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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 2011175" data-attributes="member: 2209">Into the green is a sourcebook dedicated to providing d20 material and rules to flesh out four types of natural terrain defined by the predominant fauna of the area: forests, jungle, woods, and plains. Each terrain has a description of the salient features, climatology and ecology that make up the terrain as well as descriptions of animals, plants, natural hazards, and a selection of new monsters specific to those types of terrain. Following the terrains are sections on new materials, magic items, and spells built off of the previous terrain specific material and some appendices providing a collected poison chart, encounter charts by terrain, and weather charts. A six page index is available as a pdf web enhancement at www.bastionpress.com.Forests in this book are defined as deep forests where the canopy is unbroken and rises an average of 200 to 300 feet while woods are defined as transition areas with a lower canopy and more low-growing shrub type fauna. Swamps are not a covered terrain type.The descriptions of the climate and meteorology are in depth discussing the interaction of the predominant flora upon weather, forests protect areas from extreme wind for example while open plains are subject to tornados and microbursts. Formulas are presented for determining temperature and figuring in wind chill and heat index modifiers. However, the descriptions for the terrains take a uniform monolithic view that does not account for geographic factors such as latitude or proximity to different features such as mountains or oceans. This results in the description of plains as having harsh winters subject to intense blizzards which is accurate for the plains of South Dakota found in Little House on the Prairie, but does not really apply to the grasslands of Sub-Saharan Africa.The plant and animal sections contain short descriptions of sample animals but do not contain monster stat blocks for them. Real world animals and plants such as the bald eagle and oak tree are seamlessly mixed in with fantasy animals and plants such as the clikkit a grasshopper that only chirps in the presence of magic and razor grass which slices legs automatically causing damage but going unnoticed due to an anesthetic unless a Wisdom check is made. The real world animals mostly seem to come from the Americas with bison and jaguars described but not leopards or yaks. The descriptions are nice flavor tidbits for characters steeped in nature or wilderness lore. There are also mechanical details for most including wilderness lore checks to identify plants, and spot, alchemy, profession herbalist, and even profession cook DCs for effects related to the flora and fauna. The only significant missing parts are CRs for the trap-like plants.The natural hazards cover a wide range of phenomena from diseases to allergic reaction situations, forest fires, falling dead trees or branches, old abandoned animal traps, tornadoes, and lightning strikes. Again, CR values are not given for these challenges.The monsters present a nice selection of creatures with treant-like things, undead, and fey predominating. There are about eight to ten monsters for each terrain and not all are illustrated, which is disappointing. The ones that are illustrated are quite well done however. Descriptions for the monsters stand out providing a good handle on the critters and uses for them in a game. Similar to Bastion's Minions monster products there is an extra entry after Habitat/Society for campaign uses which usually includes ideas on how to use the monsters in an adventure.The monsters reflect the fact that a large number of freelancers contributed to the book as some concepts significantly overlap while individual monsters can vary greatly. For instance those who are murdered and have their corpses disposed of in woods can come back as bracken corpses, three HD slimy undead who have knowledge of their killers; meanwhile those who starve to death in the wilderness can come back as a lostling, a 20 HD incorporeal undead who suppresses all divine magic in a one mile radius. This variety is good because you can pick and choose according to your tastes and your immediate needs for a monster power level, but can be a bit jarring in creating a consistent world background. For tree encounters you can choose from undead burning trees, evil treant types, corrupted druid grove trees, trickster trees that can shapechange into people, sorcerers that were cursed and turned into trees, and undead treants that are sages about necromantic lore. My favorite monster though has to be the grass cloaker, which it says is descended from normal cloakers, but the description makes it sound like a giant carnivorous flumph that can camouflage itself well. It is too bad there is no accompanying picture.The new materials and substances are neat little tidbits such as various animal or monster fur uses that grant little bonuses like fire or cold resistance 2 and itching smoke made from poison ivy or gravebane a natural bear and canine repellant.For spells the 22 presented are mostly druid and ranger crossovers that range up to fifth level but a good number also work for wizards and a few for clerics. Druids and rangers can create temporary paths in undergrowth for traveling or buff themselves against plants or fey while wizards can create temporary unquenchable bonfires and temporary stone bridges. The spell hidden lore seems to go a bit too far invading the realm of knowledge, it identifies the magical uses for critter parts and reduces the xp cost if magic items are made using this information. Detect fey on the other hand seems a natural fit.Overall the strength of the product lies in the well developed monsters and the tidbits provided for the various areas including animals, plants, new materials and natural hazards. The specific temperature rules seem more in-depth than necessary or useful for most games and the climate descriptions do not allow for the influence of other weather affecting geographic factors, but these nitpickings are outweighed by the use of the sections on specific events, items and creatures.</blockquote>

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