Reddit reviews Tome of Beasts
We found 16 Reddit comments about Tome of Beasts. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Product is for use in 5th edition role playing gamesProduct Number: TOB1001Models and games are supplied unpainted and may require assembly or preparation before playAny scenery, paint, or glue is not included.
For DMs who have most/all of the 5e material I highly recommend The Tome of Beasts. It's 400+ new monsters for 5e done by Kobold Press. I am thoroughly impressed with it!
My favorites are the ones that fix mechanical weaknesses or add to missing conceptual space in 5e (which is also what I try to do in my own DM's Guild offerings!) I try to stick mostly to official, published things to keep my player's heads from exploding, but there's a few I really like:
Kobold Press has a book, Tome of Beasts that features a lot of fey creatures. It is a 3rd party book, but is pretty balanced (although HP is a bit high on some monsters, IMO).
Amazon link
Otherwise I would recommend just reflavoring monsters from the MM to be more winter themed with resistance to cold or changing damage types.
It's hard, in my opinion, to levy that kind of criticism at a DM. What I would suggest is to just tell him all your ideas when you have them. My brother and I are both DM's and I play in his game and I hope he'll get a chance to play in mine. I am constantly gabbering ideas I come up with for my game to him. He obviously can't do the same, because I play in his game. I am a person that loves the challenge of design, so I'm pretty consistently developing new pieces of designs from world building, to mini games, to encounters, to narratives, to situations, etc. He has stolen or at least been intrigued by many of my ideas, which I love (since I can't always run them myself). I often ask him for design advice as well, so it's not one sided. He can't tell me about his ideas, but he can provide input on mine. Having consistent design discussions with a fellow DM can do wonders for both of your work.
Discuss Design for Fun: I think what you'll find is that if you just tell him design ideas you come up with just for the sake of discussing design for fun, your DM will naturally begin to pick things up and start experimenting with your ideas. You'll probably find that your ideas inspire them to come up with their own. I strongly encourage facilitating design discussions with anyone that has interest, including your DM. If, after a couple of weeks of discussing design, your DM still hasn't upped their game, that's when I would confront the issue. Say "hey, we've talked about a dozen different ideas, but you don't seem to be implementing anything new into the game. What's the deal?"
New D&D Supplements: Another really helpful tool for a DM (especially if they don't have the time to create interesting homebrewed scenarios) is the book Tome Of Beasts: https://www.amazon.com/Beasts-Wolfgang-Baur/dp/1936781565
The monsters in that are great and much more difficult than the ones in the monster manual. I still prefer designing my own stuff, because there are 400 monsters in that book and it takes a while for me to go through it. Just an example of a beautiful design in the book is the Living Wick. It's a construct, that comes to life when their wick is lit and they attack (or serve their master). They can also burn their wick in a single go and explode, doing a decent amount of damage for a low level party (like a toned down fireball, but I recommend turning it into a full on fireball). The trick to beat them, aside from killing them, is to dowse their wick. You might homebrew them a tad so they can fight against your players by also making them either immune to fire, or cause fire to make a massive chain reaction that causes them to explode. Also, using them as an ambush and having them tackle the party and explode.
Here's an idea I had for my low level from the tome of beasts: "You enter through the large doors. It's pitch black in here, but as you walk you can here your foot steps echo in what must be a massive chamber. If you create a light (or have dark vision), you can see that this is a great reception chamber, entirely made out of a deep blue marble. The walls are accentuated with impressive pillars. The marble chamber has such a high, elaborate ceiling that goes up about 50 feet. The hallway extends to the a decorated portcullis at the end. Along the full length of the hall are a parallel series of pedestals. Sitting atop the pedestals are a dozen or more statuesque figures, all positioned in various 'thinking' sitting poses. A closer inspection reveals that they are made out of wax. Above the hearth you entered is marble slab, jutting out from the wall with two metal tubes extending out of it. When the players walk close enough, two brilliant jets of fire shoots out from the turret above the hearth, illuminating the dark marble of the chamber. These two lines of fire rocket downward and the jet across the backs of the wax statues, before arcing back up into the ceiling and dispersing. The wax statues are now lit, like a candle from a protruding wick on their back. This dim glow is the only light in the room. The players here a quiet hiss (like the sound of a burning fuze) come from the burning wicks. They suddenly come to life in fluid, short bursts of movement. They move unnatural, almost like dancers. They move quickly and suddenly for seconds at a time, and then come to a complete stop, and then moving again. They all turn towards the players and immediately sprint towards them."
tl;dr: Start creating discussions about game design to bounce ideas with them, so they get a chance to hear some cool design thoughts without it becoming uncomfortable. Recommend the book Tome of Beasts
I'm pretty sure WotC came out of the gate with the affirmation that they wouldn't release more than a few books a year (most of which are adventures). I get the business decisions, they don't want to flood the market.
For those who want more, there are tuns of fantastic third party books and top-tier homebrew to be had. Check out dmsguild.com and it's parent, DriveThruRPG.com. Some of my favorite third party books (and PDF's) include:
Also if you have the MM and are looking for yet more monsters for your campaign, OR have players like mine that all know the MM by heart and it becomes a challenge to surprise them constantly with new and creative monsters... check out The Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press
Its worked great for me so far.
Sorry for the long links but I'm on mobile. I use these. Yes they are intended as dnd monsters but the creatures are very easily adaptable. I'm using these 2 books for inspiration in a dungeon world game at the moment.
Tome of Beasts https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781565/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wKGzCbCPJ9KQ8
Creature Codex https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781921/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6HGzCbN9F22K2
Will you do the 5E Tome of Beasts?
Have you grabbed "Tome of Beasts" from Kobold Press?
https://www.amazon.com/Beasts-Wolfgang-Baur/dp/1936781565/
It's not "official", but it's pretty high quality. Many of the creatures are pulled from their Midgard campaign setting, so that may be your best source.
Pathfinder Pawns are a very good alternative to plastic minis. They won't have some of the more iconic D&D baddies like Beholders, but that is a minor complaint. I also use the Paizo battle mats but that is just because I got them for free somewhere. I lay a piece of plexi-glass over the map and just use a dry erase marker on the plexi. Way easier to clean up than the maps.
Tome of Beasts is a great supplement full of 5e monsters.
I like using the Dungeon Crawl Classics dice set. It is a simple, fun way to have "unique" monsters or abilties that roll odd dice to hit or for damage. Players always get a kick out of using something like a D30 when they roll to attack.
If he doesn’t have much in the way of 3rd party content, I’d get him the [Tome of Beasts](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1936781565/ref=mp_s_a_1_1 ie=UTF8&qid=1523552464&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tome+of+beasts&dpPl=1&dpID=61%2BwXcuEGfL&ref=plSrch) from Kobold Press. It’s full of enemies that are lacking in the Mm and VGtM, like high CR monsters and Fey.
Alternatively, if he likes reading, get him Matt Coville’s book [Priest](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0615512151/ref=mp_s_a_1_1 ie=UTF8&qid=1523553476&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=priest+matt&dpPl=1&dpID=41ZD3imHCkL&ref=plSrch). I haven’t read it, but I’ve heard nothing but good things. There’s also the Drizz’t series by R.A. Salvatore starting with Homeland, the Dragonlance series by Weis and Hickman, Discworld by Terry Pratchett, etc.
If he’s more into games, you could get him Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Steam. It’s basically DnD the game, if I had to describe it in a sentence.
All the books are normally around $6-10 dollars, and both the Tome Of Beasts and the game go on sale for around $30 fairly often.
Tome of Beasts https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781565/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_7KO-BbY8B7JKV
Creature Codex https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781921/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.JO-BbR81DXRG
Tome of Beasts https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781565/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_G9eKBbQ67EJCY
Some book stores, you can go to a Barnes and Noble and ask an employee who can have it ordered for pickup for you. Other wise you can get it on sale on amazon right now
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1936781565/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_18Z-zb6VDY9JY
To your first point, I make up cheat sheets for my players and I have the rules distilled down to about 8 pages that are quick to reference. If your players aren't going to read the PHB, then you can control how they upgrade and what spells they have. (More power to the DM! Ah ha ha ha!)
Second, I demand that players stay off the phone at the table. As a GM, I know I can get players and you will too. Rather than making it a direct confrontation though, put tools in place that speed up the game and cause them to pay attention. I use a timer during combat and give 90 seconds per player per round to take their actions. (This is a good thing to do anyway for a good number of reasons. You'll find that once the players get used to it, it's way more time than they need anyway.)
If your player knows the tropes, it's on you to get creative and challenge him. This is one where I don't have any sympathy for you. (Ok, I really do, but it's your problem not the player's.) You're basically being challenged to step up your game. If it's combat, be more obscure with your monster choices and maybe use an alternative monster manual like the Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts by Kobold Press. (I had to do this because of the veteran players at my table.) If it's puzzles, you'll just have to dig up more obscure material. For politics and NPCs, read Roger Zelazny novels for non-tropish inspiration. As far as metagaming, watch this video by Seth Skorkowsky for an alternative view: Metagaming Isn't All Bad - RPG Philosophy.
You're missing one. Granted, it's not a WOTC product but definitely well worth it in my opinion.