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Libris Mortis is a 192 page hardcover focused on the undead in the D&D game, with a $30 price tag. Like the Draconomicon, there are portions for character building, clearly intended to broaden the appeal of the book. Nonetheless, Libris Mortis is most useful to DMs.
CONTENT OVERVIEW
The first chapter, All About Undead, is one of the more interesting, with a discussion of the origins of Undeath, and a discussion of undead hunger and appetites. For example, some undead are afflicted with Inescapable Craving, while others can be satiated when they have consumed enough. Some undead have no need to feed on anything, and some must feed or be weakened. These details are supported by new variant rules.
There are also good variant rules for haunting and exorcisms, though I would have liked to see this as a 5-10 page section with heavier detail, rather than the lone page provided. More play-applicable is a discussion of undead senses and tactics for fighting undead.
The next chapter, Character Options, includes Feats and undead "monster classes", introducing the Ghoul, Mummy, Wight, etc. Assuming one is not among the restless dead, the feats presented here are most useful in fighting/dealing with undead, and to a necromancer, with the Corpsecrafter tree. Also potentially interesting is the Tomb-Tainted Soul tree, which allows otherwise normal non-good characters to take on attributes of the undead.
Unsurprisingly, the prestige classes are either for characters dealing with undead, characters fighting undead, or characters that are undead. A couple are interesting in their ability to serve as living thralls for powerful undead. The spells are focused chiefly on Necromancy (shocking, I know), with some Conjuration, Transmutation, and Evocation. Summon Undead is revisited and clarified, as is the tumor material from Book of Vile Darkness. A few of the spells are simple 3.5 reprints from BoVD.
The equipment chapter is probably most useful in terms of universal adaptation of the material presented in this book. Rather odd are the Positoxins...preparations of Holy Water that act as poisons against undead (none of which have effects on Constitution, for obvious reasons). Undead grafts are revisited from the Fiend Folio, updated and significantly expanded. Magic items specifically for undead are also detailed.
A Dire Maggot is not one of the more terrifying things I could imagine, but here the Dire Maggot is a predatory carnivore. I guess this is intended to make the creepiness of maggots threatening. The Skin Kite is one of the more interesting (ghastly) creatures, along with the Angel of Decay. Swarm shifter is a useful template that can easily be used to augment many more powerful undead.
Of course, some creatures are less interesting, such as the Revived Fossil (basically skeletons with very high AC because they are made from stone), and the Necropolitan (a watered-down lich template). And then there is one that I think is an extraordinarily bad idea: the Half-Vampire inherited template.
Undead in the Campaign is the best section of the book. While some of it is pedestrian (gee, a graveyard as a lair?), there are also very useful sections. Running Undead Encounters focuses on combat tactics for all for the major forms of undead, taking into account intelligence as well as abilities. For example, the wight:
"The wight uses its stealth to sneak up on unwitting victims, using surprise to deliver slam attacks against flat-footed enemeies. Not quite as cunning as the ghoul, the wight nevertheless has the ability to seek advantageous positions in a fight, such as flanking or upper ground. Wights rarely retreat from a fight with living creatures, since their hatred for all life consumes them." (p. 137)
There are also extended discussions of the major undead abilities and qualities, though these discussions are sometimes little more than space wasting re-treads.
There is a sort of Rogues Gallery of major undead (vampires, ghosts, liches) and several lairs that can be easily adapted to most campaigns. This gallery isn't just a bunch of stat-blocks. They are varied, interesting characters that can inspire adventures, though the quality does show some variance, as expected. Also included are several variants of each of the standard types, to keep the players guessing.
Cults of Undeath are also detailed for use in creating organizations/metaplots/story-arcs. Adventure sites are basically a Book of Lairs for undead. Nothing terribly remarkable here.
PRESENTATION
The art is good. Its re-assuring to see the quality we expect from WotC in this department. Some of the art does come across unintentionally goofy. Seeing the Mohrg Barbarian, for example, as a sort of "trustworthy Mohrg" was just bizarre, as was the wight archer.
The sepia tinged art by Wayne England is especially appropriate for the tone of the book, and the first-page-of-chapter art by Lukacs is good too, thought the wood-grain effect is a little odd. It actually sorta reminds me of DATrampier's work. Jarvis' Angel of Decay and Atropal Scion are just as creepy as we would expect. Art gallery found here.
I didn't catch any editing mistakes, at least not yet. But I haven't started hunting the stat-blocks for mistakes, so who knows. The layout is as clean as ever.
CONCLUSION
In essence, Libris Mortis is a DM toolkit for undead, a BoVD adjunct, and undead character manual. Despite some interesting feats and monsters, and many interesting spells, the crunch didn't really impress me. It could be just because I am sick of seeing so much crunch that I enjoyed the fluff and Rogue's Gallery more. It could also be that the undead focus becomes wearying after a time.
The background, haunting rules, details on hunger and diet and the like are particularly interesting and useful. The variant undead archetypes are also useful. This book is very DM centric, though for the necromancer in your party the book is practically required.
As a DM, I personally think this is a great (creepy) book, especially the first and last chapters, and there is some good crunch to be found.
