Crothian
First Post
Bestiary of Krynn
It is the art. I think that this book might just have the best art I have seen in a role playing book. My one complaint about the art is that many of the pictures need to be bigger, they are that good. This is a monster book though and not an art book although another book about the art of Krynn would be welcomed.
Bestiary of Krynn is a monster book for the Dragonlance setting. It is a little small as far as monster books go. It is only one hundred sixty pages in length. The Monster Manual is 320, the War Craft book is about 200, Fantasy Bestiary is 360, Dangerous Denizens (the Kalamar monster book) is over 220, Denizens of Avadnu is over 200, and Tome of Horrors 2 is about 240. All of these are hard cover monster books. The prices on these are vary, but since Bestiary of Krynn is full color and only one of these others is, comparing prices is a little harder because of these factors.
The cover is by Jeff Easley. It is a great picture of flying red dragons in the clouds with rays of sunshine illuminating the piece. The art in the book like I previously mentioned is just great. Everything is in full color and most of the creatures are depicted. The layout of the book has some good point sand bad points. There is a great border on each page, the table and text are easy to read. However the stat tables are often divided in two and it can be hard to use them.
The creatures in here are from Dragonlance. I have not read ever book so I cannot say if everything here is from the novels and previous material. The creatures start with the dragons. There are four new types the Amphi, Aquatic, Fire, and Frost. Each is presented in the standard twelve age categories of the traditional dragons. After them there are new Draconians, these are good though. From there the monsters get a lot more varied. There are about sixty or seventy new creatures here. The range of challenges goes from a CR of ¼ to fifteen excluding the dragons. The dragons can have a CR of up to 25. It would have been nice to see a few higher CR creatures that are not dragons, but in Dragonlance the dragons where always the pinnacle of challenges.
Taking the Dragonlance out of the monsters though can be a little difficult. Most of the descriptions place the creatures right in Krynn and make no attempt to generalize them. It is possible to use these in a non Dragonlance game, but there are other monster books that do a better job of separating the campaign information from the generic.
If one happens to be running a Dragonlance game though, the book should prove very helpful. One great thing the book does is have almost nine pages of encounter table that show what creatures should be encounter in what areas of the world. It also spends time talking about monstrous characters (and this info is good enough to be applied to non Krynn games) as well as having some simple rules to determine the level of acceptance different areas have towards the monster characters.
Overall, I am happy with the book and the creatures it presents. The art is clearly outstanding, but it does not over shadow the monsters. It is a beautiful book and at the very least if given the chance everyone should thumb through it to just appreciate the art.
It is the art. I think that this book might just have the best art I have seen in a role playing book. My one complaint about the art is that many of the pictures need to be bigger, they are that good. This is a monster book though and not an art book although another book about the art of Krynn would be welcomed.
Bestiary of Krynn is a monster book for the Dragonlance setting. It is a little small as far as monster books go. It is only one hundred sixty pages in length. The Monster Manual is 320, the War Craft book is about 200, Fantasy Bestiary is 360, Dangerous Denizens (the Kalamar monster book) is over 220, Denizens of Avadnu is over 200, and Tome of Horrors 2 is about 240. All of these are hard cover monster books. The prices on these are vary, but since Bestiary of Krynn is full color and only one of these others is, comparing prices is a little harder because of these factors.
The cover is by Jeff Easley. It is a great picture of flying red dragons in the clouds with rays of sunshine illuminating the piece. The art in the book like I previously mentioned is just great. Everything is in full color and most of the creatures are depicted. The layout of the book has some good point sand bad points. There is a great border on each page, the table and text are easy to read. However the stat tables are often divided in two and it can be hard to use them.
The creatures in here are from Dragonlance. I have not read ever book so I cannot say if everything here is from the novels and previous material. The creatures start with the dragons. There are four new types the Amphi, Aquatic, Fire, and Frost. Each is presented in the standard twelve age categories of the traditional dragons. After them there are new Draconians, these are good though. From there the monsters get a lot more varied. There are about sixty or seventy new creatures here. The range of challenges goes from a CR of ¼ to fifteen excluding the dragons. The dragons can have a CR of up to 25. It would have been nice to see a few higher CR creatures that are not dragons, but in Dragonlance the dragons where always the pinnacle of challenges.
Taking the Dragonlance out of the monsters though can be a little difficult. Most of the descriptions place the creatures right in Krynn and make no attempt to generalize them. It is possible to use these in a non Dragonlance game, but there are other monster books that do a better job of separating the campaign information from the generic.
If one happens to be running a Dragonlance game though, the book should prove very helpful. One great thing the book does is have almost nine pages of encounter table that show what creatures should be encounter in what areas of the world. It also spends time talking about monstrous characters (and this info is good enough to be applied to non Krynn games) as well as having some simple rules to determine the level of acceptance different areas have towards the monster characters.
Overall, I am happy with the book and the creatures it presents. The art is clearly outstanding, but it does not over shadow the monsters. It is a beautiful book and at the very least if given the chance everyone should thumb through it to just appreciate the art.
