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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011455" data-attributes="member: 18387">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 complexityThe 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.</blockquote>

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