The Legacy of the Dragons

[Messageboard Golem]

The hideous ghoul worm . . . the deadly blade trolls . . . the prowling kahrn, which literally feeds on combat and anger. . . . This monster supplement provides dozens of new adversaries and allies like these, created as a bestiary for the best-selling Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed variant player's handbook.

Inside Legacy of the Dragons, 3rd Edition codesigner Monte Cook and popular d20 System author Mike Mearls present dozens of new nasties for your delight. From akashic seeker to zetetic, this book has what you need to add some teeth to your campaign!

For original, well-designed, and fearsome monsters, look no further than those who serve as the Legacy of the Dragons. In the pages of this bestiary you'll find:

-50 new monsters, from CR 1/4 to CR 20-each complete with its own encounter;
-15 new and exciting NPC personalities from the lands of the Diamond Throne;
-New feats, magic items, spells, weapons, diseases, and more, all inspired by the monsters in this book; and
-Quick and easy guidelines for converting all these creatures to the standard d20 System rules.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Now I’m taking things a little out of pace here. I received a copy of this book for the upcoming awards but have been looking it over in the store for a while so I instantly devoured it. And I was glad to have done so. I’ve already plotted out several encounters and created several NPCs using this book and look forward to what my players do when they encounter the Legacy of the Dragons.

To me, a monster book should offer unique creatures that are well illustrated and can actually be used in a session without snickers from the players. I love the original Fiend Folio but let’s face it, for every Death Knight or other memorable legacy, there was two of the Flump. Legacy of the Dragons introduces fifty new creatures for the Arcana Unearthed variant system, in addition to 15 NPCs for the setting.

In terms of standard use, the authors have done a good job of insuring that most of the material can be slid over to a 3.0/3.5 setting with no issue. For example, under Special Qualities, he lists damage resistance for both 3.0 and 3.5 games. Statistics, for the most part, follow 3.5 listings. This includes break down of armor class, base attack and grapple information listed before full attack information and level adjustment. Things not listed are alignment and number of squares that a creature can move. For example, if a creature has a movement of 30 feet, standard 3.5 monsters would have 6 squares listed next to it. A quick description of the creatures is also missing, although details are provided latter on. Some of the stats are for AU only like dying/dead, where Monte has his variant system in place.

The strength of the book isn’t in the numbers. At 160 pages, to have only 65 potential encounters seems wasteful. It’s not. The devil has always been in the details. Monte listens when he hears DMs complain about the lack of even basic information in monsters in core books like the Monster Manual with its cramped layout. Take for example the Bone Viper. This is a minor threat, a CR 2, that wouldn’t need much exploration in a regular monster book. Here however, we have details over what they do, how they tend to fight, and what an average encounter with one with go like. Most are not mapped encounters and full details aren’t listed but it gets the GM’s brain going and puts the encounters in perspective. One good thing about the maps is that Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key Games does the illustrations so even this ‘minor’ element of the book gets treated well.

For those entries that are humanoids, like the ‘degenerate, malicious subrace of humanity’ known as the Vallorian, we have information on playing them as characters. This includes full gaming stats and information on adjusted weapons. In this case, the Vallorians are masters of living weapons and armor, so we get new feats, weapon, armor and shield templates. By providing this information, the GM is able to introduce the Vallorian as a truly unique encounter as opposed to some drow (unless you’re using Green Ronin’s Plot & Poison book) or other Underdark rip off. The only thing not listed is a favored class.



In terms of what’s done with the NPCs, the authors have moved beyond the standard in most cases. Take the very first character, Aarach. This skurg, a beast man of huge size, is actually a sea witch but doesn’t know it. His armor wearing ways mean most of his spells fail. The ironic thing is that it’s all written out very much in tune with how such a creature might think. To Aarach, he’s not a witch. He’s just a member of the tribe of the river.

Another unique character, Algar the Gifting Minstrel, started life as human, but after tragedy, took on the mojh race. Unlike others of his kind, he stays in the open and works in full view of others. Unlike many mojh, he is motivated to actually do good and help as many people as he can while exploring the world. Unlike most of his race, people actually look forward to his arrival.

In addition to the monsters and NPCs, the authors include an appendix with additional ideas and notes to help a GM fully convert material to a standard d20 game. This includes replacing the races, classes, skills, and feats of AU with d20 standards, as well as what certain equipment, magic, and spells would be in a normal game. Perhaps of more interest are the referenced feats for ease of use. Two of these are new feats, Opportunistic Attack and Power Leap. The former gives you an additional attack of opportunity per round while the latter allows the user to literally jump onto his enemy and attack him gaining a bonus to damage and perhaps knocking the enemy prone.

A table collects all monsters by name and CR but doesn’t include page number. A quick look through this chart shows creatures starting at ¼ CR for the fierce sounding Spined Grapplers and ending with a CR of 20 for the extremely rare rune angels known as Shuyarn.

Layout is standard two columns. Editing seems solid. One of the strengths of the book is in the pool of artistic talent that the company has assembled. Kevin Crossley, Jennifer Meyer, Tyler Walpole, and Sam Wood do an outstanding job of brining this book to life. I actually wish this were a hardcover in full color so that everything could look as bright and awesome as the cover. The interior reminds me of the old Talislantia Bestiary when the artists on that line were in their prime.

When you look at a Navver’s Curse, a large fey, you want to read it over quickly so you know where you can use it. When you explain to your party what a spelleater looks like and then show them the illustration, they’ll have a greater appreciation of the creature. Only the Slaughterfiend got the shaft in terms of illustration, not because it’s not a great illustration, but because they didn’t do a picture that could take advantage of the quarter page of blank white space and instead we get what is essentially a headshot of the creature.

In terms of utility, I would’ve liked to see a few minor additions or changes. For example, what would it have hurt to have alignment listed? Players of AU could’ve ignored it and it would’ve been useful for bane weapons in a standard campaign if nothing else. In addition, the lack of a physical description at the front of the details stands out as this is now a standard for most monster books. I appreciate the depth of the details but having a quick physical description to read aloud or familiarize myself with to paraphrase to my players, would’ve been great instead of having to read a partial description, some background, some tactics and a little more description.

These are not issues with the book itself however but a matter of taste and style. Legacy of the Dragons fleshes out the background of the Diamond Throne while providing foes worthy of any standard 3.0 or 3.5 system and GMs looking for more unique encounters should eagerly peruse this tome for future use in their own campaigns.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

You malign the flumph, sir?

 

[JustaPlayer]

So much he spelled it wrong. LOL

 

[GameWyrd]

Ooh, a bestiary without annoying alignment faff. A d20 bestiary without alignment nonsense for that matter! Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed is notable for many reasons but one of my favourites is the dismissing of the awful D&D alignment system. So, here in Legacy of the Dragons, we have creatures like Rock Apes and don't have to worry whether they're smart enough to be actively or just passively "good" or "evil".

Legacy of the Dragons is a "mere" 162 pages in length. It has that greyscale illustration style which I once associated with Malhavoc but now associate with Arcana Unearthed (a subtle but probably important difference). That's to say the illustrations are quality, grey, drawings and there are no chunky sidebars or chapter heading graphics. It's the illustrations which give this collection of monsters a healthy push in the right direction. Legacy of the Dragons' line up includes Kev Crossley, Jennifer Meyer, Tyler Walpole, Sam Wood and Ed Bourelle. Bourelle's one of the best cartographers in the business and Legacy of the Dragons enjoys his talents. Certain monster entries are accompanied by maps. Oh yes, it's written by Monte Cook and Mike Mearls.

Legacy of the Dragons is just a little different from most other bestiaries. I've already noted that some of the entries have associated maps. That's because every monster entry has a sample encounter involving the monster. That's different. There's an EL for this encounter which isn't just the same Challenge Rating for the critter. I went to pick two examples of encounters from the book for the review and kept on finding encounters where a merchant approaches the PCs. Oh well - it is tricky writing so many self-contained, modular, encounters! In general there are several pages per monster - not several monsters per page. There's plenty of detail and always an atmospheric introductory couple of paragraphs about the monster. The Monte and Mike combination can write. I'm not too happy about calling the monster entries in Legacy of the Dragons "monsters" either. It seems almost too dumbed-down. Malhavoc calls them monsters, though. Part One of the book is called "Monsters of the Diamond Throne". Part Two of the book is "Characters of the Diamond Throne".

I like monster books - I use them as inspiration for scenes and atmosphere. I guess I must be a visual type who creates fantasy worlds from mental pictures - and monsters help with that. I'm not so fond of the NPCs though. I want to create the important NPCs myself. It doesn't matter, in the larger scale of things, if the players kill a couple of Blade Trolls. It might matter if something happens to Daelan Bitterslice or Domagoth the Dominator. What if they're mentioned in a future supplement? Sword and Sorcery Studios (who stand alongside Malhavoc under the White Wolf umbrella) do this with some of their Scarred Lands NPCs. I can't risk messing up story continuity or wrecking future supplements. I don't even like having to think that it might be a possibility! I don't like NPC books.

Many of the monsters are humanoid and quite a few have possibilities as player characters or NPCs (rather than just encounters). Whenever it's appropriate we've help from Monte and Mike here. Handy. On a similar note we're often told about the sort of society these intelligent (intelligent-ish) creatures tend to gather and live in. I prefer to have more information than not but there's a catch here. I had a pretty clear of what life in the lands of the Diamond Throne was like. The Arcana Unearthed books are great for this, and now, all of a sudden, a whole bunch of other societies have sprung up. I'm beginning to get a Forgotten Realms vibe from the game now; new creatures and powers around every corner. I'm not so keen on that.

There are over 50 new monsters in Legacy of the Dragons and just over a dozen NPCs. That's really rather a lot. Characters tend to have a history (which may or may not fit with game world information you've already introduced) and therefore take up a fair chunk of pages too.

There are some hidden surprises of Legacy of the Dragons - most notably a couple of pages on conversation notes. Want to convert your favourite d20 D&D character or NPC to d20 Arcana Unearthed? This section provides useful assistance. Some of the observations are fairly obvious (the Champion is akin to the Paladin? Never!) but most of the chapter is helpful.

And, oh yes, there's the legacy of the Dragons in the Legacy of the Dragons. Here we find out what was going on - loosely - in the lands of the Diamond Throne before it was known as the Diamond Throne. We have the origin of the dramojh. It's a little disappointing, rather more in line with the cheese fantasy that Arcana Unearth (normally) so successfully shrugs off.

I feel as if I've nit-picked the hell out of this product. It seems a little unfair because I'm really quite pleased with it! Even the inclusion of the NPCs doesn't really unsettle me too much. I think in this case the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Sit back and look at the whole; you've monsters for the Diamond Throne, which you need, you've conversion rules, which are handy, you've some more history, which you can use or loose and I suppose you can say the same for the NPCs. I see the Legacy of the Dragons as essentially a monster book and in that respect the monster entries are jolly good. GameWyrd's ranking system looks to see if the product does what it says it will and if it does so professionally we begin with a passing grade of 5/10. We then add and subtract from that based on likes and dislikes. The Legacy of the Dragons goes up and down but finally settles quite high on the up scale.

* This Legacy of the Dragons review was first published at GameWyrd.

 

[wocky]

Back when the Lands of the Diamond Throne were ruled by dragons, one of them created the terrible dramojh. These bloodthirsty beings almost ended with the metallic dragons and were the cause of the generalized exodus to the west. During their long reign, the dramojh created many terrible creatures through cross-breeding and magical experimentation which still haunt the lands today. These monsters are called the "Legacy of the Dragons", which is fair enough, since the dramojh themselves were created by dragons.

"Legacy of the Dragons" is also the name of the first bestiary for Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. If you play standard D&D you're extremely lucky, since the book includes all the information needed for conversion to either 3.5 or 3.0 vanilla rules. It's with this compatibility in mind that I bought the book and you'll have to excuse my lack of familiarity with Arcana Unearthed throughout this review.

This book introduces us to fifty new creatures, all of them wicked creations of Monte Cook and Mike Mearls (or the dramojh, depending on who you ask). The book also includes fifteen NPCs specific to the Diamond Throne setting whose rich backgrounds might justify adapting them to campaigns taking place elsewhere. Of the creatures and characters presented in this book, 42% fall in the CR 1-5 range (of which 36% have CRs 2 or higher), 31% are CR 6-10, 17% are CR 11-15 and 10% have CRs between 16 and 20. More than half of the monsters are either Magical Beasts or Aberrations, with the rest distributed among the various types; the good news is that most of them could perfectly have templates applied to them, which not always happens with monsters, so getting some new undead or fiends is easy.

When discussing the monsters included in "Legacy of the Dragons" the subject should go the brilliant and unique mechanics behind most of them. The abilities of the creatures are firmly rooted in third edition rules, taking advantage of them to make for memorable encounters. The arachnid Arachtar, one of the many creatures that fights using it's environment as a weapon, can sense creatures on it's web and attacks by animating it. An aberration in plant guise, the Arboreal Corrupter can corrupt ordinary trees and make them fight for it's cause. Blade Trolls take advantage of their regeneration to insert parts of armor and weapons (even magically enhanced ones) beneath their skins. Not only fearsome fighters but also great plot devices, the mysterious Faradians experience random flashes of the future which guide their swords in more than one way. Hate Reapers are rodentlike beasts that cause their victims to enter a bloodthirsty rage, and mages are sure to fear Spelleaters, furry creatures which get stronger by consuming spells. And I sure can't forget of the Staj, who has an ability that makes eye-patches in D&D more than a fashion statement.

Great care has been given to the layout, so each monster's entry begins at the top of a left hand page. Besides all the data you've come to expect in a monster book, every single monster has a description for a sample encounter (with an EL that not always matches the CR), and some include either ecology information, data needed to play them as character, a lair or settlement map, new equipment, or some other crunchy bits. Want to build an armor using a Spined Grappler's shell? Capture a mud slime? Get the service of a Witchraven? There's some very inspiring material here for what we've come to expect from a bestiary. Diamond Throne players will particularly appreciate the amount of information on the setting given in descriptions.

I can find no major problems for using "Legacy of the Dragons" in core D&D (either 3.0 or 3.5, as Damage Reduction and Space/Reach entries are even given in both formats). Only a couple of creatures are so tied to the setting as to require some reworking, like the Akashic Seeker, that assumes some knowledge on "Akashic Nodes" (whatever they are), and the Rune Reaver, a very interesting creature tied to the rune inscribing mechanics. An appendix provides some conversion information, like equivalences for races, classes, skills, feats and spells. Those feats without a clear equivalence in the core rules (and two new ones) are included, but don't expect to be able to use all of them for anything else, as some express the different philosophy of the Arcana Unearthed rules and shouldn't be combined with other feats. Some balance problems might become more apparent if you attempt to play one of the new races as a player character; for example the Vallorian living weapons might make sense in Arcana Unearthed, but you'd have to work hard to convince me that they're not very broken outside of it.

Malhavoc's Press books usually look very nice, and this one is no exception... except that the art is not good, but absolutely brilliant. Artists Kevin Crossley, Jennifer Meyer, Tyler Walpole and Sam Wood present magnificent illustrations for every of the creatures and characters, with a quality I'd only hope other publishers (Wizards of the Coast in particular) had. The only bummer is that all illustrations are in black and white (at least in the PDF version).

Monsters shaped the history of the Lands of the Diamond Throne, and in a DMs hand they can shape the land in the player's minds. In a happy marriage of third edition rules and story, these new concepts mix with the classic creatures as if they've always been there. "Legacy of the Dragons" is as close I've ever been to the perfect monster book.