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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010834" data-attributes="member: 172">Monsters of the MindMonsters of the Mind is a topical creature sourcebook by Green Ronin, featuring creatures with psionic powers. The book is written by Kevin Brennan, James Malizewski, Morgan Peer, and Tracy Peer.A First LookFormat: 64 page perfect-bound softcover book. $14.95.Art: Cover art has a sepia-toned illustration of a fleshy creature by Todd Lockwood. The interior is black and white and features art by Toren "MacBin" Atkinson (got ‘im this time!), Drew Baker, Kent Burles, Kevin Crossley, Dennis Detwiller, Todd Lockwood, and James Ryman. The cover illustration from Mindshadows is herein, and a nice addition. The illustrations are very good and help capture the unusual nature of some creatures. In particular, Burles, Ryman, and Atkinson have some interesting and well done pieces.Layout: Dense body font text, close line spacing, but double spaced paragraphs. Only a single column is used. There is no special attention paid to ending or beginning monster entries on a page, and a few stat blocks straddle pages, which is unfortunate.A Deeper LookThe pages of Monsters of the Mind are almost entirely filled creature descriptions, with the exception of a short CR table (stuck at the bottom of the title page), and an introduction page that discusses the approach of the book and provides a brief introduction to the Mindshadow setting.The general approach of Monsters of the Mind is not dissimilar from that of Wizards of the Coast's Monsters of Faerun. Much in the same way that [/i]Monsters of Faerun[/i] has statistics for general use and supplements it with campaign specific notes for Faerun, the creature descriptions in Monsters of the Mind has general statistics section followed by a section of specific notes on use of the creature in Naranjan (the land of the Mindshadows setting.) As such, it should be suitable either in or outside of Mindshadows.Monsters of the Mind include most creature types, with the exception being humanoids. There are many abberations, monstrous humanoids, magical beasts, and outsiders, but there are also creatures like giants, dragons, plants, fey, vermin, undead, and even an animal. However, I question the classification of that animal (the gandabherunda or "terror bird") as the description of animal states they have no magical abilities; psionics are in essence spell-like (or magical) abilities.A few psionic creatures from the core books see new "Naranjani" versions here: the coatal, aboleth, and yuan ti. These creatures are perfectly usable in normal campaigns; they are basically versions of the core creatures slightly rewritten to take into account the 3e psionics system, such as having defined combat modes and defining their psionics in terms of powers instead of spells.Some of the more intriguing entries include: -Bhuta: These are blind giants who navigate and by means of their evolved psionic powers. -Bodhisattva: These are characters who have transcended mortality by contemplating the mysteries of the universe and have become outsiders. I was a little surprised that they chose to come so close to a real world religious concept from Buddhism, but then I guess it could be considered analogous to angels (which are pretty much used with impunity.) I also thought a template may have been a more interesting (if more labor intensive) way to handle the concept. -Psionic Celestials: The contemplative deva and the lunar are essentially new types of angels (though they didn't use that term as introduced in the revised Monster Manual.) I thought they were nice parallels to the traditional celestials, and liked that their "contemplative" aspect was emphasized, highlighting the role of psionic creatures in a fantasy setting. -Destroyed: A destroyed is basically an undead created when a psion's mind is sundered from its body at death. This actually creates two undead creatures, the incorporeal damned thought and the physical husk. It is possible for these two creatures to re-unite and form a greater form of undead called the demihusk, which is sort of a revenant type of zombie with the ability to flawlessly track its killer. -Fire Nymph: These creatures have no apparent relation to the fire nymph that appeared in the Tome of Horrors, and is a much stronger creature. Fire nymphs dwell in volcanoes and similar locales, and special abilities and psionics related to fire. -Thoughtforms: Thoughtforms are outsiders similar to elementals or astral constructs. There are six major types of throughtforms, each corresponding to the six psionic disciplines, and each type comes in six power levels similar to elementals. Thoughtforms can manifest a number of powers from there corresponding discipline. -Tindali: No, this has no relation to a similarly named creature from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The tindali are the closest thing to a playable PC race in this book, with only a +2 level adjustment and 2 HD. They appear humanoid at first glance, but someone who gets a closer look will notice the eyes randomly embedded in their flesh. As you might guess, this grants them advantages related to their vision, and some of their psionic abilities play off this theme as well.ConclusionThough generally suitable for any campaign with psionics, many of the creatures have a definite Indian and east Asian feel to it, emphasizing the contemplative nature of many psionic creatures. This is a feature that I rather liked, as since the publication of the psionics handbook, I have felt the addition of physical statistics to psionics took it a step closer to eastern mysticism (and in doing so, enhanced the fantasy feel).The problem I find with some other third party psionic creatures is that they play off the "alien" feel associated with mind flayers too much. This book avoided that, which in my view makes it more suitable for use in a campaign with psionics but a predominantly classical fantasy feel.Unlike my esteemed colleagues, I did not miss having round-by-round tactics breakouts for creatures. Ultimately, I believe that they are often a waste of space, as most GMs can figure them out, and actual tactics used would vary depending on the situation and the personality of the particular creature.Overall Grade: B+ -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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