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Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations delves into the societies, magic, languages, customs, anatomies, and other aspects of six aberration races. Three of these are core monsters: the aboleths, the beholders, and the mind flayers. Two, the neogi and the grell, were published in other non-core sources prior to this book. The last race, the tsochari, is completely new to the book. Fortunately, all non-core races are fully statted out in the beginning of their chapters. Each one of these race's chapters ends with a brief adventure to detail the monster's place.
The book also has a relatively beefy chapter full of new monsters, and a chapter on how players can build characters that either fight with or learn secrets from the aberrations.
Chapter 1: What is an Aberration?
The first chapter of the book covers the topic of aberrations in general. Unlike other monster types that have their own books, such as dragons and undead, aberrations do not have a unifying theme. They are as varied as humanoids or animals.
The chapter describes a tale of where much of the known information about aberrations comes from, including a number of origins stories for different races. Some are used for races in the book, such as "Travelers in Time" for the mind flayers, but others, such as the "Otherwhens", are unused in the book, and are simply there to spark imagination.
It then covers the few themes that aberrations do share: they are all sinister masterminds, they are unnatural and inhuman, and learning about them is dangerous. Finally, the chapter covers what an aberration campaign is, and the differences between a normal heroic campaign versus the darker "horrific campaign".
Chapter 2: The Deep Masters
Chapter 2 details one of the most under-used monsters in the game, the aboleths. Part of this problem lies in their aquatic nature, and the fact that at least 95% of games are played above the ocean. Still, the chapter gives them the fair treatment that they deserve.
The first section details the body structure of the aboleth, from their brains to their intenstines to their dreaded slime-filled tentacles. It also describes their reproductive system and habits. It goes most deeply into the mind, which is the source of the aboleth's great psionic power.
The chapter then moves on to aboleth diet, aboleth variants, an aboleth-specific prestige class, and aboleth feats. I particularly like the variants, especially the amphibuous aboleth, which helps overcome the common issue of the race being an aquatic one. The prestige class, "Savant Aboleth", increases the aboleth's feared enslave ability as well as their glyphs of warding, and is a good way for a DM to give an aboleth BBEG a more dangerous atmosphere.
Then the chapter details aboleth magic, specifically their glyphs of warding. A sidebar helps DMs who use the Expanded Psionics Handbook (such as myself) how to use this chapter. This section is not terribly exciting, but it does detail aboleth-specific glyphs created with a new feat.
The final section details aboleth religion, specifically, the Lovecraftian Elder Evils. There is even a section entitled "The Aboleths and Cthulhu", which allows you to replace the Elder Evils with Lovecraft's Great Old Ones. The section also details language, relations, lairs, minions, cities, and characters.
Chapter 3: The Eye Tyrants
I must confess, I have never been a huge fan of the beholders. Their challenge rating is too high for my taste, and their eye rays are just... odd. Still, this chapter does the beholders justice.
The first section details the beholder's anatomy, most specifically, the great antimagic eye. It also details their gruesome reproductive habits, and their central nervous system.
Next, the chapter describes beholder life, from their diet to a multitude of beholder variants, along with the "beholderkin". Many of these variants are detailed later in Chapter 8: New Monsters, but some, such as the death tyrant, and the beholderkin the death kiss, eyeball, and gouger, are described in other books, specifically, Forgotten Realms and Monsters of Faerun. This makes me upset, as I have no intention to play in that setting.
The chapter than delves into beholder magic, including a new true beholder-only prestige class, the Beholder Mage. There are also a few beholder feats, most of which are good for flavor, but a bit lacking in power. The chapter also describes what magic items a beholder can wear, and magic items designed for beholders, such as mouthpick weapons.
The next section describes beholder society, from religion, language, relations, xenophobia, sanity, hive cities, lairs, and minions. The chapter ends with my favorite mini-adventure in the book, "The Lair of Sekarvu".
Chapter 4: The Mind Flayers
The illithids are my favorite race. This chapter details mind flayer society, including aspects I had never known before, such as elder brains, ceremorphosis, and their empire from the future.
First, the chapter details anatomy. This section does not have diagrams like the aboleths or beholders had, because they are very similar to whatever their host creature was. It details their mouth and tentacles and their senses, and aging. It also details the horrific process of ceremorphosis, by which an illithid tadpole is implanted in a victim to create a new mind flayer. The section ends with variants, such as the lord-like ulitharids, sorcerers, elder brains, and my least favorite, the brain golem. I love the concept, but it is detailed in the Fiend Folio, which I do not have. It also touches on the alhoon (illithilitches), mind flayer vampires, urophions (mind flayer ropers), and the more natural psionic neothelids.
The next section details illithid magic, which, in my opinion, should be psionics. It does have some rules for "psionic seals", which use psionic rules, but otherwise it is entirely magic-centered. I do understand this, however, and the magic items detailed here are excellent in their insight and execution.
Then the chapter details illithid language (including their script, Qualith), religion, and relations (with information on thralls). This section is very meaty for an illithid adversary.
Last but not least, the chapter details mind flayer goals. These include the fascinating logistics of brain eating, detailing the massive quantity of brains needed. It presents the example of a 100 illithid community, which would require 2,600 brains yearly. It then talks about their quest for knowledge, their political interference, and their loftiest goal, extinguishing the sun.
Chapter 5: The Slave Takers
Before I got this book, I had never heard about the spider-like neogi. They are a race of aberrations gifted with a powerful enslave ability, which they use to make livings as "traders" throughout the universe. The chapter opens with much-needed statistics of the three classes of neogi.
The chapter then moves to anatomy, which, sadly, does not include diagrams. This details, among other things, the horrifying and repulsive (and good) reproduction system for the neogi, and variants, such as dwarves and defilers.
The next section details life. The largest part of this section details the structure of a neogi community, with an "X owns Y" system set up of slavery. By definition, the neogi at the top is the one who is not a slave. That should tell you something about this race. The section also details language, religion (or lack thereof), and relations.
The magic section here is very short, detailing only the items that a neogi can wear.
The goals section is more thought out, such as enslaving others, making money off of trade and piracy, and the fantastic flying ships of the neogi. I especially enjoy the section on trade and piracy, which details how players would need to negotiate with them, and the cost of an average slave.
Chapter 6: The Eaters
This chapter has a con and a pro. The con is that the grell, the race detailed in it, are boring, cliched, and not eery enough. The pro is that the chapter is only thirteen pages.
The chapter opens with statistics for the grell, which, frankly, I needed, because I had never seen them before. Basically, they are a race of almost bird-like creatures that make lairs deep in forests, and wait for creatures to stumble in, which they eat voraciously.
The next section details the anatomy of the grell, complete with a diagram. This section was good, especially the part on their senses, which included how to blind the naturally blind grell. It also details the strange but overall not-exciting reproduction system, and their aging. The grell have no variants, except in actual differences between individuals (such as between a sumo wrestler in our world and a supermodel).
The next section describes grell society. It details the difference between feral grell, predators in the wild, or civilized grell, who form small grell nests to try to catch prey from. These nests include grell who create magic items, but otherwise is no different than, say, a bear cave. It also details their language, their lack of religion, and their leaders (essentially just grell wizards).
The section on grell magic details one new feat, and several alchemical items created by the grell. The best of these is the lightning lance, used to defend grell colonies.
Chapter 7: The Wearers of Flesh
This chapter details an entirely new monster race, the tsochari. They are creatures from another world who enter this one through rifts in the material plane, and infest people. While this sounds like an overused concept, the execution is good, plus, with the exception of the psionic puppeteer, I have not seen an official monster with such a niche. It also includes, naturally, statistics for the race.
The first section details tsochar anatomy. This is very strange, and very creative. Tsochari are not a single beast, but in fact a union of dozens of creatures called strands. These strands combine body parts to create the adult tsochari. This set up makes a single tsochari nearly immortal, as it simply replaces deceased strands. It also details their sense, their parasitism, their reproduction, and their aging. It concludes with details of noble tsochari, and a feat for telepathic tsochari.
The society section of the chapter is not as good as the anatomy, but also well done. It details their language, their religion, their leaders, and their relations. It also presents a sample character, Akhando, a half-farspawn (new monster template) human cleric 7 infested by Xhekk Toss, a tsochari cleric 5.
Tsochar magic details two new spells, and where tsochari can wear magic items. It also details a new magic ring used by tsochari.
Chapter 8: New Monsters
The book includes, not surprisingly, a beefy 35-page chapter detailing new aberrations to use in your game. I'll touch on a few of them specifically.
The first monsters are new beholderkin. This helps provide much-needed variety into beholder adventures, such as hive mothers, who create hives, and eyes of the deep, which live underwater. The strangest is the overseer, which at first glance looks more like an outsider from the Abyss than an aberration.
A new CR 11 cloaker variant is presented. This is interesting, though in essence it is simply a powerful extraplanar variant of the normal sort.
The CR 25 elder brain is also presented. This is especially useful for epic psionic campaigns, where you could feasibly order the players to destroy a mind flayer settlement, where deep inside, the final enemy that they must face is the insanely powerful elder brain. This monster also presents a variant if you are using the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
Elder eidolons are interesting, as a construct template used primarily by aboleths to defend lairs. Construction methods have been lost, but the book presents them anyways.
The book provides a complete remake of the gibbering mouther, which was very difficult to use in its core form. The new one is much better.
The half-farspawn is an interesting template, applied to a non-aberration from the hellish Far Realm.
The chapter also provides you with statistics for every one of the mind flayer variants except for the brain golem, detailed in the Fiend Folio, and the neothelid, detailed in the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
Another template in the book, the pseudonatural template, is essentially a normal monster with a few unnatural body parts.
The sithilar are the only good race in the book, an aberration race that long ago had no choice but to devolve into a swarm. It is from them, however, that we get the easiest and least expensive grafts.
Chapter 9: The Aberration Hunter
This chapter is essentially the player's guide to how to slay aberrations. It opens with discussions on how to fight aboleths, beholders, and mind flayers.
The next section details aberration cults, and six gods: the Great Mother, Ilsennsine, Ghaunadaur, Tharizdun, the Patient One, and Mak Thuum Ngatha.
Then the chapter moves into a new feats section. Among these is a new feat type, Aberrant. Aberrant feats change your actual body, resulting in bonuses to some skills, but penalties to skills relating to relations with others. All of these feats have the prerequisite of the aberrant feat Aberration Blood, which is an interesting feat in and of itself. Non-aberrant feats are also listed, including one new metamagic feat.
There is also a section with a number of new PrCs. Frankly, as a DM, I have not read this very thoroughly. Many of the classes are simply aberration slayers tied to specific base classes. There is also the fleshwarper, a class for increasing grafting abilities, the keeper of the Cerulean Sign, a more interesting take on anti-aberration spellcasting, and the sanctified mind, a class that uses material from the Expanded Psionics Handbook.
The magic section is excellent. It details 19 new spells, and 6 new clerical domains. Many of these are reprints from other sources, such as the Mind domain from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, or the Madness domain from Eberron, but overall, it is nice to see Wizards putting this much effort into a spells section. Sadly, there is no section on new psionic powers. The section also details new magic items, including grafts, additions to your body. These are difficult to add, and require a new feat. To utilize these best, I strongly recommend the usage of the fleshwarper prestige class.
The chapter, and the book, ends with details of four anti-aberration orders, each tied to a specific prestige class. The ones presented are the Circle of the True, Darkrunner Guild, Society of the Sanctified Mind, and the Topaz Order.
Summary
For those DMs wishing to run an aberration-centered campaign, this book is an invaluable resource. It also contains enough information even for those just interested in the book, though the hefty $35 price tag may shake some (I recommend Amazon). It is worth the price, for sure.
I gave this book a style score of 5 because the flavor is excellent, the layout is comprehendible, and the artwork, like most official D&D products, is superb. Overall, the book flows from section to section with entertaining and interesting ideas.
However, it recieved a substance score 3 because of its heavy reliance on other books. If you own and use the Expanded Psionics Handbook or if you play in the Forgotten Realms, you can add one point to this for each (i.e., for me, since I play in Eberron and use the Expanded Psionics Handbook, it has a substance score of 4).
