Book of Monster Templates (PFRPG)

4.90/5 (based on 9 ratings)
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Think You've Seen It All?

It's a big, scary world out there, and for your players, it's gotten nastier. The Book of Monster Templates gives you more options, more creative flexibility and more ways to just freak out your players with new templates itching to be added to any Pathfinder Roleplaying Game monster.

Enjoy innovative templates like the Bloody Maw, who consumes magic items for their eldritch power; the Boundfury, who lives to punish and guard those it has found guilty; and the Phlogiston Creature, an arcane construct that combines magic and technology to create truly frightening additions to your favorite evil wizard's laboratory.

More than just a collection of templates, each entry comes with Lore information, Ecology, and succinct yet detailed guidelines for how to use the templated creature in your next game. The Book of Monster Templates gives you the creative oomph you've come to expect from Rite Publishing, and it'll give your party something to remember for a long time—if they survive!

Author: Steven D. Russell
Additional Design: Ben McFarland, Crystal Frasier, Jonathan McAnulty, Justin Sluder, Michael Welham
Cover Art: Hugo Solis
Cover Layout: Claudia Burgos

Product Availability

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Will be added to your My Downloads page when your order ships.

PDF:

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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4.90/5 (based on 9 ratings)

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A Must-have for Any GM

5/5

Note to Rite Publishing: The cover image here at Paizo has Steven's name spelled correctly, but the copy I downloaded from DrivethruRPG still has it misspelled on the cover.

One of my favorite 3.5 products is Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary. The templates there have been instrumental in creating memorable monsters for my Wounded Earth campaign. Being able to breathe new life into old monsters, turning them into something different, is a great tool for GMs.

That said, I'm embarrassed to say that this book went under the radar for me until recently. I'm glad it was pointed out to me, because it will take its place as an invaluable tool at my gaming table.

There are 32 templates presented in this book, each with one or more sample creatures created with it. Even better, there is plenty of flavor provided to make each creature its own unique being, not just a monster with mechanical adjustments. Each also comes with ideas on how to insert such a creature into an ongoing campaign. There are also new feats, both monstrous and general, presented with the entries here.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

Aware arcana: constructs created by spellcasters that are essentially living spells used as guardians. Living spells were some of my favorite creatures from the latter days of 3.5. Turning them into purposely made constructs rather than accidentally created oozes is genius.

Body Jumper: A creature that has transcended the flesh, and become a possessing spirit. The sample creature here (a dragon) is beyond creepy. Can't wait to use him.

Hatemonger: A template caused by a parasitic infection that makes the host creature succumb easily to darker emotions. This thing isn't just a template, it's the seed for an entire adventure.

Phalanx Creatures: Ever wanted to create twins with that special soul-bond? How about the ultimate army that fight as if they were simply parts of a greater whole? This template will do that for you.

While there are templates in here that didn't thrill me as much as others, nothing seems out of place or sub-par in comparison to the rest of the material. Formatting and layout are good. The artwork ranged from okay to outstanding.

The negatives here are few and outweighed by the overall goodness of the book. I noticed some minor proofing errors here and there. The creature stat block for the distorting creature template does not mention that the base creature is a krenshar; I had to figure that out from the illustration and the monster's abilities. The worst offender was the sample creature for the Betrayer template, which is alternately called "Iudas," "Iodus," and "Iuduas" within its stat block and description.

The Book of Templates uses some base creatures that may not be readily recognizable to some Pathfinder players, as they are from 3.5 books from Mongoose Publishing and Necromancer Games. I'm always pleased to have new (well, new to me anyway) monsters available, but I would have appreciated a notation in the stat block of what book they were originally in.

All told, this book is a great find and I highly recommend it. 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for this format.


Black Ghont is my new hero

5/5

A collection of templates, let's just roll that around on the tongue for a minute, shall we? A collection of templates.....not one or two tucked into a bestiary, not a bonus one tucked in a magazine....no, a whole collection, dedicated to templates. Kinda brings a tear to the eye...of every player who's ever thought they knew their monsters inside and out. Rite publishing brings us the equalizer, that's right, the equalizer. For every time we, as a GM, have spent days planning a fantastic evening with a combination of killer creatures, really looking to challenge and push our players, only to have each creature knocked down, one by one, like they were cream puffs. No more, with this collection those same old same old monsters are stepping out in a new set of shoes, with a whole new set of abilities and tricks.

Presented within are not just 32 new templates, oh no. Served up on a silver platter are a collection of templates, example creatures with full tactics, statistics and a lore section for each creature, a small DC based chart for the players to roll against to get some information on what they are dealing with. We're also treated to a snippet of conversation, an interview would probably be the best way to describe it, between those creature's that can communicate and Qwilion of Questhaven, in the form of excerpts from fictional books. I especially like this part, as including books into a campaign world is something I have always enjoyed very much, and having an author, and a body of work woven into another product of this nature is a subtle way to incorporate an NPC many might find boring if presented solely upon their own.

Interestingly enough, this being a collection of templates and all, is the fact that this PDF also presents us with 50 new monstrous feats and a handful of spells. I've purchased feat books that don't give me that many feats, and these are icing here, because this is a template book.

Every sample creature is accompanied with an illustration in B&W, and where as I know I have seen one of the illustrations in two other books in the last four days alone, the rest I did not recognize, and most of the art was fairly good. As seems to be the case, there is always one illustration that I find myself scratching my head and wondering, why? This time around it was the artwork chosen for pg 99, at no point does it even begin to feel like it fits with the rest of the art for this book, nor is it even of the same caliber.

I could go on and on about various templates within this collection, but previous reviewers have gone into pretty decent detail already, so I will instead tell you of my favorite two picks from this book, and my least favorite. We start with the Havenfury Creature Template, or more specifically, it's example creature the Black Ghont. The Black Ghont is a goblin monk, merged with a fury. The template, as it stood, was interesting. But this is a case where the example of what one can do with these templates really sold me, because in this case the template is overshadowed by the creation. Black Ghont (CR18) really shines in showing that you can take a monster a play group knows well, the goblin, and take it somewhere they could never anticipate or plan for. The template allows Black Ghont three ghost like goblin dogs who circle him in a protective ring at all times. He is essentially a beacon point for goblins within a certain range, and they will swarm to him to aid in battle, as well “loan” him their hit points. Oh, and best part of his entire write up, the entry from Qwilion has him dictating the Black Ghont's words, write up to the point the goblin realizes he's writing down his words....Goblins don't like that after all, they believe writing one's words can steal the soul.

My second favorite monster template from this book, isn't a template for monsters. The Aware Arcana is one of the most creative and unique things I have seen in a while. The concept of applying a template to a spell, and getting a construct that essentially is the spell, in the form of a minion who can take orders and carry them out, all while still possessing the ability to unleash the spell, very very cool.

Which brings us to my least favorite, and the one I doubt I personally will use, the Eldritch Spawn Creature. I'm simply not a fan of the Lovecraftian concept, so the whole mouth full of tentacle thing is an instant no sale for me. Lovers of the genre however, mechanically speaking, this is a sound template, and a great way to add this flair to any creature within your worlds.

OK, final thoughts. Artwork goods far outweighed the bad, formatting followed the dual column and standard statblocking concepts. There were several times throughout the book that spaces were dropped between words, but not enough to ping for even half a star, so I'm letting that one slide as the material more than made up for it. Throw in the bonus of feats and spells, and this PDF becomes a must have for any monster loving Gm out there. Giving this collection a 5 star rating.


Top of the Templates

5/5

Seeing as others have thoroughly detailed the contents, I removed that tedious list to get to the heart of the matter quicker.

This 111 page document is just exactly what its title above claims, a book of monster templates. But there are templates, such as the types that appear at the back of the Pathfinder Bestiary which give some useful options for Game Masters to apply to monsters; and there are templates which don’t just stop at useful. This book contains the later kind. The Monster templates in this book are thoroughly detailed and contain complete information on how to create the different creatures out of the “normal” monsters in the Bestiary and other supplements. But this goes far beyond mere templates. First of all each and every one of these contains a fully fleshed out altered creature using the template. Included in the description for each is a full stat block, an in-character blurb, a lore section with information a PC may learn along with appropriate DCs, a full description of any new monstrous feats the creature uses, and to top it all off an “Ecology Encounter” and its EL. A few Templates contain new spells and one even has a new type of disease in place of a monstrous feat. Each Template also includes an illustration of a sample creature. The art ranges from very well done to sufficiently representative, but none that I would consider bad art.

This is a must-have for any GM who wants to create encounters for his game that are out of the ordinary. From some interesting variations on an old theme to some dramatically different creations (like the Aware Arcana) that stand out above the rest, the templates this book holds are brilliant tools for GMs who want to make an encounter far more than ordinary. The Sample Creatures for each one as well as the other superb additions make this worth a full 5 stars. If there were any errors, I didn’t spot them. But I must admit I was too busy marveling at the content and planning how to inflict some of these on my players.


Glorious Book of Monsters

5/5

This book is 111 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 106 pages of content.
The book kicks off with a introduction (1 page) to the monster templates with advice on how to apply templates quick as well as mentioning some interesting facts about the format in which the templates are presented: An explanation of the unique sample creatures provided, quick tactics, the monster's point of view of itself, Lore DCs, monstrous feats (each section has some of them) as well as (thank the 7 heavens!) ecology-sections. I hate it when monsters are presented as creatures in a vacuum and thus welcome the addition of these sections.

The templates range from -50% CR to CR +3. I listed their CR-modifications, the name of the sample creature, the CR of the sample creature and the respective bonus material.

-Accursed Creature Template (CR -50%, Broken Beast, CR 12, Monstrous feat: Stomp)
-Aware Arcana Creature Template (CR=double highest effective caster level, Aware Arcana Fireball, CR 6, Aware Arcana Merged Cup of Dust and Feast of Ashes, CR 10, 3 new feats to create the living spells, 1 new associated item)
-Betrayer Creature Template (CR+1, Iudas, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Improved Feign Death and Improved Hidden Healing)
-Bloody Maw Creature Template (CR+1, Jaws of Winter, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Greater Belly of the Beast, Vorpal Bite)
-Body Jumper Creature Template (CR+3, Bisiir "Discord's Essence", CR 21, Monstrous Feat: Hidden Possession)
-Boundfury Creature Template (CR+2, Guilded Guard of Gone, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Greater Pain, Greater Penalize)
-Civilized Creature Template (CR+1, Genteel Spines, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Telekinetic Flight, Telekinetic Shield)
-Darkseed Creature Templates (CR+2, Bloody Blades, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dark Endurance, Dark Strength, Faster Healing)
-Distortion Creature Template (CR+3, Mutilating Beast, CR 4, Monstrous Feats: Improved Scare, Greater Scare)
-Drachenchor Creature Template (CR+3, Gellid Dirge Lich, CR 12, Monstrous Feat: Spell Leech Storehouse)
-Dreaded Creature Template (CR+2, Kah the dark Captain, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Painful Scars, Inflict Terror)
-Earthbound Creature Template (CR+2, Fettered Giant, CR 10, Monstrous Feats: Towering Assailant, Quick Fling)
-Eldritch Spawn Template (CR+3, Eldritch Glutton, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dream Sleeper, Insane Insight)
-Entropy Infused Creature Template (CR+1, Wasteling, CR 9, Monstrous Feats: Sinkhole, Cave-In; actually several templates in one, negative-energy quasi-elemental nod towards Planescape)
-Eternal Creature Template (CR+1, Eonian the Incessant, CR 3, Monstrous Feats: Improved Breaching, Greater Breaching)
-Exemplar Creature Template (CR+3, Atelier's Vengeance, CR 19, Monstrous Feats: Improved Perfect Health, Improved Magic Reduction)
-Hatemonger Creature Template (CR+2, Hatelarren, CR 4, Monstrous Feat: Compelling Oratory; additional disease, variant template Strifemonger parasite)
-Havenfury Creature Template (CR+1-3 depending on base creatures CR, Black Ghont, CR 18, Ritual: Asylum of Wrath, Mosntrous Feat: Improved Corrupt Language)
-Irresistible Creature Template (CR+1, Sir Horace of the White Bull, CR 12, Monstrous Feat: Quicken Devastating Blast)
-Jagannath Creature Template (CR+3, Restless One, CR 13, Monstrous Feats: Spit Victim, Improved Spit Victim)
-Jaunting Creature Template (CR+2, Abhorrent Wink, CR 5, Monstrous Spells: Dimension Hop[Brd 2,Sor/Wiz 2], Teleport Attack [Sor/Wiz 7])
-Mythic Creature Template (CR+2, The Undying Storm, CR 7, Monstrous Feats: Dying Curse, Improved Self Resurrection)
-Phalanx Creature Template (CR+1 or +2, Apellon & Aptemis, CR 12, Monstrous Feats: Power Throw, Crushing Volley)
-Phlogiston Construct Creature Template (CR+0, 4 different Phlogiston batteries, Dynamo, CR 7)
-Positive Energy Creature Template (CR+2, Lifetrap, CR 8, Monstrous Feats: Improved Animate Objects, Improved Energy Instill)
-Protector Creature Template (CR+1, Heaven's Guard, CR 14, Monstrous Feats: Improved Shield of Destiny, Improved Protective Aura)
-Ritefury Creature Template (CR+2, Wrath-wake, CR 7, Monstrous Feat: Improved Animate Object)
-Rune-Carved Creature Template (CR+2, Carcera of the Ruins Perilous, CR 9, Monstrous Feat: Masked Shapechanger)
-Tax Collector Creature Template (CR+2, Fishwife of Fees, CR 6, Monstrous Feats: Tax Hike, Expanded Domain)
-Trickster Creature Template (CR+1, Eshu the Deceiver, CR 5, Monstrous Feat: Greater Shapechange)
-Unsighted Creature Template (CR+2, Bloody Beggar, CR 15, Monstrous Feat: Greater Gaze of Unlight)
-Weapon Construct Creature Template (CR=+1 for every two enhancement bonuses of the weapon, Bloodhex, CR 8)
The book closes with tables for templates by challenge rating as well as sample creatures by challenge rating as well as a short glossary. ( 1 page)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any major flaws. Layout is clear and concise, the b/w artworks range from "meh" to "awesome".

I loved the classic Advanced Bestiary by Green Ronin and that's why I preordered thsi book as soon as it was announced. Just let me say: I didn't regret it for even a second. This is perhaps the best monster book out there for Pathfinder right now - each and every template is either mechanically extremely cool, does something that hasn't yet been done, features captivating prose and some very interesting sample creatures, often all of them. The sheer amount of "bonus" feats provided also helps variability in encounters. I'm going so far as to say that even if you as a DM are too lazy to use templates yourself, the sample creatures themselves are worth the price. Most of them are written in a way that makes the average DM come with at least one adventure. Just take a look at the sample creatures in the above list as well as the list of monstrous feats - you get an awesome amount of content for your bucks and most feature the unique, imaginative style I've come to appreciate in the best of Rite Publishing books. Should you have passed on this book until now, go get it. My final rating is 5 out of 5 possible stars - possibly one of the best monster resources out there.


A fun way to make your encounters more interesting

5/5

I picked this one up on a whim because you can never have too many monsters in your game. I was impressed with the quality and playability of just about everything in here. There were a couple that just weren't my style but they were still very usable. I liked the idea that some of the templates actually made the creature it was applied to weaker, a good way to introduce tougher creatures at lower levels and then use them for an extended set of levels. I will be on the look out for other products from Rite Publishing.


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I wanted to thank Vic, for getting this up.

There are two free previews available.
Bloody Maw Creature Template
Entropy-Infused Creature Template

I am on target for finishing the print file by oct and ordering the print copies.


Mike Welham, eh? I suppose I ought to take a look at his.


As will I.


I look forward to your purchases!

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Will there be a Print/.pdf Bundle available for this?

I will be getting the Print Version, but I've become quite fond of having the .pdf version as well.


The pdf was not ready in time for me to offer that as part of the preorder, so the answer is no, sadly.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Rite Publishing wrote:
The pdf was not ready in time for me to offer that as part of the preorder, so the answer is no, sadly.

:'(


Even though I cannot do it direct through paizo; I will probably take a Fred Hicks/Evil Hat approach if we can verify your purchase of the print copy through a few question, I will send someone a pdf copy when it comes out.


Good news after a email conversation with Vic, soon we will be offering a Print/PDF bundle.


Rite Publishing wrote:
Good news after a email conversation with Vic, soon we will be offering a Print/PDF bundle.

So if I purchase at the given price now (17.30$), I will also be receiving a pdf version as well ?


@Sakai, Once I get the PDF completed yes. I will be sending Vic a prerorder exclusive preview today or tomorrow, that will serve as the place holder for that file, so much to do so little time.


Preview of the Back Cover

Liberty's Edge

I am sure I am missing something, but when will this be out?


We have always planned for an Oct Release

Current status is we are awaiting on one template to be finished writing, one piece of artwork, a final edit, final layout a printing proof and then its just a matter of shipping.

The writing, artwork and final edits, and final layout will be done by the 15th if not before.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

w00t! Totally looking forward to this.


Hi.
I was curious, does the Book of Monster Templates contains any simple templates (CR 0)?

Would it be possible to see an index or table of contents for the product?

Thanks.

Sovereign Court

Excellent news.


@ketherian

No, There are no Simple Templates +0, we do range from -5 to +3, with the majority being +1 and +2; The table of contents will be released once the last monster is completed (right now we have 32 templates).

A semi running total can be found in the Develoment Thread with teasers, and discussions of the sample monsters.


Book of Monster Templates Case Wrap Cover art by Hugo Solis (front cover) Arthur Wang (back cover) layout by Claudia "Darkhanna" Burgos. I am 70% done with layout waiting on a few edits before it goes out for proofing.

@ketherian there was one +0 template and here is a full list. I am waiting on the challenge rating charts to come back from editing.
Table of Contents


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Sounds good! We wants it!


Layout is done.

Proofing draft is in the hands of our the "Riters".

Printing proof ordered.


Riters are still proofing, we are talking monday to have the proofing done and then applying it.

Printing Proof Arrived

Picture

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Wow thats a good photo shop and really cool picture. Making it look like one of the monsters from the book is holding the book up. :D


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Dark_Mistress wrote:
Wow thats a good photo shop and really cool picture. Making it look like one of the monsters from the book is holding the book up. :D

hehehehehehe


Yes it is a Trickster Creature.

Hehe

Mechanical proofing came back today. Just awaiting the gramatical proofing so that they can be applied.


Pdf has been uploaded to Paizo, files have been uploaded to the printer,

The Printer is having an issue with our corrected cover (the printing proof showed our url obscured by their imposed bar code), they are saying 2-3 days and they will have the issue corrected (the issue is on there end).

After that it will go to press, I will keep you updated.

Shadow Lodge

Reviewed!

Scarab Sages

Kthulhu, I'm glad to hear you liked the Eldritch Spawn. :)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Cross-posting that my review is up.


I wanted to thank Alzius and Kthulhu for taking the time to post a review of our product; two 5/5 stars Snoopy happy dance of joy with a shindig.

and yeah Wicht wrote the eldritch spawn.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

To Steven and all the "Riters" at Rite Publishing,

I just purchased the Print/PDF bundle for this, and while I'm looking forward to my "dead-tree" copy, I'll be looking through the PDF to see what all the hubbub is about. :)

Thanks in advance for creating such an AWESOME book.

Dean; The_Minstrel_Wyrm


@ The_Minstre_Wyrm

Your quite welcome.

If you get time take a look at the individual templates by the other "Riters" and tell us what you think. I do get alot of feedback as the primary author the random monster that catches someones eye is likely to be mine, but I would like to hear about the other authors works (see the credits page).

@Jotai thanks for posting your review here as well.

Steve Russell
Rite Publsihing

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

reviewed. Later tonight or tomorrow I will add reviews to ENworld and Drivethru.

Scarab Sages

Those of you reviewing, it would be interesting to hear which of the templates most appealed to your tastes and why.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Wicht wrote:
Those of you reviewing, it would be interesting to hear which of the templates most appealed to your tastes and why.

I would have to say the two that appealed to me the most would be. But I don't use a lot of templates and when i do. Normally I like them to really push the concept I am going for.

Dreaded because it appeals to me and makes me think of the ring wraiths from LotR

Mythic cause it reminds me of ancient greek myths.


Just got the notice form my printer that this has shipped to Paizo today.

Dark Archive

Rite Publishing wrote:
Just got the notice form my printer that this has shipped to Paizo today.

Sweet

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I added my review to Enworld and drivethru. Kinda forgot until now. :)


Thanks dark mistress

The lie Fedex tracking is telling me is that it will arrive in the paizo warehouse on Nov 15th.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Rite Publishing wrote:

Thanks dark mistress

The lie Fedex tracking is telling me is that it will arrive in the paizo warehouse on Nov 15th.

And so it did!


Thanks Vic.


Could someone with the access to the actual book verify quality of editing for me?
I.e. is it the same as in both previews, worse or better?

I do not mind occasional problems, but missing CR (Wasteling), joined paragraphs or uneven formatting have me worried.
Another thing: default save DC for Wand of Slow is 14, not 17 (Bloody Maw).

Regards,
Ruemere

Scarab Sages

I just got mine in the mail today and it looks good. Cr 9 for Wasteling so that issue at least was cleared up. I do think some of it received an edit between the preview and the final release but don't quote me on that. On any book this size, I would expect some stat-block errors, no matter the publisher (Paizo and WotC included) but Steve had both an editor for the text (Robert Emerson) A mechanics editor (Justin Sluder) and a proofreader (Dave Paul) so it got a pretty good looking over.

Again, it looks good.

And besides which, it has a template for making psionic, brain eating, tentacled monstrosities. What more could you want? :)

Shadow Lodge

Wicht wrote:
And besides which, it has a template for making psionic, brain eating, tentacled monstrosities. What more could you want? :)

Well, there's always my mega-template. It combines your Eldritch Spawn template (minus the brain sucking bit) with the Paragon and Psuedonatural templates from the Epic Level Handbook. When Psionics Unleashed comes out, I'll be adding some stuff from that as well.

I call it the Great Old One template. Because whatever you apply it to basically becomes one of the Great Old Ones.

Scarab Sages

Kthulhu wrote:
Wicht wrote:
And besides which, it has a template for making psionic, brain eating, tentacled monstrosities. What more could you want? :)

Well, there's always my mega-template. It combines your Eldritch Spawn template (minus the brain sucking bit) with the Paragon and Psuedonatural templates from the Epic Level Handbook. When Psionics Unleashed comes out, I'll be adding some stuff from that as well.

I call it the Great Old One template. Because whatever you apply it to basically becomes one of the Great Old Ones.

I look forward to seeing your Great Old One Template when you are done with it.


ruemere wrote:

Could someone with the access to the actual book verify quality of editing for me?

I.e. is it the same as in both previews, worse or better?

I do not mind occasional problems, but missing CR (Wasteling), joined paragraphs or uneven formatting have me worried.
Another thing: default save DC for Wand of Slow is 14, not 17 (Bloody Maw).

Regards,
Ruemere

I would say it is better, simply because Justin came on after the previews were created. And David Paul came on as an Proofreader, though they did only have a week before it went to press.

I am not sure what your referring to on Joined Paragraphs perhaps you can provide an example.

My formatting goals were targeted toward maintaining readability and maintaining the layout of single our double pages for templates, with sample monsters starting on their own pages without the use of filler.


Rite Publishing wrote:
ruemere wrote:

Could someone with the access to the actual book verify quality of editing for me?

I.e. is it the same as in both previews, worse or better?[...]

I would say it is better, simply because Justin came on after the previews were created. And David Paul came on as an Proofreader, though they did only have a week before it went to press.

I am not sure what your referring to on Joined Paragraphs perhaps you can provide an example.

My formatting goals were targeted toward maintaining readability and maintaining the layout of single our double pages for templates, with sample monsters starting on their own pages without the use of filler.

I'm glad to hear that. I am still torn between giving it a chance or letting it sit for a while until more reviews come up. Unfortunately, the previews are the reason for my hesitation.

I am a happy owner of many books with small issues formatting issues. I am, however, wary of goods with problems piling in previews.

The details (just a cursory reading, mind you):

Blood Maw creature (RIP0080E.pdf)
- "joined paragraphs" should be actually "joined lines" - p. 4 - "Bloody Maw Winter Wolf CR 6 XP 2,400".
- typography - inconsistent use of paragraph spacing - both first line indent and single white line are used in some cases.
- typography - use of quotes and italics to denote citations at the same time.
- mechanics - regeneration defeated by use of "fire and silver"... so basically, only Flaming Truesilver weapons can defeat this regeneration?

Entropy-infused creature (RIP0082E.pdf)
- p. 2 - "Entorpy"
- between pages 3 and 4 paragraph spacings change
- p. 6 - first sentence - "your feet tall", "increasing if we possess our base element". Additionally, despite it being a citation of sorts, it lacks formatting denoting it as such.

There are more of these. I have tried to enumerate most visible problems.

Regards,
Ruemere


ruemere wrote:


I'm glad to hear that. I am still torn between giving it a chance or letting it sit for a while until more reviews come up. Unfortunately, the previews are the reason for my hesitation.

We have a total of 4 reviews out there right now. Here is another from Ten Letter Blog

Quote:

Blood Maw creature (RIP0080E.pdf)

- "joined paragraphs" should be actually "joined lines" - p. 4 - "Bloody Maw Winter Wolf CR 6 XP 2,400".
- typography - inconsistent use of paragraph spacing - both first line indent and single white line are used in some cases.
- typography - use of quotes and italics to denote citations at the same time.
- mechanics - regeneration defeated by use of "fire and silver"... so basically, only Flaming Truesilver weapons can defeat this regeneration?

-Yes that was a problem with an early preview it was corrected in the final. I really should update the previews.

"Jaws of Winter CR 6
XP 2,400
Bloody Maw Winter Wolf"

-typography: I don't see this as inconsistent since it uses the same formating in each monster, but I will admit to using space when it is the only paragraph in a seciton and indent when there are multiple paragraphs in the same section
-Typography: Your incorrect; I am assuming your talking about the Description Excerpt since the only place we use quotes, I used a different font inside the quotes, I did not use italics there (The standard font is Gerogia 9 which changes to Monotype Corvosa 11) If you disagree with that choice I can only chalk that up to personal taste.
- that is a mistake in that the wrong conjunction as used and it should have been "or". I will point out that it is spelled out correclty in the Lore DCs "Obscure (DC 26): Only weapons of silver or fire can keep a jaws of winter dead, and they are extremely susceptible to fire."

Quote:

Entropy-infused creature (RIP0082E.pdf)

- p. 2 - "Entorpy"
- between pages 3 and 4 paragraph spacings change
- p. 6 - first sentence - "your feet tall", "increasing if we possess our base element". Additionally, despite it being a citation of sorts, it lacks formatting denoting it as such.

-that was corrected when it went to proofing

-There are is an extra spaces one before undead affinity and one before Undead Attack. But those are the only two places on that page I see where the spacing changed.
-I don't know how to respond to this. Other than to say every monster Description section is written from the point of view of the monster, its denoted as such by calling it the Descriptions section (it is the only section written this way), the quote comes form a ficitonal book and is denoted as such (Excerpt from). The description section always deals with the monsters Appearance, Attitude, Aspiration and a small Account of Deeds (The 4 As if your will). We tired to do this with each.

Quote:
There are more of these. I have tried to enumerate most visible problems.

I will take the full blame for these.


Thank you for responding to my queries. It's always great to learn things straight from the source and so I do appreciate the time you spent answering my questions.

I firmly believe that you should update the previews as they hardly do the justice to the finished product - they are fine on their own, yet they may be somewhat discouraging to people who want to get a proper feel, and who subsequently analyze the previews.

I've read the review linked and I must admit I was sold when I saw your take on juggernaut... and so I ordered the bundle.

Regards,
Ruemere


Update of sorts

Count me as a convert. The PDF looks much, much nicer than previews.
I have immediately picked at two creatures to drop into my campaign.

Couple of quick notes

I would be wary of assigning template CR adjustments to target creatures - some of abilities granted by these templates achieve higher than expected degree of synergy with certain base creatures (for example: Jagannath template with any flying creature)

Also, I would reserve these templates for creatures intended to act as bosses, champions or unique solo opponents. Most of the templates provide fairly complex abilities, and could be bother to run too often.

There are no simple versions of these templates. Pity :)

The product is intended for experienced GMs. It's easy to achieve TPK with liberal use of some synergies.

Regards,
Ruemere

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