to walk the earth. The catch is that if a horseman host is killed, the spirit will simply possess a new host ... quite possibly the same character that vanquished it. This template provides something unique and unexpected without straying from the established template format, and that is to be commended. I suspect that it may have been inspired by Marvel Comics’s “X-men” titles, wherein the villain Apocalypse has transformed many different mutants into his horsemen throughout the centuries.
The Horsemen are not all that this book has to offer. The Transforming Construct allows for all sorts of imaginative bodyguards for powerful wizards. Combine this with the Lifespark Construct template, which allows for sentient constructs, and Sernett may have unintentionally created rules for D20 Transformers. The Seasonal Creature template changes the base creature’s statistics as the year progresses - a similar template exists for the phases of the moon.
The Amalgam Creature allows you to combine any two creatures into a single whole - an arrowhawk / minotaur hybrid is the example creature. This template is highly ambitious, and is in some ways an example of the author's reach exceeding his grasp; there is no way for it to answer all of the questions that weird combinations will pose. For instance, consider a hydra / medusa hybrid - should the creature possess multiple gaze attacks, or a single attack with an increased DC? The template is still an impressive ruleset, however, and I intend to use it in my upcoming campaign.
If you favour horror games, this book definitely holds promise for you. In addition to the Four Horsemen, Advanced Bestiary offers the Blood Knight, an undead creature that animates the armour it wore in life, giving DMs another intelligent undead foe to supplement vampires and liches. There are also rules to recast monsters as dark fey or as dream creatures. My personal favourite is the Flesh Plant - an aberration that appears in the general shape of a plant, but as flesh and organs instead of wood and leafs. Perfect for insane druids or a mind flayer’s underground garden.
There are also a number of "Dread Undead" templates which allow you to create advanced undead in the vein of the Dread Wraith; each such creature has the ability to command its lesser kin while gaining unique abilities, such as the dread zombie's ability to feast on brains. This section runs long - 40 pages in fact - and it may have been more space efficient to create an "Undead Lord" template with a sidebar describing the unique abilities of each creature. On the bright side, the non-templated undead from the Monster Manual now have template rules - bodaks are tough, but Tyrannosaurus bodaks are just cruel. Many of the sample creatures result in undead outsiders, which is a concept that Green Ronin clearly loves. As Sernett notes in a sidebar, this is a bit of a gray area in the Monster Manual - since an outsider cannot be raised or resurrected, could it logically be turned into an intelligent undead? If you feel the answer is "no," then the sample creatures in this section may be less useful to you. Personally, I feel that if it was good enough for Orcus, it's good enough for any outsider. Besides, WotC already blurred the line when they introduced the Blood Fiend demon in Fiend Folio.
Another interesting subset of templates are the possession templates for devils and demons. Unlike the official WotC rules for fiendish possession, the abilities granted by these templates are specific to the type of demon/devil involved. Thus a balor possession is a different matter than a dretch possession. This adds more variety, of which I approve, but it also means that the DM will need to determine modifiers for any new demons and devils that are introduced from an outside source, whereas the WotC non-template possession rules can be applied to all demons equally. It is a trade-off that each DM will have to evaluate for themselves.
Several templates focus more on world-building than unique combat situations. Examples include the Bipedal Creature and Nocturnal Creature. These templates, along with transformational templates like the Verminoid or Manimal, allow a DM to quickly craft new species to populate an uncharted continent. While the stat block modifications are rather modest, these templates help to think about creatures in non-conventional ways, be they nocturnal high elves or bipedal nightmares.
Conclusions
Advanced Bestiary has something to offer for virtually any D20 DM, unless he or she despises templates and only runs pre-written adventures. I was greatly impressed by the organisation and presentation of the volume, although the art was a bit too dark in places. Some of the templates were somewhat similar in theme or mechanics: Fungal Creature vs Half-Plant, Smoke creature vs Mist creature, and the numerous Dread Undead are examples. However, these are overshadowed by the exceptionally creative templates that make this book a key part of any DM’s library.
What's it about?
The Advanced Bestiary is a book of creature templates for D20 games. While the book is primarily aimed at the traditional fantasy market, there are many templates that could be used in horror games as well. Each template also includes a sample creature.
Format / Presentation
The cover image by William C. Eaken is an atmospheric depiction of a desperate battle against (what else?) a red dragon. The cover design itself is quite elegant and striking, placing the focus on the artwork rather than the faux tome look that the D&D core books have popularised. This design harkens back to the hardcovers of AD&D - and the name "Advanced Rulebook” is already playing the nostalgia card.
The pages are non-glossy paper of good quality, and all artwork is in black and white. The grayscale illustrations are detailed, but some seemed a little too dark. The artwork itself is quite acceptable - the Amalgam Displacer Gnoll, Dread Mohrg Hydra and Blood Knight are especially cool. The margins and text density are about equal to current WotC products. Hordes of the Abyss was used for this comparison. The production values and style are very similar to Green Ronin's previous D20 hardcover offering, Book of Fiends, although that volume had an abnormally-high text density.
Organisation
The templates are presented alphabetically by template name. This is in contrast to Goodman Games' Book of Templates Deluxe Edition, which was divided into several chapters that each described a different type of template - undead, augmenting, etc. On the other hand, Advanced Bestiary contains an index that references both templates and sample creatures. It also has an appendix that lists all of the templates by CR modifier, and all of the sample creatures by CR. Also, each template is rated in complexity, with a 1 indicating a simple addition and a 3 indicating a major overhaul. The rating is prominently displayed on each template entry, allowing a DM to select a template that suits his or her time constraints. I cannot fault the organisation of this book.
Content
The templates span concepts both familiar and bizarre. On the well-trodden path there are several templates that create half-breeds (drow, giant and plant), or which change a creature's type (to fey, construct, undead etc). These templates fill in logical roles that were not explored in the Monster Manual, but they may not be enough to make you sit up and take notice.
Advanced Bestiary really hits its stride when it blazes new ground. The "Four Horsemen" template has been mentioned in other reviews on this site, and rightfully so. It is a collection of four templates, for the Horsemen of War, Death, Famine & Pestilence. Each horseman is a disembodied presence that must possess a nearby creature to walk the earth. The catch is that if a horseman host is killed, the spirit will simply possess a new host ... quite possibly the same character that vanquished it. This template provides something unique and unexpected without straying from the established template format, and that is to be commended. I suspect that it may have been inspired by Marvel Comics’s “X-men” titles, wherein the villain Apocalypse has transformed many different mutants into his horsemen throughout the centuries.
The Horsemen are not all that this book has to offer. The Transforming Construct allows for all sorts of imaginative bodyguards for powerful wizards. Combine this with the Lifespark Construct template, which allows for sentient constructs, and Sernett may have unintentionally created rules for D20 Transformers. The Seasonal Creature template changes the base creature’s statistics as the year progresses - a similar template exists for the phases of the moon.
The Amalgam Creature allows you to combine any two creatures into a single whole - an arrowhawk / minotaur hybrid is the example creature. This template is highly ambitious, and is in some ways an example of the author's reach exceeding his grasp; there is no way for it to answer all of the questions that weird combinations will pose. For instance, consider a hydra / medusa hybrid - should the creature possess multiple gaze attacks, or a single attack with an increased DC? The template is still an impressive ruleset, however, and I intend to use it in my upcoming campaign.
If you favour horror games, this book definitely holds promise for you. In addition to the Four Horsemen, Advanced Bestiary offers the Blood Knight, an undead creature that animates the armour it wore in life, giving DMs another intelligent undead foe to supplement vampires and liches. There are also rules to recast monsters as dark fey or as dream creatures. My personal favourite is the Flesh Plant - an aberration that appears in the general shape of a plant, but as flesh and organs instead of wood and leafs. Perfect for insane druids or a mind flayer’s underground garden.
There are also a number of "Dread Undead" templates which allow you to create advanced undead in the vein of the Dread Wraith; each such creature has the ability to command its lesser kin while gaining unique abilities, such as the dread zombie's ability to feast on brains. This section runs long - 40 pages in fact - and it may have been more space efficient to create an "Undead Lord" template with a sidebar describing the unique abilities of each creature. On the bright side, the non-templated undead from the Monster Manual now have template rules - bodaks are tough, but Tyrannosaurus bodaks are just cruel. Many of the sample creatures result in undead outsiders, which is a concept that Green Ronin clearly loves. As Sernett notes in a sidebar, this is a bit of a gray area in the Monster Manual - since an outsider cannot be raised or resurrected, could it logically be turned into an intelligent undead? If you feel the answer is "no," then the sample creatures in this section may be less useful to you. Personally, I feel that if it was good enough for Orcus, it's good enough for any outsider. Besides, WotC already blurred the line when they introduced the Blood Fiend demon in Fiend Folio.
Another interesting subset of templates are the possession templates for devils and demons. Unlike the official WotC rules for fiendish possession, the abilities granted by these templates are specific to the type of demon/devil involved. Thus a balor possession is a different matter than a dretch possession. This adds more variety, of which I approve, but it also means that the DM will need to determine modifiers for any new demons and devils that are introduced from an outside source, whereas the WotC non-template possession rules can be applied to all demons equally. It is a trade-off that each DM will have to evaluate for themselves.
Several templates focus more on world-building than unique combat situations. Examples include the Bipedal Creature and Nocturnal Creature. These templates, along with transformational templates like the Verminoid or Manimal, allow a DM to quickly craft new species to populate an uncharted continent. While the stat block modifications are rather modest, these templates help to think about creatures in non-conventional ways, be they nocturnal high elves or bipedal nightmares.
Conclusions
Advanced Bestiary has something to offer for virtually any D20 DM, unless he or she despises templates and only runs pre-written adventures. I was greatly impressed by the organisation and presentation of the volume, although the art was a bit too dark in places. Some of the templates were somewhat similar in theme or mechanics: Fungal Creature vs Half-Plant, Smoke creature vs Mist creature, and the numerous Dread Undead are examples. However, these are overshadowed by the exceptionally creative templates that make this book a key part of any DM’s library.
