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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011169" data-attributes="member: 1129">When looking at a book like this, I realize that I don't say enough in my reviews that I like hardcovers in full color. Having said that, I really like Denizens of Avadnu. It's got personality that reminds me of the offbeat and strange looking creatures from settings like Talislanta and Tribe 8 and to a lesser extent, Liber Bestiarus and Monsternomicon.When I first saw the previews in Gaming Frontiers, back when that periodical was in color, I was worried that the tones were too dark to reveal any of the great detail hidden in the images. Thankfully they've fixed that problem. The only piece of art that really suffers from being too dark is the cover where you can't quite make out what's going on but know that a party of adventurers are getting their heads handed to them.In terms of 3.5 compatibility, I'm not the game mechanic expert others are, but here's what I see. Things like movement include number of squares. Armor Class shows the math, and include touch and flat-footed information. Base attack and grappled information is followed by full attack details. Feat progression, one every three levels plus one at first, seems dead on in most cases. When bonus feats are present, they have a small b at the upper end of the word. A quick check of base attack bonus on creatures that have equal to warrior (1 per 1 hit die), shows that BA is correct.Some of the things I thought initially might be errors are not. For example, the Automental is a large construct. When looking it over, I'm just thinking of the basic feat math (1+(1 every 3 HD)) and not that it's a construct. I notice that it doesn't have any skills or feats but a quick look at the monster manual shows me that none of the golems or shield guardians do either.The monsters have standard statistics. One bonus feature is a challenge rating displayed on the margin of the page. This lets you take a look through the book at random and quickly see what CR's are in the book. Another useful tidbit is the section on Adventure Ideas. These are usually a paragraph or two that show GMs how they might use the creature. Since this is part of a new setting, the Violent Dawn, there is information on how these creatures interact on their home setting of Avadnu.  At over 140 creatures, there are bound to be a few for almost any game. In terms of power rating, there is nothing here to challenge your 21st level party, but templates can be applied to get the ball rolling. In addition, they use a T to indicate that the creature you're looking at is a template as opposed to an actual CR number.There are two things I like to see in a monster book. The first is templates that have examples. The book fails in that category. There are fourteen new templates and not a one of them have example creatures. One thing that they do have though is a challenge rating and a level adjustment. A nice change of pace. There are way too many templates I've seen that just have a challenge rating adjustment leading too many players begging to take the +2 CR modifier at a level adjustment.The second thing I like to see are racial traits. While I appreciate seeing a 1st level warrior given full details, I'd rather have the information for the racial traits so that I can make my own NPCs without having to worry about level adjustments and other issues that often crop up. We've got several races here. About the only thing I wish that they would've done is use a R for the indicator instead of the CR number. It would make finding all the races quicker. Many of these new races are perfect for starting characters having a level adjustment of 0 with no racial hit dice.  These sections include information on society and sometimes new weapons.This includes the aquatic arageld, a race unlike your standard underwater humanoid but not completely monstrous. For instance, they have talongs and spines running down their back but are often neutral and are truly amphibious, able to adapt to land of water. A more standard race, the skarren, are nomad warriors dedicated to two things. Honoring nature and honing their combat skills. They have overall penalties to their traits (+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma), but they have better healing, immunity to diseases, better poison resistance and the good old head butt attack due to some bone crest they have on their skull. This is another case where they show different weapons and personality of the creature by including three martial weapons and two exotic weapons. Another race I'll mention is the sulwynarii, “a race of master craftsmen, scholars, and warriors.... few of their kind remain in the world.” Sounds a lot like the old elves and that's good because these are the forefathers of elves.Others do have racial hit dice and this makes them a little more tricky to determine their power level. For example, the agraukith, a insect humanoid, has 2 hit dice and a level adjustment of 2 for a total ECL of 4. They have high racial bonuses, natural armor class bonus, weapon proficiencies, color spray some other little special abilities and the ability to fly. Is a +2 level adjustment enough? It's hard to say without a lot of playtesting because in my groups, I've found that while special abilities make the character more useful and perhaps even more powerful in non-combat abilities, if the ECL is too high, they get wiped out.Okay, enough about what the book is constructed of and how its laid out. What's in it? A majority of the creatures fall below CR 18 with only two at 15, two at 15, and three at 14. A large majority are at the good old 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Perfect for those mid level ranges. Those looking for higher levels will want to carefully look at the Xxyth, These outsiders are spawns of chaos and have many different forms. They remind me in some ways of the hoardlings from old editions of Dungeons and Dragons but with several illustrations that showcase how impressive their variety can be. These individuals have different ranks and different sizes so you can have lesser, greater and arch, and then different sizes like medium, large, and huge. The greater and arch can even be gargantuan. Another outsider, the beasthound is a creature crafted to honor the god of death and at a CR of 12, does it's job well. Not only can it breath acid and tear up opponents with it's terrible bite (which also comes with improved grab), but it has the death knell ability.Not every creature needs to challenge great heroes though. After seeing a movie like Dawn of the Dead, you want something that 'maintain their existence through a diet of mortal flesh.' which is where the carcaetan, a CR 2 undead comes in. These are good old undead with various states of decomposition like a good zombie and like a really good zombie, unless they are destroyed by positive energy, they come back, even if burnt to ash.Sometimes you need something a little different though. How about the darlith? This is a medium sized aberration that is made up of tentacles and a bulbous mouth that drip strong adhesive that they use to surround themselves with dirt and rock. They then use this near boulder like protection to roll over their foes and crush them even as they pull their victims into the rock.Another strange creature, the doomweaver is a carrion eater that turns their enemies into rotting flesh though use of a decaying mist even as the pack hunting grethell, a creature with numerous tentacles and arms that end in scythes, tears you apart. Yeah, there are a lot of aberrations here.Another creature that reminds me of the old hoardings is the qeh'thral. They are of all shapes and sizes and provide the GM with the perfect range of abilities for those quick hordes of shapeless and nameless chaos that lower level players can fight against. The illustration is particularly creepy, reminding me of the old Green Lantern comic where they explored the Empire of Tears ruled over by some truly vile looking creatures. Is the book perfect? No. Having an easy way to spot all of the races, having examples of the templates, and a few more high powered creatures would help push this book towards that perfect book. The full color art is top notch. The glossy paper, although a little thin for my taste, is holding up nicely. The variety in creatures is a pleasant change of pace with it's focus on outsiders, aberrants and magical beasts.Those who aren't going to want this book are people satisfied with the core or standard monsters. Those who would think that strange creatures aren't always appropriate for their setting. If you're looking for new creatures to bring to life different types of terror in your game, Denizens of Avadnu is for you.Reviewer's Note:Some are going to look at this and my review of the Book of Fiends and go why one five and not the other?1.Denizens is almost the same page count and price and is in full color.2.Denizens is full of (almost) all new material.3.Denizens includes new summoning tables that update the spell lists with the monsters.4.Denizens is specific to Avandnu but like the Monsternomicon, useable with all d20 fantasy settings or in standard terms, has more creatures applicable for many types of campaign as opposed to one focusing on outsiders.</blockquote>

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