JoeGKushner
Adventurer
When Monsternomicon by Privateer Press and Liber Bestarius from Eden Studios came out, they set some standards for me when it comes to monster books.
One, are any races in the book that advance by character class written up as playable by characters? Two, are there any creatures useable as familiars? Three, is there more here then just a monster? Four, are there adventure seeds to help the GM throw these things into the campaign right away?
Monsters of the Endless Dark hits two of the four. This 64 page black & white book is written by Jon Pollom and illustrated by Andy Hopp. It starts off on the interior cover and ends on an interior cover making it actually 66 pages. The first page is an introduction to the Wanderers Guild, an organization of scholars that seek out experiences and historical knowledge to augment the whole body of human knowledge. Monsters of the Endless Dark is the journal of Bessimus Camfor, a member of the guild.
In addition to providing the origin of the Wanderers Guild, information on the different types of subterranean habitats are provided along with a listing of symbols to indicate where the creatures are, what their activity cycle is, and what type of diet they follow. Handy and quick for getting information in a glance. A new Prestige Class, the Deeprunner, is also introduced. This PrC specializes in survival underground with close-quarter combat fighting and lowlight vision. They have aptitude with stonecutting and leave no trail when passing through stone surfaces.
Then come the monsters. Each page is broken up into two columns, a main body column and a sidebar column. Stats are provided on the side and detailed information, starting with a synopsis from Bessimus and going into full details, helps bring the creatures to life. The illustrations are large and crisp with lots of detail. Each entry takes up two pages with the game stats only using up one page most of the time, leaving the second sidebar page for encounter ideas for low, mid and high level adventure seeds.
I enjoyed the fact that the author didn't use this book merely as a character destroying manual and included many creatures that aren't evil and may even help the party. For instance the Erthrin, despite its odd appearance, is quite the wise being and has no issues with sharing its wisdom. The Huthocha, the Sage Eternal, uses Adroliths, magical stones marked with runes, to guard itself. This undead template isn't concerned with the gathering of more magical power or presence, but merely to continue its research unto eternity.
This isn't to say that the author doesn't want your players to feel smug about travelling underground. The Iikroun are powerful innate spellcasters who implant their victims with parasites that feed on the brain unless the victim drinks a special concoction that only the Iikroun know how to make. Their favored servants, the cruel Mawog need no such priming as they're ready to serve willingly. And what's this I see? Is it an homage to the now removed Beholder? A creature with a central eye and miniature eyes at the end of stalks called the Ulrike? Why yes, yes it is. There are just under thirty monsters, most of them in the 4th-6th level range with a few deviating higher or lower.
One thing that disappointed me was no racial traits for the humanoids. The Gaurzam Dai, a primitive race related to dwarves, advance by character class. No ECL is provided and no NPCs of higher level are listed. This makes it a lot of work to build your own independent Gray Men for anything other than low level encounters. This is true for the other humanoids like the Jungen and Mawog as well. Racial traits are immensely useful for adding utility to a monster book and it looks like Wizards of the Coast finally understands that issue as well as previews from the new Monster Manual indicate that racial traits will be included for a number of monsters.
I'm no game mechanic expert but when looking over basic information, I came across several things out of place; Armor class and initiative. Look at the Drommeran, the Slag Dragon. It has a +4 initiative bonus from dex, but that bonus isn't counted under it's armor class and it's actually supposed to be a +3 bonus since its dex is 16. The Folgomphus, the Doom Shroom, has a -5 initiative but no penalty to its armor class. The Golshuda looks like it's armor class bonus and initiative bonus match, but then the author forgot to add the base ac bonus of 10. Its aggravating to see this pattern repeated several times in other listings. Easy enough to adjust, but then you have to wonder, what was the final armor class an initiative score the author was looking for.
Most of the CR listings look good but some I question. For example, the Golshuda, while an impressive master of melee with it's huge size, good hit points, good attack bonus and number of attacks, has no spell resistance and no damage resistance and is vulnerable to electricity and acid attacks. A CR 18 seems too high for a creature of this nature that a 10th level wizard could take out with a couple of maximized lightning bolts. Another one that looks suspicious is the Iilkroun. These monstrous humanoids are a CR 11, cast spells as a 10th level sorcerer, have spell resistance, a 10 foot reach and of course, d8 hit dice. If a 10th level sorcerer is a CR 10, then perhaps this should be a CR 12? Difficult to say due to the problems inherent in the CR rating system itself.
Some may look at the price and sadly shake their heads. At $18, it's priced about $3 higher than the typical 64 page book which runs anywhere from $12.95 to $14.95. Let me note that like the Legend of the Five Rings and Swashbuckling Adventure books, this one is printed on a heavier stock of paper.
Because Andy Hopp does all of the illustrations, the book has a unified feel. Andy did most of the illustrations for the Bestiary of Loerem and the Goodman Games website has several previews of his style available. The bad news is, like Minions by Bastion Press, if you don't like the artist, the book losses its visual appeal. The text flows smoothly by keeping the game stats and the background information separate. Proofreading, outside the game mechanics, seems sound. Both front and back interior covers are used. The only thing missing, is in the CR listing, which goes from highest to lowest, is the page reference. Sure, it's good to know that the Akselag is a CR 10, but what page is it on? Get to flipping.
If Monsters of the Endless Dark had racial traits and fixed the monster statistics, it'd get a higher rating. As it stands, the book adds a lot of variety to any campaign that takes place in an underground setting and offers the GM tools not only to crush the party, but to help advance them along different routes while taking in the nature of the landscape itself.
One, are any races in the book that advance by character class written up as playable by characters? Two, are there any creatures useable as familiars? Three, is there more here then just a monster? Four, are there adventure seeds to help the GM throw these things into the campaign right away?
Monsters of the Endless Dark hits two of the four. This 64 page black & white book is written by Jon Pollom and illustrated by Andy Hopp. It starts off on the interior cover and ends on an interior cover making it actually 66 pages. The first page is an introduction to the Wanderers Guild, an organization of scholars that seek out experiences and historical knowledge to augment the whole body of human knowledge. Monsters of the Endless Dark is the journal of Bessimus Camfor, a member of the guild.
In addition to providing the origin of the Wanderers Guild, information on the different types of subterranean habitats are provided along with a listing of symbols to indicate where the creatures are, what their activity cycle is, and what type of diet they follow. Handy and quick for getting information in a glance. A new Prestige Class, the Deeprunner, is also introduced. This PrC specializes in survival underground with close-quarter combat fighting and lowlight vision. They have aptitude with stonecutting and leave no trail when passing through stone surfaces.
Then come the monsters. Each page is broken up into two columns, a main body column and a sidebar column. Stats are provided on the side and detailed information, starting with a synopsis from Bessimus and going into full details, helps bring the creatures to life. The illustrations are large and crisp with lots of detail. Each entry takes up two pages with the game stats only using up one page most of the time, leaving the second sidebar page for encounter ideas for low, mid and high level adventure seeds.
I enjoyed the fact that the author didn't use this book merely as a character destroying manual and included many creatures that aren't evil and may even help the party. For instance the Erthrin, despite its odd appearance, is quite the wise being and has no issues with sharing its wisdom. The Huthocha, the Sage Eternal, uses Adroliths, magical stones marked with runes, to guard itself. This undead template isn't concerned with the gathering of more magical power or presence, but merely to continue its research unto eternity.
This isn't to say that the author doesn't want your players to feel smug about travelling underground. The Iikroun are powerful innate spellcasters who implant their victims with parasites that feed on the brain unless the victim drinks a special concoction that only the Iikroun know how to make. Their favored servants, the cruel Mawog need no such priming as they're ready to serve willingly. And what's this I see? Is it an homage to the now removed Beholder? A creature with a central eye and miniature eyes at the end of stalks called the Ulrike? Why yes, yes it is. There are just under thirty monsters, most of them in the 4th-6th level range with a few deviating higher or lower.
One thing that disappointed me was no racial traits for the humanoids. The Gaurzam Dai, a primitive race related to dwarves, advance by character class. No ECL is provided and no NPCs of higher level are listed. This makes it a lot of work to build your own independent Gray Men for anything other than low level encounters. This is true for the other humanoids like the Jungen and Mawog as well. Racial traits are immensely useful for adding utility to a monster book and it looks like Wizards of the Coast finally understands that issue as well as previews from the new Monster Manual indicate that racial traits will be included for a number of monsters.
I'm no game mechanic expert but when looking over basic information, I came across several things out of place; Armor class and initiative. Look at the Drommeran, the Slag Dragon. It has a +4 initiative bonus from dex, but that bonus isn't counted under it's armor class and it's actually supposed to be a +3 bonus since its dex is 16. The Folgomphus, the Doom Shroom, has a -5 initiative but no penalty to its armor class. The Golshuda looks like it's armor class bonus and initiative bonus match, but then the author forgot to add the base ac bonus of 10. Its aggravating to see this pattern repeated several times in other listings. Easy enough to adjust, but then you have to wonder, what was the final armor class an initiative score the author was looking for.
Most of the CR listings look good but some I question. For example, the Golshuda, while an impressive master of melee with it's huge size, good hit points, good attack bonus and number of attacks, has no spell resistance and no damage resistance and is vulnerable to electricity and acid attacks. A CR 18 seems too high for a creature of this nature that a 10th level wizard could take out with a couple of maximized lightning bolts. Another one that looks suspicious is the Iilkroun. These monstrous humanoids are a CR 11, cast spells as a 10th level sorcerer, have spell resistance, a 10 foot reach and of course, d8 hit dice. If a 10th level sorcerer is a CR 10, then perhaps this should be a CR 12? Difficult to say due to the problems inherent in the CR rating system itself.
Some may look at the price and sadly shake their heads. At $18, it's priced about $3 higher than the typical 64 page book which runs anywhere from $12.95 to $14.95. Let me note that like the Legend of the Five Rings and Swashbuckling Adventure books, this one is printed on a heavier stock of paper.
Because Andy Hopp does all of the illustrations, the book has a unified feel. Andy did most of the illustrations for the Bestiary of Loerem and the Goodman Games website has several previews of his style available. The bad news is, like Minions by Bastion Press, if you don't like the artist, the book losses its visual appeal. The text flows smoothly by keeping the game stats and the background information separate. Proofreading, outside the game mechanics, seems sound. Both front and back interior covers are used. The only thing missing, is in the CR listing, which goes from highest to lowest, is the page reference. Sure, it's good to know that the Akselag is a CR 10, but what page is it on? Get to flipping.
If Monsters of the Endless Dark had racial traits and fixed the monster statistics, it'd get a higher rating. As it stands, the book adds a lot of variety to any campaign that takes place in an underground setting and offers the GM tools not only to crush the party, but to help advance them along different routes while taking in the nature of the landscape itself.
