Foreword:
This complimentary copy was send to me on January 15th of 2002. Unfortunately, something seems to have gone wrong during shipping and it has only arrived here (the Netherlands) a few days ago. Oh well, at least it did arrive eventually...
Introduction:
Each book in the Slayer’s Guide series by Mongoose Publishing seeks to expand on a common D&D monster, thus hopefully making them more attractive to use in your games. As the title suggests, the Slayer’s Guide to Gnolls focuses on the race of hyena-like humanoids called gnolls.
Presentation:
The Slayer’s Guide to Gnolls is a 32-page saddle bound booklet with a glossy cover depicting a few gnolls plundering a small settlement. The booklet has a nice font that is neither too large nor too small. It does use some pretty wide margins, but this is partly compensated for by not wasting the insides of the cover, instead using them to hold two page sized illustrations.
Speaking of illustrations; there a quite a few of them in this booklet and most are of a pretty good quality. Especially the anatomical drawing of a gnoll in the inside of the cover is a very nice piece. There are also a number of short pieces of fiction. These are all relevant to the section they are placed in and in general succeed in setting the mood of that particular section.
What I found a little odd was that the book contains both the OGL and the d20 license, even though the latter is not required to be included in the product. Still; so far, so good...
The meat:
The first few sections of the booklet focus on gnoll physiology, habitat, society, methods of warfare and how to roleplay gnolls. Really, this is where the book should shine, but unfortunately it doesn’t. Apart from a few bits, such as the fact that gnolls as presented use an intricate sign language, there’s really nothing here that wasn’t already in the Monster Manual. Ouch!
The next section provides a number of adventure hooks focusing on gnolls. While a nice addition, there’s nothing here that an average DM couldn’t have thought of himself. Still, this section might come in handy if you’re out of inspiration.
What follows is a short section on gnolls as player characters. This is easily one of the worst sections in the booklet as the race as presented here is way overpowered compared to the races in the PHB. To top it off, it does not even mesh well with the 3rd Edition rules, as it hands out a racial bonus to armor class where it should have used a natural armor bonus.
Finally, in the last two sections we get a sample lair and a list of premade gnolls to fill various roles. The lair is a useful addition to the booklet, but the premade gnolls are of a somewhat reduced utility as most are not correctly implemented. For instance, most have fewer feats than they should have. Really, this booklet should have been proofread by someone with a good grasp of the 3rd edition rules.
Conclusion:
I was rather disappointed by the Slayer’s Guide to Gnolls. While it might be worthwhile to borrow a friend’s copy if you plan on using gnolls in your campaign, I can’t in good conscience recommend anyone to actually buy this product. There just isn’t anything in it that you cannot easily derive from the gnoll entry in the Monster Manual and the fact that several sections are hampered by a bad grasp of the 3rd edition rules makes matters even worse.
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