Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary

[Messageboard Golem]

"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

A wizard in the process of developing magically sentient 'alchemice' enters his lab one morning to find the cage doors opened, the locks apparently picked by the small bits of wire left lying on the workbench. A large number of potions are missing, and the cat is sealed into a half-full bottle of formaldehyde. His life becomes a nightmare.

Packs of reptilian bonethieves lurk in the depths of primal rain forests, magically absorbing the bones of living prey to stimulate the growth of their own protective bony horns and plating.

A candle golem is spontaneously created when the wax from mundane candles used in a wizard's library is gathered, melted down, and reused one too many times. The loose arcane energy absorbed by the wax gives this tiny being a free will and an erratic response to magic.

A party of adventurers, bloody and without magic following an epic battle with a dragon, is driven away from the site of their victory by dracoticks vacating the corpse of their dragon host. Suffused with the dragon's blood and camouflaged to look like its scales, the dracoticks unleash potent breath weapons that make for a dangerous treasure hunt.

More than 220 creatures like these are described in the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary, which promises to be the most impressive collection of original D20 System monsters to date. The entries that fill this weighty volume's 352 pages go beyond the atmospheric description, evocative illustration, and solid stats for which Penumbra is known, providing adventure seeds designed to inspire GMs and players alike, and extras like new gods, new spells, and new magic items. And, through a special arrangement with Atlas Games, Lance & Laser Models is planning a simultaneous release of nine custom miniatures based on the creatures of the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary. For those looking for more meat in their monsters, and more creativity in their creatures, comes the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Fantasy Bestiary is essentially a very big monster manual/creature collection for d20 3.0 from Atlas Games.

Fantasy Bestiary is a 368-page mono hardcover book costing $44.95. Space usage is generally pretty good with a tight font, no space between paragraphs, and small margins, though there are scattered chunks of white space and a page and a half of ads. Pretty much all of the creatures are illustrated and most keep to their own page or pages, though in certain sections covering multiple creatures of a similar type, the text crosses page barriers. Art quality ranges in style and from poor to good, with significantly more good than bad; I was particularly impressed with the drawings by Kelley Hensing that capture the creature's emotion as well as their appearance. Each creature is presented in the standard format of stat block and special abilities on a white background taking up 2/3 of the page in a double column layout using a standard font, whilst the third column is in a handwriting-style font and sits on a grey background showing a mediaeval style image - this section gives background information and adventure seeds for the creature. A mock tear across the paper divides the two sections vertically down the page (the style changes in the template section to a horizontal 'tear' with a two column layout). With nearly 40 authors the writing style should be varied but the editor has done an impressive job of giving a feel of continuity of style between creatures. Editing is very impressive considering the size of the product.

Here are a few stats on the product to mull over:
* There are more than 200 monsters presented.
* CRs range from 1/4 to 22+, with the majority being CR 9 or below.
* All 3.0 creature types are represented, though there is a predilection for aberrations, constructs, dragons, magical beasts, outsiders and undead.

One unusual feature of the book is the use of icons to give a quick overview of the style of the creature - the Wolf icon represents hunter predators suited to combat encounters, the Cat icon represents creatures whose strength lies in stealth and subterfuge. The Hand icon represents those creatures that rely on magical or supernatural powers, the Mask icon represents creatures suitable for roleplaying encounters and the Eclipse icon represents ultra-powerful creatures that one could design a campaign around. These icons are used in conjunction with each other to help GMs find a suitable creature for a particular encounter.

There is a long list of playtesters for this product, which bodes well for appropriate CRs and decent stat blocks. A check through a few creatures did not reveal any grievous errors. It should be noted that the stats relate to v3.0 rather than 3.5.

OK, everyone has their preferences when it comes to creature types and ambience, so the following should be taken with a pinch of salt:

Creatures That Appealed To Me:
* Dark Advocate - this devil uses power, magic and wealth to seduce mortals to evil. The twist involves a contract written in the victim's blood, which signs away their soul (at which point they become Soulless, a template offered later in the book). The adventure seed sees the PCs getting involved in a dispute over a blood contract, where they have to attend a diabolic court on behalf of a good-aligned cleric to save the soul of a peasant farmer.
* Dreamkind - an offshoot of the Oneiromancy section in Atlas Games' Occult Lore, five creatures of the dream plane are described under the Dreamkind section - wists (embodied daydreams that are invisible to normal people but evoke pleasant childhood smells to those that sense them), fables (fairy-tale characters with animal heads, who represent strong emotions and personality traits), dream knights (actors who orchestrate the dreams of dreamers), dream lords (embodying legends and overseeing dream knights and other denizens of the dream plane), and the nemesis (a sleeping creature made up of unfinished dreams that will destroy the plane of dream if awakened).
* Court Of The Pale King - a twist on Celtic legend, this section describes Pale Kings, subjects of the fey god of the dead, Arawn. These powerful fey can create undead thralls with their death gaze - Thrall of the Pale King is later provided, as a template. Arawn uses outsider hunting dogs, Hounds of Arawn, to track down his enemies and these creatures are also described. Finally, the section gives base information on Arawn, the fey lord of the dead. One of the adventure seeds involves a local lord wagering his daughter's hand in a hunting contest against a pale king. Though the lord has the best hunting dogs in the land, he is unlikely to win the wager against the Hounds of Arawn used by the Pale King, without the PCs help.

Creatures That Annoyed Me:
* Fuzzwippit - this over-sized furball enthralls its prey with a cooing purr. Any player that wants one of these as a familiar will be thrown out of my game immediately. Good for a Pokemon RPG.
* Cactus Crawler - essentially a moving cactus patch. Serious lack of innovation. Interesting for method actors.
* Alchemice - these sentient mice use the prestidigitation ability to cause havoc and can identify and drink potions to boost their abilities. These creatures could be the new heroes of the next Disney cartoon.

For some example downloads of other creatures, see the links on the main page of this product.

Conclusion:
Though there were a smattering of creatures in the product that lacked flavour or sense, the majority of creatures are interesting, balanced, and well-detailed. I particularly liked the linking of similar creatures in sections and across into the 60-page templates section at the end of the product. I also appreciated the multiple appendices showing creatures by type (and subtype), by terrain, by challenge rating, those advancing by class, supplemental summoning tables for the new creatures, as well as a bibliography, new d20 material by type, and an index of all monsters with page number at the beginning of the book.

It doesn't have quite the depth of information for running the creature in a campaign or adventure that I would have liked but it's generally good enough, and well written in most cases. The additional d20 material such as new potions, poisons, spells, deities, diseases, and magic items spread through the book is an additional bonus. Delayed at the printers, it's a shame this was released so late in the day before 3.5 was released, but with a little work, favourite monsters can be converted for use with the newer rule set.

 

[Merova]

Hi all!

Another excellent review, Simon! Great job!

I really love this book. I haven't put it through enough playtest to write up a review, but I think this one might be a 5 star for me. The sheer utility of this book is amazing. The use of icons, the various appendices, and excellent index, these all make implementation during play sooo much easier.

It doesn't have the depth of a product like the "Monsternomicon" but, IMO, it provides sufficient technique for smooth implementation and encounter design through the icons. Need a stealth beastie? Look for the cat.

In any case, thanks for writing.

---OMW

 

[trancejeremy]

A 5 star from Merova? It has to be amazingly good, then.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Fantasy Bestiary

It is not 3.5 It was released about the same time the new revision of the game was released but the people at Atlas choose to keep it 3.0 and that choice does not bother me in the least. However, I felt that since the book is 3.0 that that fact should be stated so people understand it and do not miss it because that is the only reason I can see if people not loving this book. It is that good.

Fantasy Bestiary is a very impressively large book of monsters. It is 360 pages in length and that might be the biggest monster book I have seen. It is a hardbound book that is black and white. The format is tight and the text is smaller then average getting many words per page with very little wasted space. In the foreword it is estimated that there is over two hundred and twenty thousand words in this book. There are over two hundred pieces of art that take up over twenty two square feet, which is a good amount of art. This is also mentioned in the foreword, which is a good and funny read.

The one thing that makes the book so great in my opinion is the details they use. There are probably two dozen monsters books if not more out on the market. They all have a collection of creatures in them and after a while they do start to look and feel the same. Fantasy Bestiary separates itself by adding in extras that the other books do not have. These little touches make the book far easier to use and enjoyable to read. I am notorious for reading RPG books like novels, but even I have difficulty reading many monster books cover to cover. Fantasy Bestiary though was easy and a joy to read.

The book like most others has an alphabetized list of all the monsters by page number. It also has a list of all the creatures here by type and subtype, organized by terrain, listed by challenge rating, and even has the ones that can be improved by class level. This gives the DM many ways of finding the exact creature he needs to fit whatever he might be doing. It does not stop there though. It has Summon Monster and Summon Nature’s Ally spell tables so the casters know what they can summon with which spell. It also has the few new things that are not creatures listed like the new Deities, diseases, familiars, botanic substances, etc. There are not a lot of items in here that are not creatures but because they are listed all together they will be easy to fine. Lastly, the book includes a bibliography. Not a lot of books were researched for this, but I am very comforted by one item that is listed here. They used Skip William’s Dragon article on how to create a monster. Such an obvious article to use for creating a book of creatures but I do not recall any other book listing that it was consulted.

Another simple but brilliant detail they added is five icons that denote what kind of creature one is looking at. These icons are all in the same place right under the stat block and serve as yet another way to find what one is looking for. The different icons are the wolf, the cat, the hand, the mask, and the eclipse. If there is a wolf icon it denotes that the creature is a hunter and general combatant. While a creature with the cat icon indicates stealth and misdirection. The hand is used to show beasts with magic or supernatural powers. The mask is for creatures defined by personality and indicates a good role playing encounter. Lastly, the eclipse indicates tremendous power and campaign focused monsters. All one needs to do is flip through the book and these simple icons can help tell what the creature is without need to read through and spend time the different entries. Creatures can have more then one icon as well indicating a mix of strategies and complexity

The monster entries are pretty standard except for a division of definition and use. Each page has a gray area down the outside that has some very good writing that tells about the creature and can offer some great adventure hooks. There are no rules in this area, it is pure text. The white area has the stat block and then the rules and definitions of the creature’s ability as well as any pictures. One can also find recipes here. That struck me as a little odd when I first saw them and not ever creature has a recipe for it. However, this is a brilliant little touch that adds a lot of character and ideas.

The monster book is not perfect, but I think it easily rates as one of the best monster books I have seen. It has a huge variety of creatures with ideas built in to make them easy to use. It has all these little extra details that they did not have to put in, but they did to make this book easy to use and save time. One last detail that amuses me still and really has no bearing on if it’s a good monster book is Michelle Nephew, the Line Director, awarded herself experience based on the work she had to do to get this book out there. She lists what she did and the experience she earned for each action. It is an amusing read and I would love to see more things like this from the creative people who are responsible for creating RPG books. Brilliant.

 

[d20books]

This book rates as one of my "Desert Island Five" books. (If you were on a desert island with the core rulebooks, dice, paper, pencil, and adequate players, which five D20 supplements would you want with you?)

I think the monsters in this book were more creative (without being whimsical) than the Violet Dawn, Denizens of Avadnu. They were more solid throughout. The icons rock, but the very BEST thing were all the adventure seeds in the margins.

I frequently combine this book with the FFG Monster's Handbook. You simply can't go wrong this way.

Since this is part of my Desert Island Five, this definitely gets a 5 star from me as well.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

The Fantasy Bestiary, from Atlas Games is aptly named. Over 200 creatures and 23 templates populate this large tome, offering GMs some extra creatures with some unusual flare. Atlas products are often overlooked and this is unfortunate as the company puts out some excellent material. The Fantasy Bestiary is no exception. Any GM who invests in this book will not be disappointed and will likely find the book to be a wonderful addition to their gaming library.

One of the strongest selling points about the book is that it not only comes with the typical stat blocks, descriptions and pictures but it also shows up with a nice feature called ‘Adventure Seeds.’ For every creature there is at least one listing on how to use it in a campaign. Frankly, this is a really nice touch that Privateer Press’ Monsternomicon also uses. What most impresses me about it is that the creators were interested enough in their creatures to come up with an adventure idea, in case the GM needed some extra help (or were unclear on a standard way to use the monster).

Another innovative part to the book is the series of icons next to each creature. Five icons (which each stand for either social encounters, combat encounters, magic encounters, etc.) are listed in the front of the book with each creature getting one or more in their entry. This is a remarkable tool so that GMs can leisurely flip their book and see what creature best fits what they are looking to use.

One of the most impressive features of the book is the amazing creativity that went into the creature design. Most of the denizens of the book are hardly ‘typical’ monsters. In fact, most of them are quite unusual or bizarre. But this is a benefit to the book, as so many of the ‘manuals of monsters’ available are merely a tougher version of already existing creatures. For instance, a few of the more unusual creatures that caught my attention were the alchemouse, the cuckoo, the dark advocate, the dreadwraith, and the sage drake. Each of these creatures is a perfect example of more social or mysterious creatures that a GM could use as an alternative to an evening of combat. The alchemouse is a race of semi-intelligent mice that have a love of arcane research and could provide entertainment as the haunts of an old wizard’s lair. The cuckoo is an insane troll-like creature that sets himself up as the world’s most disgusting and offensive houseguest through a variety of charm spells. The dark advocate appears to tempt desperate people in desperate times, promising a way out of problems for an eternity of servitude. The dreadwraith is an angry undead haunt or assassin that could provide quite a mystery a series of unusual murders (much like the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow). Finally, the sage drakes are a race of half men, half dragons, obsessed with knowledge and research and could therefore make excellent allies or adversaries. Obviously, there are far, far more creatures in the Fantasy Bestiary but the above were some of my personal favorites. Naturally, what many GMs will be pleased with is the fact that the creatures will be out of the ordinary enough that even seasoned players will not instantly know what they are facing when encountering some of the monsters in this book.

Upon cursory examination, the stat blocks all seem to hold up and all seem to meet the standards for the CR, etc. Something that was somewhat important to point out is that the majority of the creatures seemed to be CR 7 or below. Frankly, this is a refreshing change as so many of the most interesting monsters in other books seem so high with their CRs that it would be a long time before many GMs would have parties high enough level to use them. With the majority of the CRs at lower levels, the GM is sure to get plenty of use out of the creatures in the Fantasy Bestiary.

The artwork in the Fantasy Bestiary is by a variety of different authors and the majority of the pieces in the book are great depictions of the creatures, really capturing the flavor of the text written for them. There are black and white illustrations for every creature and really make the book come alive as the GM has the option of either describing the creature in vivid detail or simply opening the book and showing the players the picture.

There is one drawback with the Fantasy Bestiary but it is a relatively minor complaint. As mentioned, each creature has a description, as well as at least one adventure seed. However, the text for these two pieces is written in a script rather than a print. With the print size being relatively small, it can be a little difficult to read. Furthermore, the text is black, written on a dark gray background, making the reader squint from time to time, in order to read the text. This was a little daunting but it is really only a minor gripe, especially taken in the context of the entertainment value of the rest of the book.

Overall, the Fantasy Bestiary is a great product, worthy of being on any GM’s bookshelf. Certainly, the creatures are more unusual than most books but this is really one of the selling points. GMs who invest in the Fantasy Bestiary will not be disappointed in it and will add so much more depth to their campaign, especially if they are looking for creature that are not entirely combat driven.

This product gets four and a half stars out of five.