By Joe G Kushner, Staff Editor and Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Monsters of Norrath
Edited by Scott Holden-Joens and Mike Johnstone
216 full color pages
Published by Sword & Sorcery Studios
$29.95
Sizing up the Target
As a GM, I always look forward to new monsters. There are few things in life as enjoyable as the look of horror on a player's face when he realizes that the large brutish creature he though might be a hill giant or large ogre is some strange denizen from a new tome of monsters.
When I picked up Monsters of Norrath, the Everquest version of the Monster Manual, I knew that it wasn't straight Dungeons & Dragons or
d20, but the good old tag line "100% compatible with 3rd edition fantasy role-playing rules" helps set the mind at ease.
First Blood
The book starts off with an introduction that provides a breakdown of the monsters by type. Its very similar to the Monster Manual style with Aberrations, Constructs, Shapechangers, Vermin and other types listed out with details on everything from hit die and feats, to traits and attack bonus. A good reference for game masters looking to add their own types of elementals and outsiders using these rules as guidelines. What's missing though is a formula to determine challenge rating. About the only thing really different in the statistic section is the faction, a listing for use in Everquest that shows where the creature has allies or who or what it serves or fights alongside.
Game Masters new to the d20 engine will want to read over all the special abilities and features that the monsters have. Need to know what Infravision does or what the different saving throws for poisons are? Check. Need to see how spell resistance works and when it’s applicable? Check.
After this section, there's a one page designer comments. I dug into these as, I'm always interested to see the thought process behind creation. One thing that stands out is the dreaded 30 hit dice kobold made possible through the base assumptions of Everquest itself. See here, monsters of like strength tend to stick together because that's how it works in the online game where you don't want a high level party mowing their way through different factions with ease. Doesn't quite work the same in a paper and pen role playing game but it allows you to see where they were coming from and if necessary, do a lot of reworking to adapt the various humanoid races that jump in power level based on location.
After that, it starts with the monsters, listed in alphabetical order from the outsider Abhorrent to undead Willsapper. Each monster is listed by name, type, combat stat block, description, often including background information and appearance, and ends with combat including special abilities. In terms of stat blocks, I was a little disappointed that the following bits of information are missing:
1. Racial stats for monsters that advance by character class. In today's market where efforts are actively being made to insure that the most bang for the buck is made by allowing players to select unusual monster races, this is a strange thing not to have in such a large book.
2. Combat tactics: With a book whose audience may never have role played with paper games before, where are the combat tactics to help a GM master these new creatures?
In addition to the monsters, there are templates, grouped together in Appendix One. This includes beings like the Corrupted, Dark Assassin and Skeleton. Each template has background information, how to create the creature, what adjustments are made, and examples to allow the GM to quickly insert said template into the game.
Appendix Two covers standard animals like bears, lizards, horses, and eagles. Appendix Three collects vermin ranging from fire beetles to crystal spiders. Appendix Four covers Pets and Warders. It starts off with animations, animated weapons and shields, that defend the enchanters that crafted them and ends with Warders. This section has the most fantasy base to it as it provides spirit companions, necromantic allies, and familiars to go alongside their masters.
Critical Hits
For a book that's based on a licensed property, there's a lot of open game content here. Sure, the history, specific names, and intellectual property of Sony isn't open in any way shape or form, but everything else, like combat stats and other information is. That's a pretty large chunk of change. In terms of art, there are a lot of great illustrations here. This book, with its full color illustrations and full color borders, easily surpasses the artwork found in Necromancer Games’ Tome of Horrors. Text is well laid out and makes good use of white space, but like the first Monster Manual, there is a bit of a squeezed feeling as more than one monster may appear on the page at once.
Critical Misses
There are some things though, that the book does wrong. With so many monster manual-style books out there, even though this one is in full color, I don't want to pay for four pages of ads. In addition, while the interior covers on the front and back are used, they only showcase some illustrations of the monsters inside. Why not use that space, or the ad space for something useful like a breakdown of the monsters by challenge rating or type or something? Without that vital piece of information, new GMs are going to have to plod through the book carefully to select a monster right for their party.
What's worse is that most of the monsters here are high level. The Geonid, a unique type of earth elemental with gemstones in its frame, is a CR of 14 and 21. The Flighty Fiend is a CR of 16. Not too easy for a GM with a 1st level group to whip out something off the fly. This is great for GMs using the Epic level rules as they now have a source of great and powerful enemies ranging from the unique dragons (CRs ranging from 33 to 38) but to be missing such a simple tool as encounter tables. Well, it’s not good. Toss in the missing racial modifiers and you've got a monster book that's perfect for Everquest but is going to have a hard time competing with the less pretty, but more player and GM friendly Tome of Horrors.
Coup de Grace
Monsters of Norrath is a must have for any Everquest GM. GMs looking for high level challenges will also find a lot to love here. Newer GMs just starting a standard D20 fantasy campaign or players looking for an unusual race to try, should steer clear of this puppy.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
