The first volume of the Creature Feature Quarterly contains 13 monsters, illustrated and designed by Jeremy Hart. A second volume is also available.
Each monster is presented on two landscape pages that detail its statistics, description, ecology, lore and potential adventures featuring the creature.
The monsters tend towards the strange and bizarre. I’m glad to say there isn’t a humanoid amongst them – although there is one giant. The D&D world doesn’t need more humanoids, but it certainly needs strange things to challenge the PCs.
When I consider new monsters, I want their statistics to distinguish them from other foes. I want their lore to intrigue me. These monsters tend to have better lore than statistics. Most of their special abilities tend towards things we’ve already seen, and so aren’t that exciting. However, some of the lore and adventure seeds have much more potential.
I love the idea of the Blade Wraith, an undead creature that wields the powerful Black Blade that, if taken by a party member, curses them to transform into a new Blade Wraith. (The wraith doesn’t fly and isn’t incorporeal, however; perhaps a different name would have been better?)
It’s suggested that a necromancer wanting to take a forest for himself is crafting Mantid Stitch Golems and sending them in to eliminate the residents. How many? As many as the DM wants, I guess!
The Protocol Imp knows all about the wording and legal trickery of Hell – and may be something you need to consult when you’re served a subpoena from the Dukes of Hell.
These are the monsters in the product:
- CR2 Protocol Imp
- CR4 Unseelie Psychopomp
- CR5 Arboreal Stalker
- CR6 Blade Wraith, Cerberan Warlock, Lurking Glutton
- CR7 Star Tyrant
- CR8 Mantid Stitch Golem, Tatterdemalion Lich
- CR9 Hound of Tindalos
- CR10 Devourer, Twistbrute
- CR16 Enraged Fallen Celestial
There are a few problems with the presentation of the statistics. Most common is the placement of an action in the general features area; if something takes an action to use, it should be placed in the actions area of the stat block. The Enraged Fallen Celestial has a necrotic aura that not only does damage to characters that start within it, but increases the damage of its weapon attacks and makes them magical. I would have split this into two: first, the bonuses to weapons; second, the life-draining aura. Doing so would make the ability easier to parse. I’m not sure how the skill modifiers of the Arboreal Stalker were created – and I’m a little surprised it doesn’t have camouflage to make it a truly terrifying stalker of the forests.
Also, is the stomach of the Lurking Glutton work like a bag of holding or a portable hole? The text is different than the statistics.
There are a few spelling errors, the worst being the “Engraged Fallen Celestial”. Otherwise, the writing is good, and the layout and artwork are excellent.
Overall, this is an attractive product that might suffer from the abilities not being unique enough, and a few lapses in interesting lore. “The origin of these beasts is unknown” doesn’t inspire. However, when it works, it works well.