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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2536579" data-attributes="member: 172">Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition (3.5) is a revamp of one of Silverthorn Games’ best known products, a resource containing a flurry of new templates for use with the game, along with intriguing advice and ideas for using them. The 3.5 update is not a simple rules revision; it is largely reorganized and features new material. This version is available in PDF format through RPGnow and DriveThru RPG, as well as in print through Goodman Games.The book is written by Ian S. Johnston and Chris S. Sims, with additional material by Devon Apple, Erica Basley, Robert Blezard, Gregory W. Ragland, and Sean K. Reynolds. The book is edited by d20 statistics guru John Cooper.This review is based principally on the print version, but the PDF version will be mentioned at points.A First LookThe print version of Book of Template Deluxe Edition 3.5 is a 192 page perfect bound hardcover book priced at $34.99. The PDF version is currently available for $13.00 at RPGnow.The two versions have different covers, suggesting that Goodman Games’ art direction went a different direction than Silverthorn Games’. The PDF cover looks like a Inca style stone carving. The Goodman Games’ cover looks like a book cover stitched together from parts of different creatrues.The interior is black-and-white, predominantly using the same art (nicely done line art by Cara Mitten and Jeremy Mohler) as the 3.0 version. (The PDF version has black and white art, but the border and some headings are in color.)The editing and layout are nice, an improvement over the 3.0 edition (which suffered from having the curiously deep indents). Many/most creature descriptions straddle pages, making it a bit less clear to read, but is probably necessitated by fitting a lot of material in the page count.A Deeper LookGiven the title of the book, it should be of little surprise that the majority of this book is templates. It’s sandwiched by a few supplementary notes. The beginning has some brief advisory on using templates (though the popular stacking templates tutorial from the 3.0 version of the book is notably absent). The end of the book collects additional supplemental material referenced by the entries in the book, mostly spells, skills, and feats.Notably absent are a list of templates by CR modifier and a list of sample creatures by CR. This is unfortunate and surprising, considering that the original Book of Templates Deluxe featured such tables. Again, the reason they might not include such tables (which would have been very helpful) could be that they were bumping up against a page limit with their word count.The templates are not sorted alphabetically. Rather, they are arranged by creature type that it is produced or primarily intended for. Shuffled in amongst these is are chapters that aren’t linked to a specific creature or creature type. These chapters are augmenting templates (templates that improve but don’t fundamentally change the nature of the creature), diminishing (templates that weaken a creature), and the metatemplate chapter. The metatemplate chapter is a special case; it contains “metatemplates” that can be applied to a creature to make half-creature templates from a creature type.The templates herein are predominantly the same ones that appeared in the 3.0 versions. There are a few new templates; I don’t remember seeing the Legion before, a large version of a normal creature that spawns normal sized brood, possibly inspired by the Legion from Scarred Lands).Many of the templates that are not all new were refined in name and/or concept. One welcome refinement is the broadening of the ones that seemed too narrow; the nettlecloud spider template became the nettlecloud vermin, and the war angel template is now the war aspect, applicable to any outsider. War rasts or xills, ahoy!A quick summary of some of the more interesting entries in the book is in order:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wretched: This reads like something an alchemist from The Dying Earth might make by happenstance: an artificial creature that is a fraction of what it should be, having an amorphous form.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Blind Oracle: A creature gifted with the ability to see the future, at a grim cost. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Psionic (and Spellpowered): I am always pleased to see psionic support. The 3.0 Psionics Handbook had a psionic template; it was easily abused and was replaced by the phrenic template in the Expanded Psionics Handbook, which is a more balanced, but less flexible creature. The psionic template provides a flexible template that allows a GM to build creatures with psi-like ability, with some choice as to which psi-like powers they get, yet more balanced than the old psionic template. The spell powered template is useful in a similar vein to provide creatures with spell like abilities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Phantasmal: Here’s a cool little template – it makes constructs that are entirely illusory versions of creatures. I imagine a scenario in which a gnomish town is being plagued by wild magic gone awry...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Elemental: A template type that has been around for a while, but it’s nice to have an OGC/3.5 take on the idea. C’mon, admit it. When you saw Sinbad (recent animated version), you wanted to make water elemental sirens too, didn’t you? More generally, this template is great to populate forays into the elemental planes or other themed element related games.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Amorphous: An amorphous creature appears as a normal creature, but can assume an amorphous form. The evocative drawing of the giant stepping through a portcullis sort of drives this concept home.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mindbender: Originally the non-Euclidian template, this template describes a creature that has “impossible geometries”; viewing such a creature tends to cause problems for intelligent creatures observing it. Given the increasing popularity of the idea of creatures from alien dimensions in D20 fantasy, this template has some interesting gaming possibilities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spirit: Adopted from the 3.0 Shaman’s Handbook by Green Ronin, it’s nice to see the template given a refresh. Never the slouches creatively, the authors of the Book of Templates put forth some ideas on how you can use the spirit template to make interesting changes to the standard cosmology.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fleshbound Vampires and vampire variants: Another OGC inclusion, the fleshbound vampire was originated by Sean K. Reynolds in the NPC books he did for Malhavoc; the fleshbound vampire has a more human nature and less intimate connection to the negative energy plane. The chapter also has some vampire variants that will let you throw the players even more curveballs.</li> </ul>Most templates (or variants, but usually not both) have a sample of the template being applied, which is nice, because it lets you put the concept immediately into play. Though the book lacks the template-stacking tutorial that the prior edition had, some of the same sensibilities persist here, and they try to show you how you can use templates as a tool to create new and interesting creatures vice just a power up for an exisitng creature.ConclusionsThe Book of Templates remains one of the most useful tools in creating new and interesting creatures out there. The author are not simply content to just translate the templates to 3.5. They jazz the whole up with a few more templates, and some nice rethinkings of the existing templates.Comparisons with Green Ronin’s Advanced Bestiary are almost inevitable. Both are excellent resources for templates, but their emphasis seems somewhat complementary. Advanced Bestiary seems more an interesting group of concepts looking for a creature, whereas Book of Templates Deluxe edition is more the sort of book you pick up when you find yourself saying “I need a template that does this” or if you need a template that applies specifically to a certain creature or group of creatures.As mentioned, I did miss the template stacking tutorial somewhat, and tables of templates (and sample creatures) by CR is an unfortunate omission.Overall Grade: A- -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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