Draconomicron, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness
- Thread starter twofalls
- Start date
Whimsical
Explorer
Our DM read Libris Mortis right before our group entered Undead Island. The first time we attacked an entomber and it slammed a PC into the ground, I exlaimed "That is so cool!" Skin kites were also fascinating and memorable encounters. They are nasty little buggers. Kinda like undead stirges.
The only one I have is Libris Mortis, which I got as a gift. I was initially disapointed, but I have actually pulled a fair bit of material from it for my game (it helps that it is set in Hollowfaust). The dragon book looks quite good, but I don't know if I would actually use it much. As for Lords of Madness, it also looks good, but I have already put it a bunch of work on illithids and aboleth in my game, I and fear much of that would be invalidated. Plus, I have a personal aversion to hive-style beholders and grell.
the Jester
Legend
I like all three of them a lot.
Dragons play a major role in my campaign's background, but there are only a few of them. So while Draconomicon has tons of great stuff, it's not likely to see much 'on camera' use for a while.
Libris Mortis is best in its new monsters. There are a lot of cool, creative new mosnters in there, though there are a lot of editing issues. (Not enough to make it unusable, though!
)
Lords of Madness is fantastic, especially because of the nods to Spelljammer. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a beautiful thing to see!
The only thing I didn't like about LoM was the fact that there are a few things from past books that were contradicted (such as the origin of the mind flayers) and that it seemed like the authors had too small of a vision for things (setting the illithid empire only 2000 years in the past??)
Dragons play a major role in my campaign's background, but there are only a few of them. So while Draconomicon has tons of great stuff, it's not likely to see much 'on camera' use for a while.
Libris Mortis is best in its new monsters. There are a lot of cool, creative new mosnters in there, though there are a lot of editing issues. (Not enough to make it unusable, though!
)Lords of Madness is fantastic, especially because of the nods to Spelljammer. I wasn't expecting that, but it was a beautiful thing to see!
The only thing I didn't like about LoM was the fact that there are a few things from past books that were contradicted (such as the origin of the mind flayers) and that it seemed like the authors had too small of a vision for things (setting the illithid empire only 2000 years in the past??)
Deadguy
First Post
Hmmm, for myself I would rate them:
- Libris Mortis: it isn't the most interesting read, but it's got lots of usable stuff for most games (well, the ones I run anyway). It could have done with having more space since the topic is huge (and not self-restricted like Lords of Madness). But it provides lots of useful expansion material for Undead (e.g. creating a need for the Vampire to feed - which didn't exist before). I like this book a lot.
- Lords of Madness: is a cracking good read. That said, it consists of lots of material that might be entirely irrelevant to many campaigns (e.g. I don't run star-spanning campaigns so I don't get any value in the Illithid background). Plus I didn't like the frequent references to older products - the game today is different. Still, though I won't get as much use from it, it will get some use.
- Whereas Draconomicon is an example of a D&D coffee table book. It's very pretty - enough so that non-D&Ders have bought it to my knowledge. But actual use? Very limited. D&D makes the use of dragons somewhat awkward, and I didn't find the book really addressed that. Still, it looks pretty on the shelf!
Shade
Monster Junkie
Draconomicon is one of the best 3.5 books released to date. I felt that it hit the mark on so many levels (besides just the artwork): great "fluff" on dragons, good tactics for playing one, cool new and updated monsters, feats, items, and spells to really help beef up the mightiest of D&D's monsters.
Libris Mortis, while not terrible, was dissapointing. It had its strong points, like the diet-dependencies and the variant liches, vampires, skeletons, and zombies, but too much of it felt like something was missing. I was really hoping for feats or templates to bring some of the cool new undead abilities, like unholy toughness and unholy grace, to bring the MM monsters up to par with the newer undead, but none were to be found. I was also hoping for more template versions of existing undead. Someone stated that it is an essential book for necromancers, and for that I agree. And I think that's why I think it is the most disappointing of the bunch: I was expecting it to focus on the undead, not on those who ally with or oppose them.
Lords of Madness, on the other hand, far exceeded my anticipations. I love the chapters focused on several of the iconic aberrations, as well as a few interesting ones that aren't quite "classics" (yet). Each chapter reminded me of the old Ecologies in Dragon (back when they were useful), and having the feats and magic specific to the race within its chapter is very nice. I really hope they extend this format to future books in the series. (I've got my fingers crossed for a book of fiends, with the demons, devils, yugoloths, demondands, etc. each getting the full chapter treatment). Additionally, they updated some really great creatures from past editions (the hive mother, ulitharid, and urophion) as well as some more obscure gems (like the illithidae). The tsochari, although obviously inspired by Stargate, are still quite well done and stand up well next to the other iconic aberrations.
Libris Mortis, while not terrible, was dissapointing. It had its strong points, like the diet-dependencies and the variant liches, vampires, skeletons, and zombies, but too much of it felt like something was missing. I was really hoping for feats or templates to bring some of the cool new undead abilities, like unholy toughness and unholy grace, to bring the MM monsters up to par with the newer undead, but none were to be found. I was also hoping for more template versions of existing undead. Someone stated that it is an essential book for necromancers, and for that I agree. And I think that's why I think it is the most disappointing of the bunch: I was expecting it to focus on the undead, not on those who ally with or oppose them.
Lords of Madness, on the other hand, far exceeded my anticipations. I love the chapters focused on several of the iconic aberrations, as well as a few interesting ones that aren't quite "classics" (yet). Each chapter reminded me of the old Ecologies in Dragon (back when they were useful), and having the feats and magic specific to the race within its chapter is very nice. I really hope they extend this format to future books in the series. (I've got my fingers crossed for a book of fiends, with the demons, devils, yugoloths, demondands, etc. each getting the full chapter treatment). Additionally, they updated some really great creatures from past editions (the hive mother, ulitharid, and urophion) as well as some more obscure gems (like the illithidae). The tsochari, although obviously inspired by Stargate, are still quite well done and stand up well next to the other iconic aberrations.
John Q. Mayhem
Explorer
There were actually a lot more "normal-undead-as-templates" than I thought there would be. Shadows, mummies, a variant ghost template, and I think one more.
palleomortis
First Post
Well, libris mortis and I share the same last name *hint hint at the avatar*, So i think it's a good book. But I would REALLY like to get my hands on Draconomicon, so if any of you have a spare copy, TELL ME PLEASE!!!
