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Message: <blockquote data-quote="knight_isa" data-source="post: 2009965" data-attributes="member: 1434">Monsternomicon: Volume I--Denizens of the Iron KingdomsPrivateer PressISBN 0-9706970-3-1240 pages (art on inside covers, 2 pages copyright/TOC/OGL, 2 pages index)$29.95This is not a playtest review.Monsternomicon is almost everything I want out of a monster manual--it's a beautiful book, a thick hardcover with a wonderful layout, great art, and some monsters that nobody else knows about.  Although nominally set in the Iron Kingdoms, most of the monsters in this book could be easily placed in a more traditional fantasy campaign.The Monsters. (204 pages, 98 monsters by my count) The monster entries are great.  Each entry starts on a page boundary and most (if not all) entries sport at least two pictures.  All the art is pen & ink, and most of it is fantastic.  Each entry also has a silhouette of the creature next to a human one so you can get a sense of relative size.  In addition to the expected stuff each entry has a bit of useful flavor text (descriptions of one Viktor Pendrake's experiences with the creature), a brief section on legend & lore (to go along with the Creature Lore skill presented later in the book) as well as some suggested plot hooks.  My one and only complaint is that the treasure is listed a bit different that normal (it lists items, body parts, etc), which might make calculating treasure a little bit difficult for the DM.  On the other hand, the treasure does match the creature a bit more than in the MM.The monsters overall are a bit on the macabre side, and a lot of them are really cool.  Here a a few of my favorites that I'm looking forward to using once I'm back in the DM's chair:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the boatman (CR 7), a monstrous humanoid that poses as a boatman to ambush his prey, but is a sucker for a good deal and will let you go--for the right price.  This entry includes a template for a boatman's "progeny" (victims that it brings back as undead).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the cephalyx (CR 6), another monstrous humanoid with some mechanical implants that creates drudges of it's victims (template included).  This one could easily be modified to be psionic instead of magical in nature.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the eldritch (CR 14+), a sort of lich/vampire that can create minions called sythyss (template included).  The eldritch is actually a template. I could see an eldritch being a big, bad, nasty recurring villian.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the rusalka (CR 3), a fey that is bound to an enchanted dagger.  I can imagine an adventure revolving around a rusalka and her dagger.  I'd say more, but I hate to give anything away.</li> </ul>[5]Legends & Lore and Tomes of Lore. (4 pages) These sections discuss the new skill Creature Lore (which lets you find out pieces of information about a creature as noted in its entry), new feats related to Creature Lore, and tomes that provide bonuses to said skill.  The pricing for the tomes doesn't follow the DMG (it's quite a bit more expensive), and I think that I tome creation from Ink & Quill and bit better besides. [3]Quickplates.  (4 pages) Quickplates are templates that can quickly be added to a monster to buff it up a little or give it a bit of variety.  The quickplates are Alpha Hunter, Bloodthirsty, Crafty, Deep Dweller, Holy, Maligned, Stealthy, Tough, and Urban.  These seem well done. [5]Viktor Pendrake. (3 pages) A couple of pages about the "author" of the book and his allies & enemies with stat-blocks.  I think the campaign setting book might be a better place for this, but it does give you a bit of extra insight into the flavor text that accompanies the monster entries. [3]Prestige Classes. (16 pages) The Adventuring Scholar (think Indiana Jones), the Bone Grinder (spellcasters that seek out body parts for increasing the power of their spells or creating magic items called tokens), Monster Hunter (super ranger that can set traps--new gear and traps are included).  Again, while these are related to the material in the book, I think they should have been in the campaign setting book.  To be honest, I didn't look at the prestige classes closely enough to check balance.  [3]Cosmology & Infernals. (2 pages) The Iron Kingdoms has its own cosmology, and outsiders are exceptionally rare.  It's an interesting read, but, yet again, I'd rather see this in the campaign setting book. [3]Playable Races. (4 pages) This section points out which races from the PH exist in the Iron Kingdoms (and which have changes), as well as which creatures from this book are considered playable races (along with short PH-style write ups).  Oddly enough, these aren't listed in alphabetical order. [3]Index. I really wish there were a couple of indices, preferably one by creature type and one by CR.  As it is, there is just the alphabetical TOC.  It would be really nice if Privateer came up with one as a web enhancement, but it would have been even nicer if one had been included at the expense of one of those aforementioned things that would have been better suited to the campaign setting book. [0]Conclusion: Overall, I thought this is a fantastic monster book.  Other than the missing index, it is everything I want in a monster book.  I have to admit that the "Volume 1" in the title makes my hope for a volume 2.  Should a volume 2 come out, I would buy it in a heartbeat, especially if it dropped the campaign setting stuff in favor of more monsters and the indices.Normally I average out the scores to come up with my ending score, but in this case I think the Monsternomicon does so well with the monsters that it completely overshadows any complaints I had about campaign setting stuff being where (I think) it didn't belong.  If I could give a fractional score I'd give this book a 4.75--the only real fault being the lack of the indices that I wanted.  As it is, I'll give it a 5.</blockquote>

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