This is a wonderful book of wonders.
It's not often I curse a DMs Guild product for being too long and addictive that I was up reading past my bedtime, and still had a lot left over for perusal today.
So, we have the book presented in a beautiful and homely ye olde style, with the amusing proprietor, the eponymous Mr Bearthazar taking you on a tour of his emporium of pets with benefits. The flavourful insights and asides are as wonderful as the creatures themselves, and genuinely had me smiling wide and goofily, chortling and laughing out loud all the way through.
The familiars themselves are a work of genius, ridiculousness and just plain dumb cornyness that gives Master Clegg's work that je ne sais quoi. The mammoth amount of critters (60ish by my estimation) are divided into three categories: Curiosities, Rarities and Wonders, which roughly equate to the Uncommon, Rare and Mythic rarities in Magic: The Gathering.
The beguiling beasties are further categorised with badges denoting, whether they are appropriate as Ranger Companions - New Animal Companion options, Find Familiar
- able to be summoned by the spell or rituals provided (more on that later), Pact of the Chain - a selection of more powerful familiars for the doting Warlock (Unfortunately, those of the PETA Patron have been banned from the store for prestidigitating paint on Bearthazar...), Dangerous - not for the faint hearted and with the possibility of causing carnage to all, including their owner, and finally, Unbound - Unique creatures not bound by spells and rituals. The limited edition Funko Pops of this establishment.
Each creature has its own page with its name, subtitle, description, individual statblock or reference to the base creature and the magical and mystic additions, price tag, optional upgrades that are witty, helpful and ridiculously apropos, summoning components (for all but the Unbound) to be used in ritual summoning, which is a simple and fun way to dial up your pet, especially after it inevitably dies again and again, the appropriate badges, and a fabulous rendering by Tallulah Cunningham, evoking some olde timey Victorian woodcuts that are just delightful.
There are so many different creatures from aberrations to undead and everything in between. I was trying to pick one, but that turned out impossible, so here are a few honourable mentions: Doris, a Volatile Pigeon, Binkers, sloth that wants to cuddle, Grumio, a Toad in the Hole, an Infernal Duck, Cecil, a Catoblepossum, which truly speaks to me as my pet name for my partner is possum and she one shotted me with a Cotoblebas not too long ago, Damian, the Emotional Support Imp, and so many more. I just adore them so much!
Another way to look at this is as another monster manual with all manner of creatures you can populate your world with, plan encounters and adventures around and just giggle and snort over how devilishly ridiculous some of them are. So what I'm saying is, this is far more than just a supplement for Rangers and Magic Users. I already feel inspired to create my own adorable abominations intuiting the process Oliver has gone through in changing and augmenting existing creatures and inventing his own.
This is truly a magical little (but loong) book fully of silliness and joy, well worth every penny. I picked up the PDF, which is lovely, but the printed copies look that little bit extra special and twee.
I want to address the price of $9.99 for the PDF, $14.99 for the softcover and $19.99 for both, as I saw someone posting about this being overpriced, which is frankly ridiculous for such a quality product. At the very least five people working hard to create a 76 page supplement with a tonne of original art, editing and design, and 60ish creatures to add to the game, is a LOT! I wouldn't have been surprised if it as more and would still be more than worth the money. Folx need to understand that putting the time and effort in to create a unique and top quality product costs money and that's fair. This is what people do to earn money and that needs be respected.
Rant over.
My only criticism, which Mistress Clegg is certainly needed to keep his head from expanding in correlation with his ascendancy on the DMs Guild charts, would be that the tags can be a little difficult to read at times. But that's it, the single blemish that adds a human touch to this perfection in every other way.
Keep up the awesome work. I am on tenterhooks to see what you do next!
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