Undead, Dragons, and Demons. Oh my.
We’ve come to my favorite part of the Dragonbane Bestiary. I promise not to gush over every single entry this time, but we’re in three (actually four if you count Constructs) of my favorite monster categories. The last three categories are probably where this book shines brightest.
Disclaimer: This is not a paid review. I bought this book with money I scrounged out of my couch cushions and from helping mow lawns. I am not an affiliate or in any other way associated with Free League Publishing. I am a big Dragonbane fan.
Undead are up first.
Dragonbane Bestiary gives us a pretty solid spread of mainstream undead baddies to encounter. There are all of the usual suspects such as skeletons, mummies, wights, will-o-wisps, vampires, and zombies (which are labeled “Living Dead.”) Ghosts are incredibly resilient and return unless Purge is cast or the reason they still haunt the world is found and rectified. Living Dead carry the stereotypical zombie virus and encounters with them could turn a normal fantasy campaign into a medieval version of Walking Dead, (Another Free League property that runs on Mutant Year Zero.)
I was slightly disappointed there was no entry for Lich in this book. I mean, they only appear in almost every other RPG bestiary monster book you can buy. Why not here?
Skeletons are statted as NPCs, which makes them awesome shock troops. Encountered in large numbers, that could get really nasty. A necromancer in Dragonbane would be a fearsome encounter indeed. I’m hoping we get more undead down the road in other supplements.
Here there be Dragons!
The regular Hatchling through Ancient Dragons are cool. They aren’t all evil and can be reasoned with. We get a little more history of Dragons in this book, which is nice. Dragons aren’t Angels but are the strongest opposition to Demons. The best part about Dragons, aside from their crazy huge stat blocks, is that they can be reasoned with.
The other noteworthy entry in Dragons is the Lindworm. This entry is not a surprise given the part of the real world the game is from. Tales and myths of this kind of creature go back at least as far as the Vikings and probably earlier. In Dragonbane terms, they’re pretty darn cool. I might be doing a Creature Feature article on them further down the road where we compare the Lindworm with its counterparts in other games.
My only criticisms of the Dragon section are that we didn’t get Wyverns, Jabberwocky, or any number of other dragon related mythic monsters. I happen to know there’s another Monsterboken out there in the world. Maybe someday we’ll get lucky. Until then, there’s homebrew and brew we shall.
Last and possibly most challenging, Demons.
I was impressed that we get a little more history of Demons as well as some tribute to Dragonbane’s Basic RolePlaying Game roots with Codex Chaosium- a book that explains Demons in the Dragonbane universe. It’s kind of the Necronomicon only for Dragonbane. (We might be getting an Army of Darkness type adventure in the future. I’m plotting and scheming.)
There are five entries for Demons and one for Golem in this section. Someone on the Fria Ligan forums commented that it seemed strange to get Golems as demonic entities, but that’s what we’ve got. Here’s a quick rundown of the Demon types:
- Blood Demons are basically vampires on steroids. They command various undead, are highly resistant to normal weapons, can fly, and has some of the gnarliest attacks I’ve seen so far.
- Chaos Demons are somewhat reminiscent of a type of demon found in other games only Normal in size but immense in power. They fly, cause vegetation around them to wither, and have acid for blood. (Aliens reference?)
- Fire Demons. (Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh. Yeah. Fire!) They are pretty self-descriptive. They can be taken out in one of the most mundane ways possible which is good because they are nigh unapproachable in melee combat.
- Guardian Demons. They can’t fly. They are fearsome ground fighters. Truthfully, they might have benefitted from NPC status, but they work just as well as monsters. They have a pretty slick teleport move, though.
- Shadow Demon. Not to be underestimated as some might tend to do. They are immune to much the same things ghosts are. Sunlight barbecues them much like Trolls. They can read surface thoughts on contact, which is interesting. Their attacks are fierce.
Golems are large, clay/stone creatures inhabited by spirits from the demon realm. Once bound to service they act as bodyguards and servants to more powerful demons. They are as resistant to damage as one would expect, and they explode at zero HP. The explosion is a nice new twist.
Final thoughts on the Dragonbane Bestiary.
I’m a sucker for monster books in general and I probably would have picked this up for use on other games just for the unique takes on classic folklore monsters as well as the encounters and adventures with each entry. Dragonbane Bestiary has a lot of fresh takes on attacks and tactics of several “classic” RPG monsters. I haven’t mentioned encounters or adventures much prior to now because I want to avoid spoilers for the most part.
I should probably also mention the standees similar to the ones in the Core rules. It’s a nifty pack of standees for just the monsters in the Bestiary. They do not come with bases. There is another combat grid like the one from the Core rules, too. I’m currently digging through car seats and looking around parking meters for change to get the standees.
Five out of five stars. I can’t recommend this book enough, especially for GMs new to Dragonbane. I seriously hope we get a Bestiary 2 someday. Thanks Free League!
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 