Dragonlance: Bestiary of Krynn

[Crothian]

Given (1) my hate of Dragonlance, (2) my nit-picky personality, and (3) my unholy love of monster books, should I give this book a chance?

Probably not. I'm not a huge Dragonlance fan., I walked away from the setting when the second edition modules came out. But the third edition stuff has been good and I like what I've read. The monster book is pretty good, and the art is exceptional. Like Hellhound above I have a friend who did some of the art (same friend as Hound's).

There are lots of great monster books out there. So, don't pick up one that you might not like.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've had the BoK for a while now, but I haven't had the chance until recently to really look it over. All I have to say is that I hope future Dragonlance products go through better fact-checking. There are several instances of miscalculated AC's, special qualities listed in the monster entries that aren't given any rules. This lessens the utility greatly. Not to mention the horrible layout that just makes my head hurt.

This is actually one of the worst monster books I've picked up in a while. I had high hopes, but BoK fell short. I can't say that every monster is botched, many appear to be spot-on as far as stats go, but there are enough errors that makes think twice about using any monster from it without giving the stats a major overview.

My 2 cents,
Kane

Can you provide us with a few examples? I've used the book several times and haven't had these problems you had. My biggest problem with monster books is usually AC's, BAB, and # of Feats (Which still gets screwed up between 3.0/3.5) but those I've used have had no issues.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Can you provide us with a few examples? I've used the book several times and haven't had these problems you had. My biggest problem with monster books is usually AC's, BAB, and # of Feats (Which still gets screwed up between 3.0/3.5) but those I've used have had no issues.

Here goes:

Kalothagh (pages 64-65): Ac is wrong. they give it a +2 bonus for size...the creature is Large. Spontaneous Generation is listed with the special qualities, but is not fleshed out in the Combat section. The same goes for the creature's telepathy power. (Can the creature use this power only with it's own kind or among other species as well...unlikely since it's Int is only 2.) Poison is listed as a damage type, but it's unclear if the poison is dealt only with spine attacks or with all touch attacks.

I know there are several other entries like this one, but it's late and I'm tired, so I'll find them and post them tomorrow. However, most entries are just fine. Some suffer from a "why the heck is it like this" syndrome when monsters have an ability that just doesn't make sense, but that's a taste issue and nothing more.

Kane