The Book of Dragons
By Gareth Hanrahan
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 8802
256 pages, $34.95
The second in Mongoose's new "Classic Play" series,
The Book of Dragons examines "an element of fantasy gaming in glorious detail" (I'm quoting from the Introduction), in this case, dragons. It does a simply outstanding job doing so, putting it up against WotC's
Draconomicon on an equal footing - at least as far as gaming content goes. I haven't finished
Draconomicon so I can't give a full comparative view, but so far it's easy to see that WotC is far, far ahead of Mongoose in terms of artwork and, more importantly (to me at least), proofreading and editing. I was hoping to give
The Book of Dragons a "5" rating - a rating it fully deserves judging only the game content and brilliant ideas simply bursting from the pages - but some pretty serious failings on several fronts brought it down to a "4."
The cover artwork is by Vincent Hie, showing a dragon of wyvernic build. If it looks familiar, it may be because the same image was used on the cover of the first issue of Mongoose's gaming magazine,
Signs & Portents. Still, it's a quality piece of work, with fine details in the dragon's scale patterns, battle-damaged wings, fiery breath, and the impressive lightning strike in the background. The lettering of the title is perfectly legible, and the coloring scheme is altogether pleasing.
Inside, the artwork consists of 76 black-and-white illustrations by 13 different artists. These pieces are generally well above average, a good move in a book with a subject so basic to the D&D game. However, I did notice that not only did many of the illustrations already appear in
The Slayer's Guide to Dragons, three of them in particular show up in two different locations in this book! (See pages 6 and 64, pages 12 and 117, and also pages 12 [a different picture] and 221.) That's a first! (And a second! And a third!)
I think I'll purge myself of the complaints so I can focus on the many good points of this book. First of all, the front cover is warped -- badly. When I place my book down on a flat surface (on its back) and look at it from the bottom, the front edge of the front cover (the edge farthest away from the spine) is curved up nearly a half-inch away from the pages. If I turn it 90 degrees and look at this raised front edge head-on, the middle part is raised even higher: 5/8". I must admit my ignorance on how such things occur, but I have many Mongoose books in my gaming library and this is a new one to me. I haven't heard if this is a common occurrence or not with
The Book of Dragons, but the Mongoose message boards have a thread about a similar problem with their
OGL CyberNet book. Whatever the problem is, I certainly hope Mongoose isolates it and precludes its recurrence. (In the meantime, I'm just going to hope once my copy of
The Book of Dragons is snugly pressed between other gaming books on my shelf that the warpage will subside.)
My next problem is with the proofreading and editing. Mongoose seems to have a kind of on-again, off-again approach to proofreading and editing: in some books, they do a fine job; in others, I wonder how the proofreaders/editors sleep at night knowing that they didn't even
try to earn their paycheck. (Some books don't even have an editor listed - like, coincidentally, this one - perhaps a sign of a guilty conscience?) Ben Hasketh's listed as the proofreader, and while for all I know he caught a lot more errors than he let slip through, the ones that slipped through are embarrassingly high in number, especially for a book of this type. The whole "Classic Play" concept is that any book in the series should be the absolute pinnacle on that particular subject (a lofty goal, certainly); wouldn't it make sense to put your strongest proofreader and editor on such a book to make sure it's the absolute best it could be?
Apparently not. I won't bore everyone with my long list of slip-ups; suffice it to say that grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors abound (some of them in a rather amusing fashion: page 79 refers to the
lightning bold spell, and page 185 references the Elemental
Plant of Fire instead of the Elemental
Plane). Many sentences have words missing, and the difference between "loose" and "lose" is apparently lost on the proofreader as that particular mistake is made on three separate occasions (pages 95, 113, and 247). Am I being overly picky? Some might say so; I just wonder how
so many simple mistakes made it through any level of proofreading at all.
The whole conversion to 3.5 has confused many gaming companies, since so many little things changed between the two versions of the D&D game. Mongoose has shown (over the months) that after a initial poor start they're getting much better at weeding out the 3.0 stuff; still, there were a few references to "the old stuff" in
The Book of Dragons like beasts and shapechangers as creature types,
endurance instead of
bear's endurance, and Wilderness Lore still being referenced instead of Survival. Not all that much of a problem, but it gets much worse in the monster stats, where problems abound. I'm going to go ahead and mention these in detail, because I think it's important to get monster statistics absolutely correct.
- p. 39, Draconic Cuckoo: Initiative should be +5 (+1 Dexterity, +4 Improved Initiative). Touch AC should be 12, not 14. Bite attacks should be at +6 melee (+3 Base Attack, +1 size, +2 Strength), not +5. Similarly, claw attacks should be at +1 melee, not +0.
- p. 40, Hoblizard: Claw attacks and greatsword attacks should be at +4 melee (+3 Base Attack, -1 size, +2 Strength), not +3. Similarly, bite attacks should be at +2 melee (due to the Multiattack feat). Reach should probably be 5 ft., not 10 ft.
- p.41, Huntbeast: HD should be 4d10+8 (34 hp), not 4d10+12 (51 hp), as the creature's Constitution bonus is +2, not +3. AC should be 15 (+1 Dexterity, -1 size, +5 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 14. The "Attack" line should stipulate a bite or a claw, not both.
- p. 42, Scalers: HD should be 1d12 (6 hp), not (7 hp). It should have a flight rating - I'd guess "(average)" or maybe "(good)." Grapple should be -10 (+1 Base Attack, -3 Strength, -8 size). Bite attack should be at +0 melee (+1 Base Attack, +2 size, -3 Strength), not +4 (although Weapon Finesse would bring it up to +5 melee, not a bad idea for this critter).
- p. 43, Slithering: Why does it have DR 50/slashing and DR 20/magic? How could an animated dragon skin ever have a claw or a bite attack if it lacks both teeth and claws?
- p. 45, Vessel Golem: Slam attack should be at +24 melee, not +25 (they forgot to take the -1 size modifier into play).
- p. 129, Sample Updated Adult White Dragon: AC should be 24 (-1 size, +15 natural), not 26.
- p. 139, Blind Ijin: HD should be 13d12+39 (123 hp), not 13d12+60 (190 hp) - it has a +3 Constitution modifier.
- p. 140, Satalice the Golden: HD should be 29d12+232 (420 hp), not 29d12+60 (190 hp). This looks like a "copy and paste" error from Blind Ijin.
Of course, all of the monster statistics are still using the 3.0 "5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft." format for Space/Reach instead of the "5 ft./5 ft." style of 3.5, and none of them showed any Level Adjustments.
Finally, there were some rather obvious oversights in several of the charts and lists. The "Refuge Contents" Chart on page 55 has no entry for CRs 13-14, yet CR 8 appears on both the "5-8" line and the "8-12" line. The "Heart-Eating Chart" on page 108 should go up to 33 (instead of 32), since the Draco Invictus is a 13th draconic age level. (The chart has numbers based on a d20 roll added to the dragon's age level, and 20+13 = 33.) The "Chromatic Dragon Special Ability Lists" Chart appears on page 127, and then - flip the page - there it is again on page 128! None of the new equipment on pages 244-247 have any prices listed, despite the fact that the Dragon Throne entry goes out of its way to mention "the price given is for the most basic dragon throne" and the howdah and rider's lance entries similarly refer to the prices. The Improved Spell Weave feat lists "Improved Spell Weave" as a prerequisite - as written, nobody would ever qualify for it unless they already had it! (Fortunately, it's pretty obvious that the prerequisite should be the "Spell Weave" feat - but where was somebody to catch this kind of stuff before publication?)
Okay, hopefully I haven't scared anyone off just yet, because the rest of this review is going to focus on the good stuff - and there is
a lot of good stuff! I should probably start off with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown:
- Introduction: explaining the "Classic Play" line of books, and breaking down the sections of the book
- The Desolation of the Dragon: The various parts of a dragon's domain - the Borderlands, Outer Desolation, Inner Desolation, and Heartland, plus a description of each of the ten standard D&D dragon's typical domain
- Watchers on the Mountain: A 5-stage Alert system, showing what actions take place by a dragon's minions when specific triggers occur
- Servants of the Dragon: Different races and organizations that might serve a dragon, plus 7 new monsters and 4 new templates
- Dragon Lairs: Lair features, traps, and defenses, plus the differences between natural lairs, constructed lairs, and conquered lairs
- Flattery and Riddles: How to properly talk to a dragon, including a Dragon Conversation Matrix for doing the whole thing using dice
- Tactics and Warfare: Dragon tactics for fighting against adventurers (broken down at different age groups), fighting in the lair, fighting against a single dragonslayer or an entire army, fighting against rival dragon, nasty tricks employed by evil dragons, and dragon equipment
- Dragon Anatomy: The first part of this chapter is written as if by a scholar to his liege, explaining how a dragon's body parts work; the latter half involves using dragon body parts to make items and an optional critical hit location when fighting against dragons
- Hoards: Stocking a dragon's hoard, and the curses that might be inflicted upon those who steal from it
- Age Advancement: 8 different ways to advance dragons in Hit Dice, so that they might focus on one area at the exclusion of others (in a way, this is kind of like a prestige class section for dragons), with 4 sample dragons advanced in different ways
- Dragon Feats: 19 breath weapon feats, 12 physical feats, 8 general feats, and 5 organization feats for dragons and draconic creatures
- Dragon Design: A step-by-step, point-based system for creating new dragons, with a continuing example at each step
- New Dragons: The 7 Sin Dragons (Greed, Sloth, Envy, Pride, Lust, Gluttony, and Wrath Dragons), Tamed Dragons (Riding Dragons and War Dragons), the Lambton Worm, Swamp Dragon, Heraldic Dragon, and Planar Dragons
- Dragon Magic: 29 new spells for dragons to use, plus the Chromatic, Metallic, and Draconic dragon spell domains, 12 magic items for dragons, and the Dream-Avatar template (for when dragons create astral bodies while they sleep)
- Lifecycle: Sleeping, Molting, and the various age categories of dragons
- On the Heritage of Dragons: Draconic history, culture, ancient cities, meeting-places ("moots"), philosophy, and theology
- Hatching and Raising Dragons: Rules for adventurers to hatch eggs, raise baby dragons, feed them, and train them
- Campaigning: The different ways dragons can be portrayed in a campaign, Games Master advice, and dragons as allies (or Player Characters!)
- A Mortal Miscellany: Riding a dragon (includes the Dragon Rider Prestige Class), 3 items and 4 spells useful in slaying dragons, and the Dragon Binder Prestige Class
- Index: A 4-page index so you can find things easier in the book
- Designer's Notes: Gareth's final comments on writing this book.
First of all, I'd like to point out that (previously noted lack-of-proofreading errors aside) Gareth has a very smooth writing style, one that is informative, interesting, and oftentimes very witty. (He's also written
The Slayer's Guide to Titans,
The Quintessential Halfling, and the upcoming
Book of the Sea, so he's got a solid reputation behind him.) He has done a phenomenal job on this book, not only in coming up with some really inventive ideas, but in making the DM's job one hell of a lot easier. I'd like to illustrate this last bit with some specifics in the book that really stand out as fantastic ideas.
The whole Alert system is a great one. Given that many dragons have spies, followers, worshippers, or other servants in league with it, approaching a dragon's lair without being discovered is not always easy to do, even if the dragon itself is sleeping on its hoard in the middle of its lair. Gareth's 5-scale Alert system is filled with pages and pages of charts showing which specific actions add how many points towards a given dragon's alert level. Against an unwary dragon, a band of 6 PCs fighting a patrol adds 7 points to the dragon's Alert Level (+2 for having 2 more PCs than the standard 4, and +5 for fighting a patrol). If the PCs leave obvious traces (such as bodies) of their fight with the patrol, that'll add another +5. By keeping track of these numerical modifiers, the DM can track the Alert Level from Unwary, Watchful, Suspicious, On Guard, and finally Alerted. Each stage has specific actions, as well: once the modifiers reach 25, for example, the dragon's forces will send out a patrol. At 55, they'll employ scrying magic, if available. This really goes a long way towards helping the DM employ his dragon's forces in a logical and consistent manner, greatly enhancing the verisimilitude of the game world.
Another great DM tool is the whole section on creating new dragons. With their various age levels, true dragons (as opposed to draconic creatures like wyverns and pseudodragons) are arguably the most difficult D&D creature type to create from scratch. Gareth not only breaks the process down, step by step, but he also walks us through the creation of the dungeon worm (a limbless dragon, perfect for slithering through narrow dungeon passageways).
Then there's the Dragon Conversation Matrix. Not everyone can whip up the flattery and charm as needed (even if playing, say, a bard with 19 Charisma), but now you don't necessarily have to: when dealing verbally with a dragon, it can all be done mechanically with a series of dice rolls. Granted, not everybody's going to want to turn a conversation with a dragon into a series of d20 rolls and leave it at that, but it's nice to be able to fall back on in a pinch. I haven't actually used the matrix provided, but it looks well thought out and seems to cover all the bases. Furthermore, it's something I'd never have dreamed of coming up with on my own, and in many cases those are the best kinds of DM support in a gaming product.
The new dragons are for the most part well thought out as well (despite a few problems with some of their stats). I particularly enjoyed the "Bought Undead" template: a kind of instantly-animated undead formed by touching a pair of cursed coins from the dragon's hoard, which embed themselves into your eyes and kill you. Creepy! The spells and feats were similarly flavorful; I rather liked the
shadowbite spell enabling a dragon flying a hundred feet in the air to bite its enemies on the ground below it with its own shadow.
One of the best things about
The Book of Dragons is the fact that examples abound everywhere. There hardly seems to be a topic or concept in the whole book that Gareth doesn't plunk down an example or two down as illustration. Similarly, plot hook scan be found sprinkled liberally throughout the whole of the book. If you don't have a dozen cool ideas for dragon-based adventures after reading this book, you weren't really paying attention! I also like the fact that
The Book of Dragons builds upon concepts found in both
The Slayer's Guide to Dragons and
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Dragon Magic (neither of which Gareth wrote), without reprinting the material over again in this book (boy, do I hate that in standalone books; in compilation books like the "Ultimate" series it's a different story) or forcing you to own those books to make sense of the new material in this one. Fortunately,
The Book of Dragons is perfectly usable without either of those other Mongoose books, although owning all three certainly gives you more to play with, and the rules are all compatible.
All in all,
The Book of Dragons is a worthy addition to the "Classic Play" series; a DM could base a lifetime's worth of dragon encounters and adventures solely with the ideas found in this book. I'd even recommend that those who already own WotC's
Draconomicon and think they already own the "ultimate dragon book" should give
The Book of Dragons a look - I think they'll be pleased at what they see.
This really should have been a "5" book, though. (I have to rate it at an absolutely high-end "4.") Maybe future "Classic Play" books will have more attention put into their proofreading and editing. I'm holding out hope for Gareth's
Book of the Sea: it has the potential of being great.
Can I blame it on my proofreader? (Oh, no, wait - that'd be me.) Just to be fair, I won't even go back and edit it.
