Libris Mortis - The Book of Undead

[IronWolf]

Libris Mortis - The Book of Undead
By Andy Collins and Bruce R. Cordell
Wizards of the Coast product number 179240000
190 pages, $29.95

Libris Mortis is the second in the series of creature-type-focused books from WotC, the first being the exceptional Draconomicon. (And how appropriate it is that I'm posting this review on Halloween!) While this book is a worthy addition to the line, it fails to live up to the high standards set by the former book in the series.

The cover artwork is by Tom Kidd, and while I'm glad to see the continuation of the wraparound cover painting theme, this work is nowhere near as good as the cover to the Draconomicon. It depicts a necromancer animating skeletons in a graveyard; oddly enough, the three skeletons on the front all seem to be crawling out of the same coffin/sarcophagus. The painting looks to be a watercolor (although I'm certainly no expert), but whatever the medium, it doesn't provide a whole lot of detail. All in all, about the best thing I can say about the cover is that it isn't as bad as the thumbnail that was up as a placeholder on the WotC website as an advertisement for the book before it was actually released.

As for the interior artwork, it is much better, with a total of 13 different artists providing 91 different illustrations, most of them in color (although there are a few filler black-and-white pieces showing up from previous books, like the spider from the Book of Vile Darkness on page 188). Some of the pieces are simply outstanding: personally, I think Steve Prescott's Master of Radiance (one of the prestige classes detailed in the book) on page 45 is the best-looking 3.0/3.5 female elf I've ever seen anywhere, and Steve Belledin's depiction of the necrotic burst spell on page 68 is one of the creepiest pictures I've ever seen in a D&D book (the look of absolute horror on the afflicted victim really helps sell it). On the down side, I really miss Arnie Swekel's great artwork on the chapter heading pages (he did the ones in the Player's Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide, among others); Chuck Lukacs does the similar honors here, and they just stand out as not being up to Swekel's work. I was very pleased to see that each of the new monsters got its own illustration this time, although some of them were a bit odd (like, how does the deathlock's cape on page 94 stay up? - it isn't attached to anything and there are no fasteners involved!). Besides the artwork, there are also 11 full-color maps in the book, and while they're functional as such, they didn't really strike me as anything terrific (but perhaps that's more of a reflection of the fairly ho-hum mini-adventures they were tied in with).

Libris Mortis is laid out as follows:

• Introduction: A single page intro to the book, including a sidebar explaining the name "Libris Mortis"
• All About Undead: Origins of undeath; undead physiology, metabolism, propagation, development, and senses; outlook and psychology, sentience, time and immortality, compassion, and spawn; society; religion (with descriptions of 5 deities relating to the undead); and a section on fighting undead
• Character Options: 58 new feats related to the undead - 28 of them General, 6 of them Divine, 6 of them Metamagic, and 18 of them Monstrous; plus Savage Species-like "monster levels" for those wishing to run a ghoul, ghast, mohrg, mummy, vampire spawn, or wight PC
• Prestige Classes: 7 prestige classes for the living, and 4 prestige classes for undead
• Spells: 57 new spells related to the undead and necromancy
• Equipment: 6 special items and alchemical substances, 7 positoxins (poison equivalents that affect undead), 2 armor properties, 8 types of magic armor, 6 weapon properties, 4 magic rods, 13 wondrous items, and 14 undead grafts
• New Monsters: 47 new monsters (11 of them templates), ranging from CR 1/2 to CR 16
• Campaigns: Incorporating undead into the campaign, sample ghosts, liches, skeletons, vampires, and zombies, 5 cults of undeath, and 6 adventure sites (mini-adventures)

The proofreading this time around was not too bad, but not as good as I would have expected from a company with the resources of WotC. In fact, the credits page lists a three-person development team, two editors and a managing editor, two design managers, a development manager, and two production managers, but no proofreader. Who, then, is responsible for the instances of improper capitalization, typos resulting in different words ("tough" instead of "though," "form" instead of "from"), typos resulting in nonsense ("potiosn," "flesh0eating"), improper space usage creating an unintentional compound word ("humanoidthat"), improper pluralization, added words that don't belong in the sentence, sentences missing words, improper word usage ("while" instead of "which"), two entire paragraphs showing up twice in the same section on incorporealness, an accidental carriage return which bumps part of a sentence down one line, and improper terminology ("Improved Toughness," one of the new feats, is referred to once as "Undying Toughness," an NPC's name is referred to once each as both "Trival" and "Tival," and another NPC is called "Thredra Aranax on page 52 and "Theridus" on page 53), an incomplete sentence, and several missing closing parentheses? Plus, there are numerous instances where spell names are not italicized, as is the norm. There's nothing in here bad enough to make it incomprehensible, merely annoying.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the material in this book. The first chapter, All About Undead, has several nice tables that gather together all of the material about a given topic, making it easier for the user to do topical research, rather than looking all over between different spells or whatever. For example, Table 1-4 on page 20 details all of the different positive energy effects that can be used to harm undead, Table 1-5 on the same page lists all of the effects of sunlight-related spells as they apply to undead, Table 1-7 on the following page lists all the different ways to restore ability damage/drain, and so forth. The feats and spells are all relevant to the topic at hand, and seem pretty well balanced, although naturally some of them will probably see much more use than others. (As an example, Improved Toughness grants one extra hit point per Hit Die, the equivalent of a +2 Constitution bonus for that effect only; naturally, quite a lot of the new undead - who lack Constitution scores - in the "New Monsters" section of the book take advantage of this critical feat. It also makes Toughness pretty pointless unless you have less than 3 HD, since Improved Toughness is a General feat, available even to the living. Also, it makes me wonder why the Tomb Warden undead prestige class has Toughness as a prerequisite, when "Toughness or Improved Toughness" would make more sense now.) There's a really nice four-page discussion on the effects of incorporealness, a topic that confuses many. Some of the spells did leave me with a question or two, though:

• p. 62, Avuncular Mass: This spell causes "any living creature" struck by the ray to "violently purge blood vessels through its skin," yet the spell description fails to take into account living creatures without blood vessels, such as oozes and plants. Does the spell not affect them, or does it have a similar effect on them using something other than blood vessels?
• p. 66, Ghoul Gesture: This is basically a ranged touch paralyzation ray, but it neglects to mention whether elves are immune (just how close is it to a ghoul's paralyzation, to which elves are immune?), and it also mentions that those creatures immune to poison are immune to the stench - but nowhere in the spell's description does it mention any stench effect.

It was also nice to see a bunch of different undead-related organizations, perfect for use as antagonists towards the PCs, and it was especially nice to see a sample NPC from each organization statted up. Likewise, the sample adventuring locations, while nothing exciting, can be used at a moment's notice if the DM suddenly finds himself in need of a set of catacombs or underground revivification laboratory. I was also pleased to see that the prestige classes were allowed to be whatever size best fit, rather than artificially forcing them all to be 5-level or 10-level prestige classes. (One has only 3 levels in all, and another has 14!)

However, I expect that most readers, like myself, will gravitate towards the "New Monsters" section to see what kinds of undead nastiness the authors have come up with for us. This chapter is the second-largest in the book, comprising a total of 52 pages out of the 190. There are some really cool and interesting creatures in here, with a fairly wide CR range spread (1/2 to 16). Plus, the 11 templates should allow each DM to create an endless cascade of new undead creatures to spring on his unsuspecting players. I was a bit surprised to see that several other companies had already beaten WotC to some of these template concepts, though: the Libris Mortis "Revived Fossil" is pretty much the same concept as the "Paleoskeleton" from Silverthorne Games' The Deluxe Book of Templates (the Paleoskeleton template having been created by Erica Balsley, "DnDChick" on the EN World messageboards) and that same work also has a "Half-Vampire" template similar to the one presented here. And while I am overall very pleased with the concepts of most of the new creatures presented in Libris Mortis, once again I'm simply shocked at the vast number of mistakes made in their statistics. There were even quite a few instances where 3.0 terminology was used in the stat blocks ("Face/Reach" instead of "Space/Reach," "Climate/Terrain" instead of "Environment," and so on), which was especially puzzling - just how long has 3.5 been on the market now? Since there are NPCs scattered throughout several of the other chapters (and many of those had errors with their stats as well), all in all I think there are probably more stat errors in Libris Mortis than there were in Monster Manual III - not a very good trend there, WotC! On the other hand, since Libris Mortis is much more than just a book of monsters, I can't really focus as much weight upon the stat errors in this book as I did with Monster Manual III. In any case, in the interests of starting up an errata list for Libris Mortis and to help those who are interested in fixing up the monster/NPC stats for their own campaign use (and with the standard disclaimer that this is by no means a complete list, merely what I noticed reading through the book one time), I suggest the following changes be made:

• p. 42, Larrack the Death's Chosen: Greatsword attacks should be at +16 melee, not +15 (+8 BAB, +5 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 magic weapon bonus, +1 morale bonus due to his Bravery of the Chosen class feature, which the asterisked note said was already factored into his stats - it wasn't). Greatsword damage should be 2d6+11/19-20, not 2d6+10/19-20 (+7 Str [+5 Str bonus times 1.5 for a two-handed weapon], +1 magic weapon bonus, +2 Weapon Specialization, +1 morale due to Bravery of the Chosen).
• p. 46, Branna Caersiccus, the Master of Radiance: AC should be 17, not 16 (+4 +1 hide armor, +2 +1 light shield, +1 deflection from a ring of protection +1). Touch AC should be 11, not 10. Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 16. Scimitar attacks should be at +9 melee, not +10 (+6 BAB, +2 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus). Of course, she has Weapon Focus (heavy mace) and no heavy mace, so if you change that to Weapon Focus (scimitar), everything works out. (My unproven hypothesis: the stats were originally written with a heavy mace attack, then switched - incompletely - once they saw Scott Prescott's fantastic illustration of Branna with a scimitar on her belt but no heavy mace.) Also, while this is an individual NPC and thus "average hit points" don't come into play, I'll just point out that with HD10d8+10 and 48 hp, she rolled pretty poorly (average hp would be 59, not 48).
• p. 47, Kaetta Bale, the Master of Shrouds: AC should be 19, not 18 (-1 Dex, +9 +1 full plate, +1 deflection from ring of protection +1). Touch AC should be 10, not 9. Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 18.
• p. 49, Ugen Allai, the Pale Master: Thrown dagger attacks should be at +6 ranged, not +5 (+4 BAB, +1 Dex, +1 masterwork dagger). Also, "Familiar" is listed as a Special Quality, but he's chosen not to summon a familiar. (Actually, that's true of almost every NPC in Libris Mortis that has the ability to summon a familiar, probably to cut down on the word count and make room for more goodies. After all, it isn't too difficult to create the stats for whatever familiar you might choose to give an NPC such as Ugen here.)
• p. 83, Angel of Decay: Grapple should be +30, not +35 (+13 BAB, +4 size, +13 Str). Also, assuming the -5 Power Attack strategy is being followed as suggested, claw attacks should be at +20 melee, not +21 (+13 BAB, -1 size, +13 Str, -5 Power Attack), and wing slam attacks should be at +15 melee, not +16 (+13 BAB, -1 size, +13 Str, -5 Power Attack, -5 for secondary attack).
• p. 84, Atropal Scion: Slam attacks should be at +5 melee, not +6 (+4 BAB, +1 Str).
• p. 85, Blaspheme: Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 15 (+9 natural).
• p. 86, Bleakborn: Grapple should be +10, not "-" (+4 BAB, +6 Str).
• p. 87, Blood Amniote: Flat-footed AC should be 21, not 11 (-2 size, +13 natural). Grapple should be +19, not +18 (+7 BAB due to ooze traits, +8 size, +4 Str). Also, is there supposed to be a save against its Blood Call ability (which drains 1d4 Con)? - None is listed. Blood Call is described as affecting "living creatures" - what about plants (no blood)?
• p. 88, Bloodmote Cloud: Initiative should be +1, not "-" as listed. Touch AC should be 19, not 11 (+8 size, +1 Dex).
• p. 88, Bone Rat Swarm Distraction Fortitude save should be DC 12, not DC 15 (10 + 2 + 0).
• p. 89, Boneyard: With 17 HD, it should have 6 feats, not 7. (One should either be removed or annotated as a bonus feat.)
• p. 90, Brain in a Jar: Its Fly speed is listed as both "30 ft." and "8 squares." Obviously, that should either be "40 ft. (8 squares)" or "30 ft. (6 squares)." AC should be 15, not 13 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +1 deflection). Touch AC should be 15, not 13. Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 11.
• p. 91, Carcass Eater: With 1 HD, it should have 1 feat, not 2. (One should be deleted or annotated as a bonus feat.) Also, there's no Treasure line in the stats; presumably it should be "None."
• p. 92, Corpse Rat Swarm: Distraction Fortitude save should be DC 14, not DC 15 (10 + 4 + 0).
• p. 93, Crypt Chanter: Incorporeal touch attacks should be at +7 melee, not +6 (+3 BAB, +4 Dex).
• pp. 94-95, Dessicator: The stats claim that the slam damage is 1d6, but the Fatiguing Touch description claims it's 1d8 - which is it? I assume 1d6 is accurate; it's a Small creature.
• p. 95, Dire Maggot: AC should be 19, not 16 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +6 natural). Touch AC should be 13, not 10. Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 14. Grapple should be +1, not +15 (+4 BAB, -4 size, +1 Str). Bite attacks should be at +6 melee, not +3 (+4 BAB, +1 size, +1 Str). Bite damage should be 1d8+1, not 1d8+2 (it has a +1 Str bonus). Space should be 5 ft., not 15 ft. Reach should be 5 ft., not 10 ft. There's no Treasure line listed; presumably it's "None." The painting (and the -2 size modifier to AC as listed in the stats) indicate a Huge creature, not a Small one - perhaps the creature was reworked during the course of the book? Also, isn't it odd that a 4-foot-long maggot has a Speed of 40 ft.? I think I'd recommend dropping this down to at least 20 ft. Finally, maggots are larval forms of creatures like flies; what does a dire maggot grow up to be? No answer is provided here.
• p. 96, Dream Vestige: Grapple should be "-" instead of +16 (incorporeal creatures can't grapple). Average hit points should be 144, not 110 (it gets +34 hp from its Desecrating Aura special ability). Tendril attacks should be at +13 melee touch, not +15 (+8 BAB, -2 size, +5 Dex, +2 profane due to Desecrating Aura). Desecrating Aura damage should be 3d6+2, not 3d6 (the +2 profane bonus also applies to damage).
• p. 97, Entomber: Grapple should be +10, not +11 (+4 BAB, +6 Str).
• p. 98, Entropic Reaper: Okay, this is a really nitpicky one, even for me - its feats aren't alphabetized.
• p. 99, Evolved Wraith: Alertness and Improved Initiative should be annotated as bonus feats, as per the wraith entry in the Monster Manual. Constitution Drain Fortitude save should be DC 15, not DC 14 (10 + 2 + 3).
• p. 101, Ghost Brute Hound (against Material Plane opponents): Track should be annotated as a bonus feat. "Face/Reach" should be "Space/Reach." "Climate/Terrain" should be "Environment." No Level Adjustment was given; it should be "-" no doubt.
• p. 102, Ghost Brute Hound (against Ethereal Plane opponents): Same as above.
• p. 105, Grave Dirt Golem: Grapple should be +18, not +19 (+8 BAB, +4 size, +6 Str).
• pp. 106-107, Half-Vampire 1st-Level Gnoll Barbarian: In the Rage stats, AC should be 14, not 16 (-2 to AC due to Rage), and Grapple should read "+7," not "++5/+7." This creature shouldn't have Uncanny Dodge, as that's a feature of 2nd-level barbarians, and he's only 1st level.
• p. 108, Hooded Pupil Ettin: Grapple should be +18, not +17 (+7 BAB, +4 size, +7 Str). Morningstar damage should be 2d6+7, not 2d6+8. Javelin damage should be 1d8+7, not 1d8+6 (as it reads in the Attack line) or 1d8+8 (as it reads in the Full Attack line).
• p. 109, Hulking Corpse: Grapple should be +22, not +20 (+10 BAB, +4 size, +8 Str). It has 20 HD, yet Advancement starts at 25 HD - what about 21-24 HD?
• p. 110, Mummified Ogre: "Face/Reach" should be "Space/Reach." "Climate/Terrain" should be "Environment." No Level Adjustment is given; should be +6. Mummy rot Fortitude save should be DC 12, not DC 16 (this was probably just copied and pasted from the Mummy entry in the Monster Manual).
• p. 112, Murk: 30 ft. does not equal 8 squares; its Speed should either be "Fly 30 ft. (6 squares)" or "Fly 40 ft. (8 squares)."
• pp. 115-116, Plague Blight: "Face/Reach" should be "Space/Reach." With 6 HD, it should have 3 feats, not 4 - one should be dropped or annotated as a bonus feat. No Level Adjustment is given.
• p. 116, Quell: With 5 HD, it should have 2 feats, not 4. Delete Weapon Finesse in any case, as it's an incorporeal creature and incorporeal creatures use their Dexterity modifiers for melee attacks anyway. Make the 3rd feat a bonus feat.
• p. 117, Raiment: HD should be 3d12, not 3d8 (it's undead, and undead have d12s for HD). This means that average hit points should be 19, not 13. Grapple should be +3, not +5 (+1 BAB, -4 size, +4 Improved Grab, +2 Str). Coat sleeve attacks should be at +4 melee, not +6 (+1 BAB, +1 size, +2 Str).
• p. 118, Revived Fossil Megaraptor: Average hit points should be 92, not 118. According to the rule on page 119, its Will save should be +6, not +4 (1/2 the creature's HD + 2, or in this case 4 + 2).
• p. 119, Skin Kite: Average hit points should be 26, not 24. Grapple should be -2, not -4 (+2 BAB, -4 size), and it should be +10 when attached, not +8 (it has a +12 grapple bonus when attached, although the section with the racial bonus doesn't actually specify "when attached"). Touch attacks should be at +7 melee, not +8 (+2 BAB, +1 size, +4 Dex due to Weapon Finesse).
• p. 120, Skirr: Grapple should be +18, not +20 (+4 BAB, +8 size, +6 Str). Bite attacks should be at +9 melee, not +11 (+4 BAB, -2 size, +6 Str, +1 Weapon Focus). Claw attacks should be at +6 melee, not +9 (+4 BAB, -2 size, +6 Str, -2 for a secondary attack due to Multiattack). Bite damage should be 2d8+6, not 2d8+8. Claw damage should be 2d6+3, not 2d6+4. Of course, if you bump the creature's Strength up from 22 to 26, all of this gets fixed except for the claw attacks, which would be at +8 melee, not +9). With 9 HD, it should have 4 feats, not 5 - one should either be dropped or annotated as a bonus feat.
• pp. 120-121, Skulking Cyst: Intestine loop attacks (yes, you read that correctly) should be at +7 melee, not +6 (+2 BAB, +1 size, +4 Dex due to Weapon Finesse). "Face/Reach" should be "Space/Reach."
• p. 121, Slaughter Wight: It has 18 HD, yet Advancement starts at 15-21 HD. Energy Drain Fortitude save should be DC 22, not DC 21 (10 + 9 + 3).
• p. 122, Slaymate: Grapple should be -1, not "-" (+2 BAB, -4 size, +1 Str).
• p. 124, Swarm-Shifter, 13th-Level Mummy King Druid, Beetle Swarm Form: With an AC breakdown of "(+4 size, +5 Dex, +10 natural)," flat-footed AC should be 24, not 25.
• p. 124, Swarm-Shifter, 13th-Level Mummy King Druid, Sand Swarm Form: With an AC breakdown of "(+8 size, +6 Dex, +10 natural)," AC should be 34, not 30; touch AC should be 24, not 30; and flat-footed AC should be 28, not 25.
• p. 124, Swarm-Shifter, 13th-Level Mummy King Druid, Scorpion Swarm Form: With an AC breakdown of "(+4 size, +5 Dex, +10 natural)," flat-footed AC should be 24, not 25.
• p. 128, Tomb Mote: With HD 3d12, average hit points should be 19, not 13.
• pp. 128-129, Umbral Displacer Beast: Incorporeal touch attacks should be at +6 melee, not +7 (+3 BAB, -1 size, +4 Dex). "Face/Reach" should be "Space/Reach." "Climate/Terrain" should be "Environment." No Level Adjustment given; it should be "-" I'd imagine.
• pp. 129-130, Umbral Creature: This isn't exactly a stat problem, just a concept one - why does a humanoid become a shadow if drained of all Strength by an umbral creature, but an aberration, dragon, giant, magical beast, or monstrous humanoid with a Charisma of 8 or more drained of all Strength by an umbral creature doesn't become an umbral creature? How do umbral creatures replicate themselves, then? Oh, and "Climate/Terrain" should be "Environment."
• p. 131, Voidwraith: Why does this incorporeal creature have a natural armor bonus, a grapple bonus, and a Strength score, none of which incorporeal creatures are supposed to have? Taking them away, AC should be 17, not 22, and flat-footed AC should be 12, not 17. Also, you can trade in Weapon Finesse for a different feat, since it isn't going to do much for an incorporeal creature. Of course, air elementals aren't incorporeal, so perhaps voidwraiths ("undead manifestations of elemental air") shouldn't be, either - in which case, drop the +2 deflection bonus to AC: AC would be 20, not 22, touch AC would be 15, not 17, and flat-footed AC would be 15, not 17. Whichever way you look at it, this creature needs some major stat-fixing!
• p. 132, Wheep: Grapple should be +15, not +11 (+4 BAB, +11 Str). It has 9 HD, yet Advancement starts at 9-16 HD. There's no mention in the creature's description about the mouths in the middle of the monster's palms (as illustrated) - should they be there?
• p. 147, Korath the Elder, male ghost stone giant elder sorcerer 4: BAB should be +12, not +11 (+10 as a stone giant, +2 for being a Sor4). Grapple should be +23, not +22 (+12 BAB, +4 size, +7 Str). Greatclub attacks should be at +18 melee, not +17 (+12 BAB, -1 size, +7 Str), and +18/+13/+8 melee for Full Attack, not +17/+12/+7.
• p. 147, Laddy Bristerbuck, male ghost halfling rogue 6: Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 15 (due to Uncanny Dodge). Flat-footed AC against ethereal foes should be 18, not 14 (also due to Uncanny Dodge).
• p. 148, Narthal, female ghost kraken: In Full Attack, "6 tentacles" should be "6 arms" - there's a difference between a kraken's shorter arms and its longer tentacles.
• p. 149, Stronglimb, male ghost treant: Flat-footed AC should be 10, not 11 (you don't ignore a negative Dexterity modifier when flat-footed).
• p. 150, Xelkir, ghost beholder: Against ethereal opponents, the Attack line should read "+9 ranged touch (special, eye rays) and +8 melee (2d4, bite)."
• p. 155, Krilla Darkhand, female goblin lich adept 11: Touch attacks should be at +4 melee touch, not +3 (+5 BAB, +1 size, -2 Str). Masterwork light crossbow attacks should be at +9 ranged, not +8 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +2 Dex, +1 masterwork). Touch of fatigue spell should have a +4 melee touch, not +3 (+5 BAB, +1 size, -2 Str). Her familiar isn't specified; from its stats, it looks like a weasel.
• p. 156, Tevangia Zail, female half-elf lich evoker 13/archmage 5: With HD 18d12+3, and false life adding +15 hp, for her to have 171 hp she'd have to have rolled an "11" on each of her HD rolls! (Average hit points should be 135, taking into account her 3 hp from Toughness and her 15 hp from false life.)
• p. 158, Kobold Warrior Skeleton: Grapple should be -5, not -3 (+0 BAB, -4 size, -1 Str).
• p. 158, Crocodile Skeleton: No AC values given, just the breakdowns (and one of those is wrong!); it should read "AC 14 (+2 Dex, +2 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 12."
• p. 158, Dire Badger Skeleton: Space/Reach line is blank; it should be "5 ft./5 ft."
• p. 159, Deinonychus Skeleton: Initiative should be +7, not +6 (+3 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative).
• p. 160, Athach Skeleton: Since it no longer has the Multiweapon Fighting feat, this creature should probably have a Full Attack line with one morningstar attack (at +13 melee), 2 claw attacks (at +8 melee), and a bite (at +8 melee).
• p. 160, Nine-Headed Hydra Skeleton: Grapple should be +17, not +18 (+4 BAB, +8 size, +5 Str). Also, its Attack and Full Attack lines should include bite attacks by 9 heads, not just 8.
• p. 163, Baanmukh, male fiendish minotaur vampire: Powerful Charge attack should be at +12 melee, not +9 (+6 BAB, -1 size, +7 Str).
• p. 164, Izrok Radja, male drow elf vampire necromancer 11: Rapier damage should be 1d6+3, not 1d6+2 (+2 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus).
• p. 164, Karadag, female sahuagin vampire cleric 7: Slam damage should be 1d6+6 plus energy drain, not 1d6+5 plus energy drain (+5 Str, +1 amulet of mighty fists). Heavy crossbow attacks should be at +11 ranged, not +10 (+7 BAB, +3 Dex, +1 magic weapon bonus). Under Full Attack, bite attacks should be at +11 melee, not +8 (+7 BAB, +5 Str, -2 for secondary attack with Multiattack, +1 amulet of mighty fists - a bite is a natural weapon). It shouldn't gain a +2 to its Constitution score as part of its Blood Frenzy special attack; as an undead creature, it has no Constitution score. Rake attacks should be at +11, not +10, due to the amulet of mighty fists (rake attacks are with natural weapons, too).
• p. 165, Pyotar Umarov, male human vampire ex-paladin 1/blackguard 10: AC should be 29, not 28 (+2 Dex, +11 full plate +3, +6 natural). Touch AC should be 12, not 11.
• p. 166, Riikos, male derro vampire sorcerer 5: Vulnerability to Sunlight (as a derro) is irrelevant, as it can't take Constitution damage and the vampiric vulnerability to sunlight supersedes it. Ray of frost, touch of fatigue, ray of enfeeblement, shocking grasp, and touch of idiocy spells should be at +10 melee touch, not +9 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +4 Dex).
• p. 166, Weasel familiar: AC should be 17, not 20 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +3 natural). Flat-footed AC should be 15, not 18. Intelligence should be 8, not 11 (its master is a 5th-level sorcerer), and it shouldn't have the Speak with Animals ability yet.
• p. 167, Satoris, male pureblood yuan-ti vampire ranger 3: Scimitar attacks should be at +11 melee, not +12 (+7 BAB, +3 Str, +1 magic weapon bonus). Slam attacks should be at +10 melee, not +11 (+7 BAB, +3 Str). Full Attack line should read "+9/+4 melee (1d6+4 plus 1 Con/18-20, +1 scimitar of wounding) and +8 melee (1d6+3 plus energy drain, slam)" due to his Two-Weapon fighting feat.
• p. 167, Shamila Garrick, female gnome vampire bard 10: Grapple should be +4, not +5 (+7 BAB, -4 size, +1 Str).
• p. 170, Dire Rat Zombie: Speed should include "Climb 20 ft."
• p. 170, Gnome Warrior Zombie: Initiative should be -1, not +3.
• p. 170, Goblin Warrior Zombie: Reflex save should be +0, not +1.
• p. 172, Dire Ape Zombie: AC line is incomplete; should read "AC 17 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16."
• p. 174, Uther Kyush, male elf rogue 5/assassin 5: Flat-footed AC should be 23, not 18 (due to Uncanny Dodge, he retains his +5 Dex modifier even while flat-footed).
• p. 175, Cyranthus, male half-elf rogue 1/cleric 5: Speed should be 30 ft., not 20 ft. (He's wearing a chain shirt, not chainmail.) As a 6th-level NPC, he should have 3 feats, not just 2.
• pp. 175-176, Tarek Duskwood, male halfling rogue 5/fighter 2: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 15 (due to Uncanny Dodge). Dagger attacks should be at +10 melee, not +9 (+5 BAB, +1 size, +3 Dex due to Weapon Finesse, +1 masterwork).
• p. 176, Tival, female half-orc fighter 2: Touch AC should be 10, not 11 (half-plate armor has a maximum Dexterity bonus of +0, so she doesn't get her +1 Dex modifier). Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 16 (+0 Dex, +7 half-plate).
• p. 181, Myphosoles, male ogre mage vampire: AC should be 28, not 26 (-1 size, +2 Dex, +11 natural, +6 +2 chain shirt). Touch AC should be 11, not 9 (-1 size, +2 Dex).
• p. 182, Mother Shemmel, female human cleric 10: Warhammer attacks should be at +10 melee, not +8 (+7 BAB, +1 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 either magic weapon bonus [as it states in the stats] or +1 masterwork bonus [as it states in the Possessions entry]). (The damage entry implies that it's a +1 warhammer, not just a masterwork warhammer.) Crossbow attacks should be at +7 ranged, not +6 (+7 BAB, -1 Dex, +1 magic weapon bonus on the bolts).
• p. 184, Lieutenant, human rogue 6: Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 14 (due to Uncanny Dodge).
• p. 187, Indrimi, female human wizard 5/pale master 4: HD should be 9d4+27, not 9d4+36 (she has a +3 Constitution bonus). As a result, average hit points should be 51, not 60. Speed should be 30 ft. not 20 ft.
• p. 190, Cenopulchre, atropal scion cleric 4: HD should be 13d12+13, not 13d12+9. Average hit points should be 97, not 90. Missing the feats Alertness, Improved Initiative, and Lightning Reflexes from being an atropal scion. Slam attacks should be at +8 melee, not +9 (+7 BAB, +1 Str).

And that's my list. Pretty disappointing, if you ask me - sure, most of these are off by only a point or two, but there's just so many of them! (And wouldn't you expect the industry leader to do a better job at the stat work than this?) Between all of the NPCs being added onto the monster list, I lost track of how many individual creature stats there are in Libris Mortis, but I can tell you that there are many more with an error in them somewhere than there are in which I didn't find any errors (as an off-the-cuff guess, I'd say that probably around 75% of the monster/NPC stats had something wrong with them; hopefully, I haven't made any errors of my own while going through the stats in this book - if so, I trust they'll be pointed out to me). Given that both Andy Collins and Bruce R. Cordell have been professional game designers for years, I really would have expected better of them.

So, where does that leave Libris Mortis? Without any stats errors at all, I'd probably put the book at the border of a "high 4/low 5." As it is, I'll have to go with a "high 3/low 4." Since, as I mentioned earlier, there's a great deal of the book that doesn't involve stats at all (spells, feats, prestige classes, organizations, mini-adventures, and general background knowledge about undead creatures), I'll go with the higher value and end up with a low "4 (Good)." However, I would hope that the next book in this series (Codex Anathema, dealing with aberrations) would have quite a bit more attention to detail given to the monster stats! I also noticed that Libris Mortis was significantly smaller than Draconomicon, and lacked the list of every monster of the specified creature type to appear in a WotC 3.0/3.5 product (including Dragon and Dungeon magazines); hopefully that isn't going to be a trend with the series. There have been some interesting undead creatures in the pages of Dragon since 3.0 first came out, and it would have been cool to see the complete listing.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Nightmares from Beyond the Grave

Hushed voices tell spine-chilling tales of encounters with the walking dead and other unliving horrors. No other creatures have evoked such fear and fascination as this dreadful menagerie of malevolent spirits and mindless shells.

This supplement for the D&D game presents a comprehensive overview of the undead. You’ll uncover information for creating, customizing, and combating undead characters and monsters -- including strategies and tactics commonly employed by undead and those who hunt them. Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead also provides new rules, feats, spells, and prestige classes, along with a host of new monsters and monster templates.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Just a sidecomment: The half-vampire used in Libris Mortis seems to be lifted from the article "Born of Death" in Dragon 313 written by Trent Troop which features a whole slew of half-undead. So unless, this author was involved in or aware of the book you mention (which I've never heard about), they seem to have taken it from "their own ranks."

-Zarrock

 

[John Cooper]

Yeah, and I likewise recall the Ghost Brute template from an earlier article in Dragon. I wasn't trying to imply that WotC had "stolen" these templates from other companies, merely that a few of the concepts had already been done elsewhere. For example, Mongoose Publishing's Encyclopaedia Arcane: Necromancy has an undead child called a skullchild (another one of Erica Balsley's, if I recall correctly) that is thematically similar to the slaymate in Libris Mortis. The two creatures have very different powers, just share a similar main concept (undead child).

In any case, Dragon is fair game for WotC pilfering. The author gives up all rights for future publication (which is pretty standard for magazine articles, I believe).

 

[Khur]

Giving all rights isn't unusual in the gaming industry, but it's not the general norm. Dragon offers the best chance for prestige and getting noticed, but organs (such as Pyramid) pay nearly the equivalent for only electronic rights. If they want to use it in print, they pay again.

 

[Soulmage]

I'm a little dissapointed with this review. You offer some comments regarding the actual content of the book, but mostly you waste my time itemizing editing mistakes, most of which are irrelevant to me as the reader.

In the future, I'd suggest that if you want to comment on the editing of a book, fine. But a paragraph is sufficient. Many of us readers actually look for things in a book besides finding how many editing mistakes have been made.

 

[Gez]

If the error itemization bother you, just skip it. It will not wear on your mouse a lot.

It's useful for the gearheads* out there who wants to apply errata, unofficial or official, before using the book.



* Thanks for that word, Hong.

 

[CapnZapp]

I think it's great work of Mr Cooper. Not many reviewers spend that much energy helping the buyers!

And most reviewers let publishing companies get away with multiple editing mistakes. If all reviewers
1) lowered their score because of sloppy editing
2) gave detailed and hopefully correct suggestions how to remedy this
we would soon live in a better world.

I sincerely hope Mr Cooper gets a job as an editor at Wizards, making the current editor consider another line of work entirely!

It makes you shake your head in wonder that Wizards (like most big rpg publishers) don't tap the enormous resource that is its fans.

How many times must we say that if the gaming community would be let in during the final stages of product development, the publisher would catch 95% of mistakes. Literally within hours. For free.

Sheesh...

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Unfortunitally, while editing mistakes would be caught in the final version, sales would be hurt from all the illegal PDF versions being released before the book, rather then a week after.... grumble darned pirates grumble.

Anyway, Overall I really liked the book, apart from the bothersome slight monster errors, which is becoming something of a chronic problem with wizards books.

I was pleased to see that the prestige classes from 3.0 spatbooks, specifically pale master, master of the shrouds, and true necromancer, were actually fully revised rather then just being copied from their origional source without necessary updates for 3.5 like many of the prestige classes printed in the Complete series.

Libris Mortis was not entirely without update issues, though. The Summon Undead spells (origionally printed in Magic of Faerun) were copied without update from 3.0, which is a big problem since in 3.0 zombies and skeletons were specific monsters and now they're templates. This mistake was made despite the fact that the spells were already reprinted in Player's Guide to Faerun without an update and the extreme balance issues required an errata in that case already. Even the previous errata (which will probably be reprinted in the errata for Libris Mortis) didn't really fix the balance issues. The spells need an entirely new summon list.

Overall the book is nice if you like undead, and the feats are terrific if you want to play a necromancer of any variety. If you don't like undead then the book is only so-so. Either way, its a far cry from Draconomicon, which was larger and better edited, and focused more on the monsters it was supposed to cover then on characters that work with them. Still, D&D does have dragons in the name, so I suppose it's not surprising that they would get special treatment....

 

[JoeGKushner]

Libris Mortis, the Book of Undead, is Wizards of the Coast shot at doing all things undead. Now I’ve heard that this book is supposed to be the second in a series that covers different types of monsters. A type being a wide range of creatures like aberrants, outsiders, giants, humanoids, and dragons, much like the previous book, the Draconomicon. In that line of thinking, I was very excited to see what Libris would bring to the table. The art and utility in Draconomicon make sure that it’s still used at my table.

Well, at first, I see that this book isn’t as big or as expensive as the older book. Coming in at 192 full color pages for $29.95, the book is ten dollars less expensive and almost a hundred pages short of the Draconomicon. Already I can tell I’m not liking the differences between the two. The Draconomicon also has art on the interior covers by Todd Lockwood. A read through latter, I see that this book is useful in many manners, but unlike the Draconomicon, which I felt strongly favored the GM, this book favors both players and GMs.

For players, there are rules on playing different types of undead as character classes, much like the old 3.0 book, Savage Species covered. This gives the undead monster a class. When the character works his way through the class, he’s now an ‘average’ member of the race. I personally don’t like this as it goes against the standard class progression as these monstrous classes gain limited hit dice, gain skill points based on hit dice as opposed to level, gain ability scores as they go up in levels and gain their special abilities as they go up in levels. To me, while the long term potential is indeed great, the short term loss of class abilities is devastating. An 8th level wight that has 4d12 hit dice isn’t that impressive even though it has a +8 natural armor bonus. Since saving throws and attack bonus are also based on number of hit dice and not actual level, the wight begins to look even more pitiful despite having a natural attack.

Players looking to customize their characters have a few options in PrCs. Now I know some are going to look at things like the updated Pale Master and True Necromancer, originally from Tome & Blood, and point out that these should be NPC’s as they are often evil individuals, but well, you haven’t seen my group. The Pale Master uses undead to armor himself and utilize their abilities in his own make up, even as he increases in spell power. The True Necromancer is even more dangerous as it’s a 14 level PrC that improves arcane and divine spellcasting abilities.

Classes that I consider more appropriate include things like the Sacred Purifier, a divine spellcaster that destroys undead with the Sacred Strike or the Master of Radiance, a divine spellcaster that uses the power of the sun to destroy undead.

Of course feats are another way to customize a character. Those aimed at a player include some like Energize Spell where you have to be nonevil and have no ability to rebuke undead. The feat requires you to burn a spell one level higher, but does an extra 50% of damage to undead. On the other hand, Enervate does an extra 50% to living targets. Other feats that look like they’ll see use in my campaign at least include Quicken Turning where you turn as a free action or Tomb-Born Fortitude, giving you a 25% critical resistance and no massive damage save.

New magic items range from armor and weapons, to undead grafts. See, the undead grafts allow you to take an undead organ or limb and use it yourself. Pretty gross but very powerful. Who wouldn’t want a Bodak’s Eye with it’s ability to make a death gaze attack or Undead Skin with resistance to critical hits and sneak attack damage?

In another area, new spells are included. One of the things I like about WoTC breakdowns is that they go by class and level, and for arcane spellcasters, by school. This makes looking up a Conjuration Spell easy. Spells for Assassins and Blackguard are also noted. In terms of domains, we have Deathbound, Hunger, and Undeath, with most of the magic coming in the form of spells.

These range from the creation, controlling and summoning of undead, to expanding the school of necromancy massively for arcane spellcasters. Take the 5th level spells, out of five spells, four of them are necromantic in nature, while all of the sixth level spells are necromantic in nature. These range from Incorporeal Nova, a spell to destroy incorporeal undead, to Spawn screen, where you resist the process of becoming an undead spawn if killed.

One of the things I liked about the Draconomicon is that it had a section for Player’s Perspective that clearly separated what was appropriate or aimed at players. Since that’s not here, the GM should of course read the whole book and decide what he wants to use.

Of perhaps the easiest use are the new monsters. Fellow reviewer John Cooper has a review of this book and man, he pins the tail on the donkey of mechanical errors. Since he’s already done that, I’ll point out some of the things I enjoyed about this section. The first is that it includes a table with a listing of all the monsters and their CR, arranged by CR and alphabetically. Of course there’s no page number but hey, two out of three isn’t bad. The CR listing includes the sample creatures with templates applied.

As for the creatures themselves, we’ve got things like the dire maggot, a huge maggot that’s perfect for those fouled graveyards at a lowly CR 2. For those looking for something more powerful, we have the Atropal scion. Now for those who’ve never read the Epic Handbook, they may not catch the whole Atropal thing. See, these things are the remains of an Atropal that’s been defeated and even though it’s just a fragment, it still comes in at a CR of 11. While most of the monsters here are undead, we do have the Grave Dirt Golem, a construct of grave earth, as well as the Hooded Pupil, a humanoid or giant that’s enticed by the lure of necromancy but isn’t an undead yet.

Now for a personal favorite, many moons ago, I read the Sandman comic via graphic novels. One of those graphic novels, World’s End, was an Inn that acted as a shelter during reality storms. Those gathered there tell stories to pass the time. One of those telling their tale is an undead looking humanoid that works in a city that studies the burial rights of the dead. I don’t know if the artist here tried to capture that feeling, but the template Necropolitan covers it well. Here, they’re “considered citizens of the little-known city of Nocturnus”. Yeah, that’s defiantly a nod.

Some of the PrCs are also meant for the GM or at least, for the undead. PrCs like the Master Vampireand the Tomb Warden are short three level PrCs that require the character to be of the undead type. That’s another reason why save having a PrC section of undead creatures and another for living or PC appropriate types would be good.

Of more use is Chapter Seven, Undead in the Campaign. It provides role playing ideas. Some of these are using undead as simple monsters, often relying on the brainless creatures or using undead as masterminds, requiring the GM to use the more intelligent undead. Fairly standard stuff for the most part.

One thing that I was pleased to see, but feel should’ve been included in the Monster Manual in the first place, are round by round tactics for many of the undead like the Allip, Bodak, and Shadow. It’s information that has a lot of utility for new GMs and shows even experienced GMs how some of these undead can be run.

My personal favorite parts are the sample undead. There are several samples for each of the broad strokes of undead like ghosts, liches, and vampires. However, those aren’t my favorite parts. Indeed, I prefer seeing the massive waves of sample creatures with the skeleton and zombie templates because I’m lazy. It’s good seeing a brown bear skeleton with a heavy warhorse skeleton and an ogre skeleton. It’s nice to see wolf zombies and five-headed hydra zombies because that saves me a ton of time.

Also included in these sample sections are variants. These are little templates, almost boilerplates like those found in the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press. These little things provide some modification and a CR adjustment. Take the Fast Zombie who gains an extra 30 feet to their base speed, +2 dodge bonus to their AC and removes the restriction of single actions. Dawn of the Dead anyone? Well, for that, we’d have to add the Unkillable Zombie which provides more hit points per hit die and fast healing.

The Cults of Undeath are useful for those who had no experience with such ideas. For me, with books like Secret College of Necromancy and Necromancer’s Legacy, I’m covered. It’s nice to see the details here though as they include background information and ideas for using them in your campaign, and the sample member is a good deal as you can use those NPCs for anything.

I’m a visual person, so the maps included in this section, six separate full page maps, are a nice touch. These maps are places where undead are pretty common. Things like a Barrowfield or a Mortuary among others. Maps are clear and easy to read but don’t’ include any map details so you’ll have to populate everything yourself.

On the other hand, while not as useful as the lairs in the Draconomicon, several small adventure sites are included and these do have details like EL, trap details and references to either the Monster Manual of the page number in this book. The page references for the Monster Manual aren’t followed all the way through though. For example, the Owlbear Skeleton notes that you should see the monster manual while the Ettin Skeleton gives a page number.

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the book. In one way, I’m glad that all the necromantic stuff has been pulled into here and updated. It may sound strange, but this will hopefully free up the upcoming Complete Arcane from having too much focus on necromantic fields like spells, feats, and PrCs. By putting all of that information here, WoTC insures that you’re getting a product that you like.

Another benefit is that this is one of the few 3.5 necromancer books we have. I love the monster book Necromantic Lore by Fantasy Flight Games, but it looks like they’ve slowed down their d20 support and dropped their smaller books. Necromancer’s Legacy, an En World Publishing book, printed by MEG, is one of my favorites for flavored text but hasn’t been updated to 3.5. Heck, a lot of ideas here look like they might’ve come from that book or any number of other necromancer based products like Mongoose’s Beyond the Grave.

The editing in the book could’ve used at least another round. John Cooper’s review points out many issues and I’ve noticed a few odd things myself while reading through the book. For example, the book makes references to Monster Manual II but not Monster Manual III. I’d hope that the staff would’ve had reference to that book as well as any undead in it. Layout is standard two columns and it looks like that nice format they had for monsters in the Monster Manual III takes a backseat to getting as many monsters into the book as possible so you’ve got monsters starting and stopping on one page.

The art in the book is a nice touch. I don’t think it’s as good as Draconomicon starting from the cover and moving into the interior, but hey, the dragon book had a Todd Lockwood cover. While I was a little disappointed to see several artist that have been in recent WoTC products missing here, like Ron Wagner and David Griffith, we still have others like Wayne Reynolds and Wayne England, among others, who lend their talents to the book.

Anyway, it’s good to have a solid hardcover with all of the official necromantic lore you could want in one space. Despite having a player’s section in the Draconomicon, I find that this book actually has more potential in the hands of a player as several of the templates here are perfect for creating certain types of heroes and many of the PrCs are great for adding new dimension to the campaign. For me, I’m working on my own Necropolis populated by a certain templated type of undead here who study the various rites of death and are just waiting for that big event to happen.