"He who fights against monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process."
—Friedrich Nietzsche
A wizard in the process of developing magically sentient "alchemice" enters his lab one morning to find the cage doors opened, the locks apparently picked by the small bits of wire left lying on the workbench. A large number of potions are missing, and the cat is sealed into a half-full bottle of formaldehyde. His life becomes a nightmare.
Packs of reptilian bonethieves lurk in the depths of primal rain forests, magically absorbing the bones of living prey to stimulate the growth of their own protective bony horns and plating.
A candle golem is spontaneously created when the wax from mundane candles used in a wizard's library is gathered, melted down, and reused one too many times. The loose arcane energy absorbed by the wax gives this tiny being a free will and an erratic response to magic.
A party of adventurers, bloody and without magic following an epic battle with a dragon, is driven away from the site of their victory by dracoticks vacating the corpse of their dragon host. Suffused with the dragon's blood and camouflaged to look like its scales, the dracoticks unleash potent breath weapons that make for a dangerous treasure hunt.
More than 220 creatures like these are described in the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary, which is the most impressive collection of original OGL System monsters to date. The entries that fill this weighty volume's 352 pages go beyond the atmospheric description, evocative illustration, and solid stats for which Penumbra is known, providing adventure seeds designed to inspire GMs and players alike, and extras like new gods, new spells, and new magic items. For those looking for more meat in their monsters, and more creativity in their creatures, comes the Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary.
The Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary is brimming with illustrations by an assortment of talented artists.
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I looked pretty thoroughly (my google-fu is strong) and I don't have a clue. Most of the Penumbra line is pre-3.5, but there are some stuff that is post 3.5. The book's copyrigh is 2003 with no month given. There is nothing in their verbage on their website, e23's store or elsewhere to indicate one way or the other.
Can someone tell me if this book is 3.0 or 3.5 compatible?
3.0
I seem to recall there was a bit of a concern at the time about holding it back and redoing all the monsters to make them 3.5 compatible...obviously Atlas opted to release it "as is".
*Shrug*
I don't own it but conversion really shouldn't pose a difficulty (even if it is a wee PITA ;-)
It is 3.0 but conversion really isn't hard. Most of it is quickly eyeballed on the spot. I will jump in to say I used a LOT of the critters from this book. The fact that a whole ton of them lead to interesting roleplaying instead of just "roll for initiative" is a great storytelling aid.
I have this book and enjoyed reading through it. I got it on clearance here months ago.
The one disappointment I had with it was that the introduction mentions that the dire rabbit was cut for space and I really want stats for a dire rabbit.