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I’m one of those game masters who can never have enough monsters. I own just about every monster book out there from the Creature Collection I-III, to the 3.5 Monsternomicon, to well, all three Tome of Horrors books.
In looking at a monster book, even beyond the game stats, is how cool or useful is the book in inspiring the imagination. For me, even though the official Monster Manual III was chocked full of gaming errors, I got a lot of use out of it due to a wide variety of monsters. Rating a monster book is almost a matter of personal preference. While I love Denizens of Avandu, I know a lot of people were turned off by the art and paper.
Tome of Horrors III has that fake cover that I’ve grown to despite through the years. When Wizards of the Coast first came out with that fake looking cover for it’s core books and everyone started to mimic it, it was annoying. Six years latter Wizards of the Coast has stopped doing it but a few publishers, especially in the PDF field, are still doing it. Inexpensive cover work I guess.
Interior art follows the standards set by the second book. In my opinion, the first Tome of Horrors had some wretched art. The second book picked up the quality and I’m glad to say that the third book continues that trend. Some of the best authors from the first book, including RJT who handles a lot of the demons, are joined by some of my favorites like Eric Lofgren, and others who should be known to those who enjoyed the Scarred Lands books like Leif Jones and Day. Others include Necromancer fan favorite Brian LeBlanc, a certain master cartographer known as Ed Bourelle, and even UDON studios among others.
My only complaint is that either the artists didn’t always read the descriptions of the descriptions may have changed during the creation of the monster. It doesn’t happen often, but when you read some monster wields a longsword and the illustration has some odd type of spear, well, it’s annoying. Happens with a lot of monster books though and doesn’t effect the utility of the game, but may effect play if you copy the picture and player’s go, “Hey, I thought this guy had a spear?”
For organization, the book provides a few methods. The table of contents provides a quick breakdown of the monsters, mostly in alphabetical order save when type comes into play, such as the various demons and devils. Next up is a listing of monsters by type. At the end of the book, we’ve got a listing of monsters by challenge rating. Monsters go from 1/6 to 30. Unfortunately, that’s just an alphabetical listing and we don’t get a page number, so if you’re looking up the CR 15 Herald of Tsathogga, you don’t get a page to flip to.
Layout is standard two-column format. For those who enjoy the monster to a page format that went out with 2nd edition, you’re still out of luck as monsters start as soon as the old one is finished. This means that if you turn to page 36, at the bottom of the page the Crystallis starts under the Crimson Basilisk. Not everyone’s favorite formatting to be sure but the book’s length and price would’ve gone up substantially and a lot of white space would have to be added to pad out each monster to their own isolated pages.
Monsters follow the standard format with name, game statistics (type through level adjustment), followed by physical description to be read aloud and then details on the monster, followed by combat notes and details of special abilities.
Some of my favorite monsters come in the section on devils. It starts off with the high powered Alastor, the Executioner of Hell. He looks like a balor or pit fiend composed of fire wielding a huge battle age. The illustration by Day captures the evil essence of the monster.
Following up on the Tome of Horrors II and its introduction of Infernus by Lucifer, is the introduction of Lilith, the former queen of Hell. While using such named characters may not suit everyone well, I enjoy seeing what others have done with these figures. After all, some like Orcus come from ancient times as well and because they don’t have the Christian history, are okay but those like Lilith or Lucifer, are generally considered ‘taboo’. It’s nice to see Necromancer give the fans the tools that they can use or ignore as suits their own campaigns.
My only dislike of some of the monsters here is that they’re in essence brutes. Take the Jack-In_Irons, a powerful giant that uses strength to crush its enemies. Its attacks are so powerful that those struck by it must save vs Fortitude or be dazed. It’s a great example of using the rules to simulate those feats of strength that a point based game like Hero would well, just build in with points. However, at the end of the day, it’s just a brute. Same deal with the various Sea Serpents. Having a lot of hit points does not make a creature an epic level foe. The Shipbreaker may have over six hundred hit points and can easily swallow even a gargantuan foe, but with no spell like abilities, a group of four twentieth level characters are going to make mincemeat out of it much less four thirtieth level characters.
In addition to the monsters, the book also includes an appendix for animals. Some of these are well, not nature like the giant electric catfish. Others may have some roots in the far reaches of history like the dire smilodon. Only a few like the mandrill or raccoon are actual ‘normal’ animals so to speak and the others could’ve probably been put into the earlier part of the book.
Appendix two covers different templates and includes sample creatures. It starts with the clockwork creature, a construct designed to look like another living corporeal creature and ends with the thorny template, an plant that resembles an animal made up of wood and leaves covered in thorny spikes.
Also included are different monster feats, and a brief discussion of the different planes introduced here. This includes some feats that look fairly standard like Swim-By-Attack as well as taking feats that improve natural abilities like Improved Construction. Planes have information on gravity, traits and enhanced and impeded magic.
The Tome of Horrors III is another strong contender from Necromancer Games in terms of adding monsters not only of various challenge ratings to your campaign, but also adding new personalities and monstrous types for your characters to encounters.
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