The Creature Collection is a compilation of monsters for Dungeons & Dragons, written under the D20 license by Sword & Sorcery Studios. It was the first hardcover book of its kind for Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons and it actually beat the Monster Manual to press. This speedy delivery ultimately benefited the Creature Collection, but it also sacrificed some quality as a result.
Fans of Greek mythology will quickly recognize the parallels between the world of the Scarred Lands and that of ancient myth. Just like Greek myth, the titans were the first elder beings who ultimately spawned the gods. And just like in Earth mythology, the titans were ultimately overthrown by the gods in an epic battle.
What makes Scarn, the world in which the Creature Collection is placed, unique is that the war is recent; villagers can point to horribly warped patches of landscape where an unearthly battle took place and where the corpses of titans lay buried just beneath the surface.
Many of the monsters in this compilation are a result of this war. Strangely, an identification of each god and titan who is so central to the monsters is listed in the Appendix (p. 218). With so many monster descriptions alluding to titans and gods, it would have made more sense to put this information up front. A list of monsters by titan/god affiliation would also be extremely useful.
Each monster is rendered on a full page, some taking up two pages. The format is very similar to the old Monstrous Manual style, with a creature's picture in a box in the top right hand corner, stats to the left of the picture and a two column description beneath. Some creatures break this format -- when they do, it inevitably results in quite a bit of white space (e.g., p. 126, 129 and 176).
The artwork varies greatly in quality. Although some monsters are rendered in black-and-white, others appear to be pencil sketches rendered in grayscale. I found the stark black-and-white illustrations to be more appealing and would have preferred a uniform look to the artwork. The varying color scale makes the book look disjointed.
Some styles are more appropriate to monsters than others. Occasionally, the wrong artist is matched up with a monster; the result is the Silver Golem (p. 85), which is supposed to be a "splendid-looking construct" but ends up looking like a gargoyle out of the Vampire series.
Some pictures are simply inaccurate. The Herald of Vangal (p. 106) is supposed to have twin scorpion tails and wings, which are missing from the illustration. The Copper Golem (p. 82) is hardly portrayed as an "inspiring animated statue" -- it looks more like a messy clay golem, sans nose. The Lead Golem (p. 83) just looks like a bald man. The Manster (p. 127) is described as a "pack-oriented primate," but it looks like some sort of wrinkled, long-armed mummy with a lamprey-like maw. The Sandmasker (p. 163) only looks loosely like a "human from the waist up and a giant scorpion from the waist down," as the illustration shows a creature with a human torso, one humanoid arm, one scorpion clawed arm and two scorpion claws jutting out of the ends of the tail end of its giant scorpion body.
Sometimes, the artwork is a little lazy, like the picture of the Well Spirit (p. 212) where an apparently naked man is being pulled into a well. Rule #1: Never fetch water naked.
There is other artwork, however, that beautifully renders the creature depicted. Steve Ellis' work is particularly noteworthy. Unfortunately, all his artwork is in grayscale, which sometimes fades the art to near-invisibility (e.g., the Great Swan (p. 92), Skyquill (p. 172) and Strife Elemental (p. 194)).
Some of the creatures are clearly inspired by other sources. The Abandoned (p. 6) is really just bigfoot. The Moon Hag (p. 98) is reminiscent of the Blair Witch, whose boundaries are "often marked with piles of blood-stained stones and odd bundles of bones and sticks." The Miredwellers (p. 134) are similar to the winged creatures in the Beastmaster movie and the various Ratmen (p. 150-154) are a lot like Warhammer's skaven. The Sand Burrowers, with "tentacles that ring the side of their mouths" are similar to the things in Tremors.
The Morgaunts (p. 138) and their worms are a lot like
Night of the Creeps and probably should be a template (since the worms can take over any living being's body). The Unholy Child (p. 208), with its wicked Smile of Innocence, echoes the killer babies from
It's Alive! Wyrmspawn (p. 217) burst out of victims' chests like
Aliens.
Other creatures simply don't have the D20 rules applied to them in a logical manner. This is likely due to the fact that the Creature Collection was produced even as the final draft of Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons was being created. Nevertheless, it dates the product. For example, the Celestians (p. 37), the parallel of the Hecatoncheire of Greek myth, are not non-corporeal even though they're described as "hollow as the wind." Other creatures who should be non-corporeal but aren't include the "faintly translucent" Hanid (p. 103), the "wispy, insubstantial" Mistwalkers (p. 136) and the "shimmering, insubstantial" Inn-wights (p. 118). The Cold Slime (p. 45) is not a cold subtype. Wrack Dragons (p. 53) have no ages like other dragons. The Exemplars (p. 71), described as "humans who have taken up a monastic lifestyle to perfect themselves through training in combat arts and meditation techniques" could easily be either a prestige class or a template. The Tokal (p. 198), also possessed by a parasite, would more appropriately be a template rather than a creature.
Strife Elementals (p. 194), which possesses shape shifting powers, should be a Shapechanger rather than an elemental (and probably shouldn't be called Elemental either). Conversely, Searing Wind (p. 166), which is a summoned entity from another plane, has more in common with an elemental than a construct. The Muskhorn's (p. 140) Corrosive Musk attack forces PCs to make a Fortitude save (DC 10) for all armor and weapons every round, which directly contradicts the Dungeon Master's Guide (p. 136), which states that "An item attended by a character receives a saving throw just as if the character herself were making the saving throw." As has been mentioned in other reviews, the Challenge Ratings for many of the monsters are off.
Creatures aren't always classified in a logical manner. The Albadian Battle Dog (p. 7) is classified under "A" instead of "Dog, Albadian Battle." The Hornsaw Unicorn (p. 112) is classified under "H" instead of "Unicorn, Hornsaw." And so on.
Some creatures violate their own internal logic. Plaguecats (p. 147), who are "sleek, long-limbed" felines similar to jaguars, roam in packs and have an alpha leader, which is more appropriate to canines. The construction rules for the various golems (p. 81-86) are lacking. The Scythe Falcon, a 2 Hit Dice monster, is capable of killing any character with a critical hit using its Dismemberment attack, which seems highly unbalanced.
The writing varies from passable, to purple, to occassionally awkward. For example, the Murdersprite (p. 139), "They can and will carry out campaigns of terror and sabotage for little more reason than that fear and pain delight them."
There are some gems amongst the creatures we've all seen before. Some are simply twists on natural animals with a particular emphasis on an attribute. The Bloodmare (p. 20) is a jet-black horse that feeds on other horses. The Cerulean Roc (p. 38) creates Chaos Effects wherever it flies. The Coreanic Steed (p. 46) is the perfect mount for a paladin. The Desert Falcon (p. 48) is a large bird of prey that just happens to not cast a shadow -- a powerful advantage in the desert sky. The Aquantis (p. 11) is a large, lake-skating plesiosaurus-like beast. The Dream Snake (p. 59) puts sleeping victims into a coma and then slowly devours their ethereal bodies. The disgusting Fatling (p. 73) can envelop foes with its lard, subjecting smothered opponents to the voracious Lard Worms (p. 123) that infest its folds. Gross, but a monster no PC is likely to soon forget.
Also noteworthy are the Slarecians (p. 174-182), an ancient race whose legacy lives on in gargoyles, undead and even viruses. The Unhallowed (p. 203-207) are divinely gifted mortals who do not choose to justly use their powers, living on as terrible undead beings. The exotic, Alien-like Vengaurak (p. 210) make for terrifying foes.
The Creature Collection was meant to compete with the Monster Manual, so a comparison is useful:
| NAME: | Monster Manual | Creature Collection |
| # OF MONSTERS: | 255 | 191 |
| # OF PAGES: | 224 | 224 |
| SRP: | $29.95 | $24.95 |
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It's worth noting that the number of monsters listed in the Table of Contents for both books did not match their advertisements: the Monster Manual states it has "over 500 fearsome foes!" on the back cover and the Creature Collection boasts over 200. I'm sure there really are 500 monsters if you count every monster variant; as a Dungeon Master, I don't consider the variants to "count" as adding to the value of the book.
Overall, the Creature Collection is an enthusiastic, if not high quality, effort. As a glossy hardcover, it looks like a better product than its contents dictate. Now that the Monster Manual is out, much of the Creature Collection's primary appeal (the only commercially available product about monsters when there was no Monster Manual) is lost.
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