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The Creature
Collection Revised is a 3.5 d20 system monster book. This update features
most of the creatures from the first work, though fully updated to mesh
with the revised rules. Though it fits in with the revised rules, some
referees may wonder if this book would be a decent investment to acquire
for their home campaigns.
The default
setting for this book isn't the standard fantasy world. The Scarred
Lands are a gritty place, formed by the war between the gods and titans
of the world, and this book offers a view of the aftermath of that conflict
by looking at the legacies that remain behind.
A number
of creatures that once were presented as stand alones are now worked
into templates section so that they might be added to flesh out other
monsters or characters. Though some creatures (and a demigod) have been
removed to keep this work to a decent size, most of the original work's
monsters appear here. Some of the minor critters that lack full entries
of their own have been relegated to sidebars.
Notable
absences come from the dragonmen, the demigoddess of Shadow, Drendari
(I'm not certain if her reappears in the work The Divine and the Defeated,
though), the exemplars, those heralds of Vangal and the odd were-vultures.
Those sidebar creatures that once had larger entries are the Tokal tribesmen
and lard worms. The forsaken dwarves appear as a player character race
(PH-styled) entry along with the rest of the Scarred Lands races (including
those appearing in the Termana Gazetteer).
The racial
entries (culled from the Scarred Lands Gazetteers and DM Screen) are:
Dwarves (Charduni, Forsaken, and Mountain), Elves (Dark, Forsaken and
Wood), the Termana Gnomes and Gnolls, Hlaf-Elves, Half-Orcs, Halflings,
Humans (with variant rules to alter them by region) and the Terali.
Those
creatures appearing as templates now are: Butcher Spirits (animal ghosts),
the Carnival Krewe's Plague Wretch, Fatlings (obese servants of Gaurak),
the Hags (Brine, Cavern, Ice, Moon, Storm and Swamp), Inquisitors (spirit
sentinels of law), Morgaunt, Tokal-infested (the Tokal worm's host),
and the Unhallowed (Faithless Knights, False Lovers, Forsaken Priests,
and Treacherous Thieves).
A handful
of the other creatures are: the Abandoned (a proto-humanoid race), bloodmares
(a vicious magical beast that eats horseflesh), the undead Chardun-Slain,
Hallow Knights, and Plaguecats.
This volume
has a lot of creatures going into, even counting those missing from
the revision. And, ironically, like the original, it lacks a detailed breakdown by creature type and challenge rating for the monster appearing here. The books pages are filled with neat details and follow
the 3.5 Monster Manual standard of having a quote appearing before the
monster is fully detailed. Ex. "These creatures may have once been
normal dogs, but it is clear they have been reshaped by divine will.
Their fangs and claws are made of glittering steel, and their thick
black fur is tough as wire." (from the Keffiz, p. 113)
Creature
Collection Revised has several monsters to add to any campaign, though
their flavor text is mainly designed to advance the Scarred Lands campaign
setting. Overall, the book will add new challenges to anyone's campaign
with a little care to adding them in. Wrack dragons, for example, may
call upon some campaign decisions should they be added to spruce up
an encounter. Any referee wanting to have a number of creatures at their
disposal, without a lot of work to add to themselves should give the
Creature Collection Revised a once over.
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