baseballfury said:
Legions of Hell is still the book to beat. Great design, great art, great product.
I also like the sequel Armies of the Abyss. That book seems to get a bad rap, because some people see the write ups of the demon princes as filler because there are no stats. While the monsters were certainly cool, the demon princes chapter is actually my favorite part of the book.
Monsters of Faerun is good, though half those monsters are not at all unique to FR.
Creature Collection was a waste of money.
Liber Beastarius looks good, but I haven't been able to afford a copy yet. Not sure abou the name "badass creatures" though. I know many gamers are 14, but I didn't think the designers were.
The term is "instant bad-ass." It means "a tougher-than-normal, pre-advanced, unique bad-guy with his own magic items, spells already memorized, and tactics on how to use him in combat." It's for those creatures that are intelligent and who you'd expect to see with a few class-levels when you find them 'in the wild' so to speak.
Instant, as in "no work necessary, just drop him in your game and let the carnage begin."
Bad-ass as in "bad-ass."
There's an ad running in a few men's magazines. I saw it in Wired and Maxim. It's for the new Hum-Vee. The shot is from the ground, looking up at the grill of the car. The caption is;
"It only looks like this because it's bad-ass."
There'd be no point, really, in using the term 'bad-ass monster,' since the Liber has *only* bad-ass monsters. Even the cute little Mowz whom everyone loves. Except cats. Cats run from Mowzes. Or they would, if they knew what was good for them. Plus, I hear Tobin & Spate is running a special. Trained Mowzes with the new 'anti-theft system' that protects them from Familiar Eaters. Nasty buggers. Free trained Mowz if you upgrade your warrantee on your Sorcerer's Apprentice. It's the best warrantee in the business, I hear.
The Liber represents a lot of work over a long period of time. Sometimes I feel like there aren't enough monsters in there. Then I start reading it again and remember why we made it the way it is. Each monster has a lot of data packed in there. Some of it you may never use. Knowing how a Hurg reproduces might not sound like your cup of tea. But when your players come across a momma Hurg and they're watching her and thinking "What the hell is that thing?" And it suddenly stops. Shudders violently, and splits open in a rending burst of blood, organs and sinew, only to reveal a lot of baby Hurg happily stamping around in the dead body of their mom, and your players shout—as one—"eewww!" You'll clasp the book dearly to your chest and say "God bless the Liber Bestarius."
Then your players will see you holding the book and shout "God no! Run! Grab your character sheets! IT'S THAT DAMNED BOOK!" And some poor newb will say "gosh, guys, why? What's so bad about it?" And, as they drive to a safer land, where characters never run into unstoppable razor fiends or the implacable Dream Golem (for only one was ever created,) they'll say "trust me." For you see, the tales they would tell would surely turn your brain to goo and make it dribble out your ears. Let me tell you, from experience, ear-dribbled brain-goo is the devil to clean out of carseats.
Unless you scotchguarded first.
