All of the animals are very unique, and the only reason I didn't rate it 5 stars is some of the animals look like they were thought up by a 5 year old child (not necessarily a bad thing, just a little on the silly side). I do like how the book gives you ideas on how you can uses some of these animals as familiars, animal companions, or a paladin's mount.

Ths excellent work is just what you need for those players who have read every monster in the monster manual and other supplements. Remeber a DM's motto is "Always keep them guessing!"

As the description says Fringe Fauna consists of new animals. This is an important point - there are NO MONSTERS in this product. It's all animals, so be aware of this before you purchase this product or you may be disappointed.

The product contains 59 animals of various sorts. None of these are native earth animals so you won't find stats for chickens, squirrels or panda bears here ;)

There are no new feats, rules, classes or other goodies. There is a small 2 page section of appendixes which gives suggestions for which of the new animals to use as familiars, mounts and companions and what environs they would be encountered in.

Personally I found just a few of the animals seemed interesting and unique to me - the Angelfly (a little fly attracted to treasure), the Phoenix Owl (a desert dwelling breed of owl that incubates it's eggs in the hot sands), and the Stirik (a large flightless bird that could be used as a mount in chocobo fashion)

There are some new pack and riding creatures that you could throw into your campaign for something the players have never seen before and a few different fish and lizards to use for flavor.

Unfortunately most simply did not pique my interest or seemed downright dumb or were silly variations on existing animals (an ant/rat combo, a dolphin/shark mix, a four legged duck called a Dlurk, the Scentopede which is a snake that just happens to look like a centipede, the sea rhino, a flying ape, the list goes on and on). There are too many creatures that I just really feel there is no need for...

Take for instance the Cydiir - it reads "The Cydiir resemble giant badgers with the coloration and attitude to match"... so what makes this an interesting creature? Why not just give me a giant badger and be done with it? Calling it a Cydiir doesn't make it any more menacing or interesting (and frankly I think the name seems a bit dumb & uninspired, as though it was generated by a random program)

The book has a lot of white space and the descriptions of the creatures are a bit on the short side. Basically there is just enough info to run the creature in an encounter with a little bit of the beasties ecology thrown in so you can decide how it fits into your world.

Like any "monstrous manual" your mileage may vary and you will find critters that you think are interesting and those you discard as useless. To me compared to other products available on RPGNow this one should be priced in the $5.00 range.

Final Rating - I really wanted to like Fringe Fauna more and I hate to be the first reviewer and provide such a low score. There's nothing technically wrong with the book, it just doesn't grab me personally like this kind of book should. The names, illustrations and descriptions were all "acceptable", but seem thrown together. Nothing here really made me want to include the creatures in my adventures. A lot of it just felt like filler to me. Be sure to check the demo, read other reviews and the product description to decide if this book will benefit your campaign. :)