[Kobold Press] Tome of Beasts is Here!!!


5th Edition (And Beyond)

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Liberty's Edge

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Hey everyone!

The Tome of Beasts is officially here!!!

Order your goodness today!

Tome of Beasts for 5th Edition

Book of Lairs


Hooray!

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Yep, it totally crushed the servers for an hour or two, but it's better now.

Also, the pawns are available for sale. Gotta go figure out where those links are for people who want bases....

Sovereign Court

Are the pawns going to be digitally available?

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Sure! I don't know that I would call them pawns, exactly, but we're definitely going to offer digital tokens that represent the monsters as well.


Review posted. Great job guys! 5E really needed another monster book and this one is freakin' sweet.

Now if the post office would just hurry up with my physical copy...

Liberty's Edge

Blue_Drake wrote:
Review posted. Great job guys! 5E really needed another monster book and this one is freakin' sweet.

Awesome!

This might be a dumb question ... where did you post your review? :)

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

A great read so far. Highly recommend this.


Hey Marc, I posted the review on Paizo's site:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy9jba?Tome-of-Beasts-Hardcover

I tried to copy my review over to the Kobold Press store, but when I go to reviews it just says, "Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review."

I am logged in, and I redeemed the code for the pdf through the Kobold Store (actual purchase was through backerit), but it won't let me post a review.

Sovereign Court

This is amazing. If I have one complains... and its minor... is that there appears to be about 4 water themed dangerous dames. I thought this was interesting from Pathfinder too. Now I get my choice of (*ahem*) watery tarts. Just no scimitars to lob.

I kid though. Really it is an amazing book, and the creatures are all intriguing both as encounters and for the purpose of campaign planning.


Marc Radle wrote:

Hey everyone!

The Tome of Beasts is officially here!!!

Order your goodness today!

Tome of Beasts for 5th Edition

Book of Lairs

... and it's GLORIOUS! :)

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I really appreciate that in addition to the hard bound, I also am getting a PDF and the pawns. This standard, set by Paizo, is nice to see in 5th edition by Kobold Press.
This is no small thing.

I wish WoTC understood how important it is to support their books in this way.

I am very Impressed with these monsters and highly recommend this book.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I've only skimmed about the first 4 letters of the PDF, but I like what I've seen so far.

My only quibbles are some minor spelling errors, and I think one monster has a Pathfinderized poison ability, which looks like it causes 1d4 ability damage per minute until you finish a long rest, which is something like 480d4 points of ability damage.

But other than that, it's really good so far. I like how there is a written description for a lot of the monsters. It really helps clarify what is a detail specific to a monster, and what is just an artist's interpretation.

Liberty's Edge

A minor error: the Dust Drake, p. 155, has a Bite effect which refers to "Rust Drake Tetanus". Instead it should refer to "Rust Drake Lockjaw".

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Marv and Smilodan, thanks for noting corrections! We'll roll them into the revised PDF for September release.

If you find other things or have a list of the spelling/other issues, feel free to send them to Koboldpress@gmail.com with a "TOB Typos" subject or similar. We do want to update and improve this book over time.

Liberty's Edge

Really awesome to see so many people (both here and on many other forum sites) saying how much they dig the book!!!

Liberty's Edge

An excellent video review and preview of the book!

Check it out!

(I was kinda tickled that he mentioned one of the monsters I wrote as being one of his favorites :)

Liberty's Edge

Nice review by Jester David here:

5mwd review of ToB.

Liberty's Edge

marv wrote:

Nice review by Jester David here:

5mwd review of ToB.

Very nice indeed! Thanks for the heads up!

Liberty's Edge

Tome of Beasts in the Wild!

You can really get a sense for just how massive this book is!

Tome of Beasts in the Wild #2!
In fact, if you scroll down a bit, you can also see some great pics of the Pawns and even one of the amazing looking Special foil-stamped leatherette edition!

Sovereign Court

Got mine and its magical!

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I ordered mine on 8/1, and as of 8/9, it is still in "Processing" and hasn't shipped yet. How long does it normally take to ship?

Liberty's Edge

@Lorathorn - awesome! Once you've had time to digest the book, a review would be most welcomed!

@SmiloDan - where are you located? Many packages going to points nearer to the West Coast have arrived already, while those on the East Coast are likely toward the end of the week

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Buffalo, NY.

Does "Processing" mean it's already been shipped? This is my first experience ordering a product from Kobold Press.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Yes, "processing" means it has likely already been shipped. The shipper eventually goes through and hits "completed" on all those, but when you are sending out 2,000 packages or so...

You should see it in the next few days. A few have hit Massachusetts today, so they are definitely trickling into the NE.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I got it today! :-D

Liberty's Edge

Awesome! Once you have a chance to digest it ... maybe post a short (or not so short :) review?

Oh, if you haven't popped up to the Tome of Beasts Product Page lately, be sure you do so - there are now a number of preview pages you can check out AND an awesome video!

Also! Looks like Paizo just added the Tome of Beasts Pawns, so be sure to check them out as well!

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Tasty, tasty pawns.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I just got to the Demon Lords.

So far, the only major issues I have are:

1. There seems to be a lot of 3.5/PF-style ability damage, which is very rare in the original MM (I think just the shadow does it, and they specify how it can be removed/repaired). Recalculating attacks, saving throws, damage, and skills each time you take ability damage can be kind of annoying. A better method would be to apply disadvantage to the ability score, or just use the poisoned condition. A lot of monsters seem to give the poisoned condition AND ability damage, which is pretty harsh. Alternatively, give a penalty to a specific ability, similar to the bane spell. Maybe something to consider for future products.

2. Some of the math looks a little iffy. Might just be arithmetic errors or typos.

3. A lot of the swarm-type monsters seem to be following the PF rules for swarms instead of the 5th Edition ones.

But overall, it's very imaginative. And a lot to digest! I skimmed the PDF already.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Smilodan, that's a quick read and a keen eye. Some responses just these.

1. Correct, there is. It's deliberate, though I realize it's not to everyone's taste, and it is different than the MM on this point. Some of it is just our naturally cruel designers and developers. Agree that poisoned condition could get more of a workout in a couple places, though math-wise it's more-or-less a -4 penalty.
2. We checked our math more than once, but errors can certainly creep in. Please send in any suspicious cases, so we can update them for the PDF version!
3. That's.... A problem. I'll take a closer look.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Thanks. It looks like a lot of effort went into it. The art is pretty amazing, and I like how you give a little descriptive blurb at the beginning of each monster description describing what each monster looks like.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Quick question: When designing beasts, was there any thought put into how it would affect the druid's wildshape options? The Dogmole is CR 1, but has a decent AC, lots of HP, and a pretty nasty melee attack.

Also, I've seen several mentions of vermin that seem to refer to the PF vermin monster type, but there isn't a vermin monster type in 5e. Am I missing something?

And returning to the dogmole, it looks like its "Wormkiller" rage is based on the 3.5/PF rage mechanic, not the 5e's Barbarian's rage mechanic.


I agree that the dogmole rage seems patterned on 3rd edition version of rage, I personally dont think that is bad really. I cant find any swarms in the book that are made like 3rd edition swarms though. I thought 3.5/pathfinder swarms auto-hit basically. All the swarms in tome of beasts have an attack bonus.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Yeah, I think we'll errata at least one or two beasts into monstrosities. Druids have enough toys as it is.

Vermin is just a flavor word here.

Swarms in TOB do have to roll attacks, as per 5E. They do not auto-hit.

Liberty's Edge

Nice video review/page through of the Tome of beasts, Book of Lairs, and Pawns

Check it out!

Liberty's Edge

Here's another one :)

Tome of Beasts Video Review - Nerd Immersion

Liberty's Edge

Hardcover/PDF Bundle now live here at Paizo!

Liberty's Edge

DawnforgedCast - An Interview with Kobold Press: Tome of Beasts

The Exchange Kobold Press

It's like we're beating the drum for something amazing. Wait: we are!

I got an email from someone asking if the book was out yet, so clearly need to bang drum louder! :D


Glad to hear you guys are enjoying what you see so far, and thanks for the feedback!

Liberty's Edge

Yet another cool video review of the Tome of Beasts!!

The Exchange Kobold Press

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Reviews popping up everywhere. I think people are excited about this book.


Got my physical copy last week and have been testing the new monsters for the last few sessions now. I'm extremely satisfied, perhaps one of the best kickstarters I've backed to date. Which begs the question, when will be seeing Tome of Beasts 2?

I require more 5e monsters! This has but whet my appetite.

*edit* PS: Never thought I would like using pawns but these are gorgeous! I sincerely hope they did well enough to warrant a revisit too!

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Is there a list of monsters by type?

Liberty's Edge

Excellent review of the Tome of Beasts over at EnWord

This one is nice because it has a number of great images accompanying it :)

The Exchange Kobold Press

SmiloDan wrote:
Is there a list of monsters by type?

There will be lists by Type and by environment in the next couple weeks. A volunteer is compiling them now, we'll review and do a quick layout, then post them on the Kobold blog and/or store.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

OK, cool!

:-D

Liberty's Edge

It'd be great to see a couple more reviews up in the main product thread - guess it takes folks a while to fully digest 400 or so monsters :)

Speaking of reviews, please also consider posting a review over on EnWorld - we only need a few more reviews for the Tome of Beasts to be officially ranked.

Sovereign Court

What does it take to get a review put up on EN World?

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lorathorn wrote:
What does it take to get a review put up on EN World?

From what I can tell, you just go to the link above and then click the "Write Your Own" link just under the 93% and the green thumbs-up dice graphic. You do have to have an EnWorld acount though.

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