I mistakenly purchased this thinking it was for Fantasy Grounds but, despite the error, I absolutely love this pdf. The art is fantastic, the creatures are challenging and interesting, and the layout is great.

Great work! 5/5 Stars!!

Excellent book with some deliciously dark crceatures to spice up your games where-ever they are set. I cannot wait to throw these at my players and watch their horror :)

Creatures of the Tomb by The Grim Press (@TheGrimPress)

Content Warning: Horror Themes, Body Horror, Gore

“They are the scuttling sounds lurking just beyond the dim flicker of torchlight within an ancient crypt. They are the otherworldly beings that lurk in the shadows at the edges of perception. They are the skeletal remains of long deceased beings that loathe the very thought of the living and seek nothing more than to feast upon their flesh. They are the creatures that dwell deep within hidden grottos or long forgotten depths of the sea. They are the wizened ancient beings whose thirst for power and greed for knowledge led them down the path of the damned. These are the Creatures of the Tomb.”

The Grim Press are back at it again with another incredible supplement that will enrich your games. This time a veritable treasure trove of creepy cool Creatures of the Tomb covering all manner of spooky ooky undead to creep, crawl, stalk, shuffle and stumble through the tombs, dungeons, graveyards, shadows and mists. Building on their phenomenal Adaptable NPCs series, which have already added so much helpful and truly inspirational characters rich with lore and potential, they have turned their inimitable style and substance to creatures.

From the Angel of Decay “Nightmarish burlesque angels that haunt dreams of the living” to the Yuan-Ti Befouler, a Yuan-Ti Abomination can “become even more unnerving in undeath” through profane ritual and zombies in swarms and hordes, there is something for every DM and prospective necromantic overlord.

Between the Baelnorn Lich, an “extremely rare undead beings...elves who chose a path of prime duty to serve beyond death”, a range of vampires and the cover model themselves, lord of the crypt, which “holds dominion of all manner of undead creatures within its haunting catacombs”, there are all manner of nemeses, bosses and BBEFs.

Amongst so much more the over 150 pages a boast a range five of new, terrifying dragons, as well as a zombie dragon template, expanded ghouls, ghosts, mummies, revenants, skeletons and zombies, as well as bringing cerberic occultists, corpsehounds and the deep-dwelling dead of the depvir to the table.

On top of this there are 7 new on them NPCs, expanding the Grim Press’ incredible library of fully flavoured and beautifully depicted NPCs, as well as 10 battlemaps to unleash these charnel critters upon, each one themed to a creature, from “Cerberic Cultist’s Summoning Alter” to “Teihai’s Swampen Retreat”, and of course, “Crypt Lord’s Catacombs”.

In the introduction Armstrong makes the intention for this supplement clear: “The ultimate goal of this supplement is to provide a wide variety of options for your storylines, be it exploring long forgotten catacombs or delving into the depths of the Underdark. Surely something sinister and mysterious lies within.”

The rich lore and huge catalogue of creepy creatures, NPCs and epic thematic battlemaps certainly provides all that and more! I’m ridiculously excited to unleash these on my party currently in the Shadowfell and I’m feeling very inspired for creatures of the Underworld, the god of the dead and the returned in my Theros game, as well feeling a real itch to return to Ravenloft and even my short-lived game set on Innistrad with all these dead and dastardly creatures in tow. You don’t even need to be playing in an explicitly horror-based setting, as there are always unquiet dead waiting in the wings in any game.

I will mention that, while it is in line with the official D&D wording, I find the use of phylactery for a lich’s soul jar problematic due to the anti-Semitic connotations. This is an issue frustratingly baked into D&D at its creation and something I only became aware of myself in recent years, so I’m certainly not casting any aspersions at Grim Press. Discussion and research can be found here https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/25154/what-is-the-origin-of-a-phylactery-as-a-soul-jar and definitively laid out by Brian Cortijo, TTRPG designer, in this twitter thread https://twitter.com/briancortijo/status/994609909831491584?s=19.

Credits Publisher: DMs Guild Product Oversight: Grim Press (@TheGrimPress) Authors: Trevor Armstrong (@Grim_DM), Jeffrey Fischer Editor: Justin M. Cole Artists: Tsaber, Bob Greyvenstein, Bradlyvancamp, Kingkostas, Nibelwolf, Aaron Nakahara, Katarzyna Zalecka, Ramon Miranda WotC Inspirational Works: Libris Mortis (3.5e), Open Graves (4e), Ravenloft Setting Special Thanks: Vall Syrene, Max Hickson, Aaron Gentry

My Affiliate Link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/333608/Creatures-of-the-Tomb?affiliate_id=1507682

Previous Grim Press releases I’ve reviewed:

Adaptable NPCs 2 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/299072/Adaptable-NPCs-II?affiliate_id=1507682

Adaptable NPCs of the Guild https://www.dmsguild.com/product/319815/Adaptable-NPCs-of-the-Guild?affiliate_id=1507682

Dungeon Delve Monthly #1. 01 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/299293/Dungeon-Delve-Monthly-101?affiliate_id=1507682