This is, without a doubt, the most useful book I've ever bought (with the exception of books from Core sets).

The last campaign I ran was one of the most sucessful I've ever pulled off. And this book gave me not only the main villains of the story (carnivorous plants that constantly reproduce, drain the life from the area around them, and skewer anyone who comes near them). But also the main roleplaying reward of the game: special powers that can be obtained nowhere wlse.

Long story short: I let the players unlock random powers that they then rolled for on the randomised tables at the back of the book. They loved it, and the unpredictability added a lot to the game.

But it's not just that. I've also used this book to generate literally dozens of new enemies, allies, and random species for my players to encounter.

People in these reviews seem to be complaining about what the book isn't, and that's unfair. I have never found another book that is as easy to use, has such huge variety, and that provide so much fodder for new ideas, regardless of your fantasy roleplaying system.

If you're looking for a book that helps you make monsters or grant special powers then as far as I know you literally cannot do any better than this book.

It's great.

As a DM I found this book to be incredibly useful. The book's goal is to provide you with all the tools needed to not just build your own monsters but to build them well. It succeeds in this goal marvelously. If you want to build monsters for 3.5 that work well in the system you couldn't ask for a better resource. However, one of the great things about the book is that while there is a lot of math and statistics it doesn't ignore idea, inspiration or flavor. It has a great chapter devoted to monster ecology and discussion on how to elevate monster building to be part of world building.

Another great aspect of the book is all that math and statistics. Reading this book won't just help you make good monsters it will also give you a great understanding of the monsters you already have access to. After reading A Magical Society: Beast Builder, I feel confident that combats I run in future game sessions are going to be better for it; whether I use my own creation or something right out of the the SRD.

Finally, an important thing to note about the book: except for the Open Game License, the logos, the art, the book's name, the company's name and the name of the contributors' who made it the whole thing is open game content.

A great product that I'm very happy to own.

This is an amazing book. It's awesome, want to work up soem new monsters for your game and not be too far out of whack ...this book will help you immensely. Want a new monster but don't want to put a ton of work into it?...pick a few special abilities and BANG all done. Ther eis a wealht of inforemation on monster abilities and solid information on monster creation.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Far more special abilities then I actually imagined.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The random monster geenration was a little weak. Certainly useable but given the quality of the rest of the book it seems a little bit underveloped and bolted on. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Going into this book I was wondering if it had what I, as a 30 vet of D&D, would want in a monster creation type tome.

Well, I was happliy suprised by how indepth it really goes. Mind you if your not into learning game mechanics your going to find it a very long and pretty dull read but they also warn you as the reader of this fact and they are right.

The mechanics discused in this book are very indepth and comprehensive. It deals with ground up creation of monsters in all settings and lists LOTS of verried options for any level of diffeculty and experience.

They also put a random monster generator appendix in the back of the book consisting of many charts.

I think the only thing I may say is a draw back of this system is the math you have to do to calculate DC for the creatures you create. It's something Enistine might enjoy looking at.

Over all a great book and one of the most worthwhile RPG suppliments I have bought in a long time!

Great work Expeditious Retreat Press!

A Magical Society: Beast Builder is one of my favorite d20 books. It?s easily one of the three or so best PDF products that I own. While it might not be for everyone, it does what it sets out to do with absolutely flying colors.

Never in the history of gaming has it been so easy to self-publish an RPG supplement. The portability of the PDF format combined with the openness of the d20 license allows designers of expand on a lot of niche products. The end result is some great products that boldly go in directions that Wizards of the Coast doesn?t have the interest or the pagecount to explore. Things that were once esoteric in D&D are now open to the masses.

MS: Beast Builder is a book devoted to one thing: d20 monster design. The authors have done a great job reverse-engineering the how and why of d20 monsters and compiling everything into one easy to use resource. Monster design can often involve flipping through multiple books, cross-referencing creature special abilities, and comparing and contrasting stats. With all the nuance and detail in third edition, its easy to make mistakes when making new monsters, a truism that even Wizards of the Coast have trouble escaping.

Expeditious Retreat Press has taken all of the guesswork out of monster design. MS: Beast Builder compiles all the rules relevant to creature creation into one source. Need to rate a new animal?s natural AC? Simply find its hide (or scales, or whatever) on the Estimating Natural Armor chart. Need the list of skill synergy bonuses? It?s right here on page 76.

In addition to the raw data, MS: Beast Builder gives plenty of advice. Each statistic (base attack bonus, types of attacks, saves) is explained with game mechanics, advice on how the stat might affect Challenge Rating, and examples from the core rules. Rules that I often need to look up during monster design are explained here as well. For example, what happens when a creature with natural weapons also wields a sword? MS: Beast Builder gives you a clear, easy to find explanation of the rules. Even ?non-crunchy? bits like name and concept get some attention. There is advice on making your creatures unique, various roles that monsters fill in the context of the game, and plenty of examples from the core rules.

The book also contains a number of appendices with useful charts, checklists, and a random monster generation system. Its pretty good stuff. I find the monster creation checklist is particularly useful for helping me avoid common mistakes in my work.

While the brunt of this book is concerned with the nuts and bolts of monster design, the first 50 odd pages are devoted to the ecology and environment of animals in the real world and how these things translate into the reality of the d20 system. The book contains a fairly in-depth primer on how ecosystems work and why animals evolve the way they do.

This section is full of examples of real world creatures whose strange abilities and characteristics would fit right in with the monsters in a typical fantasy campaign. Anyone looking to develop somewhat more realistic creatures, or at least design monsters that give a nod to a realistic ecology will find this section useful. It?s well-written, informative, and a pretty entertaining read.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This book has saved me a great deal of time and helped me eliminate a lot of small errors when designing monsters. The stats are spot on, the organization is good, and the advice is very useful.

If you?re designing a lot of monsters, and you want to do things right, I can?t recommend this product enough.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Magical Society: Beast Builder is a niche product. If you aren?t interested in monster design, or you prefer to trade technical accuracy for speed, this probably isn?t the book for you.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This seems like a great tool-set, but it is not something you can go into lightly. So be prepared to read a lot of the material before you can use it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It's powerful utility in the creation of monsters<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It has a slightly painful learning curve.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Beast Builder

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well organized and useful<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A rather interesting take on monster design. This is probably THE manual for monster design. It's not just about what abilities to give monsters or how to balance their CR. It's also about how to make monsters logical and believeable, as well as realistic (at least, in a fantasy world).<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: All the details I need to know to make a really memorable monster.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Feels like a textbook sometimes, some explanations could've been more brief, but no biggie.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is an excellent, in depth look at monster design.

It contains an extensive catalogue and analysis of monster types and notes on ecology.

I think they have pitched the level just about right - its as much like a textbook as it needs to be to get all the detail across, but not to the extent that it gets boring or repetitive.

Its definitely not light reading, though.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The level of detail.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'd have liked a bit more artwork to break up the text.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you were to compare d20 monster books to meals, it would be fairly accurate to call the MM a full three course meal ? a variety of dishes, all combining to make a full meal. A Magical Society: Beast Builder by Expeditious Retreat Press on the other hand is not some much a meal, as a well stocked gourmet kitchen full of the finest, most expensive ingredients just waiting for an Iron Chef to appear and transform these delicacies into a multitude of delicious dishes.

AMS:BB is an odd kind of ?monster book? in such as it contains no monsters. What Joseph Browning has done in this tightly packed PDF is distill every monster available in the SRD as well as ERP?s Monster Geographica: Underground book down to their components parts. He then takes these ingredients and shows how to recombine them into new combinations. But BB is more than just a ?recipe book? for combining; it might be more accurately considered an advanced course in ?cooking? up new monsters as well.

The book starts off with a brief two page introduction, where Browning spells out his ambitious goals. Beast Builder is ?the first book entirely dedicated to making good, exciting, and fun monsters.? Sounds good to me. However, a book with this goal is clearly aimed at GM?s, rather than players. In fact, DM?s are going to want to be sure to keep their players out of Beast Builder, so new monsters will keep their surprises until sprung on the unsuspecting PC?s.

Chapters one (Monster Concepts and Functions) and two (Monsters and their Environment) really set the stage to get a DM thinking in the right direction to create a new monster Chapter one?s concept and function section might be thought of as the ?metagame? of creating critters. Browning points out the variety of ways in which a monster can be used, the different roles available for these monsters, and encourages DM?s to consider ways to modify a monster to make it more exciting and fun, in keeping with his introductory philosophy. The basic environment types outlined in the SRD are further expanded here. Food chains, metabolism, reproduction, and socialization issues are all covered in this portion of the book in exhaustive detail.

There is some great material in these two chapters. I found the Concept portion to be full of great ideas that add challenge to monsters. Both these first two chapters contain data that not only achieves Beast Builder?s goal of helping DM?s create new monsters, but data that would also be readily useful for a DM just pulling monsters from a published product. The advice on identifying a monsters role in the game, as well as the advice on combining monster abilities and even other monsters to add challenge was some of the best monster related advice I?ve ever read in ANY RPG monster product.

After the appetizer of chapters one and two, chapters three (Monster Statistics), four (Type & Subtype), and five (Templates) are the ?meat & potatoes? or monster making. Here Browning goes into great depth on the mechanical aspect of creating a new monster. There?s the potential for this sort of material to be a dry read. But Browning gives plenty of examples, and even pauses for a ?Math Break? when absolutely necessary. The tables detailing Monster stats are clear and easy to read, without a lot of flashy graphics that would drain your print cartridge should you wish to print the material. If you?ve ever struggled flipping pages back and forth in the MM trying to invent a new monster, you?ll appreciate the clean detailed approach in Beast Builder. Determining the proper values for any monster is very easy, and after a little use the entire process becomes almost transparent. The Type and Subtype section is more than just a reprinting of this material from the SRD. While all that material is represented here, a Designer Notes section is included that also detail what sort of Special Attacks and Special Qualities that Type or Subtype of creature tends to have. The Templates section also benefits from this kind of approach, with templates being broken down into more types than the simple acquired and inherent types delineated in the core rules. As such, if you?d like to use east Builder to create Types, Subtypes, or even Templates for creatures rather than whole creatures, it should be a simple matter.

Chapter six ? Bits and Pieces introduces a new kind of magic item - The holistic magic item. Holistic items are made from the remains of monsters. Collecting a Blink Dog paw will allow a PC to create a charm making teleportation magic more difficult. These items require no special feats, skills or prestige class levels to create, merely the knowledge of such items existence. This allows a DM to simply introduce these minor magics into his campaign with very little extra effort. On the balance side, all the effects seem very minor, and the creation cost is quite high, which should keep these scavenged trinkets from outshining those items PC?s must invest xp into. The flavor of these items is excellent and very much in keeping with a medieval mindset. After all, in the era that sees the invention of such food delicacies as blood sausages and headcheese, and such products as drinking vessels made from animal bladders, is it really believable that adventurers would leave any part of a monster behind? These rules give PC?s a reason to realistically behave in this historically accurate manner.

At last we come to chapter seven ? Special Abilities and Conditions. This is the largest chapter in the book (covering nearly half of the page count), and rightly so, as it breaks down every SA, SQ and condition found in the SRD, as well as ERP?s Monster Geographica: Underground book. These 600 powers are broken down alphabetically, with extensive bookmarks allowing the reader to jump directly to any listing. The powers are each broken down into the stats the aspiring monster creator needs, with formulas as to how to determine any required DC?s. Even those powers that are listed in the SRD with flat numbers have had the math done to allow use of the power with any HD creature. The monster that the power is taken from is referenced with each entry, as well as listing the sourcebook each creature can be found in, whether SRD or MG:U. If multiple versions of a power exist (i.e. Ex, Su, or Sp), they are all referenced. Thoroughness is the watchword for this chapter. There are enough possible combinations of abilities in this chapter to create an almost limitless number of new monsters.

Three appendices round off Beast Builder. The first is the Monster Checklist. This quick reference tool walks you through every aspect of monster creation in a user-friendly paragraph format. If you follow this checklist completely, your new monsters will be a snap to create, and they will be properly formatted upon completion as well. This is an invaluable tool for any DM that wants to really wrestle with the nuts and bolts of the monster creation system.

The second appendix is the d20 Mechanic table. This table can be used to find accurate attack and save percentages for any creature. Personally, this table doesn?t do much for me. I recognize what it?s meant to be used for, but as my games are much more freeform, this appendix is of limited use for me. DM?s who want to really crunch numbers and squeeze ever ounce of power out each CR of monster will likely get more use out of this table however.

On the other hand, the final appendix, the Randomized Monster Generator is quite simply worth its weight in gold! The tables presented here provide the DM with a way to quickly generate a new, completely random monster. Even after just a cursory reading of this section, I was able to roll up three NEW fully statted, ready to play random monsters in under an hour. Like all random tables, the DM must show some restraint. Te first monster I generated with this system was a small ooze with five special features, after discovering that this ooze dealt double damage to objects, caused acid damage, and could use Prismatic Spray as a spell-like ability at will, I had a the perfect image of a critter I envisioned as the ?Rainbow Ooze? looking like an iridescent slick of oil floating on water. Of course the final two powers coming up as a Smother attack and Superior Two Weapon Fighting seemed like two much of a good thing, so I chose to drop them, leaving the Rainbow Ooze weaker in total power, but stronger thematically. Beast Builder finishes with two pages of OGL, and three pages of ?Shameless Advertising?<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The ability to crank out rules-correct monsters in near infinite variety is simply awesome. As a DM that likes to make new and original monsters, Beast Builder has been invaluable to me. In the first two months I have owned this product I have created over 50 new monsters. Most of them have already seen use in my games. his product is usable in any campagn immediately.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As I said in my review, the d20 Mechanic Table in the second appendix wasn't that useful to me. There's nothing wrong with per se, and for a less experienced DM it will likely be a vital tool. However, for me, it was less helpful.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I found this product to be exactly what it was advertised to be: a definitive guide on the construction of monsters for my campaign and maybe even future publishing efforts. The text is well written, entertaining and engaging; it feels like I'm chatting with a knowledgable GM, partaking of his wisdom. It was an exceptional analysis of the monsters of the SRD, and the list of Special Abilities was outstanding!

There are a few typos which stood out for me. I suppose, though, that this indicates how rare they are, since they stood out. Having done proofreading work for another D20 company, I'd have to say I was impressed with the layout as well as the general high quality of the work. I'll be compiling a list of the typos to send on to XRP, in the hopes that the product will be updated. If that happens, you won't even seen them should you decide to purchase this product.

I would personally recommend this product to anyone interested in building their own monsters in d20, whether for their own campaign or for publication. It's simply amazing!<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The level of detail was exquisite, far beyond what I expect from most d20 publishers these days (sad to say). The charts are very helpful, and I'm just awed and impressed with the list of over 600 special abilities for my perusal. I do hope that the future holds at least occasional updates to the product in this area, as further books are added to the list of those analyzed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I only have a few small problems with the product. While there's a reference to a CR estimation scheme in another product, there's very little further notes given on this elusive art. Also, some of the special abilities needed a bit more cleansing of their original creature references, but these are only small details compared to the expansive nature of this project.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is one of the most impressive products I have bought in a very long time. By using real-world ecology as a base, this book explains in detail how to make logical, interesting and believable creatures. The rules for creating balanced creatures is the best I have seen anywhere. As a bonus, there is a list of monster parts with their uses and value. A great book for DMs who want to create unique worlds for their campaigns.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Homerun. ERP has done it again. Everything they touch over there is golden as far as I am concerned. This product is so far beyond wonderful I cannot even say enough good things about it. There is an incredible amount of insight and detail crammed into this product, my only wish is that I were independently wealthy so that other commitments didn't get in the way of being able to spend a full week of uninterupted study of such a glorious product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The best book on creature creating ever for d20. It looks at ecology and function within a setting (is it suppost to help, eat, or distract the party among many others), the special abilities section has tons of ideas, there is a short section on monster parts, and the advice on templates is awesome.

The only part I thought was wasted space is the random charts for special abilities. Other than making a creature of chaos, it really has little value.

I love making creature ideas and alien ecologies and have to say this is the most valuable book I have and will buy this year.

I suggest that you look at both Silverthorne's and Green Ronin's template books as great companion books to this work. With all 3 (or 5), no DM will ever be needing another monster again. This will provide the basis and those will help you modify the creatures you create (if needed).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is yet another product from Expeditious Retreat Press I am glad I bought. The information in the book is very well written, and presented in an easy to use and understand manner.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I really appreciated the information about how the various items in the stat block can affect the CR of a creature.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It would have been nice, in the section about the different types and subtypes, if there were examples of creatures for that type. For example, listing kobolds under the Reptilian subtype. When brainstorming new creatures, having those examples could spark an idea.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>