E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire

E.N. Critters Volume 2 - Beyond The Campfire

E.N. CRITTERS VOLUME 2 - BEYOND THE CAMPFIRE
By Robert Lajoie, Chris Lapierre, Rich McCarthy, Bill Salloway, Nancy Vosnidou, and Jim E. Vilandre
E.N. Publishing product number ENP-7711
50 pages, $7.45

E.N. Critters Volume 2 - Beyond the Campfire is the second in the series of monster-based PDFs focusing on a specific environment: last time it was in a jungle; this time, it's creatures one might expect to show up while the adventuring party is camped out in the wilderness. It's a handy way of organizing things, that's for sure.

The cover (by either Allen Kerswell, Jeffrey LeBouef, Mike McMenemey, or some combination of the above) depicts two adventurers (both human, both male, both bald) around a campfire, staring at the glowing, menacing eyes in the shadows of the background (these are buridai, as we'll find out later), while a transparent blob of slime approaches their campfire undetected (likewise, we'll soon learn that this is a flashpoint ooze). (And my, isn't that an awful lot of parentheses in my last sentence?) There's not a whole lot of detail, but as it takes place in the middle of the night with only a campfire as a source of light, this isn't particularly distracting. The color scheme is nice, and I like the tree silhouettes in the background, plus those buridai are even more menacing because we, like the hapless adventurers, don't get to see any details of them besides their eyes and a white stripe down the front of their faces.

The interior artwork - by the same three people listed above - covers a range of quality, from some rather cartoony depictions (like the ignixie on page 21 and the unseen on page 39) to some really nice pieces like the burrowing mouther on page 9 (I particularly like its mouth structure). Best of all, with one exception (the owllion on page 33), the creature illustrations closely match their written descriptions, a definite plus in my book. One final note: all of the artwork is in color this time around, another bonus. (Actually, I believe Robert Lajoie said that he's going back and adding color artwork to the first volume as well.)

So, how does E.N. Critters Volume 2 compare to the first volume, you ask? Well, it's a definite improvement - but there's still a long way to go. Since I tend to be overly nitpicky (to some), let me expound upon the positive aspects of the PDF first.

First of all, it's obvious that a bit more attention was paid to the proofreading and editing of this volume than was (initially, anyway) paid to the first one. That's not to say that the proofreading/editing jobs were perfect - I still managed to fill two full pages (both sides) of legal paper while documenting errors. Still, as bad as that sounds, it's only 40% of the paper it took me to document errors in the first volume, so Robert's definitely moving in the right direction, and I credit him for that. (Plus, as this is a PDF, it's easily fixed, and as usual I'll provide him with my "errata list" to help him along.)

Another very noticeable area of improvement is in the addition of counters at the back of the PDF. I double-checked, and each of the 25 monsters in this PDF gets at least one full-color counter, in the correct scale as per its size category, fully compatible with the miniatures many people use when they play D&D. Furthermore, they even lined things up so if you print the PDF out double-sided, the "backs" of each miniature have a skull emblem and the creature's name on it, so you can flip them over when the creature has been killed by the PC party. For the most part, the monster depictions on the miniatures are the same as the illustration accompanying the monster's game statistics (although some creatures made do with slightly-modified "stock art"), and while some of the details get kind of hard to make out at the sizes involved, for the most part they work well. (One suggestion I might make for counters in the future: if at all possible, try to get a depiction of just the monster in question; with this batch, anyone using the coldsnake counter automatically gets a free naked woman caught in the serpent's coils, which won't necessarily match up with what's actually going on in the adventure. Likewise, not all battles with a despicable host - a forest-dwelling giant octopus - are going to involve a guy in a bedroll wondering just what's going on.)

I also have to point out that I noticed a general improvement in the overall layout of E.N. Critters Volume 2: each monster begins at the top of a column if not the top of a new page, and the illustration and stat block are at the very beginning in almost all cases. (The one thing I noticed that these guys do differently here than with most other monster books I've seen, is they put their "read-aloud text" - the description of the monster itself, which in their case they always put in boxed text - immediately under the illustration of the monster. Most everyone else puts it immediately after the stat block.)

Another addition I applaud is the inclusion of Knowledge Tables about each creature, much like the "Ecology" articles now include in the pages of Dragon. However, I fail to see the need for the creature's Hit Dice to be part of the formula. Why, for instance, would it take a DC 11 Knowledge (arcana) check (10 + Hit Dice) to determine that a 1-HD fiend cat was not just a large housecat (which its description says it looks like), yet take a DC 30 Knowledge (nature) check (10 + Hit Dice) to identify a Huge, 20-HD, two-headed centaur as an ettintaur? I fail to see the logic behind the mechanic; I'm pretty sure that I'd be able to infer that the Huge, two-headed centaur probably has ettin-like characteristics before I could say with any certainty that that large housecat over there is actually a magical beast.

Now, on to the bigger problem areas. While I did note a decrease in the number of monsters that had errors in their stat blocks - in this volume, there were only 15 such monsters out of 25, for an overall "stat block problem rate" of 60% - there is still plenty of room for improvement. I recommend making the following changes:

• p. 5, Blighter: Touch AC should be 16, not 13 (it gets to keep its +3 deflection bonus against touch attacks). Under the Attack line, +1 sickle and +1 scimitar attacks should be at +10 melee, not +9 (+4 BAB, +4 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus, +1 Weapon Focus). Under the Full Attack line, these same two attacks should be at +5 melee, not +4 (same as above, but with a -5 penalty for a secondary attack).
• p. 9, Burrowing Mouther: With Con 20 and the Toughness feat, HD should be 10d8+53, not 10d8+40. (Oddly enough, the average hit points are correct at 98 hp.)
• p. 10, Coldsnake: Since the coldsnake has 8 HD, Advancement should start at 9 HD, not 10 HD as listed.
• p. 12, Creeping Moss: Advancement shows 12 HD as being both Huge and Gargantuan.
• p. 13, Despicable Host: 20 feet does not equal 8 squares! I suspect that the Speed entry should read "20 ft. (4 squares)" - the other option would be "40 ft. (8 squares)" which seems kind of fast for a Large serpent. (In the Monster Manual, Large vipers move at 20 ft.)
• p. 18, Flashpoint Ooze: Initiative should be -1, not +0 (it has a -1 Dex modifier). Fort should be +5, not +1 (+1 as a 4-HD ooze, +4 Con). Will should be -4, not +1 (+1 as a 4-HD ooze, -5 Wis). Even though oozes don't get skill points, since it has racial bonuses to Hide and Move Silently, those skills should be mentioned in the Skills line; the totals would be Hide +7 and Move Silently +7 (in each case, +8 racial and -1 Dex).
• p. 22, Ignixie: Slam damage should be 1-2, not 1-1 (-2 Str modifier).
• p. 24, Nightflyer: No average hit points are provided; with HD 12d12+24, average hit points should be 102. Grapple attacks should be at +14, not +12 (+6 BAB, +4 size, +2 Str, +2 profane bonus from its desecrating aura). It has 12 HD, yet Advancement starts at 11-20 HD.
• p. 26, Nightguard: In its Hit Dice line, "(68)" should read "(68 hp)" instead. Slam attacks should be at +12 melee, not +11 (+4 BAB, -1 size, +7 Str, +2 profane bonus from desecrating aura). Slam damage should be 1d8+9 + 1d6 cold + 1 Str, not 1d8+8 + 1d6 cold + 1 Str (+7 Str bonus, +2 profane damage bonus from desecrating aura).
• p. 27, Nighthound: First of all, since the creature is only 5 feet long, it should be a Medium creature, not a Large one as listed. Grapple attacks should be at +7, not +5 (+1 BAB, +0 size, +4 Str, +2 profane bonus from desecrating aura).
• p. 29, Nightstalker: AC should be 25, not 27 (-1 size, +2 (not +4) Dex, +14 natural). Touch AC should be 11, not 13. Grapple attacks should be at +20, not +18 (+7 BAB, +4 size, +7 Str, +2 profane bonus from desecrating aura). With 15 HD, it should have 6 feats, not 8 - delete two feats or annotate them as bonus feats. Advancement should start at 16 HD, not 15 HD.
• p. 35, Pooter Bush: HD should be 6d8+21, not 6d6+21 - plants have d8s for Hit Dice. Average hit points should therefore be 48, not 42. "Speed 5 ft." should also specify "(1 square)." Berry damage should be 1d4+2, not just 1d4 (+2 Str).
• p. 37, Qual Aanan Qualo: Flat-footed AC should be 16, not 12 (it gets to keep its +4 Dex bonus when flat-footed due to its Uncanny Dodge).
• p. 39, The Unseen: With HD 10d8+60, average hit points should be 105, not 115.
• p. 44, Woodland Defender: Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 20 (-1 size, +10 natural).

Oh, and if you're intrigued by the name "pooter bush," I can confirm that it's probably exactly just what you thought it might be, judging by its name. Yes, if you eat the berries of a pooter bush, you get "flammable flatulence" for the next 24 hours, which ignites if the victim gets within 10 feet of an open flame, and causes a -20 penalty on Hide, Move Silently, and Diplomacy checks. Sound pretty childish? I agree. Oddly enough, this monster was written by a female author (forgive me for playing to stereotypes, but I imagine most people would normally expect "fart humor" to be male-derived), and in fact it's the only monster out of the 25 in the book by the book's only female author, Nancy Vosnidou. Robert even put in an "Editor's Note" section immediately after the pooter bush description, stating that during the development of E.N. Critters Volume 2 many people asked why such a creature was included. While his published answer is "sometimes it's nice to have something off the wall and unexpected," I suspect - basing my supposition on nothing more than idle speculation, and without the tiniest scrap of evidence - that the real answer is something more along the lines of "she's my girlfriend and I couldn't say no." (That's the way it reads to me, in any case.)

My final complaint with E.N. Critters Volume 2 is with the design of many of the creatures. Quite a few of these seemed...somewhat unimaginative, for lack of a better term. There's the "ettintaur," which is (anybody want to take a guess?) a cross between a centaur and an ettin. The owllion doesn't seem significantly different from a griffon (as evidenced by Robert's need to explain that the illustration shows an earlier design of the creature; I get the feeling that the changes that were made - giving it a lion's forepaws and an owl's hind talons, for example - was just a last-ditch effort to somehow differentiate it from a griffon). While I commend the creation of some lower-powered nightshades, I'm not sure we need four different types, all but one of them Large. There certainly seems to be an overabundance of "owl" and "cat" creatures in the selection: we have the owllion, owl howler, and "giant owl nightshade" nightflyer, as well as the witchcat, fiend cat, and "cat-humanoid" qual aanan qualo. In addition, for a compilation of "campfire-based" encounters (more than likely taking place in the forest), there sure are a lot of undead (7 distinct types) and a distinct lack of animals (which you'd think would be fairly common in a forest).

E.N. Critters Volume 2 shows a definite improvement over the first PDF in the series, adding a lot of handy features like monster counters, Knowledge check tables, and full-color artwork to the mix. I give Robert Lajoie credit for improving his craft. However, there are still some significant problems with E.N. Critters Volume 2, which no doubt in time will be fixed up. (Mastering the apostrophe will go a long way towards cutting down his proofreading errors, and learning standard d20 conventions like italicizing spell names and capitalizing ability names, size categories, and terms like "Hit Dice" wouldn't be a bad idea either.) In the meantime, though, I'm going to go with a rating of "3 (Average)" for this PDF. Over time, as Robert works the bugs out, I really think he's going to have a successful line of PDFs on his hands.

Knowledge charts

According to the SRD (not Dragon Magazine), the DC for a character to know something about a creature is 10 plus its Hit Dice. For every 5 the check exceeds the DC, that character knows some additional information.

Yes, I'm aware of that. However, the "Ecology" articles in Dragon have done away with the Hit Dice being part of the equation, and they seem to work out much better that way (for reasons I mention in the review). I was just pointing out a better way of doing things, one that has already been established - and, I might point out, Robert Lajoie has since adopted the new system, having expressed in an email his dislike for the original system.

E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire - review by Jason Lund (Anio)

Books of monsters are often a matter of personal taste. We either like them or roll our eyes at "yet another monster book". I happen to like books full of monsters, especially monsters with flavour, style and solid mechanics. Every once in a while, I begin to think that it is getting more difficult to create truly unique monsters: then I remember books like the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press, Legacy of the Dragons by Malhavoc Press and Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games, where even the derivatives feel new and fresh. Then I throw the notion of monster redundancy out the window. I read those books and try to recapture the feeling of childlike delight that I had when I first started paging through the boxed D&D Basic, Expert, Companion and Master sets all those years ago. Over the years I have become more demanding of books of monsters, expecting good art, flavourful descriptions, solid mechanics, combat tips and possibly even encounter hooks. Most of all, I look for that holy grail of RPG monsters: something truly unique and awe-inspiring, something that screams, "Use me!" right away.

With this in mind, I have reviewed E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire (ENCV2:BtC), written by Robert Lajoie, Chris Lapierre, Rich McCarthy, Bill Salloway, Nancy Vosnidou and Jim E. Vilandre. It is the second in a series of thematically directed monster books by E.N. Publishing.

This PDF is priced at $7.45 for 52 pages (including 1 cover page, 1 table of contents and credits page, 1 OGL page, 4 pages of counters and 1 back cover page). It has a broad array of twenty-five creatures ranging from the CR 1/2 buridai to the CR 15 ettintaur, including two playable races, the qual aanan qualo, an anthropomorphic cat race, and the buridai, an anthropomorphic badger race. The editor has made good use of PDF technology and created hyperlinks from the table of contents to each of the monsters. With the exception of the blighter and a link to a table that does not exist (Creature by Environment), all monsters and features of the PDF are also fully bookmarked. A quick browse through the bookmarks reveals colour counters as well as lists of all creatures by CR, Type and Subtype at the end of the PDF.

While reading the roughly page-long product description on page 3 of the PDF, I was drawn in by the practicality of the theme of this monster book: monsters likely to be encountered while a party is camping (as the name of this PDF suggests). It also outlines the intent of the product and briefly describes all of the monsters contained therein. ENCV2:BtC provides the following monsters :

• Aberration: Burrowing Mouther, Despicable Host, Insectus Overmind
• Construct: Nature’s Avatar, Woodland Defender
• (Extraplanar): Nightshades (Nightflyer, Nightguard, Nighthound, Nightstalker), Unseen
• Fey: Ignixie
• Humanoid: Buridai
• (Incorporeal): Unseen
• Magical Beast: Coldsnake, Fiend Cat, Owllion, Witchcat
• Monstrous Humanoid: Ettintaur, Qual Aanan Qualo
• Ooze: Flashpoint Ooze
• Outsider: Unseen
• Plant: Creeping Moss, Pooter Bush
• Undead: Bereft, Blighter, Nightshades (Nightflyer, Nightguard, Nighthound, Nightstalker), Owl Howler

Each creature entry contains a description of combat tactics and ecology. Ecology also provides information relating to how it may be encountered. These creature hooks are important for a DM browsing through a supplement for a quick encounter or for creating a set piece and I particularly like this touch. Tables of suggestions for Knowledge checks are also included, as are notes on the theory behind the creation of the monsters. These are especially useful for DMs new to the DnD monster balancing act and give specific insight into design choices, something that I find particularly interesting. Boxed text is used for each creature description and is something that I can see making it easier for the DM, especially considering that each creature does not start on a new page. Given the ease of moving around within a PDF, I find it unusual that each creature description does not start on a new page. Otherwise, the layout is generally clear and makes good use of white space for legibility. Despite that, the top and bottom borders are dark and have red and yellow text in contrast. This is unlikely to be printer friendly and is not a screen friendly version of the PDF.

ENCV2:BtC has a lot of hit-or-miss monsters, most of which (unfortunately) fall into the latter category. I like the concept of a few of the monsters and several more have interesting backgrounds, but only a few of the creatures are more than just reasonable. The bereft is the sorrow-filled, guilt-ridden undead husk of the creature left after a dryad's tree dies, a creature that refuses to accept that it has anything to do with the decay it spreads. The creeping moss is an ooze-like plant that releases spores to put its victims to sleep before dissolving them. The despicable host is an intelligent, land-based, octopus-like creature that lies in wait for its prey by hiding beneath the ground. The flashpoint ooze is a heat-seeking monster that devours campfires and bursts into flames after its fiery meals. I find all of these interesting.

If those are the hits, then the misses are also there. The blighter is another undead grim-reaper look-alike. The qual aanan qualo are another cat race. The burrowing mouther seems too similar to a carrion crawler with teeth instead of tentacles. Despite the attempts to differentiate it from others of its ilk (including having it suck heat from its victims rather than just use cold - that ultimately has the same net effect), the coldsnake is far too plain and routine. Two undead owls is at least one undead owl too many. The owllion is like a griffon, but uses an owl instead of an eagle as its avian half, which is again derivative and unnecessary. The ettintaur: why? Savage Species has templates for that sort of combination. And last but not least, the pooter bush. I can appreciate the goal of mixing things up a little and throwing in something unexpected, but throwing in a CR 2 fart joke does not advance the hobby any.

After reading through, I also checked the mechanics of the creatures and, while I did not go over every monster with a fine-toothed comb, I did find errors relating to AC, attacks, damage, Hit Dice and hit points.

The artwork also does not thrill me. The front cover, while evocative of the theme, reminds me more of morning cartoons than RPG monsters. Unfortunately, the art does not appreciably improve throughout and some are far too derivative of existing works, very likely because some of the creatures are derivative as well (as mentioned above). The drawing of the owllion looks like a griffon with a broken beak, something that the editor makes a point of trying to explain as reasonable. The grim reaper look-alike, the blighter, wields a scythe and wears a hooded robe, despite being described in the text as being armed with an exotic looking scimitar. I did like the drawing of the despicable host because it depicted an evocative scene, despite it being slightly derivative of a picture of a dragon that I have seen before.

If this had been a product like Hungry Little Monsters by Sean K Reynolds Games, a product designed with the intent of creating "..original monsters that aren’t too physically different from commonly-available monsters or monster counters”, I would have fewer issues with the artwork. The style of at least a few pieces of the art, particularly of the ignixie, the owl howler, the unseen and the woodland defender, reminded me of the Zogonia comic strip at the back of Dragon magazines, enough so that I actually checked to see if the same artist was a contributor to ENCV2:BtC. After finishing reading the PDF from cover to cover, I began to wonder if artists like Kev Crossley, Raven Mimura, Sam Wood and Tony DiTerlizzi had spoiled me in the past.

Summary

E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire is a really mixed bag. The many strengths of this product, including the full book marking, colour counters of all the monsters, lists of all the monsters by CR, Type and Subtype, knowledge tables with suggested information as well as a generally good spread of monsters over a wide CR range, were not enough to endear E.N. Critters Volume 2: Beyond the Campfire to me. The art was sub par and often derivative, there were more than a few holes in the mechanics and the content varied in quality from childish (the pooter bush) to the routine (coldsnake), but the main failing was that a majority of the creatures were derivatives of other "established" monsters. In a PDF this small with such a tightly focused and highly recognizable theme, monsters likely to be encountered while camping at night, I expected to be able to find inspiration for at least a dozen encounters. As is, I only liked four of the monsters. I sincerely wanted to like this monster book more than I did and always try to keep an open mind as to the usefulness of any particular monster. I sometimes come back to reread a monster description after several months, just to look upon it with fresh eyes. But my first instinct is usually one that I keep; unless someone inspires me with a truly innovative encounter when using a monster that I had previously found substandard or less than inspiring, I probably won't use that particular creature. Unfortunately, for the most part, that is the case with this product.

While it does achieve its goal of creating creatures that are likely and possible to be met by a party camped out at night, and it is clear that the editors have the player and DM in mind with the overall layout and design of the PDF, the content is not inspiring enough for me to give more than 3 stars.


Review by Jason Lund (Anio)