Need a hand with some reviews

[Kanegrundar]

I'm going to be catching up on some purchases that I've been putting off for a while. Some I know I'm going to pick up sight unseen (all the 3.5 books, Arcana Unearthed, Unapproachable East, and Star Wars Hero's Guide for instance), but there are a few books that I looked for reviews for that were unrated. I was wondering if anyone has anything good or bad (namely bad) to say about the following books:

Revised Creature Collection 1

Dangerous Denizens (for Kalamar)

Penumbra Fantasy Beastiary

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kane

 

[Nightfall]

Well I just found this out, but the vaunted section for using MM monsters in the Scarred Lands didn't make it in the CC Revised book. The other two sections, (the races and the new templates) did. But otherwise if you want new art, liked the old one concept wise, CC Revised is for you.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Did they update the stats of the creatures to make them in line with the rules. That was my biggest beef with the original CC, and I was happy as heck when I found out they were revising it. I loved the selection of monsters, but some of them were really messed up rules-wise.

Kane

 

[Desdichado]

Is the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary out yet? I'll probably pick that up sight unseen. Or at least no more than sight-glanced-at!

 

[Nightfall]

Did they update the stats of the creatures to make them in line with the rules. That was my biggest beef with the original CC, and I was happy as heck when I found out they were revising it. I loved the selection of monsters, but some of them were really messed up rules-wise.

Kane

As far as I know they did it all. Fixed the skill points, fixed the saves, made sure undead and constructs didn't have Con scores, revised the CRs to be more in line with their powers and stuff. And new art work.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

I bought the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary over a month ago already. I have been thinking about writing a formal review for it here on ENWorld, as I have not seen one posted yet. I liked the book, but unfortunately found many of the creatures to be somewhat unoriginal - slightly different versions of fey, elementals, golems etc... The layout is terrific though, with adequate illustrations and a full page or more devoted to most entires. Your sure to find some things you like in this book. Detailed sections on entire new societies with multiple racial types like the Saboath ( good outsiders ) and the Kr'awn ( salamaderish abberations ) are highpoints of the book for me. Defintely many "gems" in this book.


It's probably too early for the reviews on CC1 revised and the Kalamar book, as I have not seen either of those at the LGS' yet.

I'll probably buy CC1 revised sight unseen if my SL campaign reverts to 3.5, which it probably will soon. But there are more than enough monster books out there ( I am enjoying the Fantasy Flight series very much ) to help me populate my growing hoimebrew without dipping into the CC1 or CC2 - I'm using these exclusively for my SL game.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I've seen the new CC(R) and Kalamar book at my FLGS, as well as AU and Warcraft... but I haven't bought any of them yet (payday was today), so I can't help.

 

[Voadam]

Penumbra Fantasy Beastiary

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kane

This is the only one of those I've got. First be aware I'm one of the authors (eight monsters in there are mine) You can check out previews at www.atlas-games.com (including my ghoul template, I'm not sure if my cantrip spirits are still up).

This is 3.0 but goes in depth on the monsters with lots of descriptions and plot hooks for every monster.

Many have support material such as associated spells or magic items.

The appendices are very in-depth breaking everything down by subtype, terrain, CR, etc.

Of the ones I didn't write I really like the angels and large number of constructs.

One unique aspect of the book is the coding of monsters by encounter use, there are icons for whether the monsters are designed as combatants, tricksters, highly magical, etc.

I'd recommend it highly.