Back before our Core rulebooks were stamped with a 3.5, back before prestige classes were tossed into books more liberally than beads during Mardi Gras, back before there was even a third edition Monster Manual, there was the Creature Collection. True, it barely beat the Monster Manual to the stores, but it did.
And, truth be told, the fact that it was rushed showed.
The Challenge Ratings were out of whack, Constructs had Constitution, Outsiders were immune to ability damage, energy drain, and more as well, and all around, the Creature Collection showed just how much of a rush job it was. However, while the mechanics may have been about as solid as a jell-o mold, style-wise, the monsters were interesting and inventive, from the brewer gnomes to the four different stripes of Unhallowed.
But, as I said, those mechanics…ouch. Those needed fixing.
So fix them they did, Sword and Sorcery Studios now offering up the Creature Collection Revised, featuring nearly all of the monsters the Creature Collection did, but cleaned up and altered for 3.5.
How good of a job did they do?
Well, for the most part, I have to hand it to them. The Scarred Lands core monster book is now worthy of being the setting's core monster book, the mechanics now roughly as well done as the writing. Challenge ratings are more in line with what they should be, the number of feats a monster has is now more or less in line with what a creature of that HD should have and many of the monsters that would have fit better as templates are, well, now templates. It even went so far as to change some of the less than stellar artwork that the original Creature Collection had with more appropriate pieces (the Albadian Battle Dog leaps immediately to mind). Many of the monsters that would also be appropriate as PC races are also broken down into their appropriate character stat blocks, showing the various modifiers they have upon a character, as well as the favored class and other details.
All around, snazzy, and a vast improvement upon the original Creature Collection.
However, it still has its faults.
While the feats are usually in-line with what a monster should have, some were created with the old feat system monsters had under third edition - one at first level, then another one for every 4 HD the monster had. Not that big a deal and not the case with every monster, but some monsters have been gypped out of a feat here and there. The Jack of Tears, for instance, is short two feats. Not that he needs them, mind you, at his whopping Challenge Rating 25 self.
Then some of the monsters-as-player character's stat blocks aren't done correctly, either. The sandmasker is potentially the best example of this. Take, for instance, its racial feats - it's a 12 HD monster, and the monster itself is listed with the proper 5 feats, whereas the Sandmasker character stat block lists it as offering only 4. A minor detail, but there, and it puts the writing and editing into a poor light when, in the same monster, it lists two different numbers for how many feats it has. Then there's the Sandmasker's Level Adjustment - +15. For a 12 HD monster. Color me cynical, but I doubt the Sandmasker was intended to be a level 27 character, because it certainly doesn't look like it can compare to one.
Which is potentially the biggest issue I had with this book - the level adjustments. It seems some of the authors involved in up-dating the Creature Collection don't know the difference between an Effective Character Level and the Level Adjustment. That is, the Effective Character Level is equal to the monsters Hitdie + Level Adjustment, whereas the LA is just how potent the creature is above and beyond its HitDie. This shows up in the Sandmasker, the Hollow Knight, the Brewer Gnome (which lists two Level Adjustments at that), amongst others, and those are only the obvious ones - there's a number of other ones where it's strongly questionable they intended to give the Level Adjustment that they did. I'd recommend reducing the Level Adjustment in most creatures with more than 1 HD by at least one, if not more in some cases (such as the Sandmasker). While the book may have fixed many of the Creature Collection's initial problems, it created a few more with the HD/LA/ECL mix-ups. Fortunately, this has only a minimal effect, as the LA doesn't play into the monsters typical usage. It is, however, something to be wary of.
Oh, and then there's also a few monsters with no LA at all that should have one. Such as the Ratman, a Monstrous Humanoid who offers +4 Dex, +6 Con, -2 Cha, a climb speed of 15, a +2 racial bonus to a few skills, a +1 natural armor bonus, 60' darkvision, and the choice between Ranger or Rogue as a favored class. I'd say that's at least as good as a tiefling, if not a bit better (potentially a lot, depending on how strongly one rates a 1 HD Monstrous Humanoid to a 1 HD Outsider). Let's also not forget the -3 Dexterity Hollow Knight; just like a racial average of a 13 means a +2 bonus to the stat, a racial average of a 7 to a stat translates into a -4, not a -3. The monster's as characters write-ups could have, in general, been written more tightly and expertly than they were.
For those interested in what was cut from the initial Creature Collection, here goes:
Exemplars, Dragonman, Drendari, Vangal's Herald and the Werevulture. Hopefully I didn't miss any.
In addition to the changes from the Creature Collection to Creature Collection revised, this book now also lists all the major PC races of the Scarred Lands in one book, up-dated for revised third edition. In the back you will find the charduni and forsaken elves which appeared in the original Creature Collection as well as the terali, dark elves, mountain dwarves and other races which supplant those from the Player's Handbook. There's also variant humans based on region within, who offer up a plus and minus to two stats, as well as weapon familiarity. I found most of this a welcome addition - though, again, whoever was writing up the Level Adjustments for the monsters doesn't seem to understand what that represents, as the Gnoll entry aptly shows. A 2 HD monster with a +2 Level Adjustment who also has 4 levels in Ranger and 2 levels in Druid is not an 8th level character but, instead, a 10th level character. The lack of understanding about Level Adjustment in this book is my biggest gripe with it. There's also the fact that, as written, the gnoll only gains 7 Skill Points (instead of 5 x 2 + Int modifier) and the Power Attack feat (instead of any feat of its choice for its first level) - the sloppy work from the Termana gazetteer, where the Scarred Lands gnoll, and all this information, first appeared, carries over into the Creature Collection Revised.
Of course, not everyone has the Creature Collection, so now that I've gone on about the revisions made, I'll turn towards the contents of the book itself.
As I said, this book is stylish. While not all the monsters may be to an individuals liking, there's quite a few to choose from. It has a severe lack of celestials, demons and devils, which may be a negative to some, but it has quite a bit of everything else. From the piddly 1/2 a Challenge Rating Child Trap and Tanil's Fox, to the most impressive CR 23 Mithril Golem and CR 25 Jack of Tears, there's quite a range of beasties to have your characters interact with. I say interact with for a reason - not all need be slaughtered. Though the Jack of Tears may be a CR of 25, he's more of an NPC than a monster (which some might see as a negative, but as some of his minions, the Carnival Krewe are listed in this book, his presence isn't such a bad thing, after all), and offers plenty of role-playing opportunity. The Brewer Gnome is more likely concerned with having a grand ol' time than drawing a blade, whereas the Dweller at the Crossroads is a plot tool for Faustian deals and wishes that really shouldn't be made.
Then again, some folks just want to bash some monsters heads in, and well, there's plenty of those kinds of monsters in there, too. Take, for example, the Wrack Dragons, former servants of the titans and sometimes nearly as potent as the true dragons they emulate. Or the Hornsaw Unicorn, a raging, corruption of the standard unicorn, with a taste for blood and a most deadly horn.
This book is also, as I have said, the essential Scarred Lands monster book. It is the home of the snake-like wizard/warriors, the Asaatthi, as well as the titan-blood-corrupted ratmen. Those who plan on playing in the Scarred Lands are almost required to pick up this book if they want to make use of many of the creatures which appear extensively in the setting.
For my part, I particularly liked the Unhallowed - individuals who were blessed by the gods, the very epitome of virtue or knighthood or diplomacy or so many other things. Individuals so blessed, that, when they failed to live up to what was expected of them, they fell far from favor and rose as cursed, undead creatures, who can only truly die when confronted with their crimes on holy ground. I've also a certain fondness for the Miser Jackal, a pesky little CR 1/4 pest that, while certainly a metal-thieving little problem, will also lead bands of heroes to treasure troves under the protection of a monster, in the hopes of the adventurers dispatching (or distracting) the monster while the jackal takes its share of shiny objects as a "finder's fee."
It also offers quite a bit more description to its monster than the Monster Manual does, with at least a full page devoted to each monster, if not more. I would have much preferred it if the Monster Manual were written and organized in the same style as the Creature Collection Revised. It's only because of the stock, standard monsters the Monster Manual has in it that make the Monster Manual a more essential buy - but not necessarily a more quality one.
For those interested in the artwork, well, with 21 different artists working on it, it's going to vary in its quality quite a bit. Most of it is just decent, though I liked the artwork for the Asaatthi, Ratmen, Unhallowed and those of the PC races (well, except for the Halfling. Poor Halfling).
Price-wise, the book jumped up $5 in cost, but conversely, is almost 30 pages longer.
Now, while it would have been nice if it had an appendix listing the monsters by Challenge Rating and type, a chart of this sort didn't appear in the original Creature Collection, so it's not too surprising that it's not in here.
Outside of that, and the poorly implemented Level Adjustments the book has, it is a good, solid book, with monsters both mundane and fantastical, meak and mighty, that can be used in the Scarred Lands or just about any game. Perhaps best of all, it's also written for revised third edition, meaning that it's more up to date than many other monster books currently out there. Were the Creature Collection Revised merely a fix for the many mistakes made in the initial Creature Collection, I would understand those who bought the initial Creature Collection having little desire to essentially buy the same book twice. In light of the revisions to the Core D&D books, though, it's no longer merely a matter of paying twice for a book that S&SS should have got right in the first place, at least no more than having purchased both the 3rd edition and revised 3rd edition Core rules. So to those who have changed over to the new rules, or have yet to purchase the Creature Collection in either form, I would recommend buying the Creature Collection Revised. For those of you who haven't made the edition change, though, and have the initial Creature Collection...well. You have every reason in the world to gripe and not buy this book. I won't even try to sell you on it, because, well, it should have been done right the first time.
But to everyone else I do recommend it. Whether it be to update to 3.5, or just because you never bought it in the first place.
