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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ghostwind" data-source="post: 2010330" data-attributes="member: 3060">This book is a true sequel to Allies & Adversaries, sharing both the same strengths and the same weaknesses. If you enjoyed the first book, this one offers more of the same.If you haven't read Allies & Adversaries, then let me give you a little detail. The book is 32 pages of full color with fantastic illustration by Jason Engle. If you don't know him by name and want my opinion of his art, it's fantastic. So much so that this book is probably better off as an art book than an RPG book.Why is that? Poor editing in some places and bad game editing in others would be the answer. Now I'm not a game mechanic specialist or anything. As a matter of fact, I don't even go out of my way to catch errors so when they hit me, it's annoying. It's more annoying when the company has had indication with these problems in the previous product and doesn't fix them.I know, some clamor for examples. How about undead with con scores? How about attack bonuses that don't add up or armor class figures that are wrong? Hit points with bonuses that have no root cause? Improper listings of feats? Simple stuff that is just plain annoying. The editing was a little better but hit me in the first entry with Abernath. “Abernath died ten years ago, during the a great war.” A great war? The great war?  Which is it?The stats themselves are laid out in an easy to read fashion, but don't follow the same pattern from NPC to monster with monsters having a CR. Not truly important in some cases, but since Abernath and others in this book aren't human, it'd be good to know what level to consider them for say, experience purposes either for aiding or destroying. Another problem is a standard equipment list. While I don't need to know every item that say, Terean, a wizard has, it'd be nice to know what he commonly carries with him, if he's speed's affected by the weight and other standard things of that nature.If the book provided some utility in using the creatures, and not all the entries are monsters, then it'd have a little more of a niche, but providing some great illustrations with no game mechanics to back up the creatures outside of adventure seeds, does not a book make.If you're looking for impressive full color illustrations that are more painting that drawing, then this book has something for you. If you picked up the first one and didn't like it, this book is still more of the same.Reviewer's Note: Normally because of the great illustrations and full color background, despite the high price, I'd give this product rating a three. However, the issues here are the same issues that the first book had and there is no reason for those errors to have crept into this tome. If Talisman Studios can get something from Bastion Press, I'm hoping that it's a better sense of game mechanics for any future releases.</blockquote>

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