100 extra Pages of Monsters

In a major update today I posted new versions of all four rulebooks, the starter set and the Quick ref sheet.

The main change is to the Bestiary, though their are minor changes to the other rulebooks.

In the original draft of the Bestiary we screened out a lot of monsters. The aim always is to rule out outright bad monsters, hard to run monsters and those that are not distinct enough.

In doing so we are no longer constrained by a 600 or so page limit for a single volume, it is over that so will need to be in two volumes.

So I went over again some of the harder monsters. I also become aware of several volumes of second edition monster compendium monsters I was unaware of.

In 1e there were a few monsters described without proper law, or with complex mechanics buried in the description. Now I had a chance to revaluate some of these. There were also monster that were dealt with inconsistently between edition, skipping editions etc.

Many of the monster have unusual attack patterns which make them interesting at the table. For example Quicklings which run around and attack like the flash, or Vrrxlzk which are essentially electrical traps.

Some of the help plug real gaps in the game such as level 1-3 horde like humanoids, such as Chitines. 5e/5.5e really described Golaiths badly, so I went back through Forgotten Realms law to boil down there essential characteristics. Like Gnolls though too strong for player character.

Overall over 100 pages of 60+ new monsters. Hard to have a favourite, but the Scottish Pech is great as it can disspear into the ground and pop up behind players in a single move action.

There is also one entirely original linage, the Gogga (Swalhili for bug) as I was conscious of lack of an insecticidal linage. The Googa are expert cooks, especially with exotic monster parts and run the best street food carts in cities.

Other changes are minor. 4 new magic items, 1 spell, muddy puddle, adjusted. A few error corrections. Rules on repel/resist rolls added to starter set (accidentally missed out). Made the rules on claculating Monster SQ clearer. Corrected error in Troll SQ (way too low) and added a couple of Trol;l Variants. A couple of fighting abilities adjusted to be complementary (mob breaker and cleave). Very minor changes to the designing adventures book encounter tables (incorporating some of the new monster).