Kobold Press' monsters are fun and original. Just be aware that they hit at their listed Challenge Rating, while many of the first party WotC monsters are easier/less effective in combat than their listed CR.
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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Can someone give a good example if what makes these books good? I'd love to see a single great example of the level of quality that these books bring.
DM'd as to not post any "free samples" of the books
Thanks! They look quite slick and have a lot going on. Particularly the void dragons you sent my way.
Each would be more or less perfect for a single-monster encounter, as they are dense with fairly novel mechanics.
Many people think that the WotC statblocks are a bit too boring, but I consider them a good entry point for new GMs. This is clearly a nice way to up your game.
Cheers!
Like someone below said though, kobold press monsters do tend to be accurate with their challenge ratings while WotC tends to be a little less
Most of that is being fixed by dilating the amount of damage output that players can output in 5e in a variety of changes in OneD&D.
My playtests have had really gripping & close fights, even with people optimizing their hearts out.
@KurtDunniehue @Brunbrun6766 well the more monsters you have access to the more interesting your campaign can be everyone's heard of giants and beholders etc etc etc so books like these add variety and spice to the encounters you can create
Are any of these monster books actually good? The fact they don't seem to have sample monsters makes me doubt it.
The whole Tome of Beasts series is pretty great, including the Creature Codex. Some of them are a bit too "out there" for me to use in my particular game, but I'd rather have that than another reskinned goblin.
Tome of Beasts books are fantastic. I once found two monsters in Kobold Fight Club from that and made a themed dungeon around them, giant ant and Spawn of Akyishigal, the Demon Lord of cockroaches.
The main 4 monster books from KP are published under an OGL and are available on open5e , you don't get any lore, art, or advice on how to run the monsters without paying for the books, but you can see the statblocks.
The kobold press website also has a tool that can show you the environments a monster can typically be found in.
I would still recommend getting the books, especially if you want to use any of the higher CR monsters as the lore makes it a lot easier to understand the mindset the creators had when designing them.
As stated, tome of beasts books are some of the best monster books out there
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