Ultimate Monsters Volume 1
Edited by Richard Neale
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 9009
256 pages, $34.95
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 is the 9th in Mongoose's "Ultimate" line of books, each one apparently a compilation of d20 Open Game Content material on a specific subject from a variety of sources. (I know previous books have focused on feats, spells, equipment, etc.) This is the first book in the "Ultimate" series I've seen, so I went in without any preconceived notions.
Let me say first of all that
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 is a great idea. Many people really like having new monster stats, and the fact that many of the monsters in this book came from other companies' books - ones that they might not have seen before - means that they can plunk down their money for a monster book and get the monsters that up until now were only available by purchasing all of these other books, many filled with pages and pages of other things besides monster stats. To make my point, the Open Game License at the back of
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 acknowledges Goodman Games'
The Complete Guide to Drow, Green Ronin's
Hammer & Helm: A Guidebook to Dwarves, and AEG's
Dragons,
Dungeons,
Evil,
Monsters,
Undead, and
War. I don't have any of those books, so
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 sounded like a great opportunity to get a whole bunch of new content, all in 3.5 format. As far as updates from previous Mongoose products go,
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 also includes creatures from various "Slayer's Guides" (
Demons,
Giants,
Krakens,
Trolls), "Encyclopaedia Arcane" books (
Crossbreeding,
Elementalism,
Familiars,
Fey Magic), "Collector" series (
Quintessential Barbarian,
Quintessential Drow,
Quintessential Ranger),
Zahhak,
Seas of Blood,
Feurring,
Highthrone,
Stonebridge,
Slaine, and the "Creature Feature" articles of
Signs & Portents magazine.
Imagine my disappointment.
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 is just about the best example I can think of a brilliant idea with terrible execution. There's really no good way to say this other than to come right out and say it: it looks like neither the proofreader (Ben Hesketh) nor the editor (Richard Neale) had much interest at all in doing their jobs. I've complained about the shoddy job of catching typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, and poor page layouts in certain books in the past; I won't go into that much detail here other than to say that there are plenty of examples of each in this book. In particular, many sentences start out without capitalization, correct apostrophe usage is hit-or-miss, and, most irritating of all, it seems that somebody decided to do a "replace all" from "foot" to "-ft." throughout the entire book. This means, of course, that every time a sentence ended in the word "foot," it now ends with "-ft.." That's right, two periods: one at the end of the sentence, and one to abbreviate the word "foot." I lost track of how many times this occurs (actually, I gave up counting in frustration), but it wouldn't surprise me at all if the number reaches well over a hundred.
However, what made
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 an even bigger disappointment is the slipshod job that was done updating the monsters' stats to 3.5. There are over 225 monsters in this book; I don't think more than a dozen made it to 3.5 unscathed. Of those that made it, I think just about all of them were Medium-sized, and there's a good reason for that:
the editor is apparently unaware that a creature's size comes into play when calculating attack bonuses! The sad thing is, this hasn't changed from 3.0. However, one of the nice new features of the 3.5 monster stat-block is the inclusion of the Base Attack/Grapple modifiers. Apparently, when calculating the Basic Attacks, rather than just use the standard rules for determining a monster's Base Attack (based on creature type and Hit Dice; dragons, for example, attack as a fighter of a level equal to their Hit Dice (+1/Hit Die), whereas fey attack as a wizard with their Hit Dice (+1/2 Hit Dice)), the editor did the math backwards, taking each monster's attack bonuses and subtracting its Strength (or Dexterity, as appropriate) modifier to "determine" its Base Attack. Of course, without taking the creature's size into account, this means that the Base Attack is off for creatures of any size but Medium. And this, in turn, means that nearly every monster's stats are wrong.
If that were the only problem with the book, I could almost let it slide. Unfortunately, it isn't. Hardly any of the monsters have Level Adjustments. Only a very few have "touch" and "flat-footed" Armor Class listings. Almost none of them have the "Attack" and "Full Attack" lines correct. (Usually this is just because they have the damage listed only in the "Full Attack" line, but sometimes it's because they still have those two lines listed - in 3.0 format - as "Attacks" and "Damage.") Some of the monsters are missing entire lines from their stats: no "Treasure" listing, perhaps, or no "Advancement" (or sometimes the "Advancement" is just plain wrong, like a 5 HD monster advancing to 3-6 HD). I don't think
any of the "Space/Reach" listings are in the correct 3.5 format; instead, they're all "X ft. by Y ft./Z ft," even though in 3.5 all "Space" listings are a square and thus only one measurement is needed. All in all, it becomes very obvious, very quickly, that the editing and proofreading job on this book is practically nonexistant.
Another major problem: many of the monsters' descriptions, having been taken from other books, still refer to other parts of those books that are not part of
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1. Really, it does little good to mention that the arachnogolem's poison is the equivalent of a
venom spell as cast by a 16th-level sorcerer if you don't tell the reader what the
venom spell does, or at the very least tell him where he can go to find that information. I'm sure that if the editor would have actually read through the monster entries he was using for this book - even once - he would have realized that this needed fixing.
Okay, I suppose that's enough griping for now. On the positive side, I still like the theory behind this book, and I hope that the shoddy job behind this first volume doesn't preclude Mongoose from taking another shot at the concept. I actually would look forward to someday seeing
Ultimate Monsters Volume 2 - only this time with quite a bit more effort put into it. Still, despite the near-complete failure to correctly update these monsters to 3.5, I can honestly say that there are a lot of very interesting and imaginative monsters in this volume, many that I will use in my own campaign. I by no means regret owning
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1, I just wish it was a much better product than it turned out to be.
The cover art, by Scott Clark, seems pretty typical for the "Ultimate" line - in fact, I'd be willing to bet that Scott has done all of the "Ultimate" covers, since they all seem to be variations on a theme - the book is made to look like a wizardly tome, complete with metal hinges at the spine and some sort of locking mechanism on the front. The interior art, 205 black-and-white drawings by 15 different artists, run the full gamut from some really good pieces to some that are, well, let's just say substandard. Some of my favorites in this book are those by Phil Renne, who does an excellent job at shading.
The layout is pretty typical for a
Monster Manual-type book:
- Introduction: a one-page explanation of the "Ultimate" line of books
- Using the Ultimate Monsters: a 3-page explanation on how to read the entries, as is found in the Monster Manual
- The Monsters: 235 pages of monsters from various sources
- Creature Corner: 4 pages of the equivalent of the Monster Manual's "Appendix A: Animals"
- Help for Games Masters: 6 pages of ideas on how to incorporate new monsters into an existing campaign
- Monsters by Challenge Rating: a 2-page listing of the monsters sorted from lowest CR (1/10) to highest CR (90)
As far as mirroring the
Monster Manual layout, I have to applaud the decision to do so - better to stick to a format everyone's already used to. Most of the monsters get a full page to themselves, although every once in a while (not often, though) one gets split between two sides of a page. The only other
Monster Manualism I would have liked to see was a listing of the monsters by creature type and subtype. (Not only would this be helpful in, say, finding all of the oozes in the book, but it might also have brought the fact that there are a lot of
beasts in this book that needed to be changed to a new creature type for 3.5 to the attention of the editor!)
That's the main part of the review. All in all, despite really enjoying some of the monsters in this book, I can't rate
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1 any higher than a "2 (Poor)." Buy it for the monster ideas, knowing full well that you'll have to do most of the updating to 3.5 rules that Richard Neale opted not to do for you. Or, perhaps you'll want to pass on this book and hope that
Ultimate Monsters Volume 2 - should such a book ever come out - has a stronger team working on it. Your call.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In the event that some of you might be wondering if maybe I'm not exaggerating just a bit, or if perhaps I just got up on the wrong side of the bed the day I sat down to write up this review, I offer the following as evidence. I'm going to ignore, for the most part, all of the places where the formatting is wrong (headers not being in bold, spell names not italicized, etc.), and I'm also going to avoid pointing out every misspelling and improper grammar/punctuation use. Not everyone is as interested in such things as I am, and to be honest, while I rate them pretty high up on the "irritation scale," those types of errors really aren't going to impact your game any. However, I think it's only right to point out the
vast quantities of incorrect game material - some of you might read the list and decide against buying the book, but for those buying it anyway (or those who already bought it), if nothing else it'll start you on your way to correcting the entries on your own so they're of better use to your 3.5 campaign.
Disclaimer: this is by no means a complete list of errors. These are just the ones that jumped out at me during my one-time read-through. I'll state right now that once I saw the trend in incorrect Base Attacks, I stopped doing the math to see if the Grapple listings were also wrong. Chances are, if the Base Attack is messed up, so is the Grapple listing. Furthermore, I didn't even bother trying to figure out if the Skill points or the Saves all add up like they should. Still, this should be a pretty good indicator of the types - and quantity - of problems found in
Ultimate Monsters Volume 1.
Here we go then:
- p. 8, Acidweaver: No damage listed in the "Attack" line. In fact, this is such a prevalent error that I'm not even going to mention it again, but this is true of nearly all of the monster entries. The Base Attack (BA from now on, as I'm going to be typing it quite frequently) should be +5, not +4. Of course, the bite attack is correct because when you factor the -1 size modifier back in you get 5 (BA) -1 (size) +4 (Str bonus) = +8 melee, as listed.
- p. 9, Ahsarin: BA should be +3, not +10 (as a fey, her BA is half her 6 HD). This means her longsword attack should be 3 (BA) + 1 (Weapon Focus (longsword)) + 3 (Dex bonus - she has Weapon Finesse) = +7, not +10 as listed. Since she already has 6 HD, her Advancement shouldn't be 6-12 HD.
- p. 10, Animated Ballista: With a Dex 12, it should have Initiative +1, not +0, and an AC 15 (+1 Dex, +4 natural), not 14. It's referred to as a "spider ballista" once. Also, where does the creature's "sonic ball" come from - and does the creature have an unlimited supply?
- p. 11, Animated Ash: BA should be +5, not +3. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 11, Animated Elm: BA should be +5, not +3. AC given as "20 ((2 size, (1 Dex, +13 natural)" - this should be "20 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +13 natural)" - and there's no Level Adjustment given.
- p. 11, Animated Holly: BA should be +5, not +3. AC given as "23 ((2 size, +2 Dex, +13 natural)" - this should be "23 (-2 size, +2 Dex, +13 natural)" - and there's no Level Adjustment given.
- p. 11, Animated Birch: BA should be +7, not +5. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 12, Animated Willow: BA should be +7, not +5. Also, Attack should be either slam +14 melee or lash +14 melee - I don't know where they came up with only a +2 melee bonus to the creature's lash attack. Finally, there's mention of entering a rage as the "tribal warrior class feature" - where might the tribal warrior class be found, and is it any different from the barbarian rage class feature?
- p. 13, Arachnogolem: Should an 8-legged construct get 8 attacks with its legs? Doesn't it need to save some to stand on? Also, the venom spell is mentioned, but there's no information on where such a spell might be found. Finally, if the arachnogolem is made of adamantine, why is it affected by transmute rock to mud and transmute mud to rock spells?
- p. 14, Arachnomorph: Shapechanger is no longer a creature type, it's a subtype. This should probably be an Aberration (Shapechanger) - which would alter its BA and melee attacks.
- p. 17, Barbazaur: BA should be +6, not +5.
- p. 18, Barbed Beetle: Space/Reach should be 5 ft./15 ft. (antennae only) or 5 ft.
- p. 22, Bicephalous Troll: The stats say regeneration, the verbiage says fast healing with no reattachment of limbs, and the combat description says regeneration with the reattachment of limbs. Which is it? (Actually, the 3.0 stats from The Slayer's Guide to Trolls gives it fast healing 3.) No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 23, Blood Hawk: BA should be +1, not +9! Where did that come from?
- p. 24, Blood Golem: BA should be +4, not +3. Also, it already has 6HD, so why does its Advancement start at 4-6 HD?
- p. 29, Bloodless: Why does this Undead have a Constitution score? Also, the "Attack" and "Full Attack" lines should read "Claw +1 melee (1d4+1)" (although perhaps it should get 2 claws as a full attack)
- p. 30, Boar, Riding: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 31, Bobcat: BA should be +0, not +1. Also, why isn't this normal animal in the "Creature Corner" section with the other animals? No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 33, Bone Delver: BA should be +1, not +2. This means its shovel attack should be made at +3 melee (not +4) and its claw attacks at +1 melee (not +2) - it has Weapon Focus (shovel).
- p. 37, Burning Ghat: BA should be +2, not +1. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 38, Caracal: BA should be +0, not +1. Also, why isn't this normal animal in the "Creature Corner" section with the other animals?
- p. 39, Carn Teg: BA should be +0, not -2! No monster should ever have a negative Base Attack! Also its dagger and sling attacks should both be at 0 (BA) +3 (Dex - it has Weapon Finesse so Dex works for both melee and ranged attacks) +1 (size) = +4, not +3.
- p. 40, Cattle: BA should be +3, not +2. Also, why isn't this normal animal in the "Creature Corner" section with the other animals? No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 41, Cave Beetle: BA should be +0, not +4. Also, it looks like it ought to have Weapon Finesse for its attack numbers to work correctly.
- p. 43, Chitinous Battlemounts: BA should be +2, not +5. Its ranged force blast should be at +1, not +4. There should be a -1 size penalty to AC.
- p. 44, Chitin Golem: The sonic vibration spell is referenced, but there's no indication where to find it. Also, to get nitpicky, "Chitin Golem" comes before "Chitinous Battlemounts" alphabetically.
- p. 45, Cinder Demon: Its melee attacks should be at +8 (BA) +7 (Str bonus) -1 (size penalty) = +14, not at +15 as listed.
- p. 46, Coblynau: BA should be +0, not +1.
- p. 47, Cu Marbh: This creature is listed as both Animal and Undead; it should be Undead. BA should be +1, not +2. Since it's an Undead with no Constitution but has the Toughness feat, its HD should be 2d12+3 (16 hp), not 2d8+4 (13 hp).
- p. 48, Cusith: Initiative should be +3 (Dex), not +2. BA should be +5, not +3. Bite should be at +6 melee (not +5), claws should be at +4 melee (not +3). It has 5 HD, so why does its Advancement start at 4-5 HD?
- p. 50, Death Warden: This, like many creatures, references an "El World." Apparently this is some type of Hell or some such in the Slaine game world, but it would be nice if it was explained somewhere. There are several monsters from the El World in this book, some of them even with "El" as a subtype. I don't believe you can "persuade" a monster to hang around after the time limit expires on a summon monster spell (or perhaps you can in Slaine, but this should either be explained or rewritten for standard d20 rules). Also, I don't consider Dexterity 14 to be "incredible dexterity."
- p. 52, Dark Lantern: BA should be +1, not +8.
- p. 53, Shadeling: BA should be +1, not +3.
- p. 55, Jar-ugr: BA should be +6, not +5.
- p. 56, Jethelet: BA should be +8, not +10.
- p. 58, Hamedu: BA should be +10, not "+7,+2" - whatever that's supposed to mean. And those melee attacks should be at +13, not +12.
- p. 60, Heratru: BA should be +12, not +10. And over on page 62, it looks like the "Skills" section was copied and pasted from the "Jethulet" entry, word for word - including the word "Jethulet." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 63, Diazhit: BA should be +2, not +7.
- p. 65, Pyarian: BA should be +4, not +8.
- p. 66, Mad Winds: BA should be +6, not +5. Slam attacks should be at +10 melee, not +5. I don't think the "+1" belongs in the phrase "Damage Reduction 10/cold iron or good+1." Also, the monster on page 67 should have 8 eyes and a circular mouth.
- p. 68, Pereveshti: BA should be +9, not +14. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 70, Chitterling: BA should be +2, not +1. Also, the monster on page 71 should have four eyes, two on each side of its head.
- p. 71, Teradrozu: BA should be +8, not +7. No Grapple listing is given. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 73, Predaska: BA should be +6, not +5. The "Full Attack" line is called "Damage."
- p. 74, Glodretch: BA should be +10, not +8. With a Dexterity of 9, it should have Initiative -1, not +0, and AC 22, not 23.
- p. 75, Spirit Stalker: BA should be +16, not +15.
- p. 78, Yavodai: BA should be +8, not +7. Also, here's something I pointed out when this creature appeared in The Slayer's Guide to Demons: "The yavodai's small neck is part of a very long neck that can shoot out with incredible speed." Sigh. That should be "The yavodai's head..." Likewise, according to the "long neck description," the creature should have a Reach of 15 feet, not 10 feet. Finally, Trample isn't a feat, it's a special attack.
- p. 80, Vengadi: The Weapon Finesse should specify (claws). No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 81, Udvati: BA should be +13, not +11. The ranged ray attack should be at +15, not +17. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 83, Barbeast: BA should be +7, not +6. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 87, Gaping Maw: BA should be +18, not +14. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 88, Iyaviht, the Dark Whisper: BA should be +30, not +18. Claw attacks should be at +32 melee (not +22), bite and hair strand attacks should be at +30 melee (not +20). No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 91, Gatekeeper: BA should be +28, not +18. Bite attacks should be at +35 melee, not +27, greataxes should be at +30 melee, not +22. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 93, Doomhag: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 95, Dragonkin: Here's a helpful sentence: "Dragonkin frequently wield two weapons simultaneously, fighting as though they had the Two-Weapon Fighting and Two-Weapon Fighting feats. (I didn't even italicize those; that's how the sentence was written!)
- p. 96, Drakkanel: With 4HD, it should have a 2nd feat. BA should be +4, not +6. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 98, Drone Weaver: BA should be +3, not +4. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 99, Drudge Crawler: BA should be +7, not +4. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 100, Dune Orc: Scythe attacks should be at +3 melee, not +1. Referred to as "Dane orcs" in one sentence.
- p. 101, El Hound: I found it odd that the line below the creature's name was "Outsider, Medium-size" instead of "Medium Outsider." BA should be +2, not +1. Bite should be +4 melee, not +3. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 103, Electrohydra: BA for the 5-headed electrohydra should be +5, not +4. (No BA is listed for those with 6-12 heads.) Bite attacks for the 5-headed electrohydra should be +8 melee, not +9; the 6-headed, +9 melee, not +10; the 11-headed, +16 melee, not +15; the 12-headed, +17 melee, not +16. The creature should gain a new feat at 8 heads and another at 12 heads. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 105, Elemental Natives (Template): Refers to the Beast creature type.
- p. 106, Lesser Phoenix: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 107, Ushkya: BA should be +3, not +2. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 108, Fenny Snake: BA should be +0, not +1. No Challenge Rating listed. No Treasure listed. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 109, Fey Cat: "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." Special Qualities are listed before Special Attacks.
- p. 110, Fey Drake: BA should be +2, not +4. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given. Why doesn't this creature have Weapon Finesse?
- p. 111, Fey Hound: BA should be +4, not +2. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." "Howl" should be a Special Attack, not a Special Quality. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 112, Fideal: "Damage" line should be "Full Attack."
- p. 113, Fisherman: BA should be +15, not +12. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 114, Fomor: BA should be +2, not +1. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given. "(1 Dex" should be "-1 Dex" in AC breakdown. (3 different times, no less!) Also, the accompanying picture shows a fomor without its "powerful tail."
- p. 115, Fomorian Sea Devil: BA should be +3, not +1. All of its attacks should be at 2 points higher to hit in melee than as listed.
- p. 116, Fotrin: Bite attack should be at +5 melee, not +6.
- p. 116, Foul Stalker Spider: BA should be +5, not +4. No Level Adjustment given. Also, on page 117 it refers to an accompanying table about web strength, but the table is not present.
- p. 118, Frowenn: No Advancement or Level Adjustment; CR is out of sequence. Also, for some reason the game rules for panic are given in a boxed text, although the frowenn has no special attack form causing panic.
- p. 119, Anakim: None of his attacks take his -1 size modifier into account. No Level Adjustment given. However, kudos to the detail-oriented artist who drew the anakim with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot!
- p. 120, Fog Giant: None of his attacks take his -1 size modifier into account.
- p. 121, Fomorians: None of his attacks take his -1 size modifier into account. No Level Adjustment given. The chart on page 122 dropped off an entire row; it should read: (Die Roll) 5-7, (Spell-Like Ability) 2nd level spell, (Uses/Day) 3/day, (Challenge Rating) +1.
- p. 123, Half-Giant Template: "See the Physiology of the Giants chapter." This, of course, is referencing a chapter in The Slayer's Guide to Giants, and should have either been reworded or deleted.
- p. 124, Half-Giant (Storm Giant/Celestial Heavy Warhorse): A Huge creature has a -2 size modifier, not -1 (not that either was factored into its attacks). No Level Adjustment given. No Feats line.
- p. 125, Land Giant: BA should be +150, not +134 (and no, I'm not kidding). No Level Adjustment given, as if that wouldn't be a joke anyway.
- p. 127, Mountain Giant: BA should be +18, not +16. -2 size modifier not factored into attacks. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 128, Nephilim: No Level Adjustment given. -1 size modifier not factored into attacks.
- p. 129, Rime Giant: HD should be 22d8+154, not 22d8+132. -2 size modifier not factored into attacks. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 132, Sea Giant: -4 size modifier not factored into attacks. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 134, Lesser Sea Giant: BA should be +12, not +10. No Level Adjustment given. Also, I find it interesting to note that the Lesser Sea Giant (17 HD, Con 23) has 2 more hit points on average than the Sea Giant (32 HD, Con 13).
- p. 135, Giant Lice: Vermin have d8s for Hit Dice; it should have 1/2d8, not 1d4 - and if it already has 1/2 HD, how can its Advancement be 1/2-1 HD? BA should be +0, not +9! Bite should be at +10 melee, not +11, and claws should be at +6 melee, not +5. No Level Adjustment given. Also, for the record, the singular form of "lice" is a "louse." You can't have "one lice."
- p. 136, Giant Troll: "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." BA should be +6, not +5. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 137, Ginit: With a +1 size modifier, its attacks should be at +6, not +5.
- p. 138, Glacial Haunt: "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 139, Gnarled Eel: Its creature type is still "Beast!" As a Magical Beast, it should have a BA of +2, not +0, which would bump its attacks up to +2 melee instead of +1. Also, I think the creature's "bunching" attack makes it a good candidate for the (swarm) subtype. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 140, Gorgotaur: BA should be +7, not +6. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 141, Gore Mole: BA should be +4, not +3. The AC breakdown should show a -1 size modifier, not +1.
- p. 142, Grave Mount: BA should be +3, not +2. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 143, Gravel Golem: It has 10 HD, but its Advancement is 6-12 HD (Medium-size), 17-18 HD (Huge). Not only is it starting off too low, but it skipped over 13-16 HD (Large)! BA should be +7, not +8. The "Construction" section refers to it as a "chitin golem."
- p. 144, Great Condor: BA should be +6, not +4. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 145, Gremlin: BA should be +0, not +1. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 146, Grey Lady: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 147, Grey Moaner: "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 148, Griffock: Called a "giffock" - twice! It's still a Beast! Why doesn't it have any feats? Its attacks need to be reworked; as a Magical Beast (with BA +12), it would bite at +16 melee and claw at +11 melee (unless you threw in a Weapon Focus or two for its feats; it should have 4 total).
- p. 149, Grindgut Spitter: It has 4 HD, but its Advancement starts at 6 HD. No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +3, not +2. Refers to a non-existent table about webs.
- p. 150, Grornil: Hoof should be at +7 melee, not +8 (-1 size modifier). Needs a 2nd feat.
- p. 151, Gulor: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 152, Gwyllion: BA should be +0, not +2. No Level Adjustment given. Special Qualities lists "stonecutting" instead of "stonecunning" (actually, that would be a pretty neat trick). Stone club attack should be at +2 melee, not +4.
- p. 153, Haemovorid: BA should be +0, not +2. No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" listing instead of "Full Attack."
- p. 154, Half-Dead: No Base Attack/Grapple line given. (It should be +1/+4.) Refers to page 129 (probably of the Slaine book) for details of the Creeping Death disease. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 156, Sample Half-Kraken: BA should be +3, not +2. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 157, Higher Elementals: Refers to the polymorph self spell. There is no polymorph self spell in 3.5, it's just polymorph.
- p. 158, Gnomide: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 159, Royal Salamander: BA should be +4, not +3. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 160, Sylph: No Level Adjustment given. 2 spells (breeze and wind armour - British spelling, not a typo) are referred to but not provided. (They're in Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism, but they don't tell you that.) "Damage" line should be "Full Attack."
- p. 161, Undine: Needs a 2nd feat. No Level Adjustment given. Whirlpool spell referred to but not provided (it's also in Encyclopaedia Arcane: Elementalism).
- p. 162, Hollow Dead: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 164, Iopi: It's a Beast! Enough said.
- p. 166, Jastra Root: BA should be +6, not +4. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 167, Jenick: Why is this a Humanoid (Orc)? It looks a lot more like the Geico gecko from those TV commercials.
- p. 168, Killer Wave: BA should be +3, not +2. HD should be "4d10+8 (30 hp)," not "4d10+8 (45 hp)." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 169, Lake Hag: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 170, Leprechaun: BA should be +0, not +6! Looks like it should have Weapon Finesse (dagger) for its attacks to make any sense. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 171, Leviathan: Slam attack should be at +56 melee, not +49. (+32 BA, +32 Str modifier, -8 size modifier.) Bite attack should be at +51, not +44. (Same deal as above, only -5 for secondary attack.) No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 172, Lynx: BA should be +1, not +2. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given. Why isn't this normal animal in the Creature Corner chapter, with the others?
- p. 174, Magma Worm: HD should be "15d8+90 (157 hp)," not "15d8+105 (172 hp)." BA should be +15, not +11. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 175, Manip: HD should be "3d8+3 (15 hp)," not "3d8 (12 hp)." Tentacle attacks should be at +3 melee, not +4 (due to the -1 size modifier). The picture on page 176 has far too many tentacles.
- p. 176, Marsh Worm: It's a Beast! Enough said; rework this guy from scratch.
- p. 177, Megachiroptequine: It's a Beast! Enough said; rework this guy from scratch.
- p. 178, Megalotroll: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +13, not +11.
- p. 178, Mirth Drake: BA should be +1, not +9! No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 180, Mongoose, Dire: No Level Adjustment given. No Feats line. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack."
- p. 181, Nymorryx: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +0, not +2. Claw attacks should be at +1 melee, not +2. Bite attacks should be at -1 melee, not +0. Apparently, the editor decided to make the nymorryx a drow-crafted race instead of a mind flayer-crafted one (no doubt due to WotC yanking the mind flayer from the list of OGC monsters), but they only changed one of the two references to mind flayers. Oops.
- p. 182, Oonith: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 183, Orcish Wardog: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 183, Palanquin Beetle: BA should be +6, not +5.
- p. 185, Peaks Ram: No Base Attack/Grapple line. (It should be +3/+10.) No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack."
- p. 186, Plesiogigan: BA should be +19, not +12. Melee attacks should start at +31, not +26. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 187, Polar Troll: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +3, not +2. Refers to sand trolls, which do not appear in this book. (They're from The Slayer's Guide to Trolls.)
- p. 187, Potnean: BA should be +3, not +2. Needs a 2nd feat.
- p. 188, Prismatic Archon: Why no Wisdom score? It has 4 HD, yet Advancement is 4-7 HD.
- p. 189, Pseudoslab: No Level Adjustment given. HD should be 4d10+16 (38 hp) - oozes no longer get bonus hit points due to size. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." BA should be +3, not +1. In 3.5, gray oozes are as transparent as gelatinous cubes, so there's no coloration involved in either of the pseudoslab's progenitors.
- p. 190, Psionaga: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +6, not +5. "Damage" line should be "Full Attack."
- p. 192, Rakeesh: BA should be +0, not +4. He's got two attacks in his "Attack" listing, these should be separated by an "or."
- p. 193, Raven: BA should be +0, not +2. No Level Adjustment given. Why is this normal animal here instead of in the Creature Corner chapter?
- p. 194, Ravener: Tentacles/claws should be at +13 melee, not +14 (there's a -1 size modifier for being Large). Bite should be at +8, not +9, for the same reason.
- p. 195, Rhinohorse. It's a Beast! Rework it as a Magical Beast, and make sure to give it 2 feats this time.
- p. 196, Saamilri: It's a Beast! Start over. And decide whether you're calling it a "saamilri" or a "sammirli" while you're at it.
- p. 197, Sabre-Toothed Tiger: BA should be +3, not +2. Claws should be at +9 melee, not +10. Needs 2nd feat. No Level Adjustment given. And that is the absolute worst picture of a sabre-toothed tiger I've ever seen!
- p. 198, Saepino: Hooves should be at +4 melee, not +5.
- p. 198, Sand Scarab: BA should be +3, not +2.
- p. 200, Sea Drake: "Damage" line should be "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +11, not +8. Claw and bite attacks should be in the opposite order (put the highest attack values first).
- p. 201, Sentry Hound: Bite should be at +3 melee, not +2.
- p. 202, Shadowraven: Undead or Animal? (Answer: Undead.) BA should be +1, not +0. Claw attack should be +5 melee, not +3. It's already at 2 HD, but its Advancement is 2-3 HD. What's the Fortitude save DC for its Strength damage attack? (I'm guessing 12: 10 + 1 [1/2 its HD] + 1 [its Cha modifier, lacking a Con score].)
- p. 203, Shadowy Devourer: BA should be +4, not +1. Bite should be +8 melee, not +4. No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 204, Shriek Spider: BA should be +0, not +1.
- p. 205, Shrieking Troll: Needs 2 feats. Claws should be at +9 melee, not +10.
- p. 206, Siren Flower: BA should be +2, not +1. No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." Initiative should be +1, not +0. Slam attack should be +6 melee, not +5. Finally, it seems like a seed pod the size of a small pineapple would do some immediate damage as it was being "inserted" into a living being!
- p. 207, Skull Child: No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." BA should be +2, not +3. Needs a 2nd feat. I presume (although it isn't stated) that the creature's terrifying gaze, energy drain, and Constitution damage only work at night.
- p. 208, Skyshark: It's still a Beast--change it! As a Magical Beast, it would have a BA of +6, making its bite attacks +8 melee. Needs 2 feats. The "Base Attack/Grapple" line (+3/+10) is labeled "Full Attack," while the "Full Attack" line reads "Damage." No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 209, Slaugh-Spawn: Where are the stats for the slaugh, which creates the slaugh-spawn? (Answer: in Encyclopaedia Arcane: Necromancy.) No Level Adjustment given. "Base Attack/Grapple" line is called "Full Attack."
- p. 210, Slithertoad: Why is this creature even here? It makes some sense in the Encyclopaedia Arcane: Crossbreeding book, but it doesn't even have any attacks at all--was this more important to put in this book than, say, the slaugh? Anyway, it's still a Beast! Moving on...
- p. 211, Snake, Spitting Cobra: No Level Adjustment given. "Base Attack/Grapple" heading is missing the "/Grapple" part. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." BA should be +0, not +1.
- p. 212, Spirit Nephilim: No Level Adjustment given. Attacks should be at +18 melee, not +19.
- p. 215, Spriggan: No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." "Base Attack/Grapple" called "Full Attack." BA should be +1, not +0. Halfspear attacks should be at +3 melee, not +1. Sling attacks should be at +4 ranged, not +2. It already has 2 HD, but its Advancement is 2-3 HD.
- p. 216, Spring Wolf: It has 5 HD, but its Advancement starts at 4-7 HD. Bite attack should be at +7 melee, not +8.
- p. 217, Stilt Beetle: BA should be +4, not +3.
- p. 218, Stonestrider: BA should be +6, not +5.
- p. 219, Talorani: "Damage" line instead of "Full Attack." No Level Adjustment given. "Base Attack/Grapple" line called "Full Attack."
- p. 220, Taurian: BA should be +7, not +6. Hooves should be at +5 melee, not +9. HD should be 7d10+21 (59 hp). It already has 7 HD, but its Advancement is 5-8 HD.
- p. 221, Textile Moth: BA should be +0, not +1.
- p. 222, Thaneguard: BA should be +3, not +2.
- p. 223, Thirog: BA should be +0, not +1.
- p. 224, Time Monster: Not only is this a Beast, but it's almost line for line a tyrannosaurus. (Seriously, it's just a tyrannosaurus with Con 19 instead of 21, and the appropriate Constitution-based changes: hit points, Fortitude save, etc.) Looks like its space and reach were reversed.
- p. 225, Toxin Zombie: References the rain of poison spell, not provided in this book. BA should be +0 (Small) and +2 (Large). Spittle attacks should be at +0 (Small, Medium, and Large).
- p. 227, Ungroton: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +12, not +11.
- p. 228, Vampire Spider: No Level Adjustment given. Bite and slam attacks should be +13 melee, not +15. Refers to the "Drow Spells chapter" (from Quintessential Drow), not presented here.
- p. 229, Vorpa: No Level Adjustment given. No Base Attack/Grapple stats. (They should be +3/+11.)
- p. 230, War Elk: BA should be +4, not +3. Needs 2nd feat.
- p. 231: War Dragon: Shouldn't (Ice) subtype be (Cold) subtype? And what's a fogou?
- p. 233, Water Leaper: It's a Beast! No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" instead of "Full Attack."
- p. 234, Wild Cat: No Level Adjustment given. No Treasure listing. No Alignment. Why isn't this in with the other normal animals?
- p. 235, Wind Raptor: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +3, not +4.
- p. 236, Winged Caste Kobold: No Level Adjustment given. "Damage" instead of "Full Attack."
- p. 237, Wodewose: No Level Adjustment given. No Base Attack/Grapple line. (It should be +5/+15.) No Feats listed. Claw attacks should be at +10 melee, not +2.
- p. 238, Wolf: Why is this even here? It's only slightly different than the perfectly-usable wolf in the Monster Manual.
- p. 239, Woolly Mammoth: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +8, not +6. Needs 4 feats.
- p. 240, Worgoblin: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 241, Xanthonychos: BA should be +3, not +2.
- p. 243, Zotuv: BA should be +10, not +9. "Improved Initiative" is referred to as "Improved Infinitive" - an interesting alternative spelling!
- pp. 244-247: the Magical Beasts in this section are all familiars, from Encyclopaedia Arcane: Familiars, although this isn't stated. They really shouldn't have these stats if they're not being used as familiars. I'm not sure why they have +8 as their BA.
- p. 244, Deer: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 245, Fox: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +0, not +3.
- p. 245, Kiwi: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 245, Mongoose: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 246, Monkey, Spider: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 246, Otter: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 246, Penguin: No Level Adjustment given.
- p. 247, Raccoon: No Level Adjustment given. BA should be +0, not +4.
- p. 247, Wasp, Yellow Jacket: BA should be +0, not +8.
I can think of no better way to finish this review by quoting an unintentionally hilarious (and yet sad) sentence found on page 248, and underlining a part of it:
"This sourcebook is a collection of dozens of new creatures, but while they are well detailed and perfectly usable as they are, they could be even more effective in the hands of a Games Master who knows how to incorporate them into his game."
If only.
