[UPDATE: NOW LIVE] TOME OF BEASTS Preview - A 5E Monster Book from the Kobolds!

Kobold Press is continuing its D&D 5E offerings with a new Kickstarter which is set to launch today (Monday). I'll update this article with the link when it arrives (update - it's now live), but the project is a new 5E monster book called Tome of Beasts. Kobold Press, of course, made the Tyranny of Dragons adventures for WotC. They've kindly sent along a preview of this new book - an eye golem - which is one of the more than 300 monsters in this book.

[UPDATE: The Kickstarter has now launched!]

This makes the second major monster book from a third-party (Necromancer Games produced 5th Edition Foes earlier this year). Here's what I know about it so far - it's 300+ new monsters which are compiled from Kobold Press' history, full colour, and will be Kickstarted for 30 days starting Monday 5th October. They mentioned that the book would include clockwork creatures, drakes, dragons, devils, and dark fey.

There's also a Book of Lairs which features short adventures (and also starring some of these monsters), each with a large encounter map.

What else have the Kobolds produced for 5E? Aside from the two Tyranny of Dragons adventures for WotC, they've already brought us an adventure called The Raven's Call, and a pile of races and backgrounds in Midgard Heroes.

SaveSave​

 

[MerricB]

Yep, added an adventure for all backers called Cat & Mouse, with 5E design by Greg Marks.

Oh, that should be good. (And it's nice to see Greg keeping busy. )

Cheers!

 

[Raddu]

C is for Coral Drake: Swimming upright, this creature seemingly peels itself from the vibrant seascape before striking with needle-thin claws, shredding teeth, and a wickedly curved stinger.

Like a piece of moving coral, this drake’s coloration and scale patterns change to match nearby anemones, corals, seaweed, and urchins. This adaptation allows the creature considerable stealth in its natural habitat. It avoids combat if it can, preferring to hide and protect its young. Long serrated spines stretch from the coral drake’s body, waving in brilliant colors against a blue sea.

Get the full writeup in PDF:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...00-new-monsters-for-5th-edition/posts/1378750

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[Raddu]

James Intracaso sits down with Kobold in Chief, Wolfgang Baur to talk about the details of the Tome of Beasts Kickstarter. If you've been thinking about backing, but haven't yet you'll want to listen to this. If you're already a backer you might pick up a few tidbits you didn't know.
http://www.thetomeshow.com/e/round-table-89-tome-of-beasts/

 

[ChrisCarlson]

$95 is a bit steep. I went ahead and pulled the trigger hoping the stretch goals and bonus material eventually grows enough to put it into being worthwhile. Right now I'm hedging. If it gets closer to the end and I still don't think I'm getting a solid enough deal, I might have to kick it down to the "digital only" pledge. We'll see. Still three weeks left to go.

 

[ehenning]

I'm in at $90. Print and digital. While not necessarily main stream, I am hoping they also create extensions for digital tools like Fantasy Grounds and Lion's Den Game Master 5. Will save me a ton of time inputing monsters one-by-one!

 

[Monkey King]

ChrisCarlson. the materials provided at that tier include

Tome of Beasts print and PDF
Book of Lairs print and PDF
all digital maps
200 monster tokens
Midgard Heroes for 5E
Southlands Heroes for 5E
Cat & Mouse adventure for 5E
15 additional monsters including 5 legendary ones
and the playtest preview.

Retail for that would be at least $115, and that's counting the playtest preview as worth $0. Seems like a good deal already, with 3 weeks left to add to it.

And you're right: it is about to get better. Discussion with Fantasy Grounds is looking very promising, and we're close to opening the project up to backer submissions (so we can publish the best monsters by Kickstarter backers).

 

[ehenning]

And you're right: it is about to get better. Discussion with Fantasy Grounds is looking very promising, and we're close to opening the project up to backer submissions (so we can publish the best monsters by Kickstarter backers).

Excellent to hear about Fantasy Grounds. How about other tools? Or how about an iApp and Android app that provides more management of beasts during actual games? I use Lion's Den Game Master 5, but would happily use something else if available.

 

[Raddu]

io9 has a bunch of art previews for the Tome of Beasts, check out The Empty Cloak, the Clockwork Abomination and a sneak peek of the Darakhul Ghoul and Void Dragon!
http://io9.com/meet-some-of-the-terrifying-new-d-d-monsters-in-the-new-1736650127

 

[GX.Sigma]

First of all: This looks like exactly what I want in a monster book, and I backed this so hard.

Second: I don't understand how they can just use the 5e stat block straight from the Monster Manual. If they can just do that, why isn't everyone doing that? Is it some special deal with WotC? Is there secretly a 5e OGL that hasn't been announced to the public yet?

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Nice, the monsters look like they provide an actual challenge for their challenge rating, as opposed to most of the weenies in the Monster Manual. I might not have to run double strength encounters to make the party sweat a bit.