Hard Cover edition + PDF Edition.

Monsters should have tricks and traps pre-set, in their lairs, to defeat invaders -- this is their home: if you [i]dare[/i] to invade it, they will [i]dare[/i] to dance over your corpse!

I recently designed a dungeon which is home to three monsters that angered the gods sufficiently that they were twisted, bodily, into snake-humanoid nightmares, who are immortal -- until they are killed, which the gods said would happen, one day...

Their lair is in a tropical island jungle, surrounded by poisonous snakes, spiders, and insects! Just reaching the walls of their former, now cursed, temple, is defying death, by itself.

Once they reached the temple, they found its floor strewn with tied bundles of bamboo sticks! "Looks like a Stick-to-Snakes trap for us."

Yeah, Baby! The PC's swept these away after the 2nd bundle erupted into poisonous snakes: their AC's are so low, that a Nat-20 is the only way they can be bitten... When you roll 40+ d20's, you will see several Nat-20's pop up! Most of the PC's had Proof Against Poison amulets; others had both Slow Poison, and Neutralize Poison potions, and spells, and they used many of these to keep each other alive!

So, with some serious forethought, I managed to come up with my own Lair Actions, before I ever read page one of the book. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the book and I discovered that I had the right idea -- the same concepts the book expounds upon.

ART:

I love the artwork!!! There is unique artwork on almost every single page -- it corresponds directly with the monsters being discussed! There are some repeats of altered versions of some of the art, but only around six instances of this.

The art first appeared to be watercolor... That blew me away. Then, upon further study, I realized it is very likely [i]not[/i] watercolor. It is, however, similar, and it is impressive in quality, for whatever medium they used.

MONSTERS FROM A TO Z:

They feature many, many monsters, giving ideas for truly diverse monsters, across a wide spectrum. While they skipped over many of the monsters I would have liked to see coverage for, there are a very great many ideas presented, all of which can be adapted to other monsters; they also will inspire you to come up with your own concepts. The examples shown, are truly inspiring: I came up with many ideas similar, and divergent from, the shown examples.

OVERALL:

I would give this book a perfect! It has 237 pages of useful material, then credits, and a two-page Table of Contents. It is a lot of bang, for your Bucks!

While you can certainly come up with Lair Actions, on your own, it is much easier to form your own devilish concepts, from seeds you glean from others! Bypass the blank page syndrome, which plagues nearly every author/DM, at the most inopportune times.

Although this is written for 5e rules, it can easily be adapted to any FRPG. Ideas are not Edition specific. I play 2e, only, and I found this book teeming with ideas for my chosen rule set.

Having read my copy from cover to cover, would I purchase it again? YES! The POD books that go beyond 200 pages, often have issues with their spine glue, holding the pages together: they may crack, over time, with usage. I carefully thumbed through it, cover to cover. I have not seen any issues with the spine glue yet -- I hope I never do. This book is physically beautiful, and the contents, by themselves, make it worth the cost of entry.

I strongly recommend purchasing the PDF copy, at the same time. This will allow you to print off needed pages, for use at the tabletop, keeping your hardback on the shelf, resting comfortably, enjoying the ages to come. Cheers!

I'm definitely giving this 5 stars! This books a great resource to provide more challenge for your players for existing monsters OR stimulate your own imagination/give you examples of lair actions you could give to other creatures that may not be featured in here.

For example, I wanted to have a succubus final encounter for an encounter I was planning and, unfortunately, they are not in this book. However, using other amazing examples it provided as well as the brainstorm it helped conjur up, I was able to prepare an encounter I am really excited about!

This is a real game changer. Once you'll start using these lair actions, you'll never come back to the usual, boring battles. I'll probably write a longer review on my italian blog, praising the qualities of this product!

Excellent for both creting more complex encounters, beefing up enemies, and creating environments that can challenge and inspire awe in your players.

This book is so simple to use, yet it can change the whole feel of an encounter. It can make an average encounter super entertaining. I purchased the PDF for quick reference and the hard copy to read when I'm preparing sessions. This book deserves a space on your bookshelf.

This honestly is one of the easiet to use and most fundementally game changing 3rd party suplements ever created. It should be implemented officially by WotC in their stat blocks and how they design encounters moving forward. It really is that amazing. It adds so much to so many different types of enemies you could concieve as a one off encounter, a mid boss, or The Boss of a dungeon, or just trying to make a memorable encounter. And they rarely seem to ever change the CR much if it all. There isn't some bs OP stuff that is out of line with the encounter.There is also some unique (at least to Lair Actions) mechanics, were a certain action may only be used once a day, or it could have a recharge, etc. It all feels incredibly fair and well thought out, and never punishing or over the top. DCs all feel well within the CR level, damage is minimal and not punishing, etc. I haven't seen a single thing I'd nerf. Wether it be a huge epic level encounter, or something your 2nd level party comes across, this book has it all. You have lair actions and sometimes regional effects for a huge amount of the officially released monsters and NPCs (there is a vast majority from MM, VGtM, MToF. Like 80-90% of the encounters if they didn't have one, and if it made sense to include them, they are in this book). Each is very well thought out, very themetatic, and very flavorful. I also want to reiterate there is NPCs in this that have lair actions that chef's kiss amazing. They really should be baked into the stat block. There is a lot of ideas in just how to run the encounter in these Lair Actions alone just based off the description of the Lair Action. On top of it all, there is some amazing advice on how to create your own Lair Actions and the thought process behind it, and honestly some of the best advice a DM can have.

Based off other books being released, this is easily a $50 book (considering it's some 200+ pages) and worth every cent. Just get it and enjoy how nearly every other fight is going to be the 2nd best you've ever run.

Superb resource for DMs. Turn a mundane encounter into a memorable one with this great book. Unique and tailored lair actions and regional effects for loads of monsters.

This is one of those few proiducts I use in almost every game. Lairs add SO much to a combat session. This product makes adding lairs to even basic monster a total breaze. If u want to add a little spice to your sessions but dont want to break your brain, this is for you.

This resource is a great way to make monsters more interesting. Even low level parties should feel the thrill of a hard fought boss battle. Why reserve the fun for higher levels - especially when we know statistically speaking that most parties won't get there. Use the actions in this book as is or use them to inspire your own. Make kobolds scary again!

So I picked this book up the same day as release because I'm a goblin for content. With most books I go "this is cool" maybe use one or two things and then it goes into the stack where I glance at it every so often later. With this book however, I've already used a hearty number of the creatures for their lair actions and regional effects. The fact that a CR Bandit Captain now feels like a leader of a bandit group that would effect an area makes things more alive. I also found that some of these ideas with the lair actions are also easily placeable directly on the statblocks are rechargeable abilities instead lending to dynamic monsters as well where the players can't expect 2 of them to be the same. The fact that you can design entire one shots or arcs around some of the monsters with the new options is a big win for me. I highly recommend picking this up if you need to breathe new life into older creatures or need to spice up current adventures with more options.

Home-Field Advantage provides an excellent source for any DM to create better strategic challenges in boss encounters, whether it's for a cunning marilith general, a hag coven, or a small goblin mob. The lair actions contained are highly engaging, allowing for events such as quicksand appearing underfoot to restrain players, stalactites falling to harm the players and knock them prone, or forcibly teleporting them to a very disadvantageous position. It also gives a great overview for creating your own lair actions, and interestingly presents a way for this feature to be used by player characters.

I highly recommend this compendium to any Dungeon Master whom wishes to increase the tactical challenge of their encounters.

Home-field advantage is a beautifully layout out, high quality supplement that adds dynamic combat to hundreds of monsters. Unlike many of these, “DLC” supplements, Home-field advantage gives you content from more than one sourcebook; you get layer actions for creatures from the Monster Manual, the Tome of Foes, and Volo’s Guide.

The lair actions are flavorful, well-balanced, and engaging. It is a fantastic way to spice up known elements, such as goblins or hags, or inspire you to create entirely new encounters.

The production value in this supplement is simply staggering for something on DMsGuild. There is art on every page, full page illustrations, and it is wonderfully laid out. My only complaint is that a lot of the art is battle maps, which are not provided along with the PDF. This means you either have to snip them out or buy them elsewhere.

At first, I was hesitant that 20$ was an appropriate price for this product. But the production value, layout, and incredible depth of content more than makes up for the price tag.

5/5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a reviewer’s copy of this product.

Lair Actions and Regional Effects are some cool tools to make your fights more interesting and create environmental storytelling. Unfortunately, many monsters in lower tiers don't have access to these. Home-Field Advantage amends this, adding these options to many monsters who deserved them in the first place! Many of these options are not just mechanically interesting, but also expand on the flavor and style of the monster.

If you're looking to give your monsters more oomph and want to introduce Lair Actions and Regional Effects in the lower tiers of play, Home-Field Advantage is worth the purchase.