Monster Geographica: Underground *print*

[Messageboard Golem]

The Monster Geographica books compile 200 monsters of specific terrains into one inexpensive resource. Collected from over 20 different sources, Monster Geographica books also provide an extensive array of challenge ratings and concepts.

Due to its organization, Monster Geographica is an ideal monster supplement for random encounters, adventure building, and campaign design. Unlike other monster books, Monster Geographica organizes monsters by challenge rating. Building a CR 5 encounter? All CR 5 monsters are right next to each other; no need to flip back and forth between a CR table and the monsters’ stat blocks. Need a random encounter level 7? Again, all CR 7 monsters are right next to each other. Don’t see one you like? Flip to the CR 5 monsters and pick two.
We also include an alphabetical table of contents with a listing of creatures by type and subtype (also arranged by challenge rating), making Monster Geographica books easy to use from many different approaches. Listings by type and subtype allow you to search using a different set of parameters. Need a CR6 ooze? With Monster Geographica, you can reference the listing by type and know each monster’s CR without having to flip to the actual stat block.

We have many fond (and often bloody) memories of great 3.0 monsters, and we didn’t want to leave them out of the Monster Geographica books. Therefore, up to 50 % of the monsters in every Monster Geographica book are conversions of 3.0 monsters updated for a 3.5 game.

And lastly, we wanted to make Monster Geographica books affordable. We hope you
understand and agree with our no-internal-art policy that allows us to offer 200 monsters for $20 ($8 for PDF). And notice the spine? That’s a lay-flat binding that will hold up to the most dedicated use.

Monster Geographica: Underground is the first book in the line, gathering 200 monsters commonly found below the surface. The next book is Monster Geographica: Marsh and Aquatic, coming out November 2004, followed by Forest, Hills and Mountains, and Plains (Deserts and Tundra).

 

[JoeGKushner]

When looking at a book like the Monster Geographica, one must keep the goal of the book in mind. First all, it’s a collection of monsters that dwell in specific regions, in this case, Underground. All of the monsters are 3.5, including ninety two creatures that were originally 3.0. The book is designed to be affordable and to be used at the table. Compared to some of the older books of this size (Green Ronin’s Pocket series), it might not meet the first goal as it’s $19.95, but compared to the newer books (Mongoose Pocket series), it does. The spine also allows it to lay flat during game play.

In terms of organization, the book starts off with an alphabetical listing with page number, then a listing of monsters by type with CR, then a listing of creatures by CR, arranged in alphabetical order. This doesn’t follow the standard rule of putting the monsters in straight alphabetical order with some special groups like giants or dragons, but does lend itself to quick use.

When looking at a book like this, sometimes it’s easy to forget everything that must go into a monster’s stats, much less what it takes to update them to 3.5. For those who don’t know, some of the changes include number of feats, damage reduction, and skill synergies among the bigger parts. Now this doesn’t count the things that have to be checked in a monster’s stats in the first place.

Like what you might ask? Well, how about bonuses to attack rolls based on size? Let’s look at gnishma, or as it is known in the Monsters of the Endless Dark, Golshuda, the Mother Slime. Now this is a 30 hit die colossal ooze. It’s strength gives it a +15 to attack and it’s base attack is +22. Now that should be 37 right? Well, because it’s colossal, that’s a – 8 to its attack bonus for a total of +29.

In terms of statistic layout, it follows the 3.5 rules. It starts with name, size and type, and end with level adjustment. In there is included number of squares for movement, as well as a breakdown of bonuses for armor class and the touch and flat-footed numbers. Base attack and grapple are listed with attack and full attack information. Creatures are laid out one to a page in most cases. A few exceptions, like the Bone Sovereign, are present. The layout is simple two columns with no art.

While the creatures have no italic section to be read aloud and I don’t see any tactics upon my first reading, it does include description information, combat, and sometimes information on using the race as a character. This isn’t always true though. For example, on page 12, we have the Silid, with no racial traits, and on page 13, we have the skunk goblin, with information for characters. What’s strange is that I think it’s a space issue as at least one of the creatures, the Huggermugger, found in the Tome of Horrors II, has racial traits in the original book.

One of the things I thought strange was the renaming of certain creatures. Now with some, like those from the Monsters of the Endless Dark, I can understand the need due to the dreaded crippled OGC. With others though, I’m left a little confused. Take the two-headed troll from The original Tome of Horrors. This is an open creature that first appeared in the Fiend Folio and other trolls from that book, like the rock troll, are keep with their original name. The two headed troll on the other hand, becomes the bicephalous troll. It might be because it’s a slightly different creature. The original one had 10 hit dice and superior two weapon fighting. This one has nine hit dice and while it has rend and regeneration (not fast healing mind you), it does not have the superior two weapon fighting and is a CR rating higher, being 7 instead of the original’s 6. It does have an innate ability to fight with two weapons mind you, not listed as a special ability or anything, and does have different scores on some stats like dexterity, where here it has a 14 dexterity instead of the original 11, among other changes.

For the most part, the stats look good. Size looks like it’s been taken into account when appropriate, the number of feats look correct, and I don’t see any references to +1 or greater weapons to overcome damage reduction.

Now does that mean all of the game stats are 100% correct? I’d have to extensively play test the product to say so but I don’t think it is. Take the Skunk Goblin. It’s a tiny humanoid and the write up assumes a 1st level warrior with ten strength. Okay, so with the tiny size, it gets a +2 bonus to attack rolls. The ten strength provides neither bonus nor penalty. The 1st level of warrior provides a +1 to base attack. The base attack is wrong as it’s listed at 0 and the attack is listed at short sword, +2 melee. Double checking my DMG, page 110, I see that yes, the warrior class does indeed get a +1 every level to its BAB. Now I could be missing something, but the BAB listed should at least be +1 with any modifier I’m missing taken into account under the short sword. Makes me wish that attack modifiers had a full listing of bonuses like armor class does.

I don’t necessarily agree with the author’s choice of level adjustment and CR adjustments. For example, the same skunk goblin mentioned above, is a level adjustment of +2, but has no corresponding CR adjustment. This means that a first level player would be an effective level of 3 but would treat a first level goblin skunk as a CR of 1. I personally don’t like some of the changes I see in the book, like the elimination of the Mother Slime’s vulnerabilities to lighting and the matter of the two-headed troll.

In terms of utility, the book includes creatures from a lot of sources. I recognized monsters from at least four books while reading, Tome of Horrors, Tome of Horrors II, Monsters of the Endless Dark, and Minions. Looking at the legal section shows a huge listing of places where creatures were taken from. Chances are if it’s a monsters in a game that dealt with the underground, it’s in here. Another piece of utility included is the section on flora and fauna Scattered throughout the book are small sections that talk about different things in the dark like Death’s Bloom, a mushroom found in the heads of dead bodies or the dark red fungus Bloodmat. Great stuff.

Now me? I’m going to use this book quite frequently. I’ll be looking for errata as at least one monster’s stats are off. I’d also like to see the Tome of Horrors two headed troll updated here as opposed to this version as I have the miniature from Reaper and it matches the ToH version. (Just kidding, I can use it for both!) If the PDF version of this had the stat blocks, the condensed version of the monsters, I’d buy that too. It’d make copying information for my own games much easier.

As it stands, this is a great addition to any library that hasn’t been able to afford a lot of monster books and is looking for a touch of monsters for their dungeons.

 

[John Cooper]

Actually, I believe the bicephalous troll is from Mongoose's Slayer's Guide to Trolls, which came out before the Tome of Horrors. That book also had 3E stats for the ice troll (which it called the "polar troll") and the desert troll (which it called the "sand troll"), plus one or two others. Check your Section 15 - I'll bet The Slayer's Guide to Trolls is there. (I haven't seen the book in question, so I can't check it myself.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

Ah, that would explain things nicely. It still doesn't make the most sense from my poitn of view as the two-haded troll has a long time name recognition and they'd already plundered from the Tome of Horrors.

Sharp eye there John. Stop by the Staff forum one of these days eh? We're discussing some review matters that you might find interesting.

 

[John Cooper]

Forgive my ignorance, Joe, but...there's a staff forum? Where exactly might I find it?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Ah, if you can't see it, you need to contact Russ about it. The reviewers, newsposters and others often post there.

 

[BOZ]

thanks for the great review. i was the editor on this book (the first time i have done this), and you can only guess how much work it took to not only make sure the stats were correct, but in a consistent format from one monster to another, considering how many sources they were pulled from. i'd appreciate seeing whatever errata you can pull so that we can make the next book even better.

 

[BOZ]

and yes, john is right about the bicephalous troll.

and john, i made extensive use of your review of Mongoose's Ultimate Monsters. oh god, i had to.

 

[John Cooper]

Hey, glad it was of some use, BOZ.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Monster Geographica Underground Book

Monster books are really on the rise. The production values of some of them have been full color and full gloss pages in a nice hardbound book. Others pack in lots of good creatures with some good art to attract customers. They usually offer a wide variety of creatures or a narrow focus that serves as the theme of the book. Monster Geographica Underground offers a new type of monster book though; all the monsters in it are from other books.

Monster Geographica Underground (MGU) is a book by Expeditious Retreat. They are best known for their PDF/Book a Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. As with that they break new ground by offering a new type of monster book. MGU focuses on creatures that can be found underground and while this is not anything new in itself (see Monster of the Endless Dark for example), this is compilation of previously released monsters. About half of the monsters had yet to be updated to 3.5 before this volume. All the monsters have been edited to make sure that they are done properly and all the little errors are nonexistent. The book offers two hundred monsters in these 200 pages of text. And it is all text as to conserve on space and price no art except the cover appears in this book

The book comes in basically a half size. I am unsure on the exact terminology of this type of book but it’s the same size as Pocket Players Handbook by Mongoose. The cover done is in full color and wraps around. It was done by Ravindra Rana. That however is basically the only art in the book. As I said they did not include art for cost and size reasons. I can understand that, but monsters are nice to have pictures of. It is just easier to envision some of these creatures using a picture then the written descriptions. Also, as a monster book one of the great things people do is flip through to look at the art.

There are two hundred creatures here. I am not sure exactly how many monsters are found in the other monster books, but two hundred does sound like a good amount. They range in challenge rating from one fourth to twenty. Creature types are also very varied. One really good thing that they include is flora and fauna. These are a great addition for people who want exotic but not always deadly plants to enhance their world.

There is a table of contents that list the monster alphabetically. After that there is a list of the monsters done by creature type. The monsters though are listed by challenge rating and then alphabetized. This is obviously different then pretty much every other monster book I have seen, but it does make sense. It is explained that this way a person who needs a creature of challenge rating five, let’s say, can just look in that section of the book instead of flipping from the challenge rating list of creatures to the creatures that will be in different sections of the book. With them side by side it is easier to compare them to find the one most situated for the encounter.

MGU is a very good monster book. The stats of the creatures were specifically all checked and redone when necessary to ensure accuracy. The two hundred monsters that come from a few dozen different sources brings together the creatures one needs to populate the underground.