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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011010" data-attributes="member: 1129">Creature Collection III, Savage Bestiary, follows both the successful and unfortunately, unsuccessful material from previous books in the series.Lets get the bad stuff out of the way. First off, this is White Wolf and they have some of the best artists in the industry. Some of those artists are here too mind you. For example, RJT, who I'm assuming is Richard Thomas. His illustrations are always sharp and detailed and remind me of old Talislanta art. Others fail to hit the mark. No, I'm not an artists. No, I don't have the skills. But some of the art in here is just mediocre. The Ashcloud, Bitterfly, and Drought Demon, to name a few, do nothing for me.The next thing bad is ads. I don't need three pages of ads in any role playing book I buy. Nonetheless, they're here. Another minor thing, CR listing. Where is the master CR listing? Interior covers aren't used and there is a separate credits page and preface, not to mention the ads, so there is indeed room. A last mechanical complaint is that for certain races, material to play them as characters is missing. Take the Shark-Folk who have character notes but no racial traits.There is a lot of information on how these creatures fit into the Scarred Lands setting under Description. Sometimes that's good as it provides a few paragraphs of detailed history. As someone who uses a lot of settings, I can sacrifice a little room to see how this fits into another setting I use off and on. Sometimes it's bad as it provides over half a page of detail in a monster book. Sometimes it's really bad as the details go into history and read almost like fiction. When I want fiction, I'll pick up the novels. The thing that I noticed most is that sometimes the read aloud description is repeated with different text but the same meaning, under the description. All creatures have name, type, stat block, physical description, to be read aloud, description, combat, skills, and other notes. One thing missing, but not really taken up by any publisher, including Wizards of the Coast, is round by round tactics, an interesting idea that seems to have died stillborn.The good news is that it provides a wide range of creatures. For some reason, the outer planes seem to be in focus. It starts at the very beginning of the book with information on the various types of angels in the Scarred Lands ranging from Madriel's angels and Corean's Custodians, to Daemons, Demons and Devils. Other divine creatures like Intercessors, creatures who serve Hedrada to the numerous species of phoenix that live in the Scarred Lands, are also covered in general terms and specific entries in the book.Why is this good? For me, the previous Creature Collections had such a focus on evil creatures, that I found I couldn't always use them as I felt that the players often needed allies of a different sort. This book provides those allies with Sun Angels and Pearl Cheetahs. Important things not in terms of a book being balanced, but in finding use outside of “And this weeks' special guest star monster is X!” It provides the book more long term utility and fleshes out the campaign's planar scope.I'm also always interested in new types of creatures. This book introduces a few variants. Spontaneous Golems are probably my favorite. There are creatures without a creator who are crafted usually by events. The gallows goelm is a creature that is crafted by the hatred of a crowd and it hunts down those the crowd hates. Bad news as in the old days public executions were family entertainment and this could probably be an excellent foil for a player who escapes his just deserts. Other different elements include the various Swarms. These range from the Glutton Locus Swarms to Wasp Swarms.  The nice thing about a swarm is it doesn't need to roll to hit. If you're in it's area, it automatically hits you and inflicts damage. Some of them have poison, others special abilities that make them truly dangerous to fight. Because they're a swarm, they have a single unit of hit points, almost like an army. Good stuff for those wishing to simulate such creatures.Those looking for more natural creatures to add to their settings will find many options. This ranges from the Horned Boar, a relatively peaceful creature that goes into a blood fury when damage or when it smells blood, to background creatures like Monkey Lizards and Stormwings.One of the things I enjoyed about the layout is that the templates are separated from the main body of the text. Samples are included as well as information on what each template grants the creature. These ranged from Blessed Theocrats to Werevipers to Soulless.GMs looking for unusual monsters will enjoy the creatures here. Those playing in the Scarred Lands using Asherak and Termana, will get the most use out of the book. Overall the book is a strong addition to any monster collection but misses the superb rating by factors that could've been taken care of.</blockquote>

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