Legends of Avadnu

[JoeGKushner]

Legends of Avadnu is a PDF monster companion to Denizens of Avadnu that provides details on the most powerful of enemies: epic level monsters. The file comes in two forms, one with full color background, borders and art that matches the original hardcover, and a black and white version with no illustrations to go easy on the printer. The full color version includes visual cues for challenge rating at the top of the page and page number at the bottom. My own preference is a black and white version with the monsters in full color. There are few things as satisfying as seeing the look of dread on a player’s face right before an encounter.

When I print out a good-looking PDF like the full colored version is here, I use heavy stock paper to insure durability. Since I’m low on ink and have no full stock paper, I go with the black and white version. The first pages includes a little background, table of contents, and creatures by challenge rating. Monsters range from a CR of 15 to 31. There are also some templates to add a little variety to the standard monsters. The bad news is that on the CR table, there are no page listings with the creatures by challenge rating though and in PDF utility there are no bookmarks to ease navigation.

New epic feats are included to help spice up encounters. My favorite two are reflective spell resistance, where if a spellcaster fails to overcome the enemies SR, the spell is reflected, and snap, where you pick up and swallow an enemy in one motion. After the feats, the book starts right into the new creatures.

The first monster is a rarity in that it’s a template that actually weakens the base creature. The Bygone is a creature of legend, one of myth whose power is not what it once was. This template can only be applied to a creature with a CR of 20 or more and reduces the base CR of said creature by negative six. Some of the penalties include changing epic damage reduction to magic damage reducing the saving throws of its abilities by a negative ten penalty.

The creatures include full statistics, but no descriptions in italics for quick reading. This is made up for with adventure ideas and a brief section on how these monsters fit into the Avadnu setting. Another use that I’m not sure I like is physiological uses. These sections provide details on what you can do with parts of the creature’s body. I generally don’t like these sections because it tends to make the players body harvesters instead of adventurers.

One mistake made here is the inclusion of a creature that has the voidspawn subtype. I say mistake because there is no definition of what a voidspawn is. I know what abilities this subtype gain because I have the hardcover but for those just interested in epic creatures in a PDF format, not including that information is bad form.

In terms of monsters, they range from sentinel guardians like the Emphyrean, constructs who fight in pairs, to the Lumina, outer planar beings who strive to bring goodness to where ever they roam. It’s a nice change of pace from just evil creatures that seek to overthrow the cosmos. Not to say that you can’t find such a few critters in this book though as we do have the dreadspawn, a creature that feeds of misery and sorrow but whose corpse creates a liquid known as the “tears of divinity”.

In addition to new monsters, the book includes a chapter on how to use the monsters in the Epic Level Handbook in the Avadnu setting. This is a good idea and personalizes many of those creatures without making new stats or taking up a lot of room.

The book needs a little more to it though. The void subtype should be included for those who want some epic monsters. In addition, one of the denizensof the void, the Xxyth, should have a few unique individuals detailed here as the most powerful version of such a creature, the arch-xxyth in the hardcover is a CR of 20, powerful but not quite epic. More interesting in that field is that the hardcover does mention xxyth lords so the idea of such a powerful entity has been laid. Lastly, the book needs to take more advantage of its PDF format more. Where are the bookmarks at minimal.

Legends of Avadnu is a solid product but needs a little more seasoning in its PDF environment to match the utility found in its hardcover counterpart.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The world's first epic-level monster collection! Featuring the most powerful creatures from Avadnu's history, Legends of Avadnu uses material recently added to the SRD to create monsters for use in any epic-level d20 System game. Presented in the same format as Denizens of Avadnu, each monster entry is supplemented with adventure ideas and a separate entry providing depth into Avadnu's unique history and ecology. Legends of Avadnu also contains monster tokens for each creature so they can easily be used with figures on a battle grid. Face such terrible foes as the earth-shaking devourer, the angelic and alien lumina, and the weather-wielding true mistji.

 

[Crothian]

Legends of Avadnu

Creatures are the backbone of most campaigns. Characters go about, kill or otherwise defeat the creatures, and of course take their treasure. But monsters are starting to look a lot a like and be more challenging for the lower levels. Where are the challenges for the high level game? Where are the creatures that have a look of originality to them? Of course the answer is Legends of Avadnu.

Legends of Avadnu is a pdf that goes with, but does not really require, Denizens of Avadnu. These are the monster books by Inner Circle Games for their upcoming campaign setting. I have to admit for the first products by a company these look impressive. They are not perfect, but a lot of work obviously went in this and it shows.

Legends is a pdf that comes in a black and white and full color versions. The full colored one is thirty five pages in length and is over ten megs in size. The black and white on is about a half meg and they come together in a zip file of almost eleven megs. The book though has no bookmarks. One of the great advantages of PDFs is bookmarks and I am sad to see they were not included.

The first thing that will separate Legends from the other PDFs is that it is full color with great art. Of course that will make printing the full color version absolutely kill a color ink printer, but that is what the black and white version is for. The art has a great feel to it and really do a great job of setting the tone of these creatures. The book has borders and there is a tan background for the text and a black background for the stat blocks. The layout is well done for the pictures and the text. The stat blocks though can be a little tough to read on screen. One of the biggest problems is the plus sign which scan look like a minus sign; other then that though the book looks really good.

The creatures though are really the stars of the book. It starts with a template that actually weakens the base creature, but it’s a great idea for a template, the Bygone Creature. Basically, this is not the original creature but an echo of it. Its colors are more subdued and it is not that powerful. But the template is designed for the truly powerful and possible unique creatures of legend like the Hydra (the one from myth not the one in the Monster Manual), the Kraken, or even the Tarrasque. The base creature can be anything of twenty or more hit dice, but it works best on things that are either extinct or locked away in some planar dungeon.

The creatures in here range from challenge rating of fifteen to thirty one. There is one new creature type, the Voidspawn. However what it means to have this creature type was not including here. It is a creature type that is in the Denizens of Avadnu. There are also some new epic feats presented in here. Each creature does have a section explaining how it interacts with Avadnu, their setting. So while this is a setting monster book, it does not assume everyone using it will be playing their setting.

Overall, this is a very solid book of higher level monsters. The creatures here are a little one the strange side and not all of them will easily fit into a campaign. But a DM should be able to find a few here that can be used very well for they have in mind.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I picked up this product less out of hope than of desperation: I needed epic monsters, and I needed them now. My group had passed 20th level and I needed things to keep them busy when their political intrigue became too heavy and everyone was up for some action -- and the Epic Level Handbook monsters were limiting, to say the least.

To say that I was impressed would be an understatement, and I'm not easily gratified. Some of you might remember me as the curmudgeon judge of the 2002 ENnies -- nothing was good enough to escape my criticism.

Overview
Legends of Avadnu is a 22-page PDF if you print the ink-light version without the cover, table of contents, or legal (~30 pages with everything). It includes 11 epic feats (1 page), 13 creatures ranging from CR 15 to 31 (19 pages), two templates (with sample creatures included in the above 13), an exotic material, and information about ways to use the ELH monsters in the world of Avadnu (2 pages).

Impressions
The monsters in LoA are the most well-written and flavorful I've seen in any product by any company. The kasep-sa, for example, is the decadent remains of a race promised to never die "but by their own hands", making them a difficult challenge for the PCs. (Various solutions, with mechanical descriptions and kasep-sa reactions, are of course included.)

The astral and cosmic sentinels are another excellent example: crafted from the ultra-hard siderite, these constructs protect important planar sites in pairs (one astral and one cosmic). They have interesting abilities that could easily be adopted for non epic play -- the astral sentinel's Nova (S), for example, is like an offensive version of death throes.

The mechanics are quite sound; while mistakes are present, as in all products I've seen, they are much less common than in most, and are of a lesser importance. (For example, the Dreadspawn has 12 unallocated skill points -- not exactly game-breaking.)

Highlights
While the editing is practically enough to make me weep with joy, the lush descriptions and well-applied creative ideas are the strongest part of the book. Of course, I liked the epic feats too -- they are good for monsters and epic PCs alike, and more flexibility for the players is fun for them.

Shortcomings
(This section intentionally left blank)

No, seriously... there's not much to say. I suppose the length was a bit short for $5, but getting to use everything in it makes it a better buy than longer products that i'll only ever use a quarter of.

Conclusion
LoA is a great book for fleshing out a world, even if PCs are never powerful enough to directly challenge the monsters in it. Both of the templates are useable in non-epic games -- in fact, the Bygone template seems designed especially for non-epic groups who want to encounter epic foes (and live).

If your characters are nearing 21st level, or already past, you need this book. If they aren't, I think it would be a great purchase regardless of immediate utility, which is more than you'd get out of most epic products.


(Disclaimer)
I'm not on Inner Circle's payroll, and don't even have any direct contact with any of their members. I was just really impressed with the product, more than I've ever been for any product in the last 2 1/2 years.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I was just really impressed with the product, more than I've ever been for any product in the last 2 1/2 years.

Honestly, that's good enough for me.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Legends of Avadnu Rocks

Review by Bill Collins

Alexander Marsh Freed, Jeffrey J. Visgaitis and David Bareford wrote this 35-page epic-level monster book from The Inner Circle. Art is by Jason Rosenstock, Robert G. Gallagher, and Jeffrey J. Visgaitis. It retails at $7.00 on RPGNow which is a reasonable price considering the high quality of full color art in the book. (With lesser art and this same short page count, I would think the price too high.) I received a free copy for review purposes. You get both a full-color version and a black and white printer-friendly version, a nice touch.

This is part of the Violet Dawn: The Time of the Unravelling line. While that title for the line seems really neat, it’s far too long. I’ve never heard anyone refer to that name - even this volume uses "Avadnu" for shorthand. I keep hearing about Denizens of Avadnu too and got familiar with some of it through Year's Best d20. This seems a worthy companion.

The book is divided into new, Epic-level Feats, New Creatures, and Other Epic Creatures (which helps you fit epic monsters into the Violet Dawn setting). I’ve personally only played at epic levels and never been an epic DM, so my experience is limited. (Epic level is definitely a niche market.) That said, there are a couple creatures here that would do really well at lower levels to terrorize a party. Right after the Table of Contents is a very handy Creatures by Type and Creatures by CR listing. The latter is common, but the former is a nice idea. I wish more books did it that way.

Chapter I: Epic Feats

Eleven new feats comprise this chapter. These are all neat expansions of epic capacity. Here’s where you can tell that the authors know their epic stuff. (Some of these could be core-level feats but for the ELH’s existence. That’s not an issue with this book but the underlying assumptions of epic play.) Really good ideas include Reflective Spell Resistance (which definitely should be epic), Temporary Discorporation, Aligned Breath Weapon (I can see this as non-epic) and Energy Feeder.

Planar Harbinger is an interesting feat because it lets a creature bring the traits of its home plane with them. It even has an improved version that increases the radius. The original version seems a bit weak because it’s got a small radius for most creatures. I could see it having been the creatures Reach or double the Reach. I still like the idea of some creature strong enough to bring a portion of its plane with it. Things like this that spark ideas are a good indicator to me of the book’s quality.

Some of these feats are used for the monsters in the book, which I also like to see. (Even if a couple entries with the feats aren’t appropriately called out as being in the book.)

Chapter II: New Creatures

The lead-in monster is the Bygone Creature template. This is a genius way to make epic monsters available at non-epic levels, or to foreshadow a monster when entering epic levels. If you have ELH gathering dust on your shelf, this makes the book worth it right there to throw a few challenges at a level 17-20 party. (The example creature is a bygone Uvuduum, CR 21. Ouch.)

The other monsters are also excellently done. The authors of the book have a distinct grasp of flavor that leads to good crunch. The dreadspawn’s Wail of Betrayal I could instantly grasp, for example. This means you’ve got a good design. (I see why Denizens made Year’s Best d20.) Some of the abilities and background here are incredibly flavorful and freaky – like the voidspawn ability of the dreadspawn or the way the rotwood animates a new body or even just how the mistji appear to move.

The monsters include an Adventure Idea for every entry and an “On Avadnu” section. Either of these could be useful, and this is the sort of thing the better monster books include, so I was pleased to see that here.

Nitpicks & Thoughts on Monsters

The Empyrean Sentinels were a cool concept with some odd abilities and one area for improvement. The text never indicates that there are two types of Sentinels (astral and cosmic) until you suddenly hit a paragraph that assumes that you know this. This information could have been placed in the entry text. They have an odd disorientation ability that while a cool idea in principle may well result in their extermination by the party because they lose the ability to act effectively. Even though their pairing ability helps to mitigate this and will surprise PCs. Those nits picked aside, the Sentinels are neat. I like the idea of something that sits there for millennia before activating. Just the thing to surprise PCs with.

The Lumina were fun. I got some cool ideas from creatures so good that the Prime Material Plane seems polluted to them. The bestarius entry has many “gee wow!” abilities to throw at your players. The Poison ability is a bit confusing though. Does it grant detect evil, or does it just inform that detect evil helps poisoned creatures identify potential foes? (I also would not have treated this as a poison, but I can see the designer’s point, so it’s just a difference of opinion.) The knossira entry needs better notation on the epic spells – they are listed in the 10th level slot, but epic spells are treated differently for caster purposes. If things work differently in Avadnu – which would be okay by me – that should be noted somewhere. I did like all of the abilities for this creature. They would really freak out a cleric or paladin I think.

The rotwood only speak Sylvan. This seemed at first like a neat idea. However, this is technically a disease that’s defined as a huge plant. Why doesn’t it have telepathy, even if it’s never going to use it? For that matter, why does it say it’s a disease and then describes it as a plant? While this is somewhat explained, it’s an odd situation that I would have liked clarified.

The penultimate monster, the crimson mokara, lacks a reference to its book of origin. Since I might want to know where to look up the original, it would have been handy to have. This creature and the Scions of Krug lacked the adventure idea that was present for the prior creatures. But, it's very easy to imagine using them in an adventure.

Chapter III: Other Epic Creatures

Although short, this section on incorporating epic creatures from ELH into Avadnu is a good read. Even those who don’t want to run a campaign in this setting might benefit by taking a look at the imaginative ways that the authors tried to fit creatures into their world. You can sense that there’s a lot more to the story here.

Art & Layout

This book – despite its short size – has a great cover. Color, subject matter and composition are excellent. I had to look twice before I realized how it looked – with a hero facing a truly epic-level challenge. I believe it’s a dreadspawn facing down some PC. Little do they know what they’re up against.

This is available in a handy, art-lite version for printing. Which is a good thing since the full color version is gorgeous, but it would use a lot of ink. The layout’s only flaw shows in the color version on screen: the font choice - to my aging, uncoordinated eyes (20/50 and 20/200 respectively) - looks blurry and too thick, like a bad bolding. The monster stat blocks use white on black and are also very hard to read on-screen. A better font choice there would have made it clearer. (But in printing/viewing the art-lite version I did get something quite functional.)

The pdf lacks bookmarks. Once upon a time, this was something I ignored since I didn’t know they existed. Now that I’ve gotten used to the idea, I heartily recommend them. It won’t make this a lesser product, but it would be nice to see them in it since they are even handier than a Table of Contents.

Each monster does have its own illustration. An excellent selling point.

Concluding Remarks

My favorite creatures have to be the dreadspawn, the empyreans, and the Scions of Krug. However, every creature in this book is flavorful and interesting. Since there is so little epic material out there, this stands out even more.

The RPGNow ad mentions monster tokens for each creature. There were none in the zip file I received. If the ad is wrong, it should be changed. This didn’t change the book’s rating, but it would be a real nuisance if I were someone who had bought it expecting to use them.

This book is definitely worth five stars on a review. The authors put a lot of time, talent and imagination into it. Despite the nits I picked above, I was very impressed by Legends. These are imaginitive, exciting and very different monsters. Check it out folks.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Hi and thanks for the review and the kind words. This was our first PDF product and it is over a year old, but the great thing about PDFs is we can revise it easily. Let me answer a few of your general questions and I'll have our d20 guru answer the rules questions.

• Empyrean Sentinels– Good point. We'll revise that and have it added to the opening text.
• Crimson Mokara– The mokara originally appear in Denizens of Avadnu and the crimson mokara is just that with the Scion of Krüg template added. I will have a source section added to the text. For Adventure Ideas, we didn't add those to templates or template example creatures as we figured DMs adding a template to a creature will already have an idea on how it fits in. If you look, the bygone and its example creature do not have Adventure Ideas either.
• Monster Token– If you purchased this from RPGNow, you should have received an email stating these were on our website. To make the download more manageable, we didn't include them with the zip file. You can get them from our website here.
• Bookmarks– Hmm, the version that I have does have bookmarks. I'm going to edit this product and make sure the version I have is the one that is available.

Did you get yours from RPGNow, DriveThruRPG, or our website? Thanks again!

 

[Sundragon2012]

I hope my material has this much personality

Honestly, the strength of this product is not in it's solid implementaion of 3.5 rules, or the fact that the monsters are balanced for their CR...blah, blah, blah. The strength of this product is that these creatures have personality. These are monsters who look and feel different. They don't feel so different that they are utterly alien, but they are different in the way creatures unique to a given setting should be. I remember the first time I say the Dark Sun Campaign boxed set, I thought "Wow, what a great place." I got that tingle of my DM's-sense that told me that there is something special here.

Well I feel that way about this book and what I have read about this setting. There is something special here, something that IMO can become at the minimum a cult-hit with a dedicated fan base similar to the way the Midnight setting has created, deservedly, a rabidly loyal following amongst fans. I think that Avadnu can be in that catagory if marketed properly and enough buzz is created.

Also, these creatures are OGC which is great because it adds to the pool of quality creatures and mechanics designers can use whole cloth or tweak for their own settings without reinventing the wheel. Too often nowadays the OGC content alert as to what falls under that catagory and what does not is being hidden or obscured under legalistic mumbo-jumbo. This book is in the spirit of the OGL in that it makes itself available to all who would fairly use its contents to flesh out their own games or settings as necessary.

The art and layout is gorgeous. WoTC take a hint from these folks and start using imagery like this as opposed to the superhero art of Reynolds who may be talented by IMO is more suited to comic art than fantasy.

As I read this book and look over the company website I think to myself that I hope my setting, when its finally ready with be, for different reasons, as impressive as this. Seeing good material from 3rd party publishers should IMO push setting designers to raise their own bar in regards to quality and creativity.

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the Denizens of Avadnu hardcover..heck I might order it today.


Chris

 

[Crothian]

Jeff,

He got the PDF from me through the Review Project. If you have any questions on that, give me an e-mail at

Cgath@insight.rr.com