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Message: <blockquote data-quote="der_kluge" data-source="post: 2011037" data-attributes="member: 945">reviewer bias: I am a freelance writer for Mystic Eye Games, but I have no affiliation with Silverthorne Games, nor was responsible for any of the OGC content in this work.Also, this is my first review,ever, and hereby throw down the gauntlet for others to review products!__________________This is a review of the "Book of Templates" - deluxe edition PDF.  Currently, this work is (to my knowledge) only available as a .pdf.  It retails for $12, which may sound steep for a pdf, but is actually fairly priced given the work's massive size of 259 pages.  The zip file comes with two versions - a regular version, and a printer-friendly version.  The latter has no border, so it's much easier on the printer.   The cover art is mediocre, and could suck a ink-cartridge printer bone dry since the page is mostly black.  This is a minor complaint, however, and I've never let the cover art detract me from lauding a book's interior contents.The book opens with the title page, and the table of contents.  One thing that is severely lacking on the table of contents is which page each template is on.  Instead, we get "Templates (12-233)".  Nice.  All the templates are listed in alphabetical order in the book, so if you know which template it is you are looking for, it's not terribly difficult to find them, but still a detailed ToC would have been extremely helpful.The Introduction details some fairly standard stuff, and anyone already familiar with how to read template entries in the Monster Manual can just skip this section.  Still, this section is quite useful as stacking template upon template on a creature can get ridiculously complex, not to mention illogical.  "Half-humanoid, Half-Orc, Half-Nymph - what?!"  Fortunately, the Book of Templates has got these things covered nicely, and applies a certain level of common sense to something that could otherwise get silly.  It's clear to me, both as a freelance writer, and as a gamer, that the author(s) really took the work to heart and spend a good deal of time just thinking about templates and commenting on various aspects of the oddities that arise when template creatures are constructed.  These efforts are not wasted on me.Finally in this section are ritual rules, and several new spells which can be used to bring a set of rules to the table for NPCs and PCs to actually create templated creatures.  I fully suspect that most GMs will simply overlook these rules, but they are nice nonetheless.  In fact, there are a number of new spells peppered throughout the book, as well as magic items and other crunchy tidbits, but certainly the bulk of this work is just templates.Now, on to the templates themselves.  This work features an enourmous amount of Templates (from Aberrant to Zombie, Greater).  Firstly, each template is laid out in a typical pattern.  First, the template is described in layperson terms, then the rules for how to apply the template to a creature are given, and then sample templated creatures are given.  In some cases, multiple creatures are included.  A few of the more interesting, and unique templates are "Hypermitotic" - a creature that splits when attacked (think hypermitosist, a term you learned in biology to describe a single-celled organism).  Now thing "hypermitotic Fire Giant".  *shiver* Nasty.  Another of my favorites is Non-Euclidian - a non-euclidian creature essentially exists in 4-dimensions and anyone looking upon one has a chance to go insane.  There are also a few short, sweet templates like Heightened, Abyssal, and Fey-kissed that can be easily applied.According to the OGL license in the back, *some* of these templates come from other d20 sources.  Now, keep in mind this is perfectly legal (for those not versed in the intracacies of the d20 license).  Given the diverse origins of some of these templates, it seems quite handy to have all of these in one source, though it does seem theoreticalyl plausible to acquire them all through each of the various sources (though you would pay far more than $12 in doing so).  But the majority of the templates in this book can not be found anywhere else.Finally, in the back of the book, numerous appendices detail handy charts.  All the templates are listed in various sorted order, by Name, by CR, and by ECL.  All the new monsters and NPCs are included, and all the original authors of all the templates are listed.  There is an additional appendix detailing stacking templates, and the first appendix details a lot of the creature construction charts that are found in the back of the 3.5 MMSummary:This book is templates.  Templates can be added to monsters, or PCs for that matter.  If you like toying around with monsters as much as I do, this book is for you.  With it, I was able to drive one of my PCs insane with Advanced Non-Euclidian Phase Spiders, and I really put a look of fear and uncertainty as my players witnessed a horde of heightened abyssal hypermitotic spiders wreak havoc.My only real complaints about this book are few.  I want more templates (I can never have enough), and a few of the templates just seem kind of silly, or would never get used (apocalyptic comes to mind).  There are very few layout/grammatical errors in the work (which is impressive considering its size).  If you like templates, you're bound to find use with this book.</blockquote>

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