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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009486" data-attributes="member: 1129">The first release from Silverthorne Games that I had the pleasure to look through was Races of Evernor, a well-illustrated collection of different races to add to almost any campaign.  The Book of Templates starts off the same way with a covery page with name and symbol, but doesn’t boast the same interior design.There are thirty templates in this book and they range from the Blind Oracle, a template that blinds the creature but provides sight beyond sight, to the Feral.  Each template starts off with an introduction, appearance changes, how to create the template, stats modified, and a sample creature.  For example, were you to look up Dreadnaught, you’d discover that these creatures are the elite warriors of the race, gaining maximum hit points per hit die and having its hit dice doubled, as well as its ability modifiers and its other bonuses.  You’d find out that such creatures are hardier than normal ones being larger and more muscular and see a Dreadnaught Hobgoblin where a lowly humanoid now has a CR of 4.  The creature examples have all their combat information as modified by their template so GMs not only get thirty templates, but thirty monsters as well.One place where the book takes off is the concept of half races.  We get demi-gorgons (no, it’s not the demon price!), creatures that are half gorgon and half something else, half-genies, half-giants, half-humans, half-nymph, and half-orc.  The example creatures are excellent starting points like the half-orc/half-bugbear, and the half-nymph/half-pseudodragon.  Of course not every combination is appropriate, because if you have a half-human, half-nymph, do you use the human and add the nymph, or the nymph and add the half human?Even the undead get a little boost with greater skeletons, skinhusk, dread vampires and greater zombies. Of these four, the skinhusk is my favorite.  Here, a necromancer takes the skin off of a corpse, or a still living person, and animates it.  Unfortunately, there are no spells, rituals, magic items or other means of actually making the undead listed here so GMs will have to wing it.  The section, “Creating a X” might’ve been a good place to put such information.The pdf file itself bookmarks all the templates in the book so it’s a snap to jump from one template to another.  Each template takes up full pages and doesn’t overlap onto another template.  There are no other options, like the pop up boxes that Bodies & Souls, another template book used, and since there’s no art, there’s no need for a non-printing art option.The lack of art and design really hurts the product.  When looking at it, it’s easy to read but lacks flair.  If Races of Evernor didn’t have such great art, then I wouldn’t expect this product to, but since this is the second product, it stands out.  In addition, while not a problem, since this isn’t the first PDF on Templates to hit the market, it has some competition.  In addition, a lot of template ideas have already been covered.  How many more variants for the ‘tough’ guy do we really need?  If there were some new ideas and new types of templates, like the Quick Plates found in the Monsternomicon, the product would fare better.  How about some feats that only certain templates could take?  The product needs something new and innovative to stand about the competition. $7 is costly for a book with no art, especially a PDF file.I’ll be adding several of the templates to my own campaign setting but will have to be careful as to what gets added.  With another book of templates out, and lots of variation to increase monsters abilities, prestige classes, feats, unique variants, etc… Standard templates remain a solid alternative to creating new monsters, but don’t have the same appeal they did a few months ago.  To get a four, the product would either have to drop in price or have art.  To get a five, the product would have to go beyond standard templates.If you’re a lazy GM and want thirty predesigned and unique monsters, the book is a great timesaver.  For those who can never have enough templates, and there are a wider variety of them to chose from the Book of Templates is perfect for you.</blockquote>

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