Bring ‘Dark Souls’ to D&D: Explore the ‘Tome of Strange Beings’
The Tome of Strange Beings for the Dark Souls RPG brings classic bosses to 5th Edition D&D. Take a look!
Steamforged Games sent us the Tome of Strange Beasts, a bestiary of the most terrifying and cunning monsters from the Dark Souls series, adapted to tabletop for the Dark Souls RPG and compatible with 5th Edition D&D. Which, in a nutshell, means now you can fight Dark Souls monsters (including and especially boss fights) in your games of D&D.
But the Tome of Strange Beasts is more than just a creature catalog. Inside you’ll find advice for running boss fights that feel larger than life, as well as guidelines for designing encounters. All of this plus almost a hundred monsters taken straight from Dark Souls.
Tome of Strange Beasts – Brief Advice, Lots of Monsters
First things first. While the book does offer advice on creating encounters and running bosses, it is by no means exhaustive. To be fair, there are plenty of extra guidelines you can find in the Dark Souls RPG core rulebook, but you’ll only get two solid pages of advice. One on designing encounters, and one on running bosses, Dark Souls style.
Which is enough to whet your appetite, for sure. But if you’re looking to really level up your encounter design, you’ll want to check out the core book. But you will be reminded of some of the key differences here.
In the Dark Souls RPG, player characters are expected to die. You’ll come back, of course. But the game is meant to emulate the video games, and to that end, the monsters and bosses aren’t necessarily carefully balanced against the level of the party. They are fairly epic though.
And the monsters are the big draw of the book. It is thrilling to see the familiar cast of characters done up D&D/Dark Souls RPG style. And while there are some notable differences between the Dark Souls RPG and 5E, the game is 5E compatible, so proclaims the emblem on the front cover, and there’s not a ton of work to convert a monster from one format to another.
The Tome of Strange Beasts is a veritable who’s who of Anor Londo and places beyond. And it’s not just the big epic monsters either. There are plenty of low-level beasts and decrepit undead that litter the video games like cannon fodder.
But the reason you’ll keep coming back to the book is for the headlining acts. The iconic monsters and bosses from Dark Souls. Sure, you could run a possessed plant. But what most DMs will really want is to take the Bell Gargoyle and plop them into an encounter, just to see the look on their player’s faces.
And in the entry for the Bell Gargoyle, for instance, we get to see where the Dark Souls RPG shines.
Dark Souls Monsters – Built Different
Longtime 4E players will be delighted to see the return of D&D’s most beloved condition: bloodied. And it has effects both positive and negative here. In the case of our Bell Gargoyle, it means they can’t make Tail Axe attacks any longer.
Which makes the fight a little more dynamic and gives the PCs a sense of progression as they fight. And on the other side of the GM screen, the Bell Gargoyle has a multitude of options to pick from as well. Boasting four different melee weapon attacks, the Bell Gargoyle can use its multi-attack ability to make up to three attacks. And the GM can select different options as needed.
They might Shield Bash a foe to knock a target prone, only to follow up with a swipe of the massive halberd. And then use the flying tail whip to stun a closing target.
And that’s just one of the typical monsters. Far more complex are the Bosses of the Tome of Strange Beasts. The gang, is in fact, all here. Take a look at Chaos Witch Quelaag, a daughter of the Witch of Izalith who is half demonic spider and half witch.
She wields several powerful abilities, including dealing automatic fire damage to enemies gathered near her, a big stomp attack that knocks enemies prone, and more powerful area attacks that require her to spend position.
Position is a resource in the Dark Souls RPG that is a lot like hit points, only you can spend it for powerful effects, including magic, area of effect attacks, and more.
Prepare to die!
