[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.

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[The Grassy Gnoll]

Cool ghoul

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

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?

It seems likely to me that Kobold Press have a deal with WotC that allows for the near-identical copying of trade dress in the form of statblock layout, because the guys at Kobold Press don't seem the type to not realize they can't do that without permission - There is no way to tell if that deal is one specifically for them, or a broader license available to anyone that just hasn't been publicly announced yet, until someone in the know at one company or the other makes a statement on the matter.

 

[ssvegeta555]

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

That's some cool stuff.
grrr... I want to back this, but $50 is a lot IMO. Since it's going to get funding I might wait for it to show up on Amazon. hmm...

Also, anyone else think it's odd that you use Dex to resist the Void Dragon's gravity breath weapon? I think Strength would be a better fit, but that's just me.

 

[Raddu]

We're close to some major stretch goals! You can help us reach $100,000, we're less than $4k from 10 high level monsters and physical pawns. We're also less than 75 backers away from our Backer Goal of 1,250 to unlock 5 Southern Lairs and Battlemaps. If you haven't backed yet, back now, or if you are already a backer please share this post to help get the work out!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-300-new-monsters-for-5th-edition/description

 

[darjr]

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?

Wolfgang would have noted special license deal or at least not said what he said In a recent podcast, he talked about the upcoming license and that he had all this work and just didn't want to wait. It did seem to me that he was confident a license was at least planned (OGL).

 

[Raddu]

We did it! We've surpassed $100k and all backers of the Tome of Beasts printed book will get printed pawns for 300 monsters!
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...00-new-monsters-for-5th-edition/posts/1390885

 

[Queer Venger]

Just made my pledge, this book is going to rock, hopefully setting a high bar for 5e 3PPs.

 

[Raddu]

We're near another Backer Goal and another great Stretch Goal. Help us unlock the monster audio by Battle Bards!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/tome-of-beasts-300-new-monsters-for-5th-edition
View attachment 71450

 

[Raddu]

The Tome of Beasts 5e Kickstarter is nearing its final hours, 32 hours as of now. Backers are coming out of the woodworks and we're beating stretch goals regularly. Become a backer now at the printed book level to get all the stretch goals or at the limited edition book level to get the Fantasy Grounds add-ons as well.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/tome-of-beasts-300-new-monsters-for-5th-edition

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Into the last 21 hours now. The project has over 2,000 backers and $162k in funding and the number of monsters in the Tome of Beasts is now close to 400!

There are still a few more stretch goals to reach though.

If we can get to 2,500 backers then 5 Eldritch and Demonic lairs will be added to the Book of Lairs. This will mean that the Book of Lairs will have 29 lairs, each with a battlemap and a page count of 120+ pages.

If we can get to $170k funding then the Tomb of Tiberesh 5E adventure will be added in as a PDF for backers. It is a 2nd-level adventure that is supposedly similar to the Tomb of Horrors (but maybe not quite as deadly).

If we can get to $180k funding then all backers will get a PDF of Prepared!, a compilation of wild and weird mini adventures. Basically they are short encounters to add into your game.

Hurry though, because there's less than 21 hours to go!