Monster Geographica: Underground *print*

[John Cooper]

MONSTER GEOGRAPHICA: UNDERGROUND
By Joseph Browning, Suzi Yee, and Kevin Baase
Expeditious Retreat Press product number XRP 3002
200 pages, $20.00

Monster Geographica: Underground is the first book in a new series of monster books sorted by environment. (The hand-printed note I received with my free review copy - thanks, Suzi! - indicates that future possibilities include Marsh & Aquatic, Forest, Hills & Mountains, Plains, and Cities.) This is quite different from any other monster book I've ever seen before: it's half the size of a standard d20 book (the same size as Mongoose's Pocket Player's Handbook), it's arranged quite differently, and the creators made a conscious effort not to include any artwork of the monsters! I'll comment upon each point in further detail later in the review.

The cover artwork is actually two different pieces by artist Ravindra Rana, one on the front and one on the back. That in itself helps this book to stand out; I can't recall any other monster books with full-color artwork on the back cover. The artwork itself is quite striking, and yet somewhat puzzling. On the front is a bicephalous troll, which by dint of fact that the monsters inside aren't illustrated has the distinction of being the only monster (out of 200!) to be depicted in the entire book! The two-headed beast is done well, with each head having a distinctive look (they aren't identical twins, although they certainly look like they're brothers!). The color scheme is somewhat muted, although given the underground nature of the piece that's actually to be expected, and thus looks quite natural that way. I was a bit thrown off by the carpet in the foreground, however: not only does it have a spoon and a small pitcher of (presumably) milk or cream laid out on it, from the position of the two-headed troll, it looks like the carpet must be flying! (The trolls' left arm is reaching out for it.) I'm not quite sure what to make of that - it certainly makes it distinctive! Over on the back cover, we have two figures: a human shaman-type with face paint, a white beard, and holding two spears, and alongside him a well-dressed halfling with a narrow rapier at his side, holding what can only be an old-fashioned camera on a foldable tripod. There isn't enough detail to make out what the floor is, but the coffee cup (and saucer!) in the corner makes me suspect that they're standing on a flying carpet! So, with two distinct and seemingly-unrelated paintings, we get the glimmerings of an intriguing story: are these two "odd couple" explorers flying around in the Underdark, taking photographs of the denizens they find therein? In any case, hats off to Ravindra for an excellent job. (Oh, and I'm curious if the halfling's face was intentionally made to look like Dave Thomas from the old "SCTV" show - I'm really reminded of him when I look at the little fellow, not just the facial features but the expression as well.)

As for interior artwork, my comments shouldn't take long as there is only a single black-and-white drawing (also by Ravindra), on page 1 of the book. It depicts an underground cavern, complete with strange rock formations and skeletal remains strewn about the floor. It has some very nice shading, and is a well-done piece overall, and it only makes it that much more disappointing that the 200 monsters within Monster Geographica: Underground are not illustrated. Judging from the three pieces I've seen of Ravindra's artwork, I'm sure they would have been excellent. Still, it was nice to at least see an explanation (in the Introduction on page 5) as to why the authors decided against including any artwork: it was a straight-out cost-saving decision. Okay, 200 monsters for only $20.00 comes out to 10 cents per creature. That's a pretty good deal, and if that means I have to do without any artwork, then so be it. (In their defense, a great many of the creatures in this book are described well enough that I have a very good mental picture of what they look like; there are only a few - like the various three-armed monstrosities or the cattle-like creature that has a "fist attack" - that could really use an illustration.)

Monster Geographica: Underground is laid out in what I find to be a brilliant fashion: rather than alphabetically, like every other monster book I've ever seen, the 200 creatures inside are arranged alphabetically by Challenge Rating. In hindsight, this is a fantastic idea. Who uses monster books? The DM. When designing an adventure, doesn't it make perfect sense that a DM creating an underground dungeon would like to have all of the creatures best suited for his party's current level in one section? And best of all, there are two different indexes in the front of the book, the first listing all of the monsters alphabetically with their pages numbers, so you can easily flip to the monster you need, and the other listing all of the monsters by creature type, with the CRs listed parenthetically after the monster's name. Need an ooze in the CR 5-7 range? I can tell by a glance at page 4 that there are five such creatures within.

This brings up an interesting point, though. The 200 monsters in Monster Geographica: Underground were all taken from a variety of sources, with about half of them never having appeared under the 3.5 rules before. With so many different OGL sources to choose from, I was somewhat surprised to see such a difference in the number of monsters of the various creature types. For the curious, here's how they break down:

• Aberration: 44
• Animal: 1
• (Aquatic): 2
• (Cold): 1
• Construct: 13
• Dragon: 1
• (Earth): 12
• Elemental: 6
• (Extraplanar): 8
• Fey: 8
• (Fire): 3
• Giant: 5
• (Goblinoid): 4
• Hazards: 4
• Humanoid: 13
• (Incorporeal): 9
• Magical Beast: 33
• Monstrous Humanoid: 10
• Ooze: 16
• Outsider: 1
• Plant: 13
• (Reptilian): 2
• (Shapechanger): 6
• Undead: 24
• Vermin: 12
• (Water): 1

If you're wondering why those numbers add up to more than 200, it's because several monsters fall under more than one category. The Amohaji, for instance, manages to take up both the "Dragon" and "(Water)" slots all by itself. Still, while I can't deny that there's a wide selection of underground monsters in Monster Geographica: Underground, I do kind of wonder why there aren't more, say, dragons or animals. (I also noticed that several of the monsters in Monster Geographica: Underground have "Environment" listings of "any," making me wonder what the decision criteria was to include them in the underground book. And will there be any "repeats" in future books: will, for example, the dorje ooze, found in "any marsh and underground," also show up in the Monster Geographica: Marsh & Aquatic book?)
As for the monster stats, when I found out that Kevin Baase ("BOZ" on the EN World message boards) did the conversions to 3.5 (and cleaned up any mistakes from the books where they were originally printed), I figured I probably wouldn't even bother breaking down the stats myself and making sure they were okay - he's got a lot of "street cred" (ooh, listen to me sounding "cool") what with all of his updating work on the Creature Catalog pages and in the Tome of Horrors and its sequel. However, I learned that checking monster stats has become somewhat second nature to me: mistakes started popping out at me, unbidden. Anyone reading a handful of my previous reviews knows that correct monster stats are just about highest up on my list of "things not to screw up," and while the list that follows is going to look rather long, on the plus side I noticed that in most instances, each monster that had a stat problem had only one stat problem. Since Monster Geographica: Underground is also available as a PDF, I'm hoping that these mistakes can be fixed up relatively quickly at least on that side of things. In any case, I recommend making the following changes:

• p. 10, Corpse Fungus: HD should be 1d8+1, not just 1d8 (it has a +1 Con bonus). Therefore, average hit points should be 5, not 4.
• p. 13, Skunk Goblin: Base Attack Bonus should be +1, not +0 (it's a 1st-level Warrior). Grapple should be -7, not -8. Short sword attacks should be at +3 melee, not +2 (+1 BAB, +2 size). Javelin attacks should be at +5 ranged, not +4 (+1 BAB, +2 size, +2 Dex).
• p. 17, Daurzam: Base Attack Bonus should be +1, not +0 (it's a 1st-level Warrior). Grapple should be +1, not +0. Shortspear attacks should be at +1 melee, not +0 (+1 BAB). Shortbow attacks should be at +3 ranged, not +2 (+1 BAB, +2 Dex).
• p. 19, Huggermugger: Flat-footed AC should be 12, not 15 (+1 size, +1 natural).
• p. 22, Nymorryx: Base Attack Bonus should be +1, not +0 (it's a 1st-level Warrior). Grapple should be -3, not -4. Claw attacks and shortspear attacks should be at +2 melee, not +1 (+1 BAB, +1 size). Bite attack should be at +0, not -1 (+1 BAB, +1 size, -2 for secondary attack with Multiattack). Light crossbow attacks should be at +3 ranged, not +2 (+1 BAB, +1 size, +1 Dex).
• p. 43, Wurggis: Base Attack Bonus should be +2, not +4 (it's a 3-HD plant). Slam attacks should be at +4 melee, not +3 (+2 BAB, +1 size, +1 Str).
• [Deleted; I missed a racial bonus to grapple checks - this one was fine as written.]
• [Ditto]
• p. 51, Gremmin: HD should be 5d12+3, not 5d12 (due to the Toughness feat). Average hp are correct, however.
• p. 58, Ophean: Since it already has 6 HD, Advancement should start at "7-12 HD," not "6-12 HD."
• p. 60, Skulleton: Touch AC should be 12, not 10 (+2 size).
• p. 62, Waking Dead: Under Full Attack, bite attacks should be at +1 melee, not +4 (+2 BAB, +4 Str, -5 for secondary attack). Either that, or else the creature needs "Multiattack" as a bonus feat. (It already has its two allotted feats for a 4-HD monster.)
• p. 84, Teo-Selari: Claw attacks should be at +7 melee, not +8 (+4 BAB, +3 Str).
• p. 86, Warden Jack Swarm: Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 18 (+8 size, +1 natural).
• p. 87, Acidweaver: AC should be 12, not 14 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +2 natural). Touch AC should be 10, not 12 (-1 size, +1 Dex).
• p. 92, Bone Sovereign: HD should be 4d12, not 4d12+4 (undead have no Con bonuses). As a result, average hp should be 26, not 30. Getting nitpicky: the "1 size" should be "-1 size" in the AC breakdown. Claw attacks should be at +5 melee, not +6 (+2 BAB, +4 Str, -1 size). Bite attacks should be at +3 melee, not +4 (+2 BAB, +4 Str, -1 size, -2 for secondary attack with Multiattack).
• p. 94, Crag Man: Slam damage should be 1d8+4, not 1d8+3 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 99, Jellyhive: Bite attacks should be at +5 melee, not +6 (+4 BAB, +2 Str, -1 size). Also, shouldn't there be a size restriction as to how big an ooze a jellyhive can swallow whole? I don't see a Large jellyhive swallowing up a Huge gelatinous cube, for example.
• p. 102, Rope Golem: Slam damage should be 1d8+4, not 1d8+3 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 115, Fungal Render: The Escape Artist check for the creature's Rend ability should be at DC 29, not DC 30 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Str bonus + racial bonus, or 10 + 10 + 5 + 4). Likewise, the Strength check DC should be 25, not 34 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Str bonus, or 10 + 10 + 5). However, despite what the verbiage says, it seems like the Strength check should receive the racial bonus, not the Escape Artist check, which would put them at a DC 25 Escape Artist check and a DC 29 Strength check.
• p. 121, Manavore: The Will-based Constitution check for the Dissolve Magic special ability should have a DC of 17, not 19 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Will bonus + racial bonus, or 10 + 2 + 1 + 4).
• p. 122, Nokker: HD should be 4d6+4, not 4d6 (it has a +1 Con bonus). Thus, hp should be 18, not 14. AC should be 17, not 16 (+1 size, +3 Dex, +3 natural). Touch AC should be 14, not 13 (+1 size, +3 Dex). Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 13 (+1 size, +3 natural).
• p. 130, Barathelar: AC should be 18, not 19 (+1 size, +5 Dex, +2 natural). Touch AC should be 16, not 17 (+1 size, +5 Dex).
• p. 135, Crypt Guardian: Slam damage should be 2d6+9, not 2d6+6 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 140, Grasping Cell: Average hp should be 114, not 144. The Attack line should have 1 tentacle, not 4. Tentacle damage should be 1d6+7, not 1d6+5 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 142, Leytru: Flat-footed AC should be 22, not 15 (+7 Dex, +4 natural, +1 dodge) - it keeps its Dex and dodge bonuses even when flat-footed due to its Improved Uncanny Dodge special ability. Since it already has 9 HD, its Advancement should start "10-18 HD" instead of "9-18 HD."
• pp. 143-144, Mirror Fiend: Rake damage should be 2d8+7, not 2d8+5 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form). Also the phrase "This is a mind-affecting fear effect" belongs under the "Frightful Presence" description, not "Fast Healing."
• p. 149, Bolrow: Touch AC should be 9, not 8 (-1 size).
• p. 150, Burrower: Slam damage should be 1d8+12, not 1d8+8 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 153, Grimvole, Grim Master: Claw damage should be 2d6+6, not 2d6+4 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 159, Phantasm: The Fortitude save against the Energy Drain attack should be DC 17, not DC 22 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Charisma bonus, or 10 + 4 + 3), unless there's a +5 racial bonus in there (none is mentioned).
• p. 161, Slaughterford: Arm blade damage should be 1d8+4, not 1d8+3 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 162, Spectral Angler: As an incorporeal creature, it should not have a Grapple score (it's listed as 17). Incorporeal tentacle touch attacks should be at +7 melee, not +8 (+7 BAB, +1 Dex, -2 size, +1 Weapon Focus). In the AC breakdown, the "+3 natural" should actually be a "+3 deflection" - again, it's an incorporeal creature!
• p. 163, Bedlam: Slam damage should be 2d4+4, not 2d4+3 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 165, Crorit: AC should be 11, not 14 (-1 size, +2 deflection). Touch AC should be 11, not 14 (-1 size, +2 deflection). Flat-footed AC should be 11, not 12 (-1 size, +2 deflection). Slam attacks against non-ethereal foes should be at +4, not +6 (+5 BAB, -1 size). Slam damage should be 1d12+7, not 1d12+10 (it's not its sole attack form).
• p. 166, Draconid: Bite damage should be 2d6+10, not 2d6+7 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 167, Hellscorn: With 11 HD, its Advancement should start at 12-22 HD, not 10-22 HD.
• p. 168, Iron Maiden Golem: AC should be 29, not 28 (-1 size, +20 natural). Touch AC should be 9, not 8 (-1 size). Flat-footed AC should be 29, not 28 (-1 size, +20 natural). Slam damage should be 2d10+12, not 2d10+8 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 170, Orvender: Fist damage should be 2d6+7, not 2d6+5 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 175, Slavering Mouther: Under Full Attack, the 4 bite attacks should be at +8 melee, not +10 (+4 BAB, +3 Str, -1 size, +2 for the Ravenous special ability). 4 tentacle attacks should be at +3 melee, not +5 (+4 BAB, +3 Str, -1 size, +2 for the Ravenous special ability, -5 for secondary attack). Under Full Attack, the spittle attack should be at -1 ranged, not +4 (+4 BAB, +1 Dex, -1 size, -5 for secondary attack).
• p. 178, Stinkgnarl: Fortitude save for the Abhorrent Stench special ability should be at DC 29, not DC 31 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus, or 10 + 6 + 13), unless there's an unmentioned +2 racial bonus.
• p. 179, Vampire Spider: AC breakdown should show +2 Dex, not +3 Dex. (Fortunately, the AC value given is correct.) Flat-footed AC should be 19, not 18 (-2 size, +11 natural). Escape Artist skill check for the Web ability should be DC 14, not DC 13 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus, or 10 + 4 + 0). Strength check for the Web ability should be DC 18, not DC 17 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus + racial bonus, or 10 + 4 + 0 + 4).
• p. 180, Arachnogolem: Fortitude save for the Poison should be DC 14, not DC 16 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus, or 10 + 4 + 0).
• p. 181, Banded Spider Mother: Fortitude save for the Poison should be DC 24, not DC 28 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus, or 10 + 9 + 5), unless there's an unmentioned +4 racial bonus.
• p. 182, Pedra Worm: Bite damage should be 2d8+12, not 2d8+8 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form). Bite attack should be +15 melee under Full Attack, not +15/+10 (you don't get follow-on attacks with natural weapons).
• p. 182, Piryke: Touch AC should be 10, not 9 (-1 size, +1 Dex). Bite damage should be 2d6+4, not 2d6+6 (it isn't a sole attack form, so it doesn't get 1.5 times its Strength bonus).
• p. 184, Stone Slider Ghoul: +1 greatsword damage should be 2d6+5, not 2d6+7 (+4 Str bonus, +1 weapon enhancement bonus).
• p. 185, Walking Disease: Slam damage should be 1d6+6, not 1d6+4 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form). Since it has 15 HD, it should have 6 feats, not 5. Fortitude save for Massive Infection special ability should be DC 19, not DC 27 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Charisma bonus, or 10 + 7 + 2), unless there's an unmentioned +8 racial bonus.
• p. 187, Soulless One: Under Skills, it has "Perfect Recall +16" - what's that? No such skill is presented in the book.
• p. 188, Furnace Golem: Slam damage should be 4d8+22, not 4d8+15 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form). It has 24 HD, yet the Advancement starts with "22-48 HD." The stats say 2d6 fire damage from the slam attacks, yet the Heat special quality claims it's only 1d6 fire damage. Which is it?
• p. 189, Magma Worm: Reflex save for the Burn attack should be 23, not DC 13 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Constitution bonus, or 10 + 7 + 6).
• p. 190, Blackwater Slough: At 12 HD, it has one too many feats - one must be a bonus feat?
• p. 191, Undermind: Will save for Improved Domination should be DC 20, not DC 22 (10 + 1/2 times HD + Charisma bonus, or 10 + 5 + 5).
• p. 194, Gnishma: Slam damage should be 4d8+22, not 4d8+15 (you get 1.5 times your Strength bonus if it's your sole attack form).
• p. 195, Tzorda: Skills lists "Autoheal +11" - what's that? It's not described in the book at all.
• p. 197, Quickener: Flat-footed AC should be 24, not 22 (+2 size, +12 natural).

Whew! That's 54 monsters out of 200, or 27% with something wrong with them! I don't know what the problem was here; maybe BOZ was having a bad string of days? (Or maybe Joe did some conversions and BOZ did the others, and nobody checked the other's work?) In any case, while I have definitely seen worse in other d20 monster books, I have to admit to some disappointment after seeing all of the mistakes in the creature stats.

On another down side, the proofreading and editing could have been a lot stronger, too. Fortunately, there were very few out-and-out typos; most of the instances were things like forgetting to italicize spell names and capitalize size categories; things that probably wouldn't bother most people in any case. Another nitpicky quibble: some parts of the monster stats weren't standardized; for example, bonus feats are annotated alternately with a superscript "b", a "(b)", or a "(B)" - it would have looked better to have picked one style and stuck with it throughout the book. Also, I noticed a couple of instances where "Charisma" was abbreviated "Chr" in the monster stats instead of the standard "Cha" - while not a game-breaker, it would have been nice if such things had been caught. Finally, it seems that a bunch of the monsters were renamed something different from what their original source called them, but there were a few instances where the original name was used in the creature's description. The worst of these was the Planar Lamprey, which uses the term "gate worm" no less than 8 times (and is never once referred to as a "planar lamprey" other than in the creature's name at the top of the game stats).

Fortunately, there are some other positive highlights that help balance out the disappointing bits. At 200 pages and 200 monsters, you'd expect that each monster would have a page to itself. Well, not exactly; while a very few monsters go over a page in length, many more of them take up significantly less than a page. Rather than leave that space blank, the authors have liberally sprinkled those areas with their occasionally-mistitled "Flora and Fauna" section (I say that only because some of the entries are rock formations and the like). What's that mean? It means the DM also gets a bunch of cool fungus and other similar underground features to help make his subterranean adventures feel all that much more authentic. Throw in these features, and you actually end up paying less than 10 cents per monster! Without using interior artwork, this was the best way to fill up white space I can imagine. Also, I mentioned that the book is half-sized. While reading through it, I discovered that it's very easy to hold the book open to the page you're referencing with one hand, a welcome change for most DMs!

Taken as a whole, I put Monster Geographica: Underground somewhere in the "high 3/low 4" range. However, despite quite a few stat problems, I really like the layout of the book (even without any interior artwork) - this was definitely designed with DM utility in mind, and I can see how a DM with the (eventual) whole line of Monster Geographica is really going to have a much easier time of things when it comes to selecting monsters for his adventures. This is enough for me to warrant bumping it into a "4 (Good)" rating, and that's what I'm going with. I look forward to seeing the rest of the books in this line (and hopefully they'll give the stats a harder scrub in future books).

 

[jgbrowning]

Heya John, thanks for the good review. Looking through the list of errors I see a few patterns that should help us be more accurate in the future. Knowing what's wrong helps prevent more mistakes.

One thing I think you may be incorrect in your assessment concerning the sole natureal weapon giving 1.5 damage. This is how it's described in the MM, but that's not how it is actually used in the monsters in the MM.

I think they meant to say only if the creature gets a single attack with a primary weapon. Look under the natural weapons section of Full Attack in the MM (p. 299) that explains how each individual arm on a treant is considered a primary weapon and how the 1.5str only applies to creatures with one primary weapon so treant's don't get str1.5. Another example is Earth Elementals: when they're only getting a single full attack with a primary natural weapon they get str1.5 damage, but once their full attack becomes 2 attacks, they're getting straight str with a sole natural weapon. If you look through the MM it's pretty consistant in this manner. So, for our creatures that have only a sole natural weapon, but whose full attack is more than a single attack (showing that there's more than one primary), we followed the MM procedure. That takes off a healthy chunk from the monsters with errors list.

Other than that you're correct in most of your statements. The only other thing I see is that the two deviant mimics have a listed +8 racial bonus it looks like you overlooked. You told us to watch our 1st level warriors, our incorporeals, and our advancements. We'll pay particular attention to them in the future.

To answer a few other questions: There will be only a very few repeats (less than a dozen in the entire line). We're debating doing a 6th book about city monsters that would contain an index for all the books in the line as well.

Again, thanks for the review!

joe b.

 

[BOZ]

John,
Thanks for being so thorough.

This was my first professional work (my input on the Tome of Horrors series was significantly lesser). I have been working on conversions for the Creature Catalog website for years now, and editing this book was just as much of a learning experience for me as the CC is, in fact moreso. Hopefully I have learned enough from my experience that I will be able to catch more mistakes in future editing work.

Many of the errors you found were things that I had been looking for, and found in other monsters, but for some reason overlooked in those cases. I did not realize about the warrior BAB (though I really should have looked that up) – in fact, it looks like that was the most common mistake. Also, I have to admit that I did not budget my time very well; unfortunately this resulting in more slipping through than I feel comfortable with.

Still though, given as much as there was to fix, I think I did a pretty good job of it for my first real work. I have a better handle on the pacing now. You have no idea how much there can be to fix (oh, wait, you did the review for Ultimate Monsters – so maybe you do know!) when trying to pull from so many different sources, each with their own style.

 

[Khur]

John rocks, fer sure. Another great review, John.

 

[John Cooper]

Joe - You're absolutely right about the deviant mimics; somehow that got by me. Sorry about that! (I'll delete those two from the review.) I see your point about the 1.5 Strength bonus as well - I've always gone straight by the "natural weapons" description in the Monster Manual, and never really checked out the stats of specific creatures like your treant and elemental examples to ensure that they had been done according to the rules description. Sounds like that section of the Monster Manual could use a bit more work!

BOZ - Yeah, I read through the list in Section 15 of the OGL and saw some of the sources that you had to update; let me say I didn't envy you one bit! I have no doubt that for every error that snuck by you, you probably found and fixed half a dozen others. I assume you'll be working on the future books in the Monster Geographica series, and I'm sure you'll do a great job on them.

Khur - thanks!

 

[Psion]

Monster Geographica: Underground

Monster Geographica: Underground is a collection of open game content creatures. The book is assembled and edited by Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee (the dynamic duo behind Expeditious Retreat Press, the publisher behind this book) and Kevin Baase, AKA "Boz" of the Creature Catalog site and contributor to the Tome of Horrors. Monster Geographica: Underground is the first of a series, this one with a focus particular on underground creatures.

A First Look

Monster Geographica: Underground is a 200 page half-sized perfect-bound softcover book priced at $20.00.

The art is attributed to Ravindra Rana. There are precisely three pieces of art in the book. Cover is a deep brick red color and features two monochrome pictures: a two headed troll on the front, and a pair of spelunkers of the back. The title page features some cave terrain. The move to save cost and space leaves the inside looking a little sparse, especially for a creature book (which typically rely strongly on images to depict their topic matter.)

A Deeper Look

Monster Geographica: Underground is a collection of open game content from a variety of sources, edited and updated for 3.5. Many of these creatures were culled from sources with so-called "crippled OGC", i.e., OGC with strategically closed components that make it difficult to reference and reuse the material, usually by closing the name of the item. In these cases, the authors have provided a new name for the creature. So while you may recognize many of these creatures names from books you already own, some will seem more cryptic. Books that this book draws from includes Tome of Horrors, Tome of Horrors II, Minions, Monsters of the Mind, Creature Collections I-III , Liber Bestarius, and Denizens of Avadnu.

Which of your favorite creatures have been updated here is a annoying task, which is a testament to why this practice is annoying. But a few potentials I spotted are coal goblins from CCI (under the name soot goblin), stone builder ooze from CCIII (as cone ooze), and spider-eye goblins from CCI (as arachnopygmies). A bit easier is the task of seeing the fully open content creatures, like those from Minions (like deep fey). Of course, many of these books, like CCI and Minions already have updates from their publisher, so going for this solely as a source of updates for those specific books may not be a huge selling point. However, other books, like Tome of Horrors have no such update available.

The first thing you may notice while flipping through the book is that creatures are not listed in alphabetical order. What you will notice is that the creature’s order corresponds to a number in the corner, which is the creatures CR. The idea here seems to be that for a given party level, you will be more interested in a creature’s strength than its name. The idea of having a creature’s CR highlighted in the corner was one I saw in Denizens of Avadnu, the idea of ordering them by CR seems new to this book. The creature CRs run from 1/2 to 20, with the selection being a bit sparser at the high end.

If you are looking for creatures by name, there is an alphabetical listing of creatures in the front where you would normally find a table of contents, followed closely by a breakdown of creatures by type.

Overall, the creatures are an improvement in terms of correctness of stat blocks from the originals. That said, a few minor errors slipped by. The selection is fairly nice, including some interesting entries such as bhuta (blind psionic giants from Monsters of the Mind and deep fey (benign creatures from minions that hasty players may mistake for drow.)

In addition to the multitude of monsters in the book, the book is sprinkled with a few "flora and fauna", minor creatures and terrain features appropriate to an underground environment you can drop in to a campaign for flavor. These entries resemble some of the musing in Expeditious Retreat Press’ book A Medieval Society: Ecology and Culture.

Conclusions

Monster Geographica: Under is probably of the most use if you don’t presently own many monster books, or wish to see a few updates of creatures. However, you’d be lucky if a particular creature you are interested in appears here.

The more pertinent use of the book seems to be if you are simply looking for a book to stock underground areas, particularly the underdark or similar cavernous environment.

Overall Grade: B

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[jgbrowning]

Heya John,

Just reading over this again and noticed the Stone Slider Ghoul should be +7 because the greatsword is two-handed so str and 1/2.

joe b.