Creature Collection Revised Opinions?

[JoeGKushner]

Anyone picked up the Creature Collection revised? I was shocked when looking through it at a B&N today because at least 90% of it is reused art from the first book. In my opinion, and I've seen it echoed by others, that book did not boast the best art in the first place, which was excusible since it actually beat the MM out the door but to reuse that art now? Ugh.

Lots of white space too.

I can't be certain, but it looked like they puffed up the picture sizes too and that in some cases, it effected the tone of the black making it gray.

Anyone pick this one up for a solid review?

 

[Nightfall]

I got it Joe. While the art work hasn't improved on some, I will say the worst offenders (Silver Golem and Albadian Wardog) DID get upgrades. That said I wouldn't have mind if they scrapped 50-60% of the OLD art in favor of new art. Certainly though the art work for the Unhallowed and the Hags was decent. Overall though I think I prefer CC Revised BECAUSE it's more mechanically sound and certainly has a lot more use for first time DMs using 3.5 than CC 1 did in terms of being RIGHT on CRs, skill points AND also using LAs/ELCs.

 

[Psion]

I got it Joe. While the art work hasn't improved on some, I will say the worst offenders (Silver Golem and Albadian Wardog) DID get upgrades.

Heh... not in my book. The worst offenders, AFAIAC (Harpy, Drowned Lady, Butcher Spirit) are still there.

I dig the template hags and the red witches that work right. I think they might have gone just a little template crazy, but overall the effort is pretty good. Nice to see the golem's done right. (Oddly, due to the new construct hp rule, they didn't have to change them drastically.)

I still prefer CC2 better, tho.

 

[Nightfall]

Well won't knock you for liking that book. Certainly there's enough stuff in CC2 to make most players cry uncle as well as for DMs to say "Man this would make an AWESOME plot" hook.

But I still like CC R since this is home. This is where it all started. And I can't wait for CC 3.

 

[Knight Otu]

I've had the book for some time now, and overall, I like it, it's a great revision. But it still has a share of problems, at least in my opinion. Granted, some only would be results of odd combinations (Black Piscean Brine Hag, should it be large, or should it grow? - Halfling or Red Piscean Fatlings, should they not be different sizes? Why are the two giants still relatively weak?)

 

[Tewligan]

I didn't pick it up, and I don't intend to. Hardly any new art, I can adjust the CRs as needed in my old copy just fine, and my players won't know the difference if the lead golem's skill points are a few points off. (Of course, I DID buy the 3.5 MM, and the same points could be made for that book - eh, what can ya do?)

 

[Harlock]

Joe, I am agreeing with you on the art. For the most part, it still falls flat and more pieces needed revision than the few that got it. On a mechanics aspect CCr is invaluable to me. I run a Scarred Lands campaign and since we'd only run about 3 seesions before I picked up 3.5e, one of which was character creation, I decided this would be our group's first 3.5e experience and we're upgrading. Therefore, out of respect for my players and a desire not to TPK them with underestimated CRs from CC, I am using CCr a lot. The mechanics are solid, I suppose, because most people understand the rules for Creature creation at this point in the game, versus back in September of 2000. My advice is if you liked CC and are interested in using a lot of critters from it, go ahead and pick up CCr and just smile and laugh at some of the poorer pictures. If you're a Scarred Lands DM, I say to you, get it now and let your players heave a sigh of relief. If you're not one of those two, then it's your call, really. Do you just want another 3.5 Monster book? That's what it boils down to. If the creatures inspire you somehow or you just want something to throw a curveball at your players from, snag it.

 

[Allanon]

Be needin' me a "sage" here...

Is it worth the money if one still play's 3.0?

 

[Psion]

Re: Be needin' me a "sage" here...

Is it worth the money if one still play's 3.0?

I think that depends on two things:

1) How disappointed you are with the flaws in the pre-revised version, and
2) How willing you are to work around (or ignore) 3.5isms like contruct hp bonuses, change in skill points, etc.

The two creatures from CCr that I use the most (hags and ratmen) seem fine to me as is, and I could use them with 3.0 (or in my case, 3.25 ) with few if any changes.

 

[Allanon]

Well I already have most of the CC monsters I use 'tweaked' so if art is the only reason to buy it it's not worth it for me. I was hoping more along the lines of new creatures. And maybe the odd well thought out template or two (the hag template and such I've created myself with some help from Savage Species)(I love templates, they keep messing with the mind of the meta-gamers ) which with minimal to no tweaking could be used in 3.0 games.

Edit: put in more hogwash