Creature Collection

Type: Monster Manual Sourcebook

Company: Sword and Sorcery (White Wolf)

URL: http://www.swordsorcery.com

Designer: Andrew Bates, Kraig Blackwelder, Carl Bowen, John Chambers, Trevor Chase, Ken Cliffe, Geoff Grabowski, Jess Heinig, Jeff Holt, Mike Lee, Ben Monk, James Stewart, Cynthia Summers, Richard Thomas, Mike Tinney, Jed Walls, Stephan Wieck, and Stewart Wieck.

Release: 2000

Outline: Over 200 new monsters that are compatible with 3rd edition D20 rules and written under the open gaming license.

Contents: If you read my review of the Monster Manual 3.0 most of this paragraph will sound very familiar. My reviews of Monster based books like the Creature Collection are going to be slightly different than my typical reviews. Normally I break things down by chapter and discuss merits and flaws at the end. Without chapters I have decided to simply share with you monsters that I have bookmarked and that I might use in my upcoming Planescape campaign(s). There are creatures in this book that I did not bookmark and I may use many of them. What I have done is narrowed bookmarks down to unique creatures that I believe might provide a memorable experience in a planar encounter in and of themselves.

Below I have listed my bookmarked creatures divided by challenge ratings and a few notes.

Challenge Rating 1-4

Alley Reaper, Bottle Imp, Butcher Spirit, Celestin, Chardun-slain, Dream Snake, Forge Wight, Hanid, Memory Eater, Murder Sprite, Strife Elemental, Thunder Orb, Unholy Child, and Well Spirit.

Alley Reapers can be an interesting encounter after the PCs see or perhaps kill an assassin in a previous adventure. Nothing like previous hooks coming back again.

The Bottle Imp is a nasty little creature that PC’s are likely to under estimate and some lessons need to be learned the hard way.

Dream Snakes attack the PCs when they are sleeping keeping everyone a little on edge.

Challenge Rating 5-8

Carnival Krewe - Necromantic Golem, Savant Hydra, the Unhallowed: Faithless Knight, the Unhallowed: False Lover, the Unhallowed: Forsaken Priest, the Unhallowed: Treacherous Thief,

Challenge Rating 9-12

Stick Giant.

Challenge Rating 13+

Inquisitor.

Inquisitor there is little like turncoat priests for an ultimate villain on the planes

Totals

1-4 Challenge Rating: 14

5-8 Challenge Rating: 6

9-12 Challenge Rating 1

13+ Challenge Rating 1

Various Challenge Ratings: 0

Total Bookmarks 22

Merits: The creatures are described in more detail then MM 3.0 from wizards. There are a great number of quality low to mid level creatures for planar campaigns.

Flaws: Illustrations are in B&W. I don’t consider that a flaw but some would so I mentioned it. Because of the higher detail on the monsters there are only about 200 rather than 400 or so. There is a lack of high powered encounters for planar characters which doesn’t mean there aren’t any in the book just not ones that work well in my planar campaigns.

I am certainly glad I picked up this book as it will be very useful in the main meat of my campaign Levels 1-8 or so. The lower number of monsters is fine by me because I believe the better detail is more than worth the trade off. The book is certainly worth its cover price especially since I only paid half price but I certainly would shell out the full $24.95 if it wasn’t on sale.