D&D Campaign Case: Creatures Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Lots of tokens with small, regular, and huge sizes.

Could Go Either Way

• There are 64 plastic discs that serve as a base. And there are many more flat pieces that cling to the bases, called clings. This means that as you need them, you can combine the two parts together to get as many tokens as you need. The plastic bases are also more durable than cardboard pieces. However, I’m not sure how well the clings themselves will hold up to long use. They’re not actually sticky like a sticker, and they don’t feel as bad as I expected.

• It’s nice that there’s a case. I’m not sure how well it’ll hold up to repeated use. Especially the handle. Handles on these sorts of sets always make me nervous.

• The art is the same as from the books. It looks nice, and it’s easy to recognize creatures if you’ve look at the books. On the other hand, the only new art is on the carrying case.

Cons

• No gargantuan token or inserts. Even just one would be very nice. Potentially could even cut out the centre so we can put the huge token inside if we needed to save on plastic for the cost?

• Figuring out how to open the main box is...not easy. Please put some kind of mark at least so we can easily open these things. I think many will give up and just use force.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking. Ha. I’m just kidding. How would you even PDF this? Hmm, it would be pretty cool if we could just print the art perfectly sized for these disks directly from a special section of the official website. Well, I can dream at least.

Introduction

If you play D&D, sooner or later you’ll want to try tokens, miniatures, or some other physical representation. Theatre of Mind can be fun, but there are also advantages to being able to see distances and features of a map accurately. If you’re using a Virtual Table Top...well, this review isn’t for you. For those of us who can play in person, are options are plastic miniatures which are expensive, or tokens of different types. The set I’m reviewing today is one of those types.

What’s In The Set

There is also a special case to keep all the pieces safe, as well as a folder for the sheet. When done using the token, I’d recommend putting them back on the paper as it seems to stick. And in the folder which is in the box, even if it falls out, it won’t be lost.

What box? All of the pieces mentioned above fit together in a special travel box that has a handle. Though being a card box, I’d be worried about using the handle. The card used on the box feels good. But my previous experience with such handles makes me nervous.

The Art and Build Quality

The art is pretty good, but it’s not new art. This is nice, since Dungeon Masters and players will recognize the images from the books the read. On the other, there’s not any new art except for the boxes that are used to hold the components. The build quality for my copy turned out pretty good. No obvious problems. Which interestingly enough, is better than some of the experience I’ve had with the books so far.

The disks are made from plastic which feels sturdy. The case to hold everything feels good too. The clings feel better than I expected looking at the pictures too. They aren’t just paper coming out of your printer. That said, they are still a thin material. So I’m left wondering how well they’d last over long term use. I’ll update it in the future with my thoughts. Also, there isn’t a good way to keep them except the folder. And the folder expects paper. This mean that in the heat of a game, I could see people getting the clings they need, and then not remembering which sheets they came from. On that topic, I found myself having to look through all the sheets for the clings I wanted. Even some kind of small title to each sheet like “humanoids” would help with my organization. That way I could find the correct sheet quickly if an unexpected combat encounter broke out.

The main issues assuming you like the clings concept is that the box it comes in is difficult to remove without damage. There’s another box inside which is used to keep the components inside when not in use. That’s fine...but I wish the outbox could be removed in one piece too. It doesn’t even say which side to open from. Compared with the starter set boxes, or even board games, it’s not easy to figure out and like it’s almost intended. After all, who cares if it’s meant to be thrown away anyway.

So overall, the build quality is good for what it is. If you’ll have a problem with this set’s components, it’s more a design issue from the clings itself. I’m sure many will prefer Pathfinder tokens, or just old fashioned miniatures. There’s been many products over the years to help people keep track of monsters on their grids. And no matter the build quality, clings and bases like this will have certain disadvantages. I expect to see future sets that use the same bases in the future.

Price

The set is standard $64.99 USD which is pretty high. The old D&D Adventure System board games came for 40 unpainted minis for the same price. The Dungeon Command board games came with pre-painted miniatures for $40. Do I ever miss those sets. Is this inflation? I think the WizKids new D&D Adventure System games also are significantly more expensive than that.

Summary

There you have it. If you need tokens, it’s not a terrible set. The standard price is pretty expensive, but so are plastic miniatures these days. There are ways to make tokens yourself. And many people prefer miniatures due to their more impressive appearance at the table. But if you can get this set at a good price, it should work well. There are many discs, there are many clings that can customize their appearance. I find myself wondering if more clings will be available with future sets. The standard price has me in an odd state though. On one hand, this set is pretty expensive. On the other, miniatures are even more expensive these days. This one set, however, should provide enough tokens for whole campaigns without running into a situation where there’s not enough discs. So it will serve well. It’s just there’s also many other alternatives. If you can find a good deal on the set, it’s a workable solution for tokens and miniatures.

Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Pros

• Collection of monsters from previously published adventures. Not interested in the adventures but want more monsters? You can find it all in one place.

• Also includes some player options from previously released books.

Could Go Either Way

• There’s art, but it’s mostly recycled art from previous books.

Cons

• The style of NPCs when dealing with spell casting is different. Instead of complete spell lists being provided along with spell caster levels, now we just get a small list of limited spells and more damaging cantrips. I don’t like this for many reasons, but I think a solution that allowed both a simple stat block and the classic complex stat block would’ve been ideal. That way Dungeon Masters could choose which style they prefer, or even mix and match.

• No PDF*

* Denotes nitpicking.

Introduction

We’ve had many books so far in this edition of D&D. They’ve come with new races, class features, and monsters. One of the upsides of the approach taken so far is that we’ve only needed the core rules (Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Manual) to run an adventure so far. We didn’t need a Monster Manual II. However, the downside of this approach is that new monsters are often split among many adventures. This book aims to address one of these problems by pooling together monsters and player options from different sources into one place. However, it also made changes to simplify the monsters. This is a part I had an issue with, and I’ll go into a long explanation of why I don’t like it.

I’ve already covered the adventures these monsters are from too. So I’ll instead make this in a quicker format specifically focusing on the changes they went through from the original adventures they were in. If not for the changes, I’d say it was a book that wasn’t necessary if you had the adventures. But if you didn’t, you could treat it as a Monster Manual II. With these changes though... it gets more complicated. I’m not a fan of this book.

The Book Itself

The book is made up of previously released content. In that way, it’s a collection of existing material. Part of it is new player options. Sub-classes, races, that sort of thing. The main part is a collection of monsters from previously published adventures. They are not exactly as previously presented though. They have been changed in ways to make them simpler and easier to run, particularly where magic is concerned. The major change here is that spellcasters were greatly changed. Which is where my problems come from. There’s also some added damage on some attacks.

The Monsters, The Changes, and Why I Don’t Like It

There is a big effort here to take some of the previous monsters, particularly spell casters, and simplify them. In the past the stat blocks for monsters and creatures had a section with their known spells, their slots, and their spell casting level. This was useful for multiple reasons. If the enemy was killed and their spell book fell into the hands of the party, you know which spells they would see. There are also many spells which have utility function, and are useful for defending their lair, but not in direct combat. These sorts of spells can really help with story telling, and with setting up interesting encounters outside of direct confrontation. We also knew what level of spell caster they were. So we could swap spells and further customize the encounter.

The new spell list is heavily reduced. The monsters are also limited to 3 casting of a single spell, 2 times, or a single casting. Compared to the number of spells that they could use previously, this is a massive reduction. There is an attempt here to increase the basic attacks to compensate. However, I’d say compared to real spells they are lacking in potency and additional effects. Spells can target multiple people, change the environment by catching the environment on fire, and more.

As a result of this reduction, the spell casters have fewer options to choose from. I think that was part of the point. To make them simpler and easier to run. However, these run out and often have a daily recharge time. Which means if multiple encounters are going to occur, either I ignore that limitation and treat it as an encounter, I have to try extremely hard to prevent the party from falling back, or I run it as written with the spell caster being defanged. In general, I don’t mind my party falling back if it looks like the best option. Though I want them to work for it. And sometimes it’ll be harder than others.

To make things worse, they no longer tell us the spell caster level of the monster. So it’s not even easy to recreate the stat block in the old style. By old style, I mean the style of the Monster Manual. I tried using one such stat block and it didn’t seem to add up. The spells they had didn’t correspond to the challenge rating. I’d say this is the bare minimum I’d expect. Tell me the level on the monster like it used to be done so I can recreate my own spell list.

This adds an additional problem. My players have long enjoyed wizard duels, or fights against wizards. Trying to counter spell to reduce the damage, dispel effects ongoing in the environment, that sort of thing. While this is still possible, for higher levels the spells the creature uses are often so low level that a counter spell is basically guaranteed to work as soon as players realize what spells are used. For example, the highest level offensive spell for a Drow Consort, a challenge rating 18, is fireball.

Also, the Monster Manual still uses the old style of monster. I very much don’t like that the two styles are mixed together without my input. As a general rule, I don’t mind being able to make the decision myself. Maybe I’ll have an encounter with a mage and his two apprentices. To make it easy to run, I’ll use the simplified mage stats for the apprentices, but the full archmage. However, I don’t like being forced into which style to use merely based on the creature chosen. I guess there’s the option of finding the old stat blocks from older adventures. But I know that at least two adventures already use these new stat blocks, with no option of the old.

Lastly...these blocks even with so few options force us to go and refer to the spells themselves. In a virtual environment, it’s actually my preference. You mouse or click, or whatever other operation on the spell and you see its effect. This can also be done if you use your laptop in person as an aid when playing. I personally do, and recommend this approach often. However, if you’re only using the books you’ll still need to flip to the spells and do your preparation work. I imagine they couldn’t shoved them into the stat block at the cost of additional pages and space. There’s few enough spells in the block. But I also agree there's be repetition if this was done. Regardless, the new style still doesn’t help you avoid preparation of going to the spell list in the Player’s Handbook. Though admittedly, it’s a bit easier because there’s fewer spells. In the past though, we could easily pick a spell per slot level, instead of all of them. Or even just reverse to at-will attacks after a certain point even if we had slots left.

What I’d Like To See

In general, I’m not totally against a simplified version of monsters. They’d be easier for new players to run, and would help experienced Dungeon Masters manage complexity by being able to mix them. However, we should absolutely have a spell caster level on the block always. This is the bare minimum, as it easily allows Dungeon Masters like myself to prepare my own spell list. Ideally, the stat block would have remained as before. At the end of the block, or off to the side there’d be a simplified section that could be used instead. So the Dungeon Master would have the option to use a simplified version. I think monster at-will, cantrips, etc. should be viable and effective anyway. Being able to rely on decent ones for spell casters greatly helps in preparation if something unexpected happens, if they run out of spell slots, or whatever else. Basically the fall through option when nothing else is possible.

The Art and Book Build Quality

The art and build quality is what we’ve come to expect. My copy is pretty good this time. The pages are good, the art looks good, the binding is good. However, with some of my previous issues I’ll continue to recommend looking through the book and looking for defects if you are able. Flip through the pages and look at the binding, especially around the middle of the book. You don’t want to see the threads. Also look at the pages themselves for bleed through or even stuck pages. I’ve also experienced pages that were not properly cut, so the paper was actually stuck together. Obviously this isn’t possible when ordering online.

Free Stuff

Nothing to see here.

Summary

I’ve generally enjoyed the books in this edition. This is the one book so far that I really don’t like, and makes me very confused. The stat blocks as before were fine, allowing complexity and detail. If simplicity was needed, it’s easy for experienced Dungeon Masters to take away from what’s there. So in general, I don’t like these changes. If they had simply compiled the monsters together from the multiple adventures they’re currently spread across, it would be an unexciting book that could be useful to people who are not interested in published adventures. But now it also changes them in very significant ways. That’s the short version. Look above to see what I’d prefer instead in detail. Yeah....I really don’t like this one. I may prefer the colouring book. At the very least there should’ve been some thought given to the experienced Dungeon Masters who want to continue to use the old style. Some sort of backwards compatibility, or to present both options. But that’s not what we got.