Out of all the supplements
in the Humble Bundle that I recently picked up, Fifth Edition Foes
caught my eye the most. How could I, an old school role-player,
resist this book's promise to update several monsters from sources
such as the original Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II so that I can
incorporate them into my fifth edition games? Let's take a closer look
and see how Fifth Edition Foes delivers on this promise.
The first thing I want to
say about this book is that it is absolutely packed with monsters.
The PDF weighs in at 261 pages and includes, by my count, 253 monster
entries. That's a lot of monsters! Not only are these monsters listed
alphabetically in the Table of Contents, as one might expect, but
Fifth Edition Foes also includes an invaluable “Monsters by CR”
appendix, as well as a “Monsters by Type” appendix. There is a
pretty good spread of Challenge Ratings represented in the book, but
most of the monsters fall on the low end of the CR scale. In fact,
just over half of the 253 entries are CR 2 or below, while only 22
entries are CR 8 and above. Personally, I'm fine with this. I prefer
having more options on the low end of the CR scale, especially since
you're able to get so much better mileage out of lower level threats
in fifth edition than in earlier editions. There is also a good mix
of creature types, including 27 undead and, surprisingly, 37 plants!
I also appreciate the fact that aside from these appendices the PDF
is well bookmarked, allowing you to easily pull up whatever
entry you're looking for.
But what about these
monsters already?!
Well, poring over the
Table of Contents I was pleased to see that the book does indeed
include quite a few Fiend Folio alumni. The Adherer, Doombat, Coffer
Corpse, Crypt Thing, Yellow Musk Creeper, and many other favorites
are here – way too many to list! And even though my favorite Fiend
Folio denizen, The Eye of Fear and Flame, didn't make the cut, I have
to say that overall I'm pleased with the selection. There are lots of
entries from from the Monster Manual II, a few from the original
Monster Manual, and some that originally appeared in other sources
(like the Cave Crickets from Lost Caverns of Tsocanth). I know all of
this because at the end of each monster entry there is a citation
that notes where the monster first appeared, who the original creator
was, and who is responsible for the updated version. I love this! I
wish they would have taken this a step further and included an
appendix that listed monsters by where they originally appeared, but
maybe that's just me. I thought that all of the monsters that I
looked at were faithful adaptations of the originals, and I feel like
any of them would fit seamlessly into a fifth edition game. There are
also several creatures that are, as best I can tell, original to this
book which is also nice. Each entry is accompanied by black and white
artwork, with stat blocks that look more like an updated version of
what you would find in an old monster manual rather than a clone of
the style currently found in the fifth edition Monster Manual. After
the stat block each creature has a few paragraphs about habitat,
combat tactics, and any other useful information about the creature.
One unique thing about the entries that was a nice touch is that
under the name of each monster there is a bit of descriptive text,
suitable for reading to your players as you describe what the
creature looks like. Here is an example of the layout:
Offense is of
course listed below Defense, followed by a section showing ability
scores and relevant skills, and a final section detailing special
traits, talents, and abilities. I have absolutely no complaints with
the layout, and in fact I think the entries look quite nice.
Lets just get
down to it: I love this book! Reading the stats and descriptions for
these old monsters makes me want to kill a party of adventurers right
now! The hardback version of this book is out of stock at the time of
this writing, but the PDF is available here.
I would say if you love and miss your old friends from the Fiend
Folio and older modules and monster manuals you should go and
download this immediately. Or maybe you could care less about the
Fiend Folio, but you'd love to throw some monsters at your party
without having one of your players yawn as they tell everyone what
its vulnerabilities are. If so, I'm certain you could do a whole lot
worse than this book.
So that's it;
that's my review. If you need me I'll be over here mapping out a
dracolisk lair.
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