D&D 5E Volo's Guide, limited edition impressions

COVER
I really like this book. It's really hard to tell by the picture, but the silver is somewhat reflective in some parts. It reminds me of the old Todd McFarlane Spiderman comic he did in the early 90s.



The black feels like satin, which is an unusual texture, but I really like it as well. If you're going to buy a version, buy this one.

CONTENT
There was a lot of concern about lack of new monsters. Half of this book is new stat blocks for monsters, as well as a very generous sample size of new NPC stat blocks (warlocks, swashbucklers, etc) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Monster lore is the first 100 pages (out of 220ish), and covers the iconic monsters of D&D. Included are beholders, giants, gnolls, goblinoids, hags, kobolds, mind flayers, orcs, and yuan-ti. If you're going to have any of these monster types play a large role in your campaign (and most will I'm guessing), the information is invaluable. Volo's notes aren't intrusive and take up little page real estate. Some of the maps are gorgeous.

Next comes the new playable races: Aasimar, firbolg, goliath, kenku, lizardfolk, tabaxi, triton, and a guide for converting monstrous adventurers. Again, art is great, and the content is excellent. This isn't some halfway written racial summary either. They have the same amount of content as the races in the PHB

And THEN comes the monster stat blocks. They are in the exact same format and presentation as the MM.

SUMMARY
I really view this as a true MM2 with extra fluff. There are enough monsters to make me feel this way. It might not be the Tomb of Beasts, but for what it was designed for, it nailed it. The physical book itself, being the limited edition, is beautiful to hold and look at. I will have to pick up a regular copy so I don't damage this one. Seriously that pretty. I would view this book as the 4th most important official book to own (after PHB, MM, and DMG). Better than SCAG and any of the campaign adventures. The design team deserves a lot of credit, as does Hydro74 (the cover artist).

After reading in greater detail, and putting on my optimizer hat, I see great synergy with a bugbear PC using polearm mastery and sentinel feats. Bugbears have a long limbed feature, extending the reach of all melee attacks by 5ft.


Another really interesting feature is the goblin's fury of the small. Once per short or long rest, if you hit a target with an attack or spell and it's bigger than you, you add your level to damage.

The cover looks really awesome. Haven't gotten to look at the content yet, but I will say that the matte black sections seem like they might mar/rub off easily. Time will tell...

That *is* a nice cover.

It's too bad I forgot to pre-order it, so my ability to pick up that comes comes down to blind luck.

Ralif Redhammer said:

The cover looks really awesome. Haven't gotten to look at the content yet, but I will say that the matte black sections seem like they might mar/rub off easily. Time will tell...

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No, it won't rub off, but it feels almost like suede. So if you rub it hard, it becomes glossy where you rubbed. Kinda hard to explain.

The cover is cool, but I really love the art on the non-limited edition. I was almost tempted to just swap because I love to just stare and stare at these covers. Whoever is doing all the art these days is doing a fantastic job.

Yeah, it's a cool piece of art in its own right. Definitely jealous of the giant print on display in the Acquisitions Inc. Force Grey game space.

Philth said:

The cover is cool, but I really love the art on the non-limited edition. I was almost tempted to just swap because I love to just stare and stare at these covers. Whoever is doing all the art these days is doing a fantastic job.

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I got it and I enjoy every single words written. The lore part is excellent and the added template for wizards and warlocks is most welcome.

I will most definitely be using those orc variants in my current campaign. I'm sure my players will greatly appreciate giant bags of puss exploding when they kill the orc host.

The cover is gorgeous. I wish it was embossed and not just printed, but that's a not even a complaint.

I was not interested in this book for anything other than having a collectible copy of the limited edition cover, but actually having it in hand I think it will see good deal of use at my table. And it does an awesome job of filling in many of the gaps in the NPC lists.