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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wocky" data-source="post: 2011570" data-attributes="member: 11408">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.</blockquote>

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