This is not a playtest review.
Bestiary Of Loerem is a collection of creatures for Sovereign Press' Sovereign Stone campaign setting.
Bestiary Of Loerem is a 224-page hardback book coming in at $29.95, fairly good value for a book of this type and size. Font size and margins are fairly good, whilst there is quite a lot of white space, particularly around the art. The art itself is all mono, and ranges from poor to good, mostly good. The artist, Andy Hopp, manages to capture animals and animal-like creatures well, but humanoid features not so well. Luckily 3/4 of the creatures have animalistic features. The external art by Elmore is up to his usual standard, though I don't quite know how the bahk attacking the dragon got into the air. Writing style is reasonable and editing is average with regular minor errors.
The book begins by offering the caveat that the creatures within should be used sparingly in a Sovereign Stone campaign. The different creature types are discussed in relation to Loerem, the Sovereign Stone campaign world. Here we learn dragons are elemental in nature and much smaller than normal (max. 50 feet in fact); fey, giants and shapechangers are but legendary creatures; oozes, undead and vermin are creatures of the Void; and the origin of Outsiders is unknown by the population of Loerem (there are none in this book). Subtypes are also discussed in relation to the alternative elemental magic of Lorem, and a new quality 'Tainted By Void' is given.
Most of the creatures are given a two-page spread, and most of these have the text on one page and a full page graphic on the other. Many of the drawings also include a brief overview of the creature underneath in large font. The bestiary covers nearly 100 different creatures. Although there are creatures from most of the different creature types, well over half come from the creature types of Beast, Plant, and Magical Beast. This gives a very naturalistic feel to the spread of creatures. This feel is enhanced by the fact that over half the creatures are CR 3 or less, and (excluding those creatures that have varying CRs dependent on age - chamber oak, bahk and dragons) there are less than a handful of creatures who have a CR higher than 10.
Two larger sections at the end concentrate on the dragons of Loerem, and bahk (monstrous magic-hunting humanoids who have dragons as ancient enemies). Dragons have a particularly interesting slant, being born as humanoids, and some never make the magical transformation to dragonhood. Dragons are elemental beings - air, earth, fire, and water subtypes are possible - each has a secondary element to them as well. Three dragon NPCs are given - for example, Visaritus is a 1st-level Barbarian/1st-level Rogue/6th-level Stalker as well as a CR 18 Huge Earth/Water Dragon. The final section on Bahk outlines this strange race of magic-craving humanoids. They are treated in some ways the same as dragons as far as statistics go, with different sets of abilities and other stats for young, adolescent, adult, old, and ancient bahk.
The slot in the ecosystem of each creature is well thought through and decriptions often give explanations of feeding habits, and the uses of parts or by-products from the creature before turning briefly to its combat abilities. Again, this was particularly effective for the plants, animals, beasts and magical beasts that dominate the book.
Conclusion:
In line with its title, this book is much more a bestiary than a monster manual. It has a very different atmosphere than other books offering new creatures, and may disappoint those looking for combat-orientated monsters to throw at high-level parties. The creatures in here are more subtle, more naturalistic, and reflect the authors attempt to set these creatures within a 'realistic' campaign setting. Though there are frequent references to Loerem and other aspects of the Sovereign Stone campaign setting, many of the creatures found within would not be too difficult to adapt to other campaign settings, but the book is most useful to those wanting to or already playing a Sovereign Stone campaign.
I found many of the creatures to be thought-provoking and resonant with the attempts of the authors to provide creatures within a logical setting. I would have liked to see a table of the creatures by CR, by type, and by habitat, to make it easier to choose appropriate monsters when developing an adventure. In line with the Sovereign Stone Campaign rules, there are no alignments shown for any of the creatures, and GMs will have to make alignment choices for each creature if being used outside the campaign setting.
