The Planar Bestiary from Monte Cook Games is a difficult text to be critical of. Published by Monte Cook Games, and authored by Bruce R. Cordell and Sean K. Reynolds, this is a text for 5e written by what could only be called D&D Royalty, being two of the lead designers behind D&D Third Edition and the 3.5 system derived from it that I effectively grew up playing.
That being said, I have some serious problems with this book. In terms of flavor, there's nothing to complain about. The lore is phenomenal, and many of the creatures show the creators' enduring creativity and the thematic sense that made third edition in all of its forms such a phenomenon.
However, when one comes to the matters of statistics, some problems emerge. While this is not true of every monster, there are a handful for whom the math simply does not add up. As examples, I will pull from two early entries in the book, the Dissolute Angel and the Anokapsik. Both of these creatures are CR 10, which means that they hold similar places of power, and should be of similar threat to an adventuring party. More importantly however, this means that both should have some statistical similarities. A CR 10 creature should have a Proficiency Bonus of +5, and a creature's Passive Perception should equal 10 + it's Perception Bonus.
While these may seem like strange things to bring up, bear with me for a moment.
Going to the Dissolute Angel first, the Dissolute Angel has a Strength Score of 20, which gives it a +5, and a Wisdom Score of 13, giving it a +1. Assuming it is proficient in Perception, which it is, this should give the Dissolute Angel's melee attacks a +10 to hit, and its Perception Bonus and Passive Perception should be +6 and 16.
However, for some reason the Dissolute Angel has a +9 to hit with its Greatsword, which still does +5 damage. To this one could say, alright, that's fair, they thought CR 10 has a +4 Proficiency Bonus, easy fix, just give it a +1 to all of its proficient die rolls.
BUT IT GOES DEEPER THAN THIS.
The Dissolute Angel has a +5 to Perception, implying once again that the author assumed a Prof. Bonus of +4 at level 10- But it has a passive Perception of 14, one LOWER than the 15 that a Perception Bonus of +5 would give. These numbers simply do not line up, and it reads as if Cordell's monster creation is stuck in third edition, which I hate to say, as this man's work shaped a significant portion of my childhood dreams and storytelling.
Moving on to the Anokapsik, similar issues arise. +5 Proficiency Bonus, +7 Strength, Strength Saving throw of- ... +11? Not 12, 11. Wisdom of 12 for a +1, Perception of +8, which again doesn't math at all.
However, the Anokapsik then has a Passive Perception of 14- 14! That's a solid 4 points lower than what its Perception Bonus of +8 (already incorrect_) says it should be.
This problem continues intermittently throughout the book- Some creatures' statblocks math perfectly fine, while some leave me scratching my head at how this made it into a published product. I don't know what caused this, maybe some creatures were written by Cordell and some by Reynolds, maybe they hosted some backer-made monsters as part of the crowdfunding campaign and those are the ones that just- ... don't work. All of these issues are easy enough to fix if you sit down and crunch some numbers, but tweaking the monster's statistics in this way could also risk tweaking its challenge rating up or down a level depending on how messy each one's math is.
I wish that I could recommend this book more, as solely on the tier of art and creative writing, it feels exceptional. However, the absolutely mind-boggling math on a handful of its creatures makes it incredibly difficult to speak words of praise for it.
|