Latest Releases
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31st December 2005 Happy New Year Everyone! :+)
I should mention that I am in talks with a publisher at the moment with regards print versions of Immortals Handbook product line books. I can't give the details of who and when yet, but I will keep you all up to date. Thanks to everyone who has helped make the pdf a success.
The first review of the Epic Bestiary can be found here.
I also added a link to monster revision notes for a psionic version of the Cogent (World Flayer) from the Bestiary here. Special thanks to Shane O'Connor (a.k.a. Alzrius) for that.
27th December 2005 EPIC BESTIARY Available at RPGNow!
The Bestiary has been available from RPGNow since the 24th of December. However, due to technical difficulties I have not been able to update this website from the 23rd. The direct link to the product (which is found on RPGNow Edge, rather than their main website) can be found here.
22nd December 2005 Update on RPGNow!
Okay, just some last minute technical hitches (almost certainly my fault I imagine) means the Bestiary will not be available at www.rpgnow.com until tomorrow, 23rd of December. I am new to all this sort of thing and the system to input the data at rpgnow.com is totally different to the one used at ENWorld GameStore. Sorry for the inconvenience.
21st December 2005 Buy the EPIC BESTIARY at ENWorld Shop!
You can now purchase the Bestiary from ENWorld Game Store. The direct link to my product page is here. I am using the name Eternity Publishing.
I'll try to get RPGNow.com sorted within the next few hours, basically I have an updated version (don't worry if you already bought the Bestiary via this website or ENWorld GameStore, the updates get sent to you automatically) which will be ready later today, and I am waiting to finish that before I upload the document to RPGNow.
I have created a Shop page here (and link on the left hand side), which has all the details for how you can purchase the Bestiary.
I have added a page here, for New Monsters (or anything else) created by people other than myself using elements from the Epic Bestiary (or indeed future Immortals Handbook Product Line material). Special thanks to Richard Winters (a.k.a. Fieari) who has sent links to his creations which currently include: An Atata Banshee, Maladric (Human Akalich Sorceror 68) and a Brobdingnagian Teratoid Tarrasque. Well worth checking out.
I should note that all the complimentary copies have been sent to those who purchased the unofficial release. If you bought the unofficial release five months ago and have have not recieved your complimentary copy, email me: agooddesigner@hotmail.com
By the way a few people noted that this website had been the target of hackers last Sunday night (18th of December), I didn't see any problems on the morning of the 19th, although a few of the picture links were broken in the IH previews. But if the website turns into the Immoral Handbook you know its not my doing.
18th December 2005 Buy the Bestiary!
The Bestiary will be on sale from 9am (United Kingdom time) Monday 19th December.
To buy from this website, paypal $8.95 (United States Dollars) to: agooddesigner@hotmail.com
Word of warning, this is not an automated service, I have to be online at the time, which means you may have to wait a few hours, especially if you send the money during what is for me the middle of the night.
If this method is not to your liking, I will be selling from ENWorld Shop and RPGNow tomorrow as well. I hope to have that set up as early as possible tomorrow. When I have it ready I will post the links on this website.
If online purchase is not available to you and you want to purchase via money order or cheque, email me here: agooddesigner@hotmail.com and I will send you the details.
To anyone who purchased the unofficial release I will send out your copies first thing tomorrow morning.
18th December 2005 Bestiary FINISHED!
Okay, firstly let me apologise again for the lack of updates over the past few days. My webspace provider has been doing repairs from the 14th and I haven't been able to access my control panel to update.
Yes you read right. The Bestiary is finished, as of last night. At the moment I am getting feedback from some people just a last double check to flush out any errata. Once I get that back I will fix any mistakes, create the final pdf and then add bookmarks to it. I will post the details of how to buy the pdf tonight. So I will be updating again tonight.
While I am here, I may as well post the (pdf friendly) cover image. Technically I thought it looked better in black, but I know only a masochist would waste that much ink printing it out. I also toyed with the idea of softening the white with a grey background image, but as yet have not come up with something suitable (early tests did not complement the cover text) and its not something I am going to let distract me at this stage.
12th December 2005 Bestiary Progress Report!
Just wanted to confirm that the Bestiary is in its very last stages of editing. Still a few long hours of work to put in, checking and double-checking everything before I am satisfied the Bestiary is ready for release. However, *touch wood* I should have everything ready within the next twenty-four hours or so.
10th December 2005 Immortals Handbook: Epic Bestiary - Volume One, Cover Illustration!
Here is the cover illustration (not the cover itself, just to clarify).
Apologies for the lack of updates this week, I seemed to be experiencing some technical problems with the website.
2nd December 2005 Allow me to Introduce Alabaster the Amidah, Vampire 117th-level Fighter...
Okay so what is an Amidah I hear you ask, and who is this Alabaster fellow? Well an Amidah (Ultimate One) is probably best described as the Paragon of Paragons. As for Alabasters story, sufficed to say he is an undefeated weapon master who dwells in a Steel Citadel at the centre of a demiplane known as the Graveyard of Swords. He has the three-weaponed fighting style (and three weapons who count the everdancing ability amongst their properties) and he wields the six most powerful swords in existence...or...so he thinks.
...and the Nexus Dragon...
The Nexus Dragon is the monster you bring to the gaming table to scare the PCs who are playing as Azathoth, Galactus, SS4 Goku and the Lady of Pain.
...and yes that is ALL the interior art completed.
Also ENWorld poster Fieari has created a monster (pun intended) using two templates from the Bestiary, check out his Brobdingnagian, Teratoid Tarrasque here. Thanks for that Fieari mate. :-)
Just a note to say I will update the descriptions for yesterdays monsters tomorrow.
1st December 2005 Yes, Even More Art!
Added the new art for the Abomination: Anakim (Silent One), the Flaga Cloud Giant, Cicatrix (Daemon Prince of Scars), Kabiri (Demon Prince of Shadows), the Maskim (Ancient Ones), the Void Dragon, Unelemental and Mercury Gargant, all of which are here.
Only two more interior illustrations to come and they are both 90% complete. I'll add them and the descriptions for the above illustrations in the morning (running a bit late here).
28th November 2005 Big Bestiary Art Preview!
Added the art for the rest of the Angels: Elohim (Stellar Deva); Malakim (Nebulous Deva); Kyriotates (Celestial Deva) and Sandalphon (The King of Heaven) here. I also added the art for the Adamantite*, Cometary, Mithril* and Timber Dragons, as well as the illustrations for the Akalich Sorceror Nimrod, Atata Balor Belius, the Brood Lord of Chaos and Time Syzygy and the Quintessence Elemental, which can all be seen here.
*whose names may change in the final version (becoming Titanium and Platinum respectively)..
I should be able to add the rest of the interior art tomorrow, with the cover to follow on Wednesday.
28th November 2005 Back Online...hopefully.
Okay, in case you were wondering there was a massive hardware failure on the side of the webspace provider I use, which has meant that the site was down for an extended period of time. Fortunately it all seems to be working again.
I will update again later today, fill you in on the Bestiary progress and show you lots more of the art.
11th November 2005 Bestiary Art Preview!
Two updates in the same day! Can it be possible? Indeed it is! Added the art for the Akishra (Astral Worm), Angel: Seraphim (Universal Deva), Polychromatic Dragon and Ioun Golem here.
11th November 2005 Bestiary Art Preview!
Added some more of the illustrations here, including the Abomination: Sadim (Greedy One), Diamond Golem (Diamond Leviathan), Neutronium Golem, Grigori (Watcher)
9th November 2005 Bestiary Art Preview!
The Bestiary art is almost complete, I'll start uploading a few images per day on the website. Here are the first batch, which features the revised Abomination: Gibborim (Mighty One) picture, the Abomination: Odium (Kiss of Death), the Cogent (World Flayer) and the Orichalcum Golem.
28th October 2005 Bestiary Preview...Contents Table.
Here is the finalised contents table for the Immortals Handbook: Epic Bestiary - Volume 1. I know there has been some confusion over its status, how to order it and so forth (don't worry, you haven't missed anything, its not available just yet, I need a few more days) so I have updated the website to hopefully answer all those questions.
27th October 2005 Clay Guardian...Golem...Sentinel...Gargant...Colossi...Leviathan.
A short article on designing golems and an example, here...of the ideas in practice.
26th October 2005 God of War Review!
A few months ago I got the chance to play through the Playstation 2 game, God of War, you can read my thoughts on it here...as well as some quick d20 stats on the characters, creatures and items. ;-)
25th October 2005 Absolution (Part Three: Anti-Magic)
Apologies for the lack of updates recently, I had some temporary problems with the webspace provider. Fortunately thats all been sorted (special thanks to Jim Stenberg for his help in the matter) and I have a number of updates planned for the website over the forthcoming days to make up for my absence.
Added the third part of the discussion on absolutes, here. Part three (of four) discusses the problems inherant within anti-magic.
The Immortals Handbook Epic Bestiary Volume One is virtually finished (hopefully I can have it all sorted within a week). As well as adding the art and fixing any reported errata, there were also some major changes to some of the entries. There are now also some extra monsters in there as well, and I also made some recent discoveries regarding challenge ratings and effective class level which meant I had to revise all those in the book too. So even though I have been dragging my heels on its release there has been a lot more work to do than I initially anticipated.
22nd September 2005 Absolution (Part Two: Critical Hits)
Added the second part of the discussion on absolutes, here. Part two (of four) discussing absolutes in d20, this time I'm tackling critical hits.
What is GØDLAND? Godland is a fantastic new cosmic comic from Image Comics by Joe Casey (writer) and Tom Scioli (artist). I really can't sing the praises of this title enough. Even though we are only three issues into its run I sense a classic in the making. The characters are imaginative, the dialogue fantastic and the art stupendous. Issue #3 is out today. You can read the entire first issue at www.godlandonline.com for free, so theres really no excuse not to check it out.
17th September 2005 Absolution (Part One: Immunities)
Added the first rant, here. Part one (of four) discussing absolutes in d20, this initial installment specifically covers immunities and the stranglehold they put on the game. For those who can remember back to when the first rant was "Why have stats for Gods?", doing that article justice will probably take more time and research than I currently have to devote to it at the moment, but suffice to say its still on the back burner.
I have also revised some revisions from last weeks article on epic feats, here, based on feedback. The revision also includes some discussion on static and fluid abilities, that may help people balance any new feats they create.
5th September 2005 Article on Revising Epic Feats
I know my updating has been terribly slow of late, but work is progressing on the art version of the Bestiary and on Apotheosis itself.
In the meantime however, I present an article, here, on revising and better balancing the epic feats from the Epic Level Handbook. I have also updated a previous article on revising Salient Divine Abilities, here, with some new thoughts and ideas.
17th July 2005 Introducing the Weapons from Final Fantasy!
I hadn't updated in a while, but I thought some people might get a kick out of these epic monsters (yes, you read that right, they are monsters called 'Weapons'). Here, you can find Diamond Weapon, Emerald Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Sapphire Weapon and Ultima Weapon. Enjoy.
Also I should point out that work is still progressing on the art version of the Immortals Handbook Epic Bestiary: Volume I. As soon as thats finished I'll be sure and let people know.
4th July 2005 Immortals Handbook Poll
I just wanted to mention that there is a poll here, asking which Immortals Handbook products you wanted to see next. Also thanks to everyone who has bought the document so far, apologies for the temporary hiccup with the formatting. Special thanks to Robert Lajoie and Johannes Luber for their help in sorting that out.
...by the way I hope Americans everywhere have a great Independence Day.
30th June 2005 Immortals Handbook: Epic Bestiary Volume I (Unofficial Release)
The text for Volume I of the Epic Bestiary is finished, the contents are listed here. While the official release is still a week or so away pending completion of some illustrations you can pick up the text version early using Paypal by sending £3.50 to
agooddesigner@hotmail.com
Anyone buying the text only version now will get the full (art) version free as soon as its available.
However, I should warn you that this is not an automated process at this stage, so if you send the money during what is for me the middle of the night (and remember I'm in the UK), or otherwise away from the computer, you won't receive your copy until the next time I am online. So I would stress that this is only for those overly eager people who can't wait another week or so to get their hands on some epic monsters.
8th June 2005 New Review!
You can find my review of Mongoose Publishing's Book of Immortals here, a case of some great adventure and roleplaying ideas cruelly juxtaposed with some bewildering and overbearing mechanics.
By the way I picked up Dungeon #123 yesterday and it has a pretty good epic adventure for 30th-level characters called "Quicksilver Hourglass", that I thought those of you who haven't already done so would be interested in checking out. I must say I have been very impressed with both Dragon and Dungeon Magazine since Paizo took over. The format is much cleaner, easier to read for both magazines. The idea of always having a low, mid and high level adventure in each issue is great, and the occasional epic adventure doesn't hurt either. At the moment every few issues of Dragon also seem to carry articles on the Demon Princes omitted from the Book of Vile Darkness: Pazuzu was in #330 and Fraz-Urb'luu looks set to be in #333. So thats something else for epic campaigns to look out for.
7th June 2005 Challenge Ratings!
I have started adding the Challenge Ratings and Effective Class Levels to the Bestiary list here. I know people were interested in them, however its worth pointing out that even though the listed Challenge Ratings are compliant with the official rules, I still don't agree with the official treatment of Encounter Levels.
eg. The Sadim is CR 43 (ECL 65). The official rules would say it makes a worthwhile opponent for typical parties between 35th-51st level. However, by my reckoning you could use them between 32nd-260th-level (Anywhere from half to quodruple the creatures ECL; this covers its use from party nemesis all the way through to cannon fodder).
I have a few more things to update a bit later on today, including: a review, more of the challenge ratings and some personal stuff.
26th May 2005 Yes I know its been a while...
Okay I feel terrible about not updating for such a long time, however I have been hard at work, and the first draft of the Bestiary Preview has been edited. I'm almost finished going over it and double checking everything (in the second round of editing). Still a few pieces of art to finish off but hopefully that will be done very soon.Click on the link above for some updated information on the Bestiary Preview.
Also I fixed some of the pages that mentioned incorrect release dates, I know that was confusing a few of you, sorry about that.
Just to confirm, in case it isn't obvious. The Immortals Handbook: Bestiary Preview will be released first, followed swiftly by the full Bestiary. Then the Immortals Handbook: Apotheosis, which is the main body of divine rules.
Lastly can I just take this opportunity to say congratulations to Liverpool football club for lifting the Champions League trophy in an unbelievable final. Truly fantastic.
10th April 2005 Various Updates!
A preview of the new spell system in the Immortals Handbook Grimoire can be found here. I was forced to use it to finish off some of the entries in the Bestiary. Incidently the Bestiary preview is about to go to the editors, and should be fully ready in about a weeks time.
The fourth part of the simony column, which is about converting characters from 1st to 3rd Edition but still retaining the old power gradient, can be found here.
12th March 2005 Simony Update!
Okay the third part of the simony column, entitled "What do you give the PC who has everything" can be found here.
31st January 2005 Yet Another Art Preview!
Okay I don't plan on previewing any more creature stats before the release, but I have added the art and description for the Gibborim (Mighty One).
28th January 2005 Another Art Preview!
Added the art for the Anakim (Silent One).
27th January 2005 Another Bestiary Preview!
The second preview is another abomination, the Anakim (Silent One). Also thanks for the feedback on the Amilictli, I have made a few minor tweaks as a result.
26th January 2005 Art Preview!
Here is the art for the Amilictli (All-Relentless Thunder). I may have to go over the image a bit heavier, I have noticed when scanned in the picture is losing some detail. Whether my art will make the print version is unknown, though it will certainly feature in the pdf. Let me know what you think.
25th January 2005 Bestiary Preview!
Okay, I know I haven't updated much lately, but great things are just around the corner. First up is a preview from the Bestiary of an Abomination called the Amilictli (All-Relentless Thunder), its basically what happens when a storm god gets too angry.