mamba
Legend
why would they? These books are not licensed under ORC, the SRD isOut of curiosity, do the books include an ORC license notice.
why would they? These books are not licensed under ORC, the SRD isOut of curiosity, do the books include an ORC license notice.
That's what I was trying to clarify, thanks.why would they? These books are not licensed under ORC, the SRD is
The ORC license is used for the Black Flag Reference Document (BFRD) rather than for ToV itself, they do use the 5.1 SRD CC for that however due to attributionOut of curiosity, do the books include an ORC license notice.
I got both my books on Thursday...now keep in mind this is STRICKLY for the pdf's as the physical copies won't ship till later in the month for Australia, middle of June for the US and TBD for UK/EU.I haven't picked up either PDF yet, but I know backers have them and the Monster Vault is a silver best seller on DTRPG, so people have got the books now.
What does everyone think? How do they look, as a total package? What's good? What's bad? Will you use this to replace the WotC books or to supplement them? Would you recommend them to others?
Do you have the other KP creature books for comparison? I love their imagination and themes and ideas, but even with errata I find them a bit hit or miss for CR. Flee, Mortals! set a high standard in that regard.I got both my books on Thursday...now keep in mind this is STRICKLY for the pdf's as the physical copies won't ship till later in the month for Australia, middle of June for the US and TBD for UK/EU.
They are fantastic, Celeste Conowitch and the team did an amazing job with the product overall. It is a beautiful product and I'm 1000% happy with it. The artwork is topnotch and there is a TON of it in there, some of the best work comes with the armor and weapons (each piece has a reference art) AND with the conditions that have a kobold being affected by them (attached)
The good:
The system overall is very accessible, it feels like 5e but also distinctive and slightly more complex, especially at character creation. There are more options for customization, even if the PG options are limited, it's very...VERY expandable (Celeste said during the streams this was on purpose, anything bullet pointed can be expanded in future books). Heritages, Lineages and Backgrounds/talents are much more interesting options than just straight race/background combos from vanilla 5e.
Classes: Mechanist is awesome, absolutely love the class and am excited to play it. Ranger got a lot of love, as did Fighter, Cleric and Warlock. Warlocks are now a hybrid caster, having both Pact Magic and half-caster spell slots.
Magic weapons are in the PG and done on purpose to give players access to the items for reference and planning reasons.
Weapons in general have abilities added on, ala OneDnD/Revised/5.5 but not as expansive, so it's not a big jump to use them, I'll be implementing them along with Luck (which I have already implemented into my 5e groups)
They released a FREE conversion guide for everything that needs it.
The Bad:
There are limited options for a lot of things that you would expect there to be more of (Heritages, Lineages, Backgrounds, Talents, Subclasses), but nothing that can't be fixed in the long term. THOUGH it would have been nice to have 3 subclasses across the board, particularly for the Mechanist.
Rogues and Monks only got light touches, I'll likely be using the 5.5 version of the class for my group.
A personal nitpick, monsters have static HP instead of Hit Dice, but it's not a huge deal to just buff the HP.
I personally will be using the books as a enhancement to vanilla 5e as the system overall is very modular. I'm definitely on the Mike Shea "5e ecosystem" bandwagon and will be using the Monsters (I used the Owlbear and Will'o whisp yesterday in my Ravenloft group and they were a lot of fun)
If you're ONLY buying one of the books though, get the Monster Vault. It's a great book and the monsters fit very easily into any setting.
That's somewhat misleading. The book isn't released under Creative Commons, but they are required to attribute the 5.1 SRD.The ORC license is used for the Black Flag Reference Document (BFRD) rather than for ToV itself, they do use the 5.1 SRD CC for that however.
I have Tome of Beast 3, they are probably closest compared to that book as far as quality, if not a bit better. I can't say much about compared to Flee Mortals, as I haven't gotten it, but I've heard it's close to it, but probably a bit under.Do you have the other KP creature books for comparison? I love their imagination and themes and ideas, but even with errata I find them a bit hit or miss for CR. Flee, Mortals! set a high standard in that regard.
Something I meant to do but haven’t is compare the TOV Bar Brawl in the module I ran against the original in the Creature Codex, as well as doing side by sides of Monster Vault versions against their original stat blocks.
The lack of options for creation was a big complaint with the group I ran last night; they had certain specific concepts that weren’t supported (yet?) by the Player’s Guide. The conversion guide has sections on Backgrounds, Races, subclasses, etc., so in the future I may convert existing material rather than trying to shoehorn something that doesn’t feel right (Rogue player was BIG MAD at no Urchin-esque Heritage; and Cosmopolitan option didn’t fit).