Psion
Adventurer
Advanced Bestiary is the first in a series of "advanced core books" by Green Ronin with names and topics corresponding to the D&D core books. Advanced Bestiary is written by Matthew Sernett (author of Green Ronin’s Plot & Poison and Dragon magazine editor.) The Advanced Bestiary is principally a book of templates, not unlike Silverthorne Games’ Book of Templates Deluxe Edition.
This review is written with the benefit of having used it in a play environment.
A First Look
Advanced Bestiary is a 256 page hardcover book with an MSRP $36.95, but is available at a variety of places at less than this price.
The cover has a wrap around picture, though most of the back is obscured by a box with a back cover blurb. The front has a pale colored painting of a group of adventurers in a confrontation with a dragon (and not faring well). The cover painting is by William C. Eakan.
The interior art is black and white and includes a number of attractive pen-and-ink pieces by Julian Allen, Kent Burles, Mike Vilardi, Kev Crossley, Toren “MacBin” Atkinson, Tyler Walpole, Anthony Francisco, Ilya Astrakhan, Caleb Cleveland, and Brit Martin. (As a side note, one of the images is of a creature that has no statistics: a bipedal displacer beast samurai. Since the displacer beast is closed content, that probably nixed the idea of using that creature in the book, but it is an engaging picture that gives an enterprising GM some ideas.)
A Deeper Look
Advanced Bestiary is composed of just two chapters (both fully open game content.) The first chapter is a nuts-and-bolts introduction to templates. The chapter provides step by step instructions for applying templates, ideas for templated creatures, considerations when altering templates, and a process for creating your own templates. The observation and techniques provided clarify the process of dealing with templates.
The second chapter, consuming a majority of the book, provides the new templates themselves. The templates are codified with a 3-point rating describing how complex the template is to apply, from 1 (simple to apply, such as the cave creature) to 3 (for complex templates with many modifications and decisions, such as the amalgam creature that is used to combine any two base creatures.)
Each of the templates has an example application of the template to a creature from the SRD. Usually the creatures featured only have one the one template, but there are a few exceptions. The templates’ CR modifiers run from -4 (for the feral dragon template) to +6 (for the adamantite clad template). The sample creatures range a CR of ½ (for an arboreal halfling warrior) to 24 (for the dread lich titan).
Some of the template concepts are similar to some that you may have already seen in other works, such as clockwork or element-infused creatures. These templates may still be a boon if you like a large singular reference for templates, not to mention the potential boon to other d20 publishers in having availability of open content takes on these templates.
A quick thumbing through the book unveils some of the more noteworthy template selections:
-Amalgam: This complex template probably has the greatest potential for creating unique creatures than any other in the book. The template provides a method for mixing any two creatures’ characteristics. Though some judgement calls may be required, it does a good job of providing a consistent method of interpolating the statistics of the creatures.
-Celestial Blessed, Demon Possessed, Devil Bound: These templates apply the same concept from different angles. The essential idea is that the templated creature has some form of outsider bound to its essence. The template is written specifically to the types of outsiders mentioned in the SRD, so if you wish other sorts of outsider infused templates, you may have to make your own rulings as to ability modifiers and special abilities that a creature with the template gains.
-Creature Swarm: One of the coolest ideas in the book, the creature swarm makes a hive-mind swarm of little versions of a creature out of a big creature. I can just picture such things as a hive-mind dragon made up of gecko-sized dragons, or annoying PCs with hive-mind mini-me’s like Ash had the joy of dealing with in Army of Darkness.
-Dread Undead: This is a collection of templates for creating undead creatures. It seems to serve two purposes. In some cases, it provides template versions of creatures that are not made using templates in the core rules. Some dread templates exist for creatures that are already written up as templates; the dread template version is a bit more potent than the core version. This allows the GM to catch players off guard by facing them with such things as surprisingly powerful dread skeletons.
-Four Horseman: This idea took me aback at first. It seemed to me that such a strong concept as the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse would be represented by powerful unique creatures. But looking deeper at the template concept reveals how scary using this concept as a template is. Essentially, so long as any of the four horsemen remain, any of the others may attempt to possess creatures within a certain distance, applying the template to it if successful.
-Gigantean and Jotun-blooded: The concept of these tempaltes are simple: a bigger creatures (the Jotun blooded template is more specific to giants, allowing the creation of giants more approximating giants of legend.) Both templates summarize the essential mechanical concerns for changing a creature’s size; the Jotun-blooded template provides more stripped down details specific to giants, but also adds more flavorful capabilities depending on the giant type.
-Lifespark:This template makes a sentient creature out of construct, the sample creature is an iron golem sorcerer.
-Manimal: This template creates an anthropomorphic creature out of an animal. This is a concept that, considering how prevalent it seems in some fantasy, I have seen fairly rarely in d20 products. This template would be a great method to make unique creatures for new campaign settings or world-hopping adventures.
-Minature: This template provides more complete mechanical coverage for the effects of reducing the size of a creature. This is nice for those who may think that the effects of the reduce spell and similar effects don’t do enough to describe what happens to a creature when reduced in size.
-Monstrous Lycanthrope: This template is essentially similar to the lycantrhope template, but is more extensive due to the fact that it can handle creatures more bizarre than animals.
-Psychic: This template allows the creation of creatures with great psychic powers but that lack any psychic or psionic classes. This is useful if you don’t want psychic arts to be trained, but rather as unique powerful individuals. The core psionic mechanics are not used for this template; the template has several variants (like empath, telekinetic, etc.), but the abilities are simulated with spell-like abilities.
-Quickling: Another template bound to be a favorite of GMs who wish to torment players with creatures with unusual capabilities. Many long time players will remember the quickling as a specific blindingly fast wicked fey creature; this template allows you to add these sorts of capabilities to any living creatures.
This is just a sampling of the potpourri of ideas within. You’ll find a variety of other concepts from common adaptations (like saurian and amphibian versions of creatures) to peculiar (such as transforming constructs).
Many templates are appropriate to PCs or NPCs, and in many cases, commentary is provided regarding how to integrate such creatures into the game. There are sidebars with specific advice and ideas for using of the templates in the game. Some sidebars provide specific ideas for modifications if you are after something specific.
A appendix lists the templates and templated creatures by CR modifier and CR, respectively, and there is a good sized index.
Conclusions
The Advanced Bestiary is clearly for advanced GMs who have the time and inclination to use customized creatures in their game. That said, if this describes you, then Advanced Bestiary should be in your collection along with Monsters Handbook and Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition. The book provides a great variety of common and new ideas for customizing creatures, and backs it up with solid mechanics to bring them to life in your game (and unlike the aforementioned books, it is 3.5-ready).
This review is written with the benefit of having used it in a play environment.
A First Look
Advanced Bestiary is a 256 page hardcover book with an MSRP $36.95, but is available at a variety of places at less than this price.
The cover has a wrap around picture, though most of the back is obscured by a box with a back cover blurb. The front has a pale colored painting of a group of adventurers in a confrontation with a dragon (and not faring well). The cover painting is by William C. Eakan.
The interior art is black and white and includes a number of attractive pen-and-ink pieces by Julian Allen, Kent Burles, Mike Vilardi, Kev Crossley, Toren “MacBin” Atkinson, Tyler Walpole, Anthony Francisco, Ilya Astrakhan, Caleb Cleveland, and Brit Martin. (As a side note, one of the images is of a creature that has no statistics: a bipedal displacer beast samurai. Since the displacer beast is closed content, that probably nixed the idea of using that creature in the book, but it is an engaging picture that gives an enterprising GM some ideas.)
A Deeper Look
Advanced Bestiary is composed of just two chapters (both fully open game content.) The first chapter is a nuts-and-bolts introduction to templates. The chapter provides step by step instructions for applying templates, ideas for templated creatures, considerations when altering templates, and a process for creating your own templates. The observation and techniques provided clarify the process of dealing with templates.
The second chapter, consuming a majority of the book, provides the new templates themselves. The templates are codified with a 3-point rating describing how complex the template is to apply, from 1 (simple to apply, such as the cave creature) to 3 (for complex templates with many modifications and decisions, such as the amalgam creature that is used to combine any two base creatures.)
Each of the templates has an example application of the template to a creature from the SRD. Usually the creatures featured only have one the one template, but there are a few exceptions. The templates’ CR modifiers run from -4 (for the feral dragon template) to +6 (for the adamantite clad template). The sample creatures range a CR of ½ (for an arboreal halfling warrior) to 24 (for the dread lich titan).
Some of the template concepts are similar to some that you may have already seen in other works, such as clockwork or element-infused creatures. These templates may still be a boon if you like a large singular reference for templates, not to mention the potential boon to other d20 publishers in having availability of open content takes on these templates.
A quick thumbing through the book unveils some of the more noteworthy template selections:
-Amalgam: This complex template probably has the greatest potential for creating unique creatures than any other in the book. The template provides a method for mixing any two creatures’ characteristics. Though some judgement calls may be required, it does a good job of providing a consistent method of interpolating the statistics of the creatures.
-Celestial Blessed, Demon Possessed, Devil Bound: These templates apply the same concept from different angles. The essential idea is that the templated creature has some form of outsider bound to its essence. The template is written specifically to the types of outsiders mentioned in the SRD, so if you wish other sorts of outsider infused templates, you may have to make your own rulings as to ability modifiers and special abilities that a creature with the template gains.
-Creature Swarm: One of the coolest ideas in the book, the creature swarm makes a hive-mind swarm of little versions of a creature out of a big creature. I can just picture such things as a hive-mind dragon made up of gecko-sized dragons, or annoying PCs with hive-mind mini-me’s like Ash had the joy of dealing with in Army of Darkness.
-Dread Undead: This is a collection of templates for creating undead creatures. It seems to serve two purposes. In some cases, it provides template versions of creatures that are not made using templates in the core rules. Some dread templates exist for creatures that are already written up as templates; the dread template version is a bit more potent than the core version. This allows the GM to catch players off guard by facing them with such things as surprisingly powerful dread skeletons.
-Four Horseman: This idea took me aback at first. It seemed to me that such a strong concept as the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse would be represented by powerful unique creatures. But looking deeper at the template concept reveals how scary using this concept as a template is. Essentially, so long as any of the four horsemen remain, any of the others may attempt to possess creatures within a certain distance, applying the template to it if successful.
-Gigantean and Jotun-blooded: The concept of these tempaltes are simple: a bigger creatures (the Jotun blooded template is more specific to giants, allowing the creation of giants more approximating giants of legend.) Both templates summarize the essential mechanical concerns for changing a creature’s size; the Jotun-blooded template provides more stripped down details specific to giants, but also adds more flavorful capabilities depending on the giant type.
-Lifespark:This template makes a sentient creature out of construct, the sample creature is an iron golem sorcerer.
-Manimal: This template creates an anthropomorphic creature out of an animal. This is a concept that, considering how prevalent it seems in some fantasy, I have seen fairly rarely in d20 products. This template would be a great method to make unique creatures for new campaign settings or world-hopping adventures.
-Minature: This template provides more complete mechanical coverage for the effects of reducing the size of a creature. This is nice for those who may think that the effects of the reduce spell and similar effects don’t do enough to describe what happens to a creature when reduced in size.
-Monstrous Lycanthrope: This template is essentially similar to the lycantrhope template, but is more extensive due to the fact that it can handle creatures more bizarre than animals.
-Psychic: This template allows the creation of creatures with great psychic powers but that lack any psychic or psionic classes. This is useful if you don’t want psychic arts to be trained, but rather as unique powerful individuals. The core psionic mechanics are not used for this template; the template has several variants (like empath, telekinetic, etc.), but the abilities are simulated with spell-like abilities.
-Quickling: Another template bound to be a favorite of GMs who wish to torment players with creatures with unusual capabilities. Many long time players will remember the quickling as a specific blindingly fast wicked fey creature; this template allows you to add these sorts of capabilities to any living creatures.
This is just a sampling of the potpourri of ideas within. You’ll find a variety of other concepts from common adaptations (like saurian and amphibian versions of creatures) to peculiar (such as transforming constructs).
Many templates are appropriate to PCs or NPCs, and in many cases, commentary is provided regarding how to integrate such creatures into the game. There are sidebars with specific advice and ideas for using of the templates in the game. Some sidebars provide specific ideas for modifications if you are after something specific.
A appendix lists the templates and templated creatures by CR modifier and CR, respectively, and there is a good sized index.
Conclusions
The Advanced Bestiary is clearly for advanced GMs who have the time and inclination to use customized creatures in their game. That said, if this describes you, then Advanced Bestiary should be in your collection along with Monsters Handbook and Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition. The book provides a great variety of common and new ideas for customizing creatures, and backs it up with solid mechanics to bring them to life in your game (and unlike the aforementioned books, it is 3.5-ready).
Cheers, C
