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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010926" data-attributes="member: 1129">The Book of Templates Deluxe Edition is the definitive book on templates. It's not perfect, it's not fully illustrated and it doesn't make 100% use of all its pages but it has the goods for those who want to add all manner of templates to their campaign. With the pages not being fully used, it's Siverthorne being wise by allowing you to print off just the material you need, ending each template in it's own section.The bulk of the book deals with templates. Sure, there are some ideas on how to use templates in the game world. How to acquire them, how to use them, how to stack them. Stuff that many GM's deal with on a regular basis. There are rules for monster advancement, ideas on how to incorporate challenge ratings, and all sorts of little nudges and pushes that help the templates be more than just a statistical list.The first of these is that there are examples. Some of the monsters have two and often, there are NPC write ups as opposed to a sample monster. There are often feats to augment the template, as well as spells, rituals, racial information, and other goods. The whole template section is done in alphabetical order and have a nice template indices so that if you want to know what page the templates are on by ECL, or where they're at by monster sample, or where they're at by new monster types, you can find them.One of the other nice features I thought the book boasted was microplates and simplates. These are variations of existing templates that aren't quite full templates, very similar to the quick plates from the Monsternomicon.There are over 85 templates in this book. That's more than I'll probably ever use, but I like having the option to use them. One of the best things is that some of these can quickly allow your standard creatures to become unique and dangerous entities in their own right. Some can even become epic level entities or have long term campaign roles without the players really being aware of it.So what, for example, can you do if you're running an epic campaign? Throw an Apocalyptic creature at the party. The two examples here are a titan and hell hound. The former clocks in at a CR of 56 while the latter 22. Now that's adding some power right off the bat. What if you enjoy material like the Elric novels and want to simulate Elric calling on the Beast Lords and other entities of power? Use the Elder Beast and Lord Beast Templates. Very easy to use with examples included.  Heck, Kaavaak, Lord of Noble Tigers, a gargantuan outsider, clocks in at a mighty CR of 25 so you can tell that there's no playing with him.One thing that I enjoyed was that not every template was a power boost. Some, like the Ablative Construct, actual make the creature weaker, in this case, a reflection of the poor quality that went into the construct. Others that add flavor but don't go overboard on power that will see immediate use in my campaign, include the Ebon Servitor. These individuals have literally sold their souls for power and get some minor abilities, and flavor text. My favorite part? The example includes a race of black orcs with full racial traits for black half-orcs. Good stuff. For those who want more ideas of what's here, my original review covered some of the material, all of which is included here <a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=JoeGKushner&product=btem" target="_blank">Book of Templates</a>.This book is primarily aimed at the GM and that's fine. It's a book of monsters in essence. However, it's important for players to realize that there is a lot of potential use for them there. Take wizards for example. If you're playing a summoner, many of your conjuration spells deal with creatures with templates. How about things like Mutators from Path of the Magi from Troll Lord Games? If you're going to be mixing genetics from two different species, isn't it handy to have a book that does a lot of the mechanical game work for you? Lastly, there are those players like myself, who enjoy the idea of a human with dragon blood, but not a full half dragon with greater abilities than a man, but less than a full half dragon and its high ECL modifcation.The art in the book ranges from average to good. One of my favorite pieces is relentless chuul and the greater zombie owlbear. Both terrifying looking creatures. Editing is good and mechanics seem sound. Much more playtesting will be needed and as I've noted before, my idea of balanced isn't going to be everyone's. Still, a lot of this material has seen print before so it's got history behind it already.Now this is one of the things I'm always talking about in terms of value. It's got templates, what it covers, sure, but it's got variants of templates, rules for templates, feats, lots of sample monsters, useful bookmarks, a huge selection of material at 260 pages, and is only $10 but is on sale now for $8. I mean think about that. Some companies are charging $10 for 50 page PDF products and here's one for $8. That's what like three cents a page?For me, I hope that this book comes out in a hardcover for 3.5 real soon. The sheer amount of variety, utility and advice on template and their use, makes this book a must have for any serious GM and for any player looking to add that little extra something to his library.</blockquote>

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