The Enemy Below - 9 Underground Monsters is a short pdf by Ronin Arts. Written by Andrew Hind, it provides 9 new monsters to populate your underground environment. This 10 page pdf contains 9 pages devoted to detailing the monsters, one to each page, with 1 page devoted to OGL declarations and a brief introduction. The Enemy Below normally retails on RPGNow.com for $1.65.
Initial Impressions:
Ronin Arts has put some excellent products out over the years, and as a fan of monsters I was excited to pick up this little product from Ronin Arts. The layout is simple, each monster to a page, and there is no art contained in the pdf, something strange to a monster pdf, but not necessarily something for the short pdf market. The OGL declarations are on the front page, also something rather unusual, along with a brief introduction to the pdf and the origin of cave systems.
The text of the pdf is well-written, with only the occasional editing error, and some of it is written from the first person perspective, detailing somebody's view (it's never mentioned who) on the various monsters as they are encountered. It contains some nice elements of flavor, although in places I felt that the critters were just familiar creatures in a different environment, such as, for example the Rock Unicorn being a mountain unicorn rather than a forest unicorn. In addition, not all the creatures are truly underground creatures, as a swift look at the Environment entry on each monster will attest to. Generally, though, the writing and flavor were what I would expect from a Ronin Arts pdf.
The pdf, however, was appalling in the stat block arena. The stat blocks were a confusing mix of 3e and 3.5e, with feats like Ambidexterity still existing, and skills like Animal Empathy still around. In addition, they were horribly incorrect, and for most stat blocks there was almost more wrong with them than there was correct with them. If you assume that there are 15 mechanical entries per stat block, i.e. 135 in total, then almost half of them were incorrect. I was very disappointed to find this pdf riddled with errors, as the text and flavor is otherwise good. As an example, look at the Cave Toad:
- HD should be 4d10+4 (26 hp) not 4d8 (22 hp) as it's a magical beast.
- Base saving throws are given as Fort +1, Refl +6, Will +2. If we assume the Reflex save is the good one (although magical beasts typically have good Fortitude and Reflex saves) then it should be Fort +1, Refl +4, Will +1 before ability score modifiers and feats.
- It only has one feat listed instead of two for its 4 HD.
- As a magical beast with Int 1 and 4 HD, it should have 7 skill points. It has 22 skill points listed, but I doubt it considers the -4 penalty to hide from size. There are no racial skill bonuses in sight.
- No touch of flat-footed ACs are given, nor does the speed list the number of squares the creature can move. In addition, special abilities and special qualities are not listed with Su, Ex or Sp.
- The Adhesive Tongue ability notes a ranged attack of +2 and that it's treated as a grapple attack. With 4 HD, Weapon Finesse (Tongue) and a Dex 13, it should be +6 for the touch attack to start the grapple.
All the creatures presented in this pdf suffer from a similar number of errors, from undead with 4 HD having BAB +4, to several creatures not even being given a challenge rating such as the Shadow Trapper and the Dracul, to the Raisa being classified as humanoid while having dozens of spider legs, to DR 10/+1 in the Mesquita entry, to creatures that have their Wisdom reduced to 0 being considered dead, to the Shadow Trapper requiring a Craft (Trapmaking) skill to use its Dark Traps ability, but not having any ranks in the skill, and so on and so forth. At the risk of filling this review with twice its content in corrections, I'll keep my list of errors to myself and offer it to Ronin Arts if they wish to use it. Putting those comments aside, let's delve into more detail on what the monster actually are.
The Details:
Each monster comes with a stat block, descriptive text, first person text as an introduction, combat section and a brief section on ecology. The stat blocks will need serious correction if this pdf is to be used in a 3.5e game, as indicated it should be in the OGL declarations.
Cave Toad: The cave toad is a large underground toad that skulks in the shadows of caves and caverns, hoping to catch prey with a petrifying gaze and grappling tongue.
Rock Unicorn: A cousin to the normal unicorn that dwells in mountainous regions and underground rather than in the forests, with many similar abilities.
Raisa: A devilish looking humanoid with coal-black skin and scuttling around on a dozen spider legs. It uses the walls like a spider to fight, and is a well-armored beast.
Shadow Trapper: An outsider skilled at creating shadow traps, and luring creatures towards these traps, hoping to rip their hearts out.
Weaver Bat: A spider-like bat that can spin webs and ensnare foes while flying through the air.
Ironblight Worm: A rust-monster-like worm that craves metal and can reduce it to goo with a single spit of its saliva.
Dracul: A bat-like humanoid and undead creature created by mind-flayers once their brains have been removed. It flutters around, hoping to catch prey in its draining embrace.
Gladiatrix: An undead female, spurned and downtrodden by men, that has risen up as a warrior to exact vengeance.
Mesquita: A beautiful maiden hoping to seduce unwary travellers before draining their blood or infecting them with a dangerous disease.
As can be noted above, there's some good flavor in the creatures, although some are somewhat familiar. Given the major and glaring errors in the stat blocks and generally very poor mechanics, it's unlikely that they can be used as is, but if corrected, these creatures will make a nice addition to a creature library.
Conclusions:
The Enemy Below is a short monster pdf from Ronin Arts. Nine monsters are contained in this pdf, each coming with some good flavor bits and some interesting abilities and uses. However, the stat blocks and mechanics for these creatures are horribly riddled with errors, and will require some major correction. Based on some good ideas, good writing, but woeful errors in a monster pdf, I'd grade this with two stars.
