What do you think of Libris Mortis (Undead 3.5 DND book)?

[Testament]

Loads of useful things in the book. Some fantastic creatures (IE, Dessicators, Voidwraiths, Visages, Mummy template, and Brain in A Jar!), some lame (Deathlock). And one truly inspired (Necropolitan). Some very cool feats and spells, with the exception of the un-edited Summon Undead. And the in-depth discussion of Incoporeality alone has saved me many headaches.

Well worth picking up, especially if you use undead a lot.

 

[The Shaman]

I didn't see a voting option for, "Yeah, it's all right, I guess."

It took me several thumbings-thru at the FLGS to finally break down and buy this.

It doesn't knock me off my feet - I use very little of it, actually. But what I do use I like very much.

 

[Deadguy]

Having only recently bought this book, it's fresh in my mind. And I must say, it's one of the few books from WotC recently that I've found myself re-reading. It manages to be both authoratative whilst avoiding being dry. And as Undead find their way into almost all D&D campaigns it's a useful toolbook. The only thing that pulls down its mark is, as noted by Pants, it could have been longer and remained as useful.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Awesome. Loved it. I found that so many things were interesting takes on the undead and whereas I was really suspicious at first about the 'undead as PCs' when I read it I was really excited and interested in it as it was done really well in my opinion.

 

[diaglo]

you don't have the:

this is the BOok of Bad Latin... avoid it like the plague option.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

this is the BOok of Bad Latin... avoid it like the plague option.

Should that option be:

this is the book of bad latin, even though you bought a copy to complete the collection.

 

[Henry]

*ahem* Bad Latin (or celestial, if you read the prologue) aside, this book was pretty good. The options I liked best were:

The different undead gods. Eternal Beauty, or whatever her name was, makes for the goddess of a creepy villain who might "only want the best for a party." The cleric of this deity is the type who would arrange to vampirize your lover if she were dying to a wasting disease, just so your wouldn't be alone. Orcus is covered, and I'm not sure but this may be the first 3E treatment of his priesthood stats.

The necrotic spells and their prerequisite is JUST the thing to creep out a bunch of players without resorting to endless viscera. No one likes the thought of malignant tumors, and this series of spells plays it up. I could easily see a Cancer Mage (from Book of Vile Darkness) with this series of spells.

The True Necromancer, my jury is still out on (I read the series of threads here a few months ago debating the "brokenness" of this class) but if it's broken, it's no more broken than a mystic theurge. The other Prestige classes are not bad, but some I see very little inspiration behind, such as master of shrouds. It's as if several PRC's are just built solely to exploit a given mechanic, and little else.

I like the undead grafts - the idea of a necromancer or pale master with a bunch of undead parts to boost his power, a series of grafted magic items if you will. The other magic items were pretty neat, but none really stand out to me.

The slaymate, and the dire maggot, on the other hand, are just creepy to the point of fun for a DM to use. A sorcerer with an undead child riding on his back boosting his spell power is just nasty enough to make players cringe. This book would have been very useful to Piratecat about a year and a half ago, I think.

 

[Blue]

It's okay, buy it on sale. Draco was very well done, and even though there was a lot of crunch that was more for DMs then players, it appealed to both. Libris Mortis has a few interesting things for players, especially if they are evil, but is more interesting for a DM then a player. Personally, I was a little disappointed in the book, but that may have been that I thought Draco was good good and had high expectations.

Cheers,
=Blue

 

[Psion]

Maybe I'm spoiled when it comes to undead and necromancy books, but I merely found it "alright".

I resent that they put out a swarm form template before I rewrote the Vermin Host from CC2 using the swarm rules.

 

[qstor]

I flipped through it at the store and I thought it was pretty good. But its not at the top of my list to get it. I liked Orcus and the King of Ghouls information. Harked back to 2e fluff. I agree that some of the monsters are wierd, but I see that as a trend in the newer WOTC Monster books.


Mike