Shake Up Your D&D Game With Daddy's Little Monster(s)

I was intrigued when James first posted about My Dad's Monster Manual. It was immediately clear by his first post that his dad was extremely creative, and this out-of-control dad joke does not dissapoint!

If you have experience players who are already familiar with D&D's most iconic creatures, you have to check this out. A 3-inch-tall umber hullk? I can never unsee that, and it will absolutely throw your table for a loop. The creatures are legitimately interesting, the jokes are genuinely funny, and it's clear that James and his father are an unstoppable and wholesome team.

As someone who hasn't seen his dad in a year because of this blasted pandemic, it warms my heart to see this labor of love come to fruition at the end of 2020. Great product. 5/5!

James frequently puts interesting, over-the-top spins on fantasy. This time, he's taken a tweet from Jeremy Crawford on hags and unicorns, and tossed both creatures into a blender to create something truly twisted! These emotionally torn creatures are a great choice if you're looking to shake things up and possibly shock your players. You could place a hagmalgam in a particularly large dungeon, such as Halaster's Undermountain, or perhaps work them into the laboratory of a mindflayer or beholder, such as the Xanathar. There are hags mixed with octopi, hollyphants, and some cool rules for creating celestial animals.

All of the hagmalgam art by Kayla Cline is spectacular, but the standout piece for me is the hagicorn. After all, isn't that where this all started?

Of course, James always has fantastic writing. But did you know that this Abyssal Incursion features a House Lyrandar airship? Talk about a crossover! It's a great opportunity for any Dungeon Master running Descent into Avernus to gauge their players' interest in the new Eberron sourcebook, releasing 11/15/19.

As an Adept, there are several great official WOTC art pieces in this adventure that make it stand out, but it's Kayla Cline's cartography that really steals the show in this supplement. The most memorable map is by far the creature based dungeon for the Demon Lord Yeenoghu's bloated and voracious pet, Crokek'toeck! It's sure to be a location to remember.

Lastly, there's two great new magic items here, the Butcher and Heartcleaver, legendary weapons belonging to Yeenoghu and Baphomet, respectively.

I think you're going to like this one.

I thought this product was well-written and made great use of some of the non-SRD content out there. Especially liked the flavor of a hydro-wizard coating their skin with a thin layer of water to grant fire resistance. Pick it up!

This supplement gave me a great overview of some possibilies after 20th level. I've been running a campaign for almost 3 years now, and I needed some additional ideas for epic abilities past those in the Dungeon Master's Guide. There were some great options here that expound upon existing abilities to make players stupid powerful while mostly staying true to the classes themselves.

Having led a group above 15th level for the past 6 months or so, I can't wholeheartedly recommend playing in epic levels. 5e is built upon bounded accuracy, and most dugeons take at least 5 or so encounters with a short rest or two to get to that "sweet spot" where players are challenged without having to throw a deadly encounter at them. Combat is often slow and layered with ongoing effects that get increasingly difficult for the average party to track, so it takes longer to get to that point.

That said, this product is not for your average party! It's reserved for the attentive players who want to tell epic stories of challenging gods and great wyrms! This is not for basement-clearing dungeon dwellers but rather the heroes of myths and legends! While I didn't read in-depth for each class, I can say that the author understands the spirit of each class, and you can tel they had fun designing it. Great job :)