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Tome of Horrors II
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<blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011340" data-attributes="member: 1129"><p>How many monsters can one campaign have? As many as the GM wants. The more variety that the GM can utilize in his adventures, the more surprised the characters. For me, this is almost an essential thing as my players are almost all old school and the idea of fighting another orc, while plausible when done with the proper ambiance and background information, is well, redundant.</p><p></p><p>Enter the Tome of Horrors II. Let me get the stuff I’m not crazy about listed out front as I wouldn’t want to leave readers with the idea that I don’t love this book. First, the back cover claims that these are “never-before-seen monsters.” Well, that’s not quite true. More than one or two of them have taken a bow from 1st edition products. Take the amphisbaena template. Perhaps I’m just too old and remember the old giant snake with two heads. Don’t get me wrong; this template adds all new utility to the idea of the monster, but never before seen? How about the Black Skeletons, originally from Rappan Athuk? Minor issue as they’re all updated to 3.5.</p><p></p><p>Okay, what next then? How about the large amount of things that relate to the City of Brass? Now I’m looking forward to that adventure-sourcebook but I’m torn. As a reader, do I want to see all of the material that’s here reprinted in that book? If I was a gamer without this book, would I want to be forced to buy it if the City of Brass recommends it?</p><p></p><p>Lastly, there are a few creatures I just don’t need to see. When you start making humanoids that have no real definition outside of that given to them by the background, are they really useful? Do we need another small humanoid race that dwell in “vast tunnel complexes that connect all of the large cities of the world”? like the huggermugger? No, I’m pretty sure that territory is covered. And do we need the ogren, a half ogre who has hobgoblin blood and the troblin, a troll with goblin blood? No. There are enough templates out there that almost any half-breed can be created these days.</p><p></p><p>Now those are my three complains about the book. It’s not like every creature is a humanoid trying to fill the role of another humanoid or every creature is an old beastie updated. I know some are puzzled that the four pages of advertisements don’t bother me. Well, I guess the difference is that this isn’t a 112 page book or 126 page book where four pages cuts into the utility. With 244 pages of solid material, the four pages of ads don’t phase me at all.</p><p></p><p>Now for the good news. The book is much better illustrated than Tome of Horrors and Creature Collection Revised. I’m not going to sit here and over a dozen artists but some that people might recognize include Tyler Walpole, Eric Lofgren, Tim Truman and UDON. This insures that when I describe the creature and pull out the illustration for the first time, that the players aren’t asking me, “So is this a shadow creature or an ink blob or something else?” Not to say that there aren’t a few dogs here but overall the art went way up with this book.</p><p></p><p>Now for news for people who think art is useless and they’d rather have more text at 10-point font with no spaces in between the lines. There is a huge amount of utility waiting to be explored in this book for GMs. These range from GMs who are running a planar adventure and looking to expand the ranks of their outer planar enemies and allies to GMs running a standard dungeon crawl looking for new challenges to torment the characters with.</p><p>The monster stats look good in terms of 3.5 compliance. Speed lists number of squares, armor class is broken up by bonuses and includes touch and flat-footed information. Base attack and grapple are listed as well as full attack. Challenge rating and level adjustment are kept separate. When character options are presented, traits are provided including stat adjustment but full ECL is not calculated. For example, the aberrant is a 8 hit dice creature with a +4 level adjustment for its ECL is actually 12. Creatures include a brief description to be read aloud, but no tactics.</p><p></p><p>In terms of demons and devils, I tend to enjoy the new unique denizens that Necromancer has brought us. Sultry females like the demon Caizel and the devil Demoriel. Canny keepers of devilish power like Caasimolar or powerful devil dukes like Xaphan. These individuals give a little more detail to the Unholy Schism and the Great Uprising as well as minor details on the mini-plane, Infernus itself. Its interesting that they used the name Infernus as that was the old setting of the Role Aid’s Demons book. Necromancer Games is famous for their first edition feel. Perhaps they’ll also do a version of Outer Planar creatures for GMs to tinker with? One can only hope.</p><p></p><p>But what if you’re not into the outer planes at all? Then break out the landwalker template and relive the old land shark gag from Saturday Night Live. Bust out any type of undead you want and make it a Lord. Much easer on the GM who doesn’t want to wait for the latest version of the Ghoul Lord or Zombie Lord to come out. </p><p></p><p>For those who want a Hellraiser feel to their campaign, flip to Appendix C with the N’gathau. For those who’ve never seen any of the movies or read any of the fiction, the Hellraiser Cenobites are creatures that delight in brining pain and suffering to the world of mortals for their god, Leviathan. The N’gathau serve the Twelve on the Plane of Agony where they tourture outsider souls for eternity even as they craft humanoid races into shapes more pleasing. A lot of potential here for the GM who wants to run with it. This is another section that Necromancer Games could craft into a separate book with more details on the Twelve and more denizens of the plane itself. Ironically enough though, the template lists the CR as a boost of +3 and the sample creature’s CR has only been adjusted by 2.</p><p></p><p>What if you’re just starting a new campaign and have 1st level characters? Is there anything here for you? How about giant beetles with a nice range of CRs from 1 to 3 or lesser fire crabs with a CR of ½? Other options abound like barrow rats and small quasi-elementals, either acid of obsidian.</p><p></p><p>Higher level parties may wind up fighting volcano giants or even a jade colossus but most of the creatures above twenty are unique save for the Stygian Leviathan, a monster that lurks in the River Styx and clocks in at a CR of 21. Not bad for a colossal magical beast eh?</p><p></p><p>Perhaps one of the most interesting creatures here is the Dungeon Dragon. This creature actually creates dungeons and takes entertainment as adventurers wander through its crafted maze. It has the ability to dominate monsters, change shape and craft a crystal ball so it's almost always assured of a good show.</p><p></p><p>With the wide assortment of creatures, the Tome of Horrors II is going to be a useful tool in my campaign for a long time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JoeGKushner, post: 2011340, member: 1129"] How many monsters can one campaign have? As many as the GM wants. The more variety that the GM can utilize in his adventures, the more surprised the characters. For me, this is almost an essential thing as my players are almost all old school and the idea of fighting another orc, while plausible when done with the proper ambiance and background information, is well, redundant. Enter the Tome of Horrors II. Let me get the stuff I’m not crazy about listed out front as I wouldn’t want to leave readers with the idea that I don’t love this book. First, the back cover claims that these are “never-before-seen monsters.” Well, that’s not quite true. More than one or two of them have taken a bow from 1st edition products. Take the amphisbaena template. Perhaps I’m just too old and remember the old giant snake with two heads. Don’t get me wrong; this template adds all new utility to the idea of the monster, but never before seen? How about the Black Skeletons, originally from Rappan Athuk? Minor issue as they’re all updated to 3.5. Okay, what next then? How about the large amount of things that relate to the City of Brass? Now I’m looking forward to that adventure-sourcebook but I’m torn. As a reader, do I want to see all of the material that’s here reprinted in that book? If I was a gamer without this book, would I want to be forced to buy it if the City of Brass recommends it? Lastly, there are a few creatures I just don’t need to see. When you start making humanoids that have no real definition outside of that given to them by the background, are they really useful? Do we need another small humanoid race that dwell in “vast tunnel complexes that connect all of the large cities of the world”? like the huggermugger? No, I’m pretty sure that territory is covered. And do we need the ogren, a half ogre who has hobgoblin blood and the troblin, a troll with goblin blood? No. There are enough templates out there that almost any half-breed can be created these days. Now those are my three complains about the book. It’s not like every creature is a humanoid trying to fill the role of another humanoid or every creature is an old beastie updated. I know some are puzzled that the four pages of advertisements don’t bother me. Well, I guess the difference is that this isn’t a 112 page book or 126 page book where four pages cuts into the utility. With 244 pages of solid material, the four pages of ads don’t phase me at all. Now for the good news. The book is much better illustrated than Tome of Horrors and Creature Collection Revised. I’m not going to sit here and over a dozen artists but some that people might recognize include Tyler Walpole, Eric Lofgren, Tim Truman and UDON. This insures that when I describe the creature and pull out the illustration for the first time, that the players aren’t asking me, “So is this a shadow creature or an ink blob or something else?” Not to say that there aren’t a few dogs here but overall the art went way up with this book. Now for news for people who think art is useless and they’d rather have more text at 10-point font with no spaces in between the lines. There is a huge amount of utility waiting to be explored in this book for GMs. These range from GMs who are running a planar adventure and looking to expand the ranks of their outer planar enemies and allies to GMs running a standard dungeon crawl looking for new challenges to torment the characters with. The monster stats look good in terms of 3.5 compliance. Speed lists number of squares, armor class is broken up by bonuses and includes touch and flat-footed information. Base attack and grapple are listed as well as full attack. Challenge rating and level adjustment are kept separate. When character options are presented, traits are provided including stat adjustment but full ECL is not calculated. For example, the aberrant is a 8 hit dice creature with a +4 level adjustment for its ECL is actually 12. Creatures include a brief description to be read aloud, but no tactics. In terms of demons and devils, I tend to enjoy the new unique denizens that Necromancer has brought us. Sultry females like the demon Caizel and the devil Demoriel. Canny keepers of devilish power like Caasimolar or powerful devil dukes like Xaphan. These individuals give a little more detail to the Unholy Schism and the Great Uprising as well as minor details on the mini-plane, Infernus itself. Its interesting that they used the name Infernus as that was the old setting of the Role Aid’s Demons book. Necromancer Games is famous for their first edition feel. Perhaps they’ll also do a version of Outer Planar creatures for GMs to tinker with? One can only hope. But what if you’re not into the outer planes at all? Then break out the landwalker template and relive the old land shark gag from Saturday Night Live. Bust out any type of undead you want and make it a Lord. Much easer on the GM who doesn’t want to wait for the latest version of the Ghoul Lord or Zombie Lord to come out. For those who want a Hellraiser feel to their campaign, flip to Appendix C with the N’gathau. For those who’ve never seen any of the movies or read any of the fiction, the Hellraiser Cenobites are creatures that delight in brining pain and suffering to the world of mortals for their god, Leviathan. The N’gathau serve the Twelve on the Plane of Agony where they tourture outsider souls for eternity even as they craft humanoid races into shapes more pleasing. A lot of potential here for the GM who wants to run with it. This is another section that Necromancer Games could craft into a separate book with more details on the Twelve and more denizens of the plane itself. Ironically enough though, the template lists the CR as a boost of +3 and the sample creature’s CR has only been adjusted by 2. What if you’re just starting a new campaign and have 1st level characters? Is there anything here for you? How about giant beetles with a nice range of CRs from 1 to 3 or lesser fire crabs with a CR of ½? Other options abound like barrow rats and small quasi-elementals, either acid of obsidian. Higher level parties may wind up fighting volcano giants or even a jade colossus but most of the creatures above twenty are unique save for the Stygian Leviathan, a monster that lurks in the River Styx and clocks in at a CR of 21. Not bad for a colossal magical beast eh? Perhaps one of the most interesting creatures here is the Dungeon Dragon. This creature actually creates dungeons and takes entertainment as adventurers wander through its crafted maze. It has the ability to dominate monsters, change shape and craft a crystal ball so it's almost always assured of a good show. With the wide assortment of creatures, the Tome of Horrors II is going to be a useful tool in my campaign for a long time. [/QUOTE]
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