Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MDSnowman" data-source="post: 2010935" data-attributes="member: 6255">Warcraft RPG Manual of Monsters is a 205 page Hardcover Monster book. On its cover we have a Two-Headed Ogre Mage, a Gnoll, and a shifty looking Troll wizard or shaman. A Note on Monster Books: In general I'm luke warm on Monster books... they seldom give you any new setting material. By the same token they are a nesscary evil, without them you wouldn't have baddies to throw at your Heroes. I plan on conducting this review indpendant of my distaste for these books.The Book does a weird thing and organizses creatures not alphabetically, but by where their alligences lie. Following is a sampling of some creatures who caught my attention and the section they're in.Chapter One: Creatures of AzerothCentaur- These are some nasty buggersDrenei- I'm glad to see these guys make a comback from the expansion... of course I would have liked to have seen more societal info on them.Dragons- Only five breeds and three age catergoeies.... bleh.... I was kinda hoping for a little bit more.Gnolls- I'm all for their twisted warrior lifestyle...., but do they really need five different entiries for niches in their society?Mana Surge- ::Evil Grin:: How I have to send one of these against some PCs... nothing like insane crazy magic made flesh to mess with peop[le.Naga- These Aquatic baddies are my new favorite Bad GuysOgre/Ogre Mage- Complete with feats that let Ogre Mages use their heft consistution scores to determine their magical power (instead of Intelligence, wisdom, or charisma)Pandaren- This strange, far eastern-like race of panda-people are now on the top of my "must be a PC Race" list.Satyr (Template)- Because I know anyone who played the games wanted to know if they were in there.Trolls- Or as Keanu Reeves would say "Trolls, lots of Trolls" We get Dark trolls, Forest Troll, Ice Troll, and the winner of "most likely to be a PC race" Jungle Troll.Chapter Two: The Burning LegionIt kicks off with a couple of new spells tooEredar Warlock- Demon masters of the Arcane.... when they gain extra HD they can trade in their Epic feats for special world shaking abilities.Pitlord- Bad dudes, very big, very mean, they're engines of destruction and I doubt anyone would want to fight them.Tainted (template)- When one drinks a Demon's blood they take on this template and become wild monsters.Chapter Three: The Undead ScourgeForsaken (Template)- Undead no longer controlled by the wicked Lich King, they've formed their own shadow empire.Ghoul of the Scourge (template)- Turns a low level baddies into a cannibalistic undead slave born (died?) to hunt and killLich (Template)- Pretty much the lich we know and love plus a few special abilities, like being able to cast Mana Burn and to Rebuke the living.Withered (template)- I didn't know what this tmplate meant until I saw the example... a Withered Blue Dragon... a Frost Wyrm.Salient Powers?- Special abilities that creatures of the scourge can get, they advance the CR and give them nasty, and unperdicatable powers at the same time. I love these things.Appendix 1-3:App1: Animals and Vermin (pretty Mundane)App2: Villains of WarcraftThat's right you read that correctly some of the biggest baddies in Warcraft brought to life by stunning use of the Epic Level Rules...and the list (with CR)Azgalor (25)- Pitlord and Burning Legion GeneralIllidan Stormrage (37)- The great Traitor of the Night Elf people... and a 20th level Sorcerer/8th Level Rogue/ and 7th Level Fighter to boot... not to mention bonuses for some demonic modifications.Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider (31)- Blood Elf Prince, ally to the demons, sworn foe of the Undead Scourge, and a 15th level Wizard/ 14th Level FighterKel'Thuzad (28)- Lich Lord of the Plague Lands, 24th level wizard and Necromancer, right hand to the Lich King.The Lich King (50!!!)- Lord of the Scourge, able to control 2,100HD worth of Undead... and that doesn't even count the Liches serving under him.Sylvanas Windrunner (33)- Banshee made flesh and queen of the ForsakenLady Vashj (26)- Naga Sea Witch, 17th level Healer/ 9th Lelvel Sorcerer App3: This tells you what beasties from other books fit into the warcraft world and how.Final Verdict: This book was made infinitly better by the fact that they had some heavy hitting villains in the back. All of them are still active and very real dangers in the world. Also the inclusion of the Trolls and Pandaren make for excellent extra choices for new PC races.Downside? organizing the book by the side the beast is working on is a poor idea.... it's confusing and sometimes hard to find something. Why is a corrupted Furbolg under Creatures of Azeroth? Wouldn't it be under the Burning Legion? It would have been made simplier by just listing alpahbeticlly.This annoys me to such a degree I give the book a 4. Which for a monster book is awefully good.</blockquote>

Verification