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A Magical Society: Beast Builder

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A Monster Builder like nothing ever seen before…

A Magical Society: Beast Builder is 224 pages packed with information that helps you make your own monsters. In the tradition of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe and A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture, A Magical Society: Beast Builder gives you the tools you need to make your own campaign specific monsters to challenge and excite your players while adding to the depth and realism of your campaign world.

Chapter One: Monster Concepts and Functions— Monster concepts and functions drive what a monster is and even more importantly, what it does. This chapter discusses common concepts such as creature hierarchies (juvenile, adult, elder etc.), additive abilities (like the vrock’s dance of ruin), mythological inspiration and other monster building aspects.

It gives advice on creating a good concept based upon the function of a creature. Every monster has a concept and a type (such as giant, vermin, etc.), but more than that every monster has a function; the part of the monster that answers the question “What does it do?” I outline the 20 most common functions such as grappler, caster, disabler, energy attacker and PC killer, and how such functions play out in the game. Under each function, you’ll also find a list of the creatures from the SRD as well as creatures from Monster Geographica: Underground that possess that function.

Chapter Two: Monsters and their Environment— Every monster has a place in your world and every place has its monsters. This chapter is simply stuffed with useful information about environment, ecology, biology, and behavior that will help you completely customize every creature to suit your needs. We all know that statistics alone don’t make a great monster. The best monsters are ones with a rich place within your world and this chapter will help you give your new creation a fitting background.

Chapter Three: Monster Statistics— Although a great background is a must for a great monster, statistical accuracy is just as important. This 19 page chapter discusses every bit of the monster stat block and gives you the information you need to insure your great fluff isn’t let down by poor crunch.

Chapter Four: Type and Subtype— Continuing the statistical break-down of creatures, type and subtype is analyzed in chapter four. I give advice about determining subtype (just what is an aberration anyway?) as well as breakdown on ability scores based upon the SRD monsters. You’ll find that although the rules say one thing, the execution often shows another when it comes to ability scores.

Chapter Five: Templates— Worthy of their own chapter, templates are great additions to any GMs bag of tricks. This chapter gives you information on the main 14 template (such as archetypal, greater, half, and planar-aligned) themes as well as seven main ways of acquiring a template. It finishes with a template-only version of chapters four and seven, giving you all existing information so you’ll have more options when designing your own templates.

Chapter Six: Bits and Pieces— Bits and pieces is a short chapter filled with campaign oriented monster parts. In a magical world filled with hostile monsters, holistic magic plays its role and the remains of fallen foes can often be used against those who lived. This chapter helps think of monsters from yet another perspective.

Chapter Seven: Special Attacks, Special Qualities, and Conditions— This huge chapter provides you with 600 special abilities taken from all the creatures in the SRD and all the creatures in Monster Geographica: Underground. Each of these abilities has been broken down to component parts to demonstrate useful guidelines when using them with any CR creature. For example the balor’s death throes SA/SQ is now tied to a creature’s HD, instead of being a straight 100 points of damage. Every SA/SQ has its source monsters (the monsters that possess that ability) listed as well. Once you jump into this chapter there’s no turning back; there’s simply so many cool things you could do when making your monsters you may not want to move onto the next chapter.

Appendix I: D20 Mechanic Table— A single table showing the d20 mechanic. You’ll be surprised how useful this is when deciding monster hit percentages and saving throw percentages. It’s much easier than just doing it in your head.

Appendix II: Editing Checklist— Every monster should face the checklist! A short outline-format editing checklist that covers the most common dangers/errors of d20 monster creation.

Appendix III: Random(ish) Monster Generator— And last but not least, a random(ish) monster generator is provided for when inspiration has simply gone dry. Don’t expect the most sensible results, but anything can happen! This is particularly useful if you want to make creatures for the hordes of chaos.

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Reviews (15)
Discussions (4)
Customer avatar
Edward A November 18, 2021 4:04 am UTC
Is this an OSR product? You mentioned it used the d20 mechanic.
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Customer avatar
Joseph B November 18, 2021 7:32 am UTC
PUBLISHER
It is not an OSR product, however, the first 2 chapters are system neutral. Also, IMO, most of the remainder of the material wouldn't be that hard to adapt to OSR-style gaming.
Customer avatar
Mike C October 24, 2019 12:50 pm UTC
I play Savage Worlds (not D&D or D20) but chapters 1 & 2 sound interesting. I hope you'll consider releasing them as a stand-alone product.
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Customer avatar
Andrew M November 17, 2021 4:21 pm UTC
There's a significant discount today, in case you're interested.
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Customer avatar
Edward A November 18, 2021 4:05 am UTC
good to see another Savage Worlds player.
Customer avatar
Jeff B August 18, 2019 3:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Where can I get the beast builder digital companion advertised in the back?
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Customer avatar
Joseph B August 18, 2019 5:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Unfortunately Dimensions Game Software doesn't have it available anymore. Sorry.
Customer avatar
Antonio C January 07, 2018 9:12 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is this book D&D 5e compatible ?
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Customer avatar
Joseph B January 07, 2018 9:18 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
No. It was written for the d20 system. Chapters 1 & 2 are basically system-less, but the majority of the text would require significant effort to use for 5e.
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Product Information
Platinum seller
Pages
224
Publisher Stock #
XRP1004
File Size:
3.28 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
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File Last Updated:
November 07, 2008
This title was added to our catalog on March 23, 2005.