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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9183225" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/QTWGJdH.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Traveling the River of TimeTime travel is a rather important plot element in Dragonlance, particularly during the Legends trilogy. It wouldn’t be proper to just dump all these time-based spells into the campaign and not have some advice for the DM, right? This chapter is more or less a short essay briefly explaining the rules of time travel in the setting along with common adventure hooks and PC plans to take into account.In short, the flow of time is like a river, with branching pathways going down alternate timelines. However, the river is largely self-correcting, meaning that time travelers who attempt to alter the past in big ways will still have events transpire to ensure that history remains mostly unchanged. However, this rule can be broken by creatures of chaotic alignment, as the river of time cannot absorb their ripples as efficiently. When such time travelers alter history, they create a new separate timeline and their original present becomes inaccessible to them.Additionally, it is much easier to go to the past, but traveling forward into the future is much more difficult as the past is already set in stone but the future can have a myriad of possibilities. Furthermore, the river of time cannot sustain multiple instances of the same creature at the same time, so one cannot travel back in time to a point where the time traveler exists. Thus, time travelers must journey to a point in time before they were born.Our short chapter ends with a list of suggested reasons and adventures for time travel. Most commonly it involves finding information or items that have since been lost to the ages, attempting to alter history, or stop others from altering the timeline. As the only spell and item that allow for time travel in this book are 9th level and an artifact, it is a little-researched phenomenon. The Orders of High Sorcery are reluctant to mess with things too much in fear of causing reality to spin out of control. Advice for incorporating time travel and how the DM handles it is kind of basic, being things like “it can be more controllable by gating it behind powerful NPCs and MacGuffins rather than giving it to the PCs themselves,” or putting key plot points and goals not just in specific locations but in specific times so that PCs can’t just timewarp ahead to the end of an adventure.Thoughts: Given the many complicated scenarios that can come out of time travel, this chapter barely scratches the surface. As this is more or less something that only Epic Tier characters can do or if the DM drops a Device of Time Journeying into a party with a chaotic PC, it’s unlikely to be a major concern in most 5th Edition campaigns. I should also note that the “must be chaotic alignment” to alter the timestream is markedly different from the traditional lore. In past supplements it was races touched by Chaos who could do this, meaning that they have ancestry to a creature altered by the Graygem of Gargath. In practical terms this meant all playable races besides humans, elves, ogres, and the half-races between them. The book calls out the original lore as a “disproven theory,” and to be honest I haven’t read any new Dragonlance novels to know if this is in line with new developments in the setting or not.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/aTe1oJn.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The Gods of KrynnThis chapter covers the Dragonlance pantheon. It doesn’t just retread familiar ground, but also incorporates the Piety system from Mythic Odysseys of Theros for characters who seek to win the favor/disfavor of their patron deity. For those new to the setting, there are 23 deities who govern universal forces of creation. Two of them are primordial and don’t grant prayers: Chaos, who is nonexistence incarnate, and the High God, who created reality from Chaos and assigned the rest of the gods to create the world of Krynn and all there is on it. There are three different pantheons of seven deities each split into good/neutral/evil alignments, with the neutral gods prizing balance and free will and the evil gods aren’t really a formal alliance so much as a grouping of similar ideologies. Pantheons are more or less universally known by Krynn’s cultures: many races and societies favor some gods over others and even call them by different names, but you don’t have obscure or minor gods like in Faerun who hold dominion only among a single dwarven subrace and the like.We have a handy chart highlighting the alignment, realms of influence, suggested domains, and common symbols for all of the gods. One thing I noticed is that the Dragonlance Companion hews towards the retconned alignments in Shadows of the Dragon Queen, where the alignments of several gods have changed from their pre-5e origins. Most notably that means all Gods of Balance are True Neutral, whereas in prior editions they had more diversity in some being Lawful Neutral and one being Chaotic Neutral. Also, the gods’ home planes aren’t the ones in the Dragonlance cosmology, but planes on the Great Wheel of Greyhawk, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms. Personally I’m not as fond of these changes: the alignments in that the non-True Neutral ones had good reasons to lean closer towards Law or Chaos, and the planes in that Dragonlance having its own distinct cosmology went well in making the setting unique.The most important additions the Companion makes to the gods is the Piety score, Heralds, and Herald items. Thankfully enough detail from Mythic Odysseys of Theros is repeated here that readers can get the gist of a system. Basically Piety is an ascending score, and PCs begin with a Piety of 1 towards their patron deity. Doing things in line with their deity’s ethos and goals increases the score by 1, and the opposite can lower it by that same amount. The Companion suggests that the score shouldn’t change by more than 1 during a typical session of play, as it should represent substantial risks and deeds rather than casual activities. Furthermore, a deity who is particularly impressed with a mortal worshiper can appoint them to be a herald, where they are gifted a herald item in line with the gods’ area of influence. The item is magical , the vast majority of them grant +1 to +3 bonuses to either  attack and damage rolls or spell attack bonuses and save DCs, and they grow in power the more Piety the herald gains. Herald items have four tiers known as States: Nascent at 3 Piety, Emergent at 10, Resplendent at 25, and Transcendent at 50.Due to the large amount of deities and accompanying magic items, I’m going to be brief in their descriptions.Chislev Is our Neutral nature goddess, connected to the global ecosystems of Krynn. She favors simple thinking of instinct rather than reason, and many of her worshipers are secluded druids and people who live far from major population centers. Her Piety is altered via stereotypical druid stuff, but also paradoxically is raised by helping encourage farming and agriculture but lowered when acting against “affronts to nature” such as poaching and logging. Her herald item is a Feather of the World that grants features such as limited wild shape/more uses of it if you’re a druid, as well as infusing unarmed strikes with elemental energy. This item is best suited for Druids as the non-druid wild shape options are pretty marginal, but a monk can make good use of the unarmed strike bonuses.Gilean is the technical head of the Gods of Balance, prizing knowledge of all kinds and favored by scribes and scholars. Encouraging the spread of knowledge in various forms increases Piety, while encouraging disinformation and anti-intellectualism decreases it. The Infinite Codex is his herald item, which has spendable charges that can automatically answer Intelligence skill questions DC 15, whose DC ascends with State and can make the wielder deal more damage to celestials and fiends. The damage bonus is for situational use in most campaigns, but the Codex is pretty useful in granting answers to a lot of different kinds of stuff. This would be of use for most parties and not just bookish types.Lunitari is one of the three moon gods of magic, the patron of the Red Robes. Piety is increased by encouraging the study of magic, and can be decreased by “abusing magic” which is vague, as well as restricting its use or using it for the furtherance of good or evil purposes rather than “striking a balance.” Which to me sounds very fickle and subjects the handing out of Piety as an extended philosophical negotiation with the Dungeon Master. The Red Tome is her herald item, which can expend charges to regain spell slots or cast from a variety of magical spells with a preference for illusion and transmutation. In fact, I’d like to say that the herald items of the three moon gods are very powerful for these reasons. They are effectively extra prepared spells, which even for a non-spellcaster can grant them a lot of versatile options.Reorx is the god of craftsmanship in general, meaning that dwarves and gnomes love him. Piety is influenced by actions that help/hinder artisanship and industry. His herald item is a hammer known as Strength of the Smith, which can expend charges to cast various spells (most of them conjuration) as well as being a typical magical weapon that can take the form of any hammer. Most of the spells are rather situational, being nice additions but not on the level of broad power as the moon Tomes.Shinare is the goddess of commerce and trade, who has rather Libertarian political views in that the easiest path to wealth is through hard work and that most poor people choose to be so due to laziness. And given that much of Krynn’s nations are hereditary feudal societies, this mindset is even more hilarious than usual. Piety is gained/lost for being successful in business but is lost for being disreputable and engaging in dishonest dealings. Her herald item is the Jewel of Delight, whose charges can be used to cast spells that are mostly divination or enchantment. Even its nascent spells are nice things for most builds, such as Bless, Sanctuary, and Shield.Sirrion is the god of art, creativity, passion, fire, and alchemy. His worshipers are a diverse mixture of those whose lives are governed by such domains of influence, and the creation and maintenance of ever-burning fires in temples are an important part of the faith. Oddly, Piety is very restricted, basically involving responsible or irresponsible uses of fire and alchemy and little to nothing about art and passion. The Stone of Flowing Flame is a herald item that can summon fire-based creatures, as well as cast a variety of magic ranging from enchantment to offensive fire-based spells along with some illusions and enchantment. The Transcendent summonable monster is an efreeti who is friendly to the caster and obeys their commands. While it’s not a default part of their stat block, a DM should take into account a PC asking if they can summon an efreeti that grants wishes.Zivilyn is our final God of Balance, a tree whose branches spread across all of time and space and prioritizes wisdom and experience. He has a close relationship to Gilean as an advisor, and is often approached by other deities for aid and counsel. Piety is incredibly open-ended, gained by basically being open to learning new things and serving in diplomatic and advisory roles, and is lowered by being an obstinate fool. His herald item is the World Tree’s Charm, which grants advantage on and +5 to Wisdom checks at its lowest State, and higher levels gives you things like increasing your Wisdom score to very high levels (21 at Resplendent and 25 at Transcendent) along with limited-use charges to gain Truesight or even once-per-day Foresight. There appears to be an error in this magic item, as the text for Emergent reads “the nascent damage property increases to 1d6,” even though this item has no damaging features. That being said, this item is tailor-made for Wisdom-based casters, and its huge bonus on WIsdom checks turns the herald into a decent scout with high Passive Perception.Chemosh is the creator of the concept of undeath, teaching his followers that the afterlife is an illusion by the other gods and that only oblivion awaits. Undeath is portrayed as a gift, an eternal life to avoid this fate but in the end makes them slaves to Chemosh. Piety is earned via typical evil necromancer stuff and killing your enemies, while it’s decreased whenever you do things like save a life or resurrect someone from the dead. His herald item is a sickle or axe known as the Harvester of Souls, which grants things like dealing extra damage to non-construct and non-undead creatures, spending charges to regain hit points whenever you damage a target, and summoning fields of damaging necrotic energy. Make this into a greataxe and give it to a Barbarian, and they’ll get a lot of staying power in battle!Hiddukel is the evil god of trickery and betrayal, serving as an evil counterpart to Shinare. His clergy is rare given that he prefers tricking people into unwittingly furthering his goals, but his genuine worshipers are criminals leading double lives seeking personal power and societal discord. Piety is gained by tricking others into doing things for you and stealing stuff, while it’s lost by acting honorably like frequently conducting fair trades and honorably keeping one’s word and genuinely upholding oaths. His herald item is Vengeance Sting, which can be any light weapon and has features like spending charges to make a hit an automatic critical, dealing bonus poison damage, and casting Improved Invisibility on yourself. The automatic critical hit is great for rogues, but also paladins and others who get lots of bonus dice on their weapon attacks.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/CuyMfqW.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Morgion is the god of plague and decay, and his greatest desire is to increase the amount of mortal suffering in the world. Most of his worshipers are those who didn’t do so out of their own free will, but succumbed to deadly diseases which the god offered to cure in exchange for eternal servitude. Perhaps given that he has a new Cleric domain in this book, he has a large amount of means of gaining Piety, ranging from spreading disease to erosion of unique items to creating new kinds of poison, while healing and fixing things and preventing others from succumbing to sickness causes a loss in Piety. His herald item is the Disease Cloud that takes the form of any bludgeoning weapon, and has features that mostly involve poison such as inflicting the poisoned condition on a critical hit or creating a cloud dealing poison damage. For those reasons I kind of find this weapon boring and one-note, also because it’s a very commonly resisted damage type and condition.Nuitari is the patron deity of the Order of the Black Robes, appealing to arcane spellcasters who desire personal power above all other concerns. Piety is gained by using magic to gain power over others and hoarding magical items and knowledge, and is lost by doing good guy things but restricting and discouraging others from using magic. His herald item is the Black Tome, which is like Lunitari’s Red Tome but whose spells focus on enchantment and necromancy.Sargonnas is a god of vengeance and strength, but he encourages more than mindless rage. Such as having some kind of code of honor and doing battle in a smart and tactical manner. His Piety is kind of all over the place: it has typical stuff like taking revenge on one’s enemies, but has stuff that isn’t exactly “Lawful Evil” such as leading a rebellion, exposing treason, and fighting in a war. This last part is regardless of the sides or circumstance. Piety can be lost by choosing not to seek revenge, desertion and treason, and allowing yourself to be oppressed through a lengthy period. His herald item is the Horn of Fury, which can take the form of any axe and grants things like advantage on Strength checks, charges that can deal extra damage with the axe for one turn, and limited-use boosts to Strength (such as a once per turn 30 Strength as a bonus action on Transcendent) and auto-succeeding on failed Strength checks and saving throws. The advantage on Strength checks alone as its initial feature makes this item very suitable for grapple and shove builds.Takhisis is the five-headed goddess of evil dragons, and has historically been the greatest threat to Krynn throughout the ages. She seeks to take control of the world as its uncontested ruler, befitting her title as the Queen of Darkness. Piety is earned by killing powerful foes and acting like an evil overlord, and is lost by “do-gooder” things such as saving lives and freeing others from oppression. Her herald item is the Crusher of Hope, which can be any bludgeoning weapon and has draconic-themed features such as dealing bonus damage in line with a chromatic dragon’s breath weapon (chosen upon gaining the weapon), or a once per day (or week) ability to transform into a young (or ancient) chromatic dragon for 1 minute. The energy damage boosts are kind of boring, but changing into a dragon is pretty cool. And since it uses the full stat block save alignment and personality, an ancient dragon can get legendary and lair actions, although I imagine the latter won’t have enough time to come up in most campaigns. The dragon form more than makes up for the relative lack of features via Rule of Cool.Zeboim is our final evil deity, the goddess of the sea and storms. Given how important sea travel is in many cultures, she has many non-evil people seeking to appease her, but her clergy and full-time worshipers are still evil folk who run protection rackets in the vein of “give us stuff or else the weather will take a turn for the worst.” Piety is gained by protecting the sea and its inhabitants, fighting followers of Habbakuk, and acting on impulse, and is lost by doing the opposite. Her herald item is the trident Triad, which grants features such as being able to breathe underwater, warning of danger via advantage on initiative rolls and making the wearer and allies within 30 feet immune to surprise, and expending charges to cast water-related spells at its highest level. The water spells are kind of underwhelming, but the advantage on initiative rolls and immunity to surprise are so good that almost any character can find it of use.Branchala is our first good-aligned god, basically being your typical bardic deity of dance, music, and poetry who wants to put smiles on the faces of others. Piety is gained by engaging in joyous art and music as well as teaching someone else how to read, and is lost by harming artistic performances and encouraging emotional suppression. His herald item is the Leaf Blade rapier, which has features such as granting temporary hit points on a critical hit, being able to automatically deal counterattack damage in melee as long as you have said temporary hit points, playing a harmonic note to heal nearby allies and give them a Bless-like boon for one turn, and bonuses to AC and saving throws. The healing and bless boon take an action to use, so they’re rather underwhelming for the State at which they’re gained, although the passive bonuses to AC and saves are rather boring but useful in that they can stack with other sources.Habbakuk is the good-aligned nature god with a preference for the sea and thus is Zeboim’s natural enemy. He basically represents the lighter and softer side of nature in contrast to Chislev who is more all-encompassing. Piety is gained by basically acting like Captain Planet, and is lost by defiling nature, creating undead, and aiding a follower of Zeboim. His herald item is the Bow of the Blue Phoenix, which can spend charges to cast a variety of druid and ranger spells. The bow is good in getting some of the more exclusive spells of such classes, particularly Pass Without Trace and Hunter’s Mark.Kiri-Jolith is your typical Lawful Good god of honor, just warfare, and comradeship. You gain Piety by acting honorably in warfare, helping advise leaders, and defeating the followers of Hiddukel and Sargonnas, and lose Piety by doing things like disobeying oaths or causing needless loss of life. His herald item is the Sacred Defender, which can take the form of any sword and has mostly defensive features such as a once per day casting of the Shield spell and persistent bonuses to AC and saving throws. Overall, kind of boring yet functional, much like the Leaf Blade.Majere is the god of personal discipline and enlightenment, and has been the traditional patron deity of Monks throughout editions and many of his Clerics also have levels in that class. Piety is earned by living an ascetic lifestyle, preventing wars and large-scale conflicts, learning martial art styles and teaching them to others, and is lost by acting greedily and lazily. His herald item are Beads of Discipline which enhance the damage of unarmed strikes and weapon attacks and grant defensive features such as a bonus to AC and immunity to the charmed and frightened conditions. You get advantage on initiative rolls as the lowest-level feature, so technically it is useful to just about any build who fights with a weapon, not just monks, and the condition immunities are a very nice touch.Mishakal is the goddess of mercy, compassion, and healing. The text notes that she has evil as well as good clerics* and encourages using their talents freely and without discrimination. Evil clerics are known to charge for their services but aren’t allowed to reject those who can’t pay. Piety is earned by basically being a doctor, and is lost by refusing to heal others who ask for it as well as needlessly injuring others and suppressing knowledge of the healing arts. Her herald item is the quarterstaff Merciful Strike, which as you can guess has special features focusing exclusively on healing such as regaining a spell slot to cast a healing spell or healing some or all of a target’s hit points. Healing is pretty much a necessity for any adventuring party, so it’s useful for most builds but is best used for casters with access to healing magic.*Why? This isn’t present in any Dragonlance lore to my knowledge.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/plMLmNR.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Paladine is the leader of the good-aligned gods and is strongly associated with metallic dragons. He strongly emphasizes the power of redemption, and his means of gaining Piety aren’t really associated with doing “good things” besides “giving someone a second chance,” and instead are mostly stuff that involve strengthening the religious hierarchy like building a church in his name. Losing Piety is doing the opposite of these things plus knowingly aiding evil creatures. Which makes sense, as Paladine is one of those Lawful Good gods writers just seem to like turning into authoritarian and genocidal tyrants. This is usually in some vain attempt to say that too much good is just as bad as too much evil, which while is one of Dragonlance’s moral messages is something that has seeped into other D&D settings to various extents. His herald item is the Mighty Protector, which can take the form of any sword and grants features such as resistance to one of the elemental damage types plus poison, and can expend charges to gain a self-targeting Bless and AC bonus. As this is already stuff you can see in some of the other herald items, it doesn’t really feel unique. Even Takhisis, who has the energy damage boosts, lets you transform into a friggin’ dragon!Solinari is the patron deity of the Order of White Robes, encouraging arcane spellcasters to use their powers to make the world a better place. Piety is gained not necessarily by being a “good mage” but more of a general teacher such as learning, discovering, and uncovering magic, and Piety is lost by using magic for evil, restricting its use, or denying its existence. The last part sounds quite weird, as even though Krynn is a low-magic setting almost everyone knows that magic exists. Her herald item is the White Tome, which is like the other tomes. But whose bonus spells you’d expect to be mostly abjuration or divination are actually kind of all over the place, including such things as Chromatic Orb, Enlarge/Reduce, Blight, and Confusion.Thoughts: While I do appreciate making the involvement of the gods a more involved affair given how important they are to the setting and adventures, there’s a lot of odd choices in the deity descriptions that feel weird to me even with Dragonlance’s rather convoluted morality system. Mishakal having evil-aligned clerics is certainly a new spin on things, and having the neutral-aligned commerce god believe that poverty is the result of laziness is weird on account that it would make more sense for an evil-aligned Social Darwinist style deity. As the neutral gods are often portrayed as the most rational ones in the setting, this feels less like a personal character flaw and more the possibility of the writer trying to make certain political views a factual in-game writ. The herald items are pretty cool and have a better feel of “personal scaling item” than the Legacy Items do and are useful for classes beyond just clerics. On the one hand, this isn’t necessarily a complaint, as it makes sense in a way that Branchala would favor bards over typical divine casters, and Chislev would be best for druids. Some of them feel more exciting than others as mentioned above, but when you’re dealing with 21 deities this is bound to happen.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/HpXpANm.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> BestiaryThis short yet very artsy chapter provides us with 9 new creatures. We also get a table of monsters from the Monster Manual and other official sourcebooks deemed most appropriate for a Dragonlance campaign. The new monsters are within the 2nd and 3rd Tier range of Challenge Ratings, overall suited for mid-level play.Amphidragons are the offspring of dragon turtles and black or green dragons. They appear like fat winged toads, and while looked down upon by other dragons they are still very dangerous and are given to building hoard-filled lairs in swamps and coastal territories where they attack ships for their cargo. As a monster they are CR 14 and have many true dragon features such as Legendary Actions and Resistances, an acid breath weapon, and can attack with claws and an acidic grappling tongue which allows them to swallow creatures. They don’t have a fly speed, as their wings are vestigial.A Bone Amalgamation is the result of residual magic seeping into areas with lots of bones, such as mass graves. They are rarely created intentionally, being more the result of accidental circumstance, their bodies looking like a mishmash skeletal structure made up of many different creatures. They are CR 11 constructs, not undead, and constantly radiate a selective fear-based AoE, primarily attacking with a necrotic bite and grappling bony grasp attacks, and have a rechargeable Wail of the Damned which is an AoE cone dealing psychic damage that can deafen and incapacitate. The monster even has a feature called Unusual Nature, saying that it doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep, even though such abilities can be presumed by default as it’s a construct.A Cat Fiend is a demonic humanoid feline originating from the Abyss, and are the sworn enemies of the goddess Bast and her feline followers. They are CR 8 creatures who primarily attack with bites and claws, although they are capable spellcasters and have magic such as Darkness, Pass Without Trace, and Cone of Cold. They also have a Beam of Hatred ranged attack which in addition to dealing damage can force a struck target to move and attack a nearby creature if they fail a Wisdom save. Cat fiends are very hard to kill, for whenever they are dropped to 0 hit points they disappear for 24 hours as they lose one of their 9 lives. All of its remaining lives can be lost at once if the killing blow is delivered by Bast or one of her followers.Wait, Bast? Isn’t she not a canon god? Well funny you should mention that. There’s an old and silly novel known as the Brothers Majere where Takhisis took the logic of Saturday Morning Cartoon villains: where in order to enter Krynn and rule the world, she had to have all the world’s cats killed. From reviews I recall reading that laser guns were also involved and it contradicted the canon of other novels, so take it as you will.Dream Wraiths are literal manifestations of nightmares, feeding off the life energy of sleeping victims. Due to their nature they can appear as virtually anything, and they single out individual victims to torment. They are CR 7 undead and come with a large amount of resistances and immunities, radiate a constant AoE fear aura, their primary attacks are a necrotic ranged Fright Blast and a melee Joy Drain that also damages Charisma, their spells hew towards enchantment and illusion, and they have a rechargeable Waking Nightmare attack that can damage and paralyze victims. “Waking up” from this requires an Investigation check to realize that the nightmare isn’t real.A Fetch is a shape changing fiend who appears in reflective surfaces which they can use as portals to enter the Material Plane. They are naturally invisible when on said plane, and are obsessed with hunting a single victim to drag back to the Abyss in order to turn into a few fetch. They are CR 6 and very much built to be ambush predators, having features such as advantage on initiative rolls when surprising a creature, can change shape to take on the appearance of someone it sees through a reflective surface, and hide as a bonus action. They have a rather deadly Mirrored Weapon attack that takes on the properties of their victim’s weapon, but still deals the same 3d8+4 damage. Each hit reduces the target’s hit point maximum on a failed Charisma save, which is only restored by a long rest.A Fireshadow is a powerful undead creature born in the flames of the Abyss, appearing as formless green fire. Despite being intelligent, they have no real ambitions or goals besides to spread chaos, so spellcasters who summon them into the world often do so as a kind of magical WMD. The book contradicts itself, giving it the fiend type in the stat block but calling it undead in the descriptive text. It was undead in prior Editions, so if I had to make a decision I’d go with that type. It is a CR 12 creature who fights with burning claws, a rechargeable Ray of Oblivion that is like a weaker Disintegrate, creatures it kills turn into Green Flame Spawns* under the monster’s control which it can also absorb to heal itself, and it radiates a close-range aura of fire.*I don’t know what sourcebook this monster is from, so it’s full capabilities aren’t of immediate use. The Ghost Rat is a unique specific monster that lives in an ancient maze-like temple northeast of the elven nation of Qualinesti. It appears as a 15 foot tall rat that walks on its two hind legs, and although a servant of Morgion many worship it as a false god which it doesn’t seem to mind. Its worshipers tend to be social outcasts and gather in basements, alleys, and abandoned buildings.The Ghost Rat is very much a boss monster, being CR 14 with legendary resistance, legendary actions, and lair actions. It can become ethereal as an action, is naturally incorporeal, has a bite attack that can spread disease that reduces a target’s hit point maximum over a long period of time, a grappling tail attack, a rechargeable gaze attack that can shrink targets down one size category, can shrink to Tiny size as a reaction, and its lair actions include creepy stuff like summoning swarms of rats, causing stone walls to drop from the ceiling, and creating spheres of magical darkness.Horaxes are  horse-sized centipedes that live underground throughout Krynn. Little is known about them besides the fact that they lair in deep underground colonies, and there are mythical gigantic versions known as earthshaker horaxes who sadly have no stats in this book. The default horax is a CR 8 monster that is similar to an ankheg in that it is mostly melee focused, has a burrow speed and tremorsense, and can emit a spray of blinding acid as a rechargeable attack.Skrits are horse-sized beetles with hemispherical shells and spiked tails. They live in deserts and are commonly domesticated by the inhabitants of such regions as mounts and beasts of burden. They are CR 5, and like most nonmagical animals they don’t have much going for them besides melee attacks, but their bite attack has a paralyzing poison and their tail attack has reach. They can deal a lot of bonus acid damage when biting paralyzed targets, but should they be knocked prone they suffer a massive penalty to Armor Class (19 default, reduced by 7 and takes an action to unprone). This last feature is called Prone to Problems, which is a funny and clever title.Thoughts: If I had to pick favorites, it would go to the Ghost Rat. While its full capabilities are best done in a pre-built dungeon crawl, its stats are clearly pointing at it as a hit and run monster, and as a powerful servant of Morgion it works well as its appearance as a giant rat can be deceiving for a CR 14 monster. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI-FBuKOLgU" target="_blank">Never underestimate the power of the plague rat of doom!</a>Quite a bit of these monsters feel designed to be defeated in peculiar ways or have means of counfounding PCs who hope to just wail on them. The Cat Fiend will just keep coming back unless the PCs have the right animal or allied NPC at their side to kill it, Fetches are difficult to root out unless you take advantage of their obsessive need to hunt a singular target, and horaxes are conventional ambush predators who like ankhegs can burrow out of sight. Personally speaking the horax feels too much like that monster and I would have preferred some more unique distinguishing features. The oddities in the Bone Amalgam and Fireshadow descriptions point out evidence of poor editing. On the plus side, a lot of these monsters make use of rechargeable abilities, spells, or interesting actions that help expand their tactical capabilities beyond just being bags of hit points, so I give the Companion props for that.Thoughts So Far: The chapter on time travel could have been excised or expanded with more useful advice, and while I like the Piety system and herald items I do raise my eyebrow at some of the creative liberties. Particularly certain deities’ ethos and the incorporation of the Great Wheel cosmology. The monster chapter was overall my favorite, as many of them look fun and interesting to run in combat.Join us next time as we check out some of the Companion’s adventures!</blockquote>

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