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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pinotage" data-source="post: 2607081" data-attributes="member: 15194">Monsters of Illusion is a pdf product from Reality Deviant Publications. Written by Kenneth Carlsson, this pdf presents monsters, spells, NPCs and adventure locations all related to illusions. This pdf has a page count of 27 pages with 1 page devoted to OGL declarations, 1 page to the cover, and 1 page to a table of contents and the credits, leaving 24 pages to detail the creatures, spells and NPCs found in this pdf. Monsters of Illusion normally retails on RPGNow for $5.95.Initial Impressions:It's always welcoming to see new publishers enter the d20 pdf market, and even more encouraging to see pdf publishers that present well put together and professional looking products. This pdf is one of those - the presentation, including art, layout, and general ease of use is of a high standard. Interior and cover art was done by Jason Walton, and contains some good and fitting illustrations related to the content. The cover, depicting a semi-naked uilloctul, a fey presented in the book, might not be everybody's cup of tea, but given that it is a fey, I think it's fitting. The table of contents and bookmarks help you navigate the pages easily, all adding to the high standard of presentation of this pdf.Monsters of Illusion presents six new monsters, and an assortment of other material such as an adventure location in Fordrusil Forest, two NPCs based on the monsters in this book, several new illusion spells and lots of ideas and material. The illusion spells were a nice addition, as illusion is often not a school of magic frequently used or used very effectively. Despite good presentation and a good dose of new material, the writing wasn't the best, and the formatting of the stat blocks and mechanical material was generally poor and riddled with errors. Typical examples include monsters getting iterative attacks on a full attack with natural weapons, to saves being incorrect in most cases, to supernatural and extraordinary abilities not listing the associated ability score, to weapon finesse only applying to one natural weapon rather than all of them. I think that's by far the weakest point of the book, and is particularly noticeable given the fact that it is a monster book.The Details:Each of the six monsters in this book comes with a brief description and background material, followed by combat details and stat blocks, and concluded with an adventure hook on how to use the monster. The latter was a nice addition, and something I always appreciate for new monsters. Let's take a look at the critters themselves.Asnae: This is a small magical cat-like creature that serves good illusionists, gnomes or other good forest creatures that have ties to illusions. It fights using a number of illusion based abilities, such as a hypnotic gaze and a handful of spell-like abilities. This is a nice little creature for gnomes to use as mounts or even as cohorts, although there is not specific cohort LA listed.Ever-changing Ooze: An ooze that's constantly changing shape, the results of which can be disorientating to those that it fights. The changing shape has a number of benefits to the ooze, including the ability to blind creatures and providing it with concealment as if blurring.Elder Ever-changing Ooze: A more advanced and powerful form of the ever-changing ooze, and one that can take on the shape of all other oozes such as black pudding and ochre jelly.Elder Mother: A beautiful fey with poisonous branches and thorns twisted around her body. Cousin to the uilloctul, the elder mother is a vicious hunter and effective user of illusions with a despairing gaze.Shimmer Dragon: A dragon with multihued shimmering scales, and a protector of those locations that have ties to the essence of illusion. With a poisonous bite and blinding scales, it can defend itself well.Uillloctul: Cousin to the elder mother, this beautiful fey, appearing as a human female, is adorned with flowers that twisted around their frames. Strong in illusions spells, this fey does not always appear to be what you see. Included in the uilloctul description is a new magic item, the pendant of the siren, that produces an enchanting voice to beguile those that hear it.While there were only 6 monsters in this pdf, and while their stat blocks contained numerous errors, I still found them interesting and useful, and providing some good material to use for most games. The asnae are helpful in the forests or as a cohort, the elder mother can be a threatening witch in a dark forest, or the ever-changing ooze can be a dangerous ooze that guards a wizard's tower.The last sections of the pdf detail the new spells and NPCs, as well as the adventure location offering an environment where your illusion creatures can come to their full potential. The six spells include Baleful Illusion which creates the illusion of a threatening attacker, Confuse Tracks to hide your tracks left behind, and Storytelling, the aid in retelling tales. All these are useful, particularly spells like Confuse Tracks and Baleful Illusion, and can be used in any game.NPCs presented include an elder mother and a uilloctul that have a background that ties the two together. The uilloctul is the last remaining one of its kind after the elder mother killed all of its kind. The details of the two NPCs also tie in nicely with the background provided for Fordrusil Forest, the adventure location provided with a map. The map was well done, and descriptions and background are provided for several important locations in the forest.Conclusions:Overall this is a complete product which offers a lot of new and useful material to use. The monsters are fun and interesting, and I can see using more illusions in my games from now onward. Lots of ideas and adventure hooks are presented, and there is a lot a DM can grab from this pdf and put to good use. The weakest point by far was the mechanical presentation, and was poor in many instances, detracting from an otherwise solid presentation. Based on good material, interesting ideas, useful spells and monster, but poor stat blocks and mechanical presentation, I'd grade this product with three stars, or average.</blockquote>

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