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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 2011909" data-attributes="member: 13836">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.</blockquote>

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