Review: Kobold Press - The Tome of Beasts

It's been a while since I've worked on this blog. But to get things going again, I'm going to do something I haven't done on my blog. A book review so here goes...

The Tome of Beasts by Chris Harris, Dan Dillon, Rodrigo Garcia Carmona and Wolfgang Baur. Developed by Steven Winter. Kobold Press, published 2016, 429 pages.

Fifth edition fans have been asking for mo,re monsters and other options since 5e premeried in 2014. Although Wizards of the Coasts has published several full length adventures and more since then, they've yet to publish another monster book since the Monster Manual. Now Ex-WOTC staffer and veteran publisher Wolfgang Baur and Kobold Press have come out with a hardback monster book of their own – The Tome of Beasts. The Tome of Beasts delivers with a bang, what Fifth Edition fans have been asking for.

The Tome of Beasts is a 429 page full color book devoted to just to monsters. Kobold Press has converted their two Pathfinder monster supplements The Migard Bestiary and the Southlands Bestiary as well as added new monsters to come out with the book. Kobold Press monsters such as the mithril dragon as well as monsters from folklore are included. Fans of the old TSR setting Al-Qadim (which Baur worked on) will be happy that the zaratan has been included. Each monster is lasciviously illustrated in full color by such artists as Keiran Yanner and others. Kobold Press sought out to deliver a quality product and has defiantly fulfilled its goal. The book is well laid out and each creature is finely illustrated.
Ex-WOTC staffer Steve Winter oversaw development of the book. If you were able to participate in the Kickstarter you were able to see that he carefully critiqued each creature to make sure it was balanced for its CR. As to the possibilities of the Tome of Beasts, the monsters in this book will provide dozens of encounters for the campaigns of 5th Edition Dms. There are a few other third party 5th edition monster books such as Fifth Edition Foes by Frog God Games but the Tome of Beasts is far and above the rest. The book is careful balanced, beautifully illustrated and carefully edited. It's well worth picking up.


Good gaming!






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