Iron Heroes Bestiary

[DragonLancer]

Is the Iron Heroes Bestiary available in print as yet? Also, I couldn't find a review in the reviews secton, so if anyone has it what do you think?

 

[Bagpuss]

I don't have the print edition, but I have seen it in the shops so yes it is available.

 

[DragonLancer]

I don't use IH but I am interested in any decent monster sourcebooks. I'm looking to see whether it is worth getting for the collection, and whether its easily usable for standard D&D.

 

[Bagpuss]

In that case probably the first 15 pages aren't much use to you as they are about using D&D monsters in Iron Heroes, and Iron Heroes monster feats.

Chapter 2 is villan classes, probably not that useful, although I suppose they could be used with D&D without much/any work. They are sort of like dragon ages for key villan roles, so they scale with CR, quicker than having to design an NPC from scratch. There are three here the Champion, Demonic Minion and Demonic Knight, adding to the ones in Mastering Iron Heroes (do you own this)?

Chapter 3 (62 pages) is probably what you are more interested in, thirty monsters in all, which could probably be used with D&D without any changes. I think the only thing you need to look for is if the monster wears armour as in Iron Heroes this gives a variable DR, (having a quick look thought I don't think any actually do wear armour). I've not really looked at the book in detail so couldn't give you an opinion on if they were "good" monsters. The presentation seems to range from picture stats and abilities; to ones with more extended information like adventure ideas, cults that worship the monster, uses for it's hide, etc. It's not consistant in this regard so some monsters have just two columns of text others several pages.

The Appendix doesn't have any useful information to someone looking to use Iron Heroes monsters in normal D&D.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

I don't use IH but I am interested in any decent monster sourcebooks. I'm looking to see whether it is worth getting for the collection, and whether its easily usable for standard D&D.

I've got it (the only IH book I have).

I've used one or two monsters out of it (Blade Ooze and Iron Devil worked very good).

It's well written, but it is clearly written as a "Iron Heroes" Supplement as opposed to a Monster Book, geared towards a Campaign/d20 rules but easily transported to any generic D&D world.

If you aren't playing Iron Heroes, this is an OK Monster book with a nearly 'dead' space for the 1st 25 pages.

There are a lot of Monster Books out there. Of the 30+ Monster Books I have, I'd put IHB at towards the middle-bottom in terms of value for price.

It's not bad, there is just a lot of World/Rules Specifics that take up a lot of space & you don't need for a general monster resource.

I'd give it a 5 of 10 (average). For an Iron Heroes games I'd raise it to 7-8.

 

[Mercule]

Is there a variant dragon of some sort?

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Is there a variant dragon of some sort?

The Gossamer Wyrm is the only creature in the Book with the Dragon Type.

I can't remember the exact details of the critter (all I have is my Master Monster Index right now).

It is a CR 11 Dragon Native to Forests.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Compared to Legacy of the Dramoj for Arcana Evolved, I found it a weak book. It's okay, maybe even 4 stars for Iron Heroes, but it didn't spark my imagination like the AE monster book.

 

[hong]

IMO the villain classes alone are worth it, if you play IH. If you don't play IH, then they're still useful, but there's a ton of other monster books out there.

 

[amethal]

I did a review of the PDF. Click on the reviews under my name, or go back and look for it under T, of all things.

I really liked it, but I've never had a chance to play Iron Heroes and I've never got round to using any of the monsters in my D&D game (since WotC are churning them out far faster thn I can use them).