Tome of Beasts PDF
In the gaming world, character design is of vital importance. Its purpose is to make encounters more familiar and to help you relate to what’s being presented to you, resulting in emotions and absorption. The philosophy behind the narrative is also expressed through the characters.
In a fantasy RPG, players will search for twists and turns where they can fight new enemies. That’s why the characters need to be of immense variations. The same kind of character makes gaming boring. It is a huge responsibility for the GMs (game masters), to create new challenges for the gamers. Monsters in any RPG are one of the most crucial role-players to make the game more challenging.
The GMs have the responsibility to create new varieties of monsters with unique power and design to keep the audience engaged. Sometimes, the game masters need inspiration for creating a new piece of character. ‘Tome of Beasts’ is such a book that contains such inspiration as there are four hundred unique monsters with unique abilities to be implied in any RPG or costume design.
In the following section, we will give you a brief introduction to the book.
Book details
| Book Name | Tome of Beasts |
| Author | Wolfgang Baur |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Kobold Press |
| Genre | Reference work |
| Pages | 433 |
| Size | 1.97 MB |
| Format | |
| Originally Published | November 8, 2016 |
Tome of Beasts PDF
A Brief Introduction
The Tome of Beasts, the 433-page book, introduces you to a herd of monsters, all unique in their abilities and appearances. In its 5th Edition, it brings you more than 400 new monsters. The Tome of Beasts offers everything you need, from dungeon vermin to a world-shaking incarnation of evil. This 400+ page monster manual presents all the monsters from the entire Kobold Press history in a single book.
The material quality of the book is impressive. Richly-illustrated and well laid out pages, boldfaced paragraphs stating the monster’s behavior and habitat, original 5th Edition finishing that we all are familiar with. The monster art is vividly done with top-notch color by some of the finest fantasy artists of the industry. The color schemes of the monster’s pages and also the fonts and lettering are a treat to the eyes.
Players want the thrill, and the monsters contained in this book can provide that. Kobold did a splendid job increasing the HP stat of the monsters. Creators of any RPG include monsters with unique abilities to make the game more fun and challenging, every single monster in this book has different types of abilities and they all have something cool up their sleeves to show off. There are Rat monsters that can multiply by the factor of 4 each time in each round, they have added some cool diseases, some of the monsters can switch between singular and swarm entity modes.
Finally, but certainly not least, let us discuss the varieties of monsters in the manual. It’s got something for everyone. Kobold has outdone themselves with the varieties section. There are Ravens folks, Rat folks, Alligator-themed monsters with see-through Jellyfish skin, Pub Drakes (the cat-sized dragon that trades secrets for ales), Vampires, Ghouls, and whatnot.
Criticism
The manual is overall great and almost necessary but there’s some catch and the work was criticized for those.
First, the artwork is great, one of the greatest of this genre one might say, but unlike the official Wizard manual, the monster’s artwork doesn’t have any background scenery that illustrates the habitat or the environment of the monsters. Therefore, there is so tiny room for imagination left which makes it hard to apply in games.
Second, according to some RPG critics, the HP inflation is high but not enough to take a toll on the players.
Third, the book’s price is too high for many people, you can buy official manual books with half of its price.
A compelling plot, a well-balanced adventure sequence, good storytelling are of utmost importance to create an adventurous and thrilling gaming experience. And the things that control these variables are the characters such as the monsters in any game. The fight with a higher-ranking monster never fails to give the chill. This book provides the GMs the option to make their games more challenging and thrilling.
If you enjoy role-playing games or a Game Master or are just a fan of fantasy, then this book is a must-have for you.
