I love this book. How about you? Don't have it yet? Pick it up for yourself: (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases) AMAZON - Hardcover (USA) amzn.to/2NAakR8 (Canada) amzn.to/2zr8wkv DrivethruRPG - PDF www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190499/Tome-of-Beasts-for-5th-Edition&affiliate_id=837068
The Creature Codex has a BMC Patreon Facebook group connection. The Voidwracked Mage that I designed as a backer monster for the CC was posted to the group and playtested by some of the members while I was designing it. It was then selected for inclusion in the Creature Codex! It has a pawn too!
I've been a fan of Kobold Press for a long time, they produce quality material on a consistent basis. I got my Creature Codex last week and I highly recommend it for your collection.
@Jacob Schwarz I have quite a few... There's the Creature Codex, Book of Lairs, Prepared 1 & 2 (short adventures to throw into a campaign), Tome of Beasts, Kobold Guide to World building, Demonic Cults & Secret Societies, and other titles too. They're all quite good and well written.
This book is right in all the right places for me. It can make new surprising encounters, especially for those particular players who memorized the Monster Manual. Kobold press has a bunch of great companion pieces to most of the recent books that have come out like Demon Cults and Secret Societies is great to have by your side as you're looking through Tome of Foes. Another book I think that goes great with this is Nord Games' Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde. That expands Goblins, Kobolds, Gnolls, Giants, and a few other creatures and helps vary your encounters.
I've owned it for a while and enjoy using some of the more unique monsters in it. The only thing you have to watch out for is the challenge ratings can be deceptive depending on the monster. Some unique abilities can be more of a challenge for some groups of adventures.
I just received the book, and I must say, the quality of the artwork, the monsters, it's all so brilliant. I have to thank you for reviewing this, as if you hadn't I probably would've never heard of it. Such a great supplement for DnD 5e, and as a person homebrewing my first campaign, it has a lot of great material to work with!
This is one of my favorite monster books. The artwork is so crisp and beautiful, and the monsters in there are pretty intense. My players always dread when I mention something's from the Tome of Beasts! One of my best storylines was based on the Shadowfey from the ToB ^^ I highly recommend this book!
While I overall enjoy the book, I have one gripe that I can get over: Lots of monster abilities break form factor from abilities similar or identical to abilities in the standard MM. One example is a number of abilities that monsters have that do not allow repeated saving throws for ongoing effects, unless a certain criteria is met, whereas normal abilities which impart status effects (charmed, frightened. etc) typically allow saves at the end of every turn. It makes monsters hit way above their weight class when building encounters. Also, several undead seem immune to the frightened condition, basically granting them Turn Immunity, since Turn Undead functions on the Frightened status.
Have to say this book is always at my table. We ran an entire session using just the corpse mound. Just picked up the Creature Codex as well, and I think it will be just as good.
Great Review! I'm loving all the stuff you put out there, I already have this book and the challenge rating is skewed but no worries if you just change the monsters to match the parts challenge rating. It would be fun to watch a video over how you change a monster, maybe Kobolds and how you would change them to interest a higher level party like lvls 4-6. Love what you're doing man!
In general challenge rating is a highly flawed and somewhat useless system. I only use it as a very rough guide, and a simplified system of easy, medium, hard would give me as much challenge info as I need in my game prep.
Freaking love this book, especially for the Fey Lords & Ladies. Currently using the Alehouse Drake as an informant for the party and the Lantern Dragonette as a pet for a wizard. I was part of the kickstarter for Creature Codex. So worth it! Lots of cool stuff to use. Kobold Press has some other great stuff coming out so really recommend people follow them.
No mention on the monster design vs official monsters. Is that because they're the same? I wanted to know if these monsters have any advantage over official or not.
I like Tomb of Beasts, but I think it is a bit much to say it is better then WOTC's stuff. Foundations are awesome on WOTC and I find Tome of Beasts are a great addition.
I picked up a copy at Gen Con and love it. I've also pre-ordered their Creature Codex that releases next month. Plenty of opportunities to make some custom creature minis.
If I'm being totally honest I posted this review so that I have a video for viewers to reference when I build some custom minis based on the monsters within ;)
Just got my Kickstarted Creature Codex by KP. So many sick oozes and giants. Highly suggest picking it up. Also all of their expanded magic PDFs are sweet, good for little random spells to give your players or if one wants to do something new. Kobold Press is a great company, all of their products are top tier honestly.
It's funny my group was talking about if this was a good book or not last night, and I'm going to pick it up thanks to your review. Do you have a UK affiliate link? I'd like to at least help you out that way if I can.
Great review! I was going to pick up Volo’s but I’m going to pick this one up instead. I find my players meta a lot and jump on their phones when monsters are challenging them. I think this will throw them for a nice loop.
Even if you had really devious players who intentionally read up monsters and tried to meta game it, it would be very difficult to do so with a codex this massive.
Just so you know, the Amazon affiliate link for this book won't let me ship it to Australia (probably because it's a book and there is a amazon.com.au which only sells books)... perhaps you could consider an affiliate link for amazon.com.au too so that I can make sure you get some $$ like you deserve ;)
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I have to apply and join the affiliate program for each country separately. It’s a bit of a process and I’ve only done US and Canada so far. Thanks for asking though.
are you going to do anything on Pathfinder 2.0? love you this channel and as a Pathfinder player I would love to see your idea on the playtest and the direction Pathfinder is going
I love the book, I think the expansion that it offers to the world and the interesting monsters that it creates are great and I have added them to my personal compendium. I will say that in my humble opinion they play havoc with the ideas of CR rating. To me it seems like the monsters were just a little heavily tuned, and a DM that was unprepared for it might well accidentally kill a party.
Thats awesome, thank you for sharing this. Did not know about this book. I myself had the Problem that the MM lacks mid-range Monsters. Loved Volos GtM and Mordekaines ToF, for their fluff and inspiriation, but they also tend to have not much in the midrange. Thank you and love your videos! :) (Is there a EU affiliate link to support you?)
Lol yeah, and there's another one I saw pretty recently. I think it was a Pathfinder bestiary of sorts but all I can remember is it was smaller in size (not thin), maybe even squared but nicely done as usual.
pathfinder/pathfinder 2e bestiaries + creature codex + tome of beasts 1 and 2 + monster manual expanded 1/2/3 + advanced bestiary + Endless Realms: Creature Compendium + Atlas Animalia + Monsters of Porphyra 1 and 2 + Freeport bestiary as monster high characters
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial it was the $17 tier sorry but still yeah was great value. Only a pdf sadly as that hardcover looks far nicer but still a great resource never the less
If you love this, look up Rappan Athuk. I know you're not huge on modules, but it's a full campaign in a massive dungeon with a lot of good stuff for the world around it as well. I think you and your players would enjoy it.
Black Magic Craft As both a player and a DM, I can understand why. It's a massive dungeon that can get players from level 1 all the way to 20. It's an entirely self contained plot that is logically designed, and does not hold back or forgive mistakes lightly.
Pokémon as pathfinder/pathfinder 2e bestiaries + creature codex + tome of beasts 1 and 2 + monster manual expanded 1/2/3 + advanced bestiary + Endless Realms: Creature Compendium + Atlas Animalia + Monsters of Porphyra 1 and 2 + Freeport bestiary
Personally, I think 5th ed has dropped the ball when it comes to lore for each creature in the MM. I still use my 2nd ed MM for all the lore, tactics, ecology, behaviors etc. So this book not having much 'lore' for each monster entry is actually not a good thing.
Not saying you're wrong per se, but I personally prefer stats and maybe a suggestion of a little bit of lore, and let me riff on that (I don't play in pre-built settings too often)
@@CBGB42 Have you seen the entries for the 2nd ed monster manual? There is hardly any pre-built setting lore for the entries. If you ever get the chance go take a look. As an example, look up Sahuagin. In 5th ed MM, you get one column of one page that gives you non stat block lore. In 2nd ed you get nearly 5 times as much info on their behavior, tactics, ecology, societal structure, relations to other races and creatures, fears, etc... I simply cannot fathom how anyone would not want all that detail. The 5th ed MM is just lazy to me.
@@CampingSideQuest I promise that the book is worth it. The recent follow up book, Creature Codex is really good also. I actually got to design one of the monsters in that book, so I'm a bit biased.
No. I definitely shouldn’t. No one is willing to pay what the time is worth. It’s more profitable (and satisfying) to teach others to make it themselves.
its cool i guess, but if you already have the monster manual it is kinda just filler... some different styles of ghouls some flavors of evil dwarves idk it does add to the imagination when trying to flavor up monsters.
I, like you get inspiration for the artwork in these manuals. Looks like you get a lot of bang for your buck but for me the monster manual will suffice. Sometimes i just make up a monster and use the stat block of something similar in type/cr. Unlimited monsters.
I love this book. How about you? Don't have it yet? Pick it up for yourself:
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
AMAZON - Hardcover
(USA) amzn.to/2NAakR8
(Canada) amzn.to/2zr8wkv
DrivethruRPG - PDF
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190499/Tome-of-Beasts-for-5th-Edition&affiliate_id=837068
I already have the Creature Codex the next book and you can too in PDF!
The ToB is also available on Fantasy Grounds ready to go
I actually never picked it up! It was always kinda on my radar and. I bought it through your link! Thanks for the review.
The Creature Codex has a BMC Patreon Facebook group connection. The Voidwracked Mage that I designed as a backer monster for the CC was posted to the group and playtested by some of the members while I was designing it. It was then selected for inclusion in the Creature Codex! It has a pawn too!
Oh yea I remember that! That's awesome! Full circle.
The binding is stitched binding rather than glue binding like WoTC. That is why is feels so special and does not pull away from the binding.
Number of WotC books I've had come apart at the binding? 3
Number of Kobold books I've had come apart at the binding? 0
I've been a fan of Kobold Press for a long time, they produce quality material on a consistent basis. I got my Creature Codex last week and I highly recommend it for your collection.
@Jacob Schwarz I have quite a few... There's the Creature Codex, Book of Lairs, Prepared 1 & 2 (short adventures to throw into a campaign), Tome of Beasts, Kobold Guide to World building, Demonic Cults & Secret Societies, and other titles too. They're all quite good and well written.
Well said! After the “core 3” it’s the next book any DM should buy.
This book is right in all the right places for me. It can make new surprising encounters, especially for those particular players who memorized the Monster Manual. Kobold press has a bunch of great companion pieces to most of the recent books that have come out like Demon Cults and Secret Societies is great to have by your side as you're looking through Tome of Foes.
Another book I think that goes great with this is Nord Games' Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde. That expands Goblins, Kobolds, Gnolls, Giants, and a few other creatures and helps vary your encounters.
I've owned it for a while and enjoy using some of the more unique monsters in it. The only thing you have to watch out for is the challenge ratings can be deceptive depending on the monster. Some unique abilities can be more of a challenge for some groups of adventures.
I just received the book, and I must say, the quality of the artwork, the monsters, it's all so brilliant. I have to thank you for reviewing this, as if you hadn't I probably would've never heard of it. Such a great supplement for DnD 5e, and as a person homebrewing my first campaign, it has a lot of great material to work with!
This book has been in my collection for a few years now and, it's a must have for any DM.
The Creature Codex is great too. Got mine from the KS. I particularly love the Swolbold and the Giant Shark Bowl.
The second book is called - "Tome of Beasts 2 Electric Boogaloo"
Dammit Frank!
Cool review of a cool monster book! Thanks for taking the time!
This is one of my favorite monster books. The artwork is so crisp and beautiful, and the monsters in there are pretty intense. My players always dread when I mention something's from the Tome of Beasts! One of my best storylines was based on the Shadowfey from the ToB ^^ I highly recommend this book!
can you make a genie mini? or any mini I just enjoyed the Cadaver collector and the rock golem mini and would enjoy to see more
While I overall enjoy the book, I have one gripe that I can get over: Lots of monster abilities break form factor from abilities similar or identical to abilities in the standard MM. One example is a number of abilities that monsters have that do not allow repeated saving throws for ongoing effects, unless a certain criteria is met, whereas normal abilities which impart status effects (charmed, frightened. etc) typically allow saves at the end of every turn. It makes monsters hit way above their weight class when building encounters. Also, several undead seem immune to the frightened condition, basically granting them Turn Immunity, since Turn Undead functions on the Frightened status.
I've had my copy for about a year, and I couldn't agree with you more!
You got me again. I now have a wet palette (great) and dungeon plungers (not great) and a Tome of Beasts on the way. Thanks for the videos.
Have to say this book is always at my table. We ran an entire session using just the corpse mound. Just picked up the Creature Codex as well, and I think it will be just as good.
Great Review! I'm loving all the stuff you put out there, I already have this book and the challenge rating is skewed but no worries if you just change the monsters to match the parts challenge rating. It would be fun to watch a video over how you change a monster, maybe Kobolds and how you would change them to interest a higher level party like lvls 4-6. Love what you're doing man!
In general challenge rating is a highly flawed and somewhat useless system. I only use it as a very rough guide, and a simplified system of easy, medium, hard would give me as much challenge info as I need in my game prep.
Now I need to buy this book and make that eye monster.
I was actually thinking of turning that Star Wars toy you sent me into that.
Yeah I think I might make a small version with green stuff.
Kobold press knows what they are doing.
This is a wonderful tool to use as a dm ! I absolutely love this book, all the new creatures have made gameplay so much more interesting!
Ordered- Thanks for the excellent review!
Freaking love this book, especially for the Fey Lords & Ladies. Currently using the Alehouse Drake as an informant for the party and the Lantern Dragonette as a pet for a wizard. I was part of the kickstarter for Creature Codex. So worth it! Lots of cool stuff to use. Kobold Press has some other great stuff coming out so really recommend people follow them.
Cool, I'll go get it from my local gaming store. Hopefully they will order it!
Is there a difference between this and the pocket edition of it other than size and price
Miniatures for several of these monsters are also available.
No mention on the monster design vs official monsters. Is that because they're the same? I wanted to know if these monsters have any advantage over official or not.
I like Tomb of Beasts, but I think it is a bit much to say it is better then WOTC's stuff. Foundations are awesome on WOTC and I find Tome of Beasts are a great addition.
you can get the book at miniature market for 35.99
I picked up a copy at Gen Con and love it. I've also pre-ordered their Creature Codex that releases next month. Plenty of opportunities to make some custom creature minis.
If I'm being totally honest I posted this review so that I have a video for viewers to reference when I build some custom minis based on the monsters within ;)
Just got my Kickstarted Creature Codex by KP. So many sick oozes and giants. Highly suggest picking it up.
Also all of their expanded magic PDFs are sweet, good for little random spells to give your players or if one wants to do something new. Kobold Press is a great company, all of their products are top tier honestly.
Will you be reviewing Creature Codex soon? Also will you be crafting monster miniatures from these books?
I’d like to, going to try and get a copy soon.
And the main reason for doing this vid is so I can reference it in the future if I build any monsters from it :)
It's funny my group was talking about if this was a good book or not last night, and I'm going to pick it up thanks to your review. Do you have a UK affiliate link? I'd like to at least help you out that way if I can.
Not yet, haven’t applied for the program in UK
I JUST bought the Monster Manual and I think that'll do for now. but I'm putting this on my "buy later" list because this is awesome!
Great review! I was going to pick up Volo’s but I’m going to pick this one up instead. I find my players meta a lot and jump on their phones when monsters are challenging them. I think this will throw them for a nice loop.
Even if you had really devious players who intentionally read up monsters and tried to meta game it, it would be very difficult to do so with a codex this massive.
Just so you know, the Amazon affiliate link for this book won't let me ship it to Australia (probably because it's a book and there is a amazon.com.au which only sells books)... perhaps you could consider an affiliate link for amazon.com.au too so that I can make sure you get some $$ like you deserve ;)
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I have to apply and join the affiliate program for each country separately. It’s a bit of a process and I’ve only done US and Canada so far. Thanks for asking though.
Love this book. Been using it since the Kickstarter. The Creature Codex that recently came out is just as good!
are you going to do anything on Pathfinder 2.0? love you this channel and as a Pathfinder player I would love to see your idea on the playtest and the direction Pathfinder is going
I’ve never played pathfinder, and am not that interested in doing so, not sure I’m the best person to comment on 2.0
Now that things have changed for you do you have any big projects planned? I think a lot of your fans are ready for an epic build.
Ordered! Thanks so much for the recommendation :)
USD? Do I have to?
I love the book, I think the expansion that it offers to the world and the interesting monsters that it creates are great and I have added them to my personal compendium. I will say that in my humble opinion they play havoc with the ideas of CR rating. To me it seems like the monsters were just a little heavily tuned, and a DM that was unprepared for it might well accidentally kill a party.
Awesome book. Totally getting it.. time to 3d print some more guys for the game. lol
Love ya bro, keep up the good work!
i love monster manuals but is the lore of the monster in their as well or is it just the stats for them?
There is a paragraph or two about each monster, but not huge sections of the book dedicated to the history like in WoTC books.
Ah I see, thats a shame I love reading the lore of the creatures, thanks for the reply :)
Thats awesome, thank you for sharing this. Did not know about this book. I myself had the Problem that the MM lacks mid-range Monsters. Loved Volos GtM and Mordekaines ToF, for their fluff and inspiriation, but they also tend to have not much in the midrange. Thank you and love your videos! :) (Is there a EU affiliate link to support you?)
Unfortunately I haven’t applied for the amazon program in EU countries yet
Just got these the 1st and 2nd books however I like doing fight nights so this will be fun
Have it. Love it!
Holy shit. I'm so used to everything being more expensive in Canada
Especially books. I don’t know what’s going on with this.
I WILL have that
I honestly can't believe YOU don't!
Lol yeah, and there's another one I saw pretty recently. I think it was a Pathfinder bestiary of sorts but all I can remember is it was smaller in size (not thin), maybe even squared but nicely done as usual.
pathfinder/pathfinder 2e bestiaries + creature codex + tome of beasts 1 and 2 + monster manual expanded 1/2/3 + advanced bestiary + Endless Realms: Creature Compendium + Atlas Animalia + Monsters of Porphyra 1 and 2 + Freeport bestiary as monster high characters
I got the book for like $10 from humble bundle.
That’s a crazy good deal
@@BlackMagicCraftOfficial it was the $17 tier sorry but still yeah was great value. Only a pdf sadly as that hardcover looks far nicer but still a great resource never the less
Is that a Sworn In shirt?
Nope
Very good. Carry on.
I think the main mistake of the book is to split the stat block between pages. A single stat block should be placed on a single page, definitely.
its a cool book i backed it on kick starter
I own this book. I dont even DM. Its so good.
If you love this, look up Rappan Athuk. I know you're not huge on modules, but it's a full campaign in a massive dungeon with a lot of good stuff for the world around it as well. I think you and your players would enjoy it.
That book is beautiful but it scares me
Black Magic Craft As both a player and a DM, I can understand why. It's a massive dungeon that can get players from level 1 all the way to 20. It's an entirely self contained plot that is logically designed, and does not hold back or forgive mistakes lightly.
The signature monster of the first level is the stuff of nightmares.
theKnightHammer That it is.
Pokémon as pathfinder/pathfinder 2e bestiaries + creature codex + tome of beasts 1 and 2 + monster manual expanded 1/2/3 + advanced bestiary + Endless Realms: Creature Compendium + Atlas Animalia + Monsters of Porphyra 1 and 2 + Freeport bestiary
It's awesome! Some pretty gnarly monsters in there! Going to plan a TPK!
Personally, I think 5th ed has dropped the ball when it comes to lore for each creature in the MM. I still use my 2nd ed MM for all the lore, tactics, ecology, behaviors etc. So this book not having much 'lore' for each monster entry is actually not a good thing.
A matter of opinion/tastes
Not saying you're wrong per se, but I personally prefer stats and maybe a suggestion of a little bit of lore, and let me riff on that (I don't play in pre-built settings too often)
@@CBGB42 Have you seen the entries for the 2nd ed monster manual? There is hardly any pre-built setting lore for the entries. If you ever get the chance go take a look. As an example, look up Sahuagin. In 5th ed MM, you get one column of one page that gives you non stat block lore. In 2nd ed you get nearly 5 times as much info on their behavior, tactics, ecology, societal structure, relations to other races and creatures, fears, etc... I simply cannot fathom how anyone would not want all that detail. The 5th ed MM is just lazy to me.
Is it bad that I straight out got the PDF for free ?
If you stole it, yes. If not, no.
@@saintmatthew956 I just typed tome of beast and saw a link and boom it was on my phone
@@CampingSideQuest You can do that with most books in existence. That doesn't make it legal or ethical.
@@saintmatthew956 yeah... I deleted it hahaha I want a hard cover. I was looking for the book itself cheep as possible.
@@CampingSideQuest I promise that the book is worth it. The recent follow up book, Creature Codex is really good also. I actually got to design one of the monsters in that book, so I'm a bit biased.
monster hunter monsters as pathfinder/pathfinder 2e bestiaries + creature codex + tome of beasts 1 and 2 + monster manual expanded 1/2/3 + advanced bestiary + Endless Realms: Creature Compendium + Atlas Animalia + Monsters of Porphyra 1 and 2 + Freeport bestiary
Oops all monsters
You should make an online shop and sell the terrain that you make.
No. I definitely shouldn’t. No one is willing to pay what the time is worth. It’s more profitable (and satisfying) to teach others to make it themselves.
Please review the book by nord games called Revenge of the Horde next!
I don’t have it but I’ll see if I can get a copy for review.
Bring back the Golgari hat!
its cool i guess, but if you already have the monster manual it is kinda just filler... some different styles of ghouls some flavors of evil dwarves idk it does add to the imagination when trying to flavor up monsters.
Easily one of the best 3rd Party products out there.
Nice !
Myconid deathcap
You link has the price at $120 USD
It wasn’t when I posted it. I think I stated in the vid the linked price at time of filming. When stock runs low sometime amazon price hits go nuts.
I, like you get inspiration for the artwork in these manuals. Looks like you get a lot of bang for your buck but for me the monster manual will suffice. Sometimes i just make up a monster and use the stat block of something similar in type/cr. Unlimited monsters.