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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2011677" data-attributes="member: 24255">Masters & Minions Horde Book 1:  A Swarm of StirgesBy Tavis AllisonBehemoth3 product number BEH 350154 pages, $12.00A Swarm of Stirges is the first in Behemoth3's "Master & Minions Horde Books," each one taking an extensive look at a single monster from the SRD, and expanding upon it.  In this first volume, besides the stirge itself, we get three other creatures (one of which is usable as a Player Character race), a stirge swarm, a prestige class, a new spell, several new items, some adventure hooks, 5 NPCs, and charts of encounter tables.The cover is a full-color illustration of a stirge in flight by Sang Lee.  The stirge looks significantly different from the one illustrated in the Monster Manual; this one only has one set of batlike wings (which makes more sense to me), and has a much more insectlike build, with a distinct head, thorax, and abdomen (although oddly enough, it still only has four legs, despite being described in the Monster Manual as having "eight jointed legs" and elsewhere in this book as having six).  The abdomen is veiny like a brain and seems swollen with blood - the dark pink/reddish coloration helps give that illusion.  The background is a simple white triangle on red, with a pattern of hexagons showing throughout.  In all, it's a simple cover, but a very nice looking one.The inside covers are put to excellent use - they're treated as additional pages.  Other than additional artwork, this is the best possible use for an inside cover that I can come up with (it certainly beats leaving them blank!), and I would assume that the two pages it saved probably helps keep the price of the book down, if even just a bit.  On the down side, the print is a bit "reverse splotchy" - there are parts of some of the letters in many of the words on these inner covers that have chunks missing.The interior artwork is also done mostly by Sang Lee, although Bernie McGougal helps out with a piece or two.  There are 17 black-and-white illustrations in all, although several of them are reused and combined.  For example, Bernie's hollow husk illustration on page 10 is reversed, blown up, and cropped to form the illustration on page 13, and Sang's stirge swarm picture on page 17 (and the back cover) serves as a background for the combined illustration on page 36, which features the ashmalkin mounted on a stirge from page 22 as its main subject.  The ghost-stirge on page 35 is the same drawing of the mounted stirge from page 22, only with the ashmalkin removed and the whole picture done in "negative exposure."  (I'm sure this is all electronically manipulated via Photoshop or a similar program.)  In any case, the artwork is good despite the repetition.  There are also two maps towards the back of the book that I suppose were also done by Sang or Bernie, although they aren't signed.  (Bernie puts a "BMc" by his drawings; Sang does an "S" in a circle reminiscent of the yin/yang symbol.)A Swarm of Stirges is laid out as follows: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Introduction: A page of fiction encapsulating the life of a stirge, followed by a history of the stirge (from the creature's original appearance in 1979 through two different "Ecology" articles in Dragon), an examination of the stirge life cycle, a bit on the fey and undead that this book links to stirges, and how to incorporate the material from this book into your game world.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Monsters: The ashmalkin (chaotic fey that ride stirges as aerial mounts), blood bloat (final stage of the stirge life cycle), hollow husk (undead caused by the animation of a blood-drained stirge victim by spirits from the Negative Material Plane, and including several variants), stirge (from the SRD), and stirge swarm (making use of the 3.5 "swarm" creature type).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Characters: Ashmalkins as PCs, and the Wing Jockey prestige class.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adventures: Not really an aptly-named chapter, this section deals with 4 ashmalkin alchemical weapons, 3 stirge byproducts, a new spell, types of breakthroughs between the Negative Elemental Plane and the Prime Material Plane, material on stirge ranches, swamp conditions, and 3 adventure hooks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Denizens: Background material, game stats, and adventure hooks for an ashmalkin Wiz18 (and his stirge familiar), a blood bloat vampire, a hollow husk Clr15, a stirge ghost, and an ashmalkin wing jockey leading a stirge swarm.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Encounters: Tactical units (aerial, ambush, necromancer, patrol, risen dead, and swamp), the creatures in each unit, and their likely tactics, plus 2 sample stirge lairs: one in a swamp, one underground.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Appendices: Stirge Horde at a Glance, Unit Encounters by Level, a Racial Preferences chart, Ashmalkin Wizard NPC of Levels 1-20, and the appropriate OGC license.</li> </ul>First of all, let me get this off my chest:  What a pleasant surprise the quality of the proofreading was in this book!  I didn't find a single instance of incorrect grammar or punctuation at all (save for the very last line on page 48, which was cut off in mid-sentence, and one instance where I would have used a semicolon instead of a comma), and the only real "proofreading" problems I noted were a few instances where a size category or two were not capitalized and some 3.0/3.5 terminology glitches (3.5 doesn't refer to "subdual" damage, it's "nonlethal" damage now; "lizardmen" are called "lizardfolk" now, etc.).  Oh, and the second "I" in a Roman numeral "II" was lowercase by mistake.  Not bad, not bad at all!  I did have to hit the dictionary to look up one undefined word that was unfamiliar to me: ashmalkins grow from galls on trees; a "gall" is apparently "an abnormal plant growth that on certain oaks yields tannin."  Okay, that makes sense - I had figured out from the context that these ashmalkin dudes were sprouting from trees anyway.This really looks like it's going to be a cool series of monster books.  I like the way that even though some of their new material about stirges contradicts the earlier known "facts" about them from previous editions of the game, the author has gone out of his way to come up with explanations as to why these apparently contradictory facts might still be true.  For example, according to A Swarm of Stirges, stirges are completely asexual, being the equivalent of a caterpillar; it isn't until they form a chrysalis and metamorphosize into their adult forms - that of an aquatic blood bloat - that they become sexually active (and even then they're hermaphroditic).  If you've used stirges in your campaigns so far and have never used any of these details, it might just be because the adventuring party has never met up with blood bloats before (so the new material has always been true, just never known before), or the stirge/blood bloat life cycle can be unique to one particular breed of stirges, and the party's just never met up with that breed before.  (And the breed might not have ended up that way naturally; transmutation magic might have been at work, as a mad wizard or experimenting druid coaxed things along to fit their own designs.)  I really like this approach - to me, it's much more palatable than the "forget everything you know about whatever creature we're discussing: here is the real story" approach that many game companies use.As for the material itself, I like almost everything in the book.  Ashmalkins seem like a perfectly logical choice for a "stirge rider," although I doubt their usefulness as a PC race (Diminutive size being the real clincher there: almost none of the standard magic items will be usable, and who wants to play a PC with that kind of handicap?).  Blood bloats actually make a sort of sense, and they certainly make the stirge life cycle more interesting.  (I like the fact that their wings can no longer support their oversized bodies, and that they have thus adapted to an aquatic existence.  In a way, this is reverse to the mosquito life cycle: their larvae starts out as aquatic, then the adults become the winged pests we all hate.)  The hollow husks are pure genius, although it took a bit of effort to justify their existence - why don't these "usthulags" from the Negative Material Plane animate anything else besides stirge-drained corpses?  Still, they are about the most distinctive undead I can think of; I especially like the fact that they have different abilities depending upon whether they fill their paper-thin bodies with air or with water.  Stirge swarms seem like they'd be one of the least-favorite "swarm" types to be caught in - 1d4+2 Con damage per round? Yipes! - but I'm surprised that they only have a combined total of 22 hit points, considering a single stirge has 5 hp and there are supposed to be about a thousand stirges per swarm.  (I don't actually believe that for a minute, though: if, as the book indicates, there are 25 stirges in each square foot of the swarm, they'd have no room to fly; a stirge's body is about a foot long with a 2-foot wingspan.  I figure 100-200 stirges per swarm would be a bit more likely.)  The wing jockey prestige class is tailor-made for the ashmalkin, going hand-in-hand with the creature's background (although the description is "generic" enough that it could be used for other aerial mounts).  It was nice seeing value being placed upon stirge by-products, in this case, intact (and unhatched) chrysalises, stirge gallbladders, and trained blood bloats.  One touch I really liked were the "Designer's Notes" sprinkled throughout the book; they gave a nice behind-the-scenes view on why a particular decision was made, and give a bunch of cool ideas to use in-game, like the various descriptions of hollow husks when they're destroyed.On the down side, there were a few problems with some of the game stats.  I recommend making the following changes: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 6, Ashmalkin: Hit Dice should be 1d8, not 1d8+1 (with a CON 10, they have no CON bonus).  As a result, average hit points should be 4, not 5.  Shocklash attacks should be at +9 melee, not +8 (+1 BAB, +4 size, +4 DEX due to Weapon Finesse).  Flamedart attacks should be at +9 ranged, not +8 (+1 BAB, +4 size, +4 DEX).  Also, it isn't mentioned, but I assume that the feather fall special ability is usable at will, an unlimited number of times per day?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 8, Blood Bloat: Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 12 (+1 size, +2 natural).  With 2 HD, it should have only one feat, not two - one of the feats should be annotated as a bonus feat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 28, Twizz Arglegray, ashmalkin Wiz18: Hit Dice should be 18d4+36, not 18d4+54 (he has a CON 14, and thus a +2 CON bonus/HD).  Shocklash attacks should be at +20 melee, not +15 (+9 BAB, +4 size, +6 DEX with Weapon Finesse, +1 green ioun stone).  Flamedart attacks should likewise be at +20 ranged, not +15.  Under Full Attack, this brings his shocklash attacks to +20/+15 melee and his flamedart attacks to +20/+15 ranged, as opposed to +15/+9 as printed.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 29, Mangkoon, stirge familiar: Hit points should be 43, not 48 (half of Twizz's hp total).  Grapple should be +9 when attached, not +1 (+9 BAB, -4 STR, -8 size, +12 attach bonus).  As a familiar, he should get his master's skill ranks if they're higher than his own, so his Hide +14 should be Hide +34 (taking into account his Tiny size) and his Spot +4 should be Spot +11.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 30, Wise Fat Mottled, vampire blood bloat: AC should be 23, not 21 (+4 DEX, +9 natural).  Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 17 (blood bloats have +2 natural armor, the vampire template adds +6 natural armor, and Wise Fat's Improved Natural Armor feat adds +1 more).  As a Medium creature, her (odd choice of words for a hermpahroditic creature, but that's what they use so that's what I'll use) Improved Grab should only be able to affect creatures of size Large or smaller, not Huge as listed.  Thus, she would move into the space of a Large or Medium victim and drag those Small or smaller into her space.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 34, Ragged Wing, stirge ghost: Nothing too bad here, just that Weapon Finesse should be annotated as a bonus feat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 37, Flit Cumbercrickle, ashmalkin Wing Jockey 5/Warrior 1: Likewise, Mounted Combat should be annotated as a bonus feat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">p. 38, Direcloud, stirge swarm: Grapple should be "-" instead of "0" (swarms can't grapple).</li> </ul>The list of Appendices in the back seem like they'd be very useful - I was especially surprised to see an NPC chart for an ashmalkin wizard of every level from 1-20, complete with an equipment list, just like the PC/NPC classes in the Dungeon Master's Guide.  This is something that you probably won't use often, but when you need it (most likely at the spur of the moment) it'll be very handy indeed.  The two sample lairs were functional if a little on the dry side.All in all, A Swarm of Stirges has me excited about an entire new line of monster-focused books, and this one makes a great introduction to the series.  It takes a very simple creature, the stirge, that most campaigns don't see a whole lot of beyond the first few levels of adventuring, and breathes new life into its life cycle and background, extending its use for all levels of play.  I give A Swarm of Stirges a rating of "4 (Good)," and commend author Tavis Allison for a job well done.  I look forward to his next book in the series, which will apparently feature otyughs.  (I don't believe there has ever been a book devoted to otyughs before!)</blockquote>

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