Monsters of Illusion

[Crothian]

Explore new facets of the mysterious realm of illusion in this 27 page sourcebook which provides a number of new monsters and spells that have strong ties to the realm of illusion. In this PDF, you find a variety of creatures, from the benevolent, cat-like Asnae to the elusive Shimmer Dragon. Also included are a few new illusion-based spells to spice up your game, and much more!
Features:

* 6 new creatures
* 6 illusion spells
* 2 NPC’s created from creatures in this PDF.
* A new magic Item; The Pendant of the Siren
* And a detailed look at a new area, Fordrusil Forest, complete with a map of the region!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_5413.jpg[/imager]
Monsters of Illusion

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this pdf for review purposes.

Monsters of Illusion contain 6 monsters for perusal in your D20 fantasy campaign. All monsters look fairly well written and contain more info on how to use them and have adventure hooks on how to incorporate them into your game.

First up is the Asnae. They are short furry beasts that resemble felines, but have the ability to speak. Their innate abilities make them tough opponents. They can meld into shadows, but this is mostly as a resort to fleeing combat where no other option is presented. Among humanoids they are known for assisting good hearted illusionists and are even used as mounts to those that can shrink themselves to ride them.

Next is the Ever-Changing Ooze. These creatures are the creations of arcane experiments gone awry. The ooze is a large creature and is tougher than your ordinary ooze due to its morphic form. It has the traits of a standard ooze plus some others that give it an edge. It is generally found in the underground but makes occasional forays into forests and mountains.

The Elder Ever-Changing ooze is a variant of the ever-changing ooze. They are more savage and deadly than their smaller counterparts. They can grow to gargantuan size and have the ability to destroy entire villages. They are quite nasty and deadly.

Elder Mothers appear much like standard human females. Closer inspection tells a different tale though. They have poisonous thorns that adorn the vines that cover their green tinged body. Combating an Elder Mother may cost a hero his sanity as they have the ability to meet their enemies gaze and make them see the death of themselves and those they love. Most elder mothers live deep in cold and/or eerie forests.

Shimmer dragons are neutral beings that are not easily found. They appear as young dragons, but meeting their gaze reveals the ancient consciousness that dwells within. Should someone happen to notice one they will notice the sharp horns and small beard on its face, which makes these creatures recognizable. Shimmer dragons are mostly thinkers, but do have the ability to attrition themselves in the case of combat.

Uilloctul are cousins to elder mothers, but they do not hold the desire to harm anything they come in contact with. They, like their cousins, appear as beautiful women. They revel in nature and their connection to illusion makes travelers attracted to them. Uilloctul take little notice to travelers though. They use their magic mainly to preserve their species.

Monsters of Illusion includes new spells, stats of NPCs based on the monsters presented and an appendix of locations.

As one would think the spells presented within are spells from the school of Illusion. There are five new spells. One spell allows the caster to manipulate vocal sounds that creates four phantasmal voices that floods its victims mind. Another summons a phantasmal foe, which if it goes unbelieved threatens its enemy by causing them to only take defensive actions. One of the spells causes its victim to believe that one of its allies has betrayed them and another causes illusory tracks to be left behind. Another spell makes its victim appear hideous and grotesque and makes them take a negative penalty to their charisma for the duration of the spell. Finally there is a spell that allows the caster to tell a tale and have it played from a conjured mirror.

The NPCs are of use to GMs that need villains and adversaries for their characters to have contact with on some level. They are well presented and are rich in detail providing personality, history and a locale in which they are known for residing in. Locations also exist that are devoid of major NPCs and serve mainly as a point of interest. Each locale and point of interest are presented as a region of wilderness that intersect with the other locales and points of interest. A map is included with the product so as to provide a means of putting everything together in a nice tidy package.

Conclusion
I really enjoyed reading Monsters of Illusion and recommend it to any GMs looking to add an element of surprise to their games and anyone that needs a tract of land mapped out that goes beyond what they currently have. All in all, Monsters of Illusion is a great product and is wonderfully presented. Personally, I couldn't ask for a more detailed product about monsters and the land they inhabit. My only quandary is that it doesn’t nearly have as many monsters as I thought it would. Monster of Illusion earns four stars from this reviewer.

 

[Brekkil]

Thanks for the comment. I am glad you liked it and I hope others will as well; it was really fun to write, but you are absolutely right, there could easily have been more monsters of illusion presented within the pages.

- Brek

 

[Pinotage]

Monsters of Illusion is a pdf product from Reality Deviant Publications. Written by Kenneth Carlsson, this pdf presents monsters, spells, NPCs and adventure locations all related to illusions. This pdf has a page count of 27 pages with 1 page devoted to OGL declarations, 1 page to the cover, and 1 page to a table of contents and the credits, leaving 24 pages to detail the creatures, spells and NPCs found in this pdf. Monsters of Illusion normally retails on RPGNow for $5.95.

Initial Impressions:

It's always welcoming to see new publishers enter the d20 pdf market, and even more encouraging to see pdf publishers that present well put together and professional looking products. This pdf is one of those - the presentation, including art, layout, and general ease of use is of a high standard. Interior and cover art was done by Jason Walton, and contains some good and fitting illustrations related to the content. The cover, depicting a semi-naked uilloctul, a fey presented in the book, might not be everybody's cup of tea, but given that it is a fey, I think it's fitting. The table of contents and bookmarks help you navigate the pages easily, all adding to the high standard of presentation of this pdf.

Monsters of Illusion presents six new monsters, and an assortment of other material such as an adventure location in Fordrusil Forest, two NPCs based on the monsters in this book, several new illusion spells and lots of ideas and material. The illusion spells were a nice addition, as illusion is often not a school of magic frequently used or used very effectively. Despite good presentation and a good dose of new material, the writing wasn't the best, and the formatting of the stat blocks and mechanical material was generally poor and riddled with errors. Typical examples include monsters getting iterative attacks on a full attack with natural weapons, to saves being incorrect in most cases, to supernatural and extraordinary abilities not listing the associated ability score, to weapon finesse only applying to one natural weapon rather than all of them. I think that's by far the weakest point of the book, and is particularly noticeable given the fact that it is a monster book.

The Details:

Each of the six monsters in this book comes with a brief description and background material, followed by combat details and stat blocks, and concluded with an adventure hook on how to use the monster. The latter was a nice addition, and something I always appreciate for new monsters. Let's take a look at the critters themselves.

Asnae: This is a small magical cat-like creature that serves good illusionists, gnomes or other good forest creatures that have ties to illusions. It fights using a number of illusion based abilities, such as a hypnotic gaze and a handful of spell-like abilities. This is a nice little creature for gnomes to use as mounts or even as cohorts, although there is not specific cohort LA listed.

Ever-changing Ooze: An ooze that's constantly changing shape, the results of which can be disorientating to those that it fights. The changing shape has a number of benefits to the ooze, including the ability to blind creatures and providing it with concealment as if blurring.

Elder Ever-changing Ooze: A more advanced and powerful form of the ever-changing ooze, and one that can take on the shape of all other oozes such as black pudding and ochre jelly.

Elder Mother: A beautiful fey with poisonous branches and thorns twisted around her body. Cousin to the uilloctul, the elder mother is a vicious hunter and effective user of illusions with a despairing gaze.

Shimmer Dragon: A dragon with multihued shimmering scales, and a protector of those locations that have ties to the essence of illusion. With a poisonous bite and blinding scales, it can defend itself well.

Uillloctul: Cousin to the elder mother, this beautiful fey, appearing as a human female, is adorned with flowers that twisted around their frames. Strong in illusions spells, this fey does not always appear to be what you see. Included in the uilloctul description is a new magic item, the pendant of the siren, that produces an enchanting voice to beguile those that hear it.

While there were only 6 monsters in this pdf, and while their stat blocks contained numerous errors, I still found them interesting and useful, and providing some good material to use for most games. The asnae are helpful in the forests or as a cohort, the elder mother can be a threatening witch in a dark forest, or the ever-changing ooze can be a dangerous ooze that guards a wizard's tower.

The last sections of the pdf detail the new spells and NPCs, as well as the adventure location offering an environment where your illusion creatures can come to their full potential. The six spells include Baleful Illusion which creates the illusion of a threatening attacker, Confuse Tracks to hide your tracks left behind, and Storytelling, the aid in retelling tales. All these are useful, particularly spells like Confuse Tracks and Baleful Illusion, and can be used in any game.

NPCs presented include an elder mother and a uilloctul that have a background that ties the two together. The uilloctul is the last remaining one of its kind after the elder mother killed all of its kind. The details of the two NPCs also tie in nicely with the background provided for Fordrusil Forest, the adventure location provided with a map. The map was well done, and descriptions and background are provided for several important locations in the forest.

Conclusions:

Overall this is a complete product which offers a lot of new and useful material to use. The monsters are fun and interesting, and I can see using more illusions in my games from now onward. Lots of ideas and adventure hooks are presented, and there is a lot a DM can grab from this pdf and put to good use. The weakest point by far was the mechanical presentation, and was poor in many instances, detracting from an otherwise solid presentation. Based on good material, interesting ideas, useful spells and monster, but poor stat blocks and mechanical presentation, I'd grade this product with three stars, or average.

 

[Tha Black Hand]

I recieved this product free to review

Monsters of Illusion is a 27 page pdf by Kenneth "Axel" Carlsson and published by Reality Deviant Publications. Of those 27 pages 2 are used for cover art and d20 licensing leaving 25 pages to make up the content. Overall this book is a very well written collection of monsters, NPCs, and a location. As the title states, all of these monsters carry with them some degree of illusion.

Presentation/Layout: The text is in two-column format and isn't crowded to the edges or middle. All monster stat blocks are bordered and shaded to keep them separate from the flavor text. The chapters are clearly organized and there are bookmarks available for quick browsing. In all cases, the text is very easy to read and the style of writing is neither stilted or lazy grammatically.

Crunchy: All totaled, Monsters of Illusion contains 6 monsters, 6 spells, 2 NPCs, 1 magic item, and a location to place them. The stat blocks are complete, some even containing a suggested level adjustment. Challenge ratings are varied so the book can be used for any stage of a campaign. Some mechanics issues raised my eyebrows like animals in Fordrusil forest, the location included in Monsters of Illusion, get an alignment shift to Chaotic to account for hostile behavior which I think really has more to do with attitude than alignment, but in the grand scheme of things the inconsistencies are not earth-shattering. The spells can serve as a useful addition to anyone interested in the school of illusion. The levels seem reasonable.

Chewy: All Monsters and NPCs come with enough flavor text and suggestions to place them directly in a campaign. The six monsters all have suggestions for using them in an adventure that in some cases can be adventures on their own. If you don't want to use the NPCs exactly as written, enough is left open for a DM to change. The location, Fordrusil forest is fleshed out enough with hooks and rumors to use right away and the map provided is complete, but full of enough empty space to fill with whatever you want.

Extended Use: With six monsters, two NPCs that are actually rivals of each other and are fleshed out with a good backstory, and a very large location, this book can add significantly to any campaign and provide enough challenges to be used for high and low level characters alike. Used as a standalone collection of monsters in one's own world, Monsters of Illusion can add a light and fun fairy tale feel to an adventure.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"but do have the ability to attrition themselves in the case of combat. "

Say what?

 

[BrotherD]

Some new creatures to make your players look twice

From Reality Deviants Publications is Monsters of Illusion, by Kenneth "Axel" Carlsson and artwork again from Jason Walton. (I wasn't aware of Jason Walton's work prior to reading these two supplements, but I really liked what I saw and look forward to more from him.)

After a brief introduction in the form of a journal entry from adventurer Bendelbrook of Lorthin's Creek, the book dives into its main subject - monsters and creatures that derive their unique abilities from some form of illusion magic. Each monster is prefaced with an excerpt from Bendelbrook's journal, and wraps up with adventure hook suggestions. As with the sidebars from Reality Deviants' A Touch of Evil supplement, these hooks provide DMs with suggestions on how best to work this new material into an on-going game or campaign. I'm already considering using an ever-changing ooze or shimmer dragon in an upcoming game session! (In fact, this seems to be one of Reality Deviants' strengths - making their material user-friendly and instantly-usable.)

The first appendix (there are three in this 27 page .PDF) provides a handful of new spells, including confuse tracks, which does exactly what it sounds like it does, and betrayal's illusion, which causes its target to believe his or her companion has committed an act of betrayal. I could easily see how betrayal's illusion could be useful in the middle of combat - there's nothing like a little in-party fighting to help the villain escape! The second and third appendixes provide NPCs based on the Monsters of Illusion creatures and adventure locations using the new material and rules, respectively.

Monsters of Illusion does have a few formatting and grammatical errors (mostly spells improperly capitalized and not italicized, a few columns not lining up or the occasional typo), but these are not overwhelmingly distracting.