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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011294" data-attributes="member: 1129">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.</blockquote>

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