As the better portions of the True20 Bestiary are conversions that one could accomplish quite easily by oneself and restriction to basically being a “Fantasy Bestiary,” this book is not nearly as useful a supplement as I have come to expect from the True20 line.
Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
One thing I personally liked about the Bestiary was the template for unit sized mass combat. I believe it was later adopted by the Warrior's handbook but it was an elegant solution to mass combat IMO.
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Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
I'm going to have to agree with the frustration over the monsters all being from the DnD SRD (which isn't strictly an accurate name, but is essentially what it is). My biggest problem with the main rules was that the only "Backgrounds" (races) they offered were from the basic Races in DnD 3.5. I would have like to have seen a few "aliens", pulp creatures (from the hollow earth, or something) and such. I also would have liked to have rules to design my own backgrounds (found them in the Science Fiction section of the Companion).
All in all, though, I like True 20. I think my ideal D20 rules set would be like a marriage of True20 and Saga.... hmmmm...
Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
There's a review of this book on Amazon.com which mentions that the demons, devils and dragons are classified according to Vice rather than alignment, but it doesn't give examples. Can you illuminate this for me? (I haven't seen any copies of the book at local stores, so I can't check it out for myself.)
Also, what are the creature types it lists for sci-fi campaigns?
Wyvern
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Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyvern76
There's a review of this book on Amazon.com which mentions that the demons, devils and dragons are classified according to Vice rather than alignment, but it doesn't give examples. Can you illuminate this for me? (I haven't seen any copies of the book at local stores, so I can't check it out for myself.)
Also, what are the creature types it lists for sci-fi campaigns?
Wyvern
Fiends have a new creature Sub-Type, "Vice". The vice subtype is usually applied to outsiders native to vice-aligned planes of existance. These creatures act in accordance to their vice aspect. A creature with this subtype overcomes damage reduction as if its natural weapons and any actual weapons were vice-aligned.
Examples are: Hellcats are fiends of hatred, Dretches of sloth, and to no one's surprise Succubi are fiends of lust and worldly temptation. So, if you had a DR that could be overcome by Lust, a Succubi's weapon would overcome it... I guess.
Some Celestials have the subtype "Virtue" which is the polar opposite of "Vice" but otherwise works the same way. (example: Planetars are celestials of Bravery and Heroism).
Dragons have elemental subtypes (Swamp Dragons are subtype water, sky dragons subtype air, and fire dragons are subtype cold... no, I kid. They are of course, subtype fire). I could not find a single dragon with a "vice" subtype. The description of subtypes says that Vice (as well as virtue) are applied to outsiders, so a planar dragon may have a vice (or virtue).
Most of these are self explanatory (real world scientific terms) and use a more taxonomic view of Creature types than the fantasy world subtypes.
Interestingly, they don't use these for any of the creatures (I may be wrong, but I didn't see any). For instance, Vampire Template grants the subtype "undead", but there is nothing to suggest that in a science fiction game they would also be "Hematophage". This kind of goes to the reviewer's complaint about the SRD nature of the book. I also wonder why Endotherm is a creature sub-type and Ectotherm isn't. It seems like they just compiled a list of taxonomic classifications to make it sound more "scientific".
Actually, I can see some of the creature types (Vacuum, Cybernetic), but wonder why Omnivore is a creature sub-type and not just a descriptive word in the fluff. Considering what rules-effect subtypes have, would you have a DR 5/Omnivore? Or a sword of +1 v. Endotherm? (well, that's a fantasy example, so I guess not)
Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyTempest
Interestingly, they don't use these for any of the creatures (I may be wrong, but I didn't see any). For instance, Vampire Template grants the subtype "undead", but there is nothing to suggest that in a science fiction game they would also be "Hematophage". This kind of goes to the reviewer's complaint about the SRD nature of the book.
This would be exactly my complaint about the book - even one example of each (or an addition to the existing creatures as to how to change the genre) would have made the book slightly more useful.
Re: [RPG]: True20 Bestiary, reviewed by Steve Dubya (2/2)
Interesting... so they're more like traits or qualities than mutually exclusive types. I was imagining something along the lines of the creature classification in Star Wars d20: predator, herbivore, scavenger etc.
I suppose that ectotherm might have been left out because it's basically the default state for animals.
Anyway, thanks for the information!
Wyvern
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