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Creature Codex
A rampage of new 5th Edition monsters!
DM: "A mysterious figure in a cloak approaches you in the tavern..."
Paladin: "Aha! This must be a wizard with a map to a dungeon!"
DM: "...and he's ticking."
Rogue: "RUN!"
Whether you need scuttling dungeon denizens, alien horrors, or sentient avatars of the World Tree, the Creature Codex has you covered! Nearly 400 new foes for your 5th Edition game - everything from acid ants and grave behemoths to void giants and zombie lords.
Creature Codex includes:
* A dozen new demons and five new angels
* Wasteland dragons and dinosaurs
* All-new golems, including the altar flame golem, doom golem, and keg golem
* Elemental lords and animal lords to challenge powerful parties
* Chieftains and other leaders for ratfolk, centaurs, goblins, trollkin, and more
* New undead, including a hierphant lich to menace lower-level characters
...and much more! Use them in your favorite published setting, or populate the dungeons in a world of your own creation. Pick up the Creature Codex and surprise your players with monsters they won't be expecting!
Compatible with the 5th Edition of the world's first roleplaying game!
DM: "A mysterious figure in a cloak approaches you in the tavern..."
Paladin: "Aha! This must be a wizard with a map to a dungeon!"
DM: "...and he's ticking."
Rogue: "RUN!"
Whether you need scuttling dungeon denizens, alien horrors, or sentient avatars of the World Tree, the Creature Codex has you covered! Nearly 400 new foes for your 5th Edition game - everything from acid ants and grave behemoths to void giants and zombie lords.
Creature Codex includes:
* A dozen new demons and five new angels
* Wasteland dragons and dinosaurs
* All-new golems, including the altar flame golem, doom golem, and keg golem
* Elemental lords and animal lords to challenge powerful parties
* Chieftains and other leaders for ratfolk, centaurs, goblins, trollkin, and more
* New undead, including a hierphant lich to menace lower-level characters
...and much more! Use them in your favorite published setting, or populate the dungeons in a world of your own creation. Pick up the Creature Codex and surprise your players with monsters they won't be expecting!
Compatible with the 5th Edition of the world's first roleplaying game!
416 pages, Hardcover
First published September 26, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 14, 2019
High quality, but uncertain value.
Like all of the Kobold material I've seen so far, the production quality/values here are quite good. The illustrations are strong, the text is compelling and complete, and so on.
But not unlike the Tome of Beasts, I find a nagging "is it worth it?" question. I mean, after all the D&D material, all the Paizo/Pathfinder material and so on, it's pretty tough to come up with new and interesting things for your murder-hobos to kill and rob. I think there are more useful monsters in this one than Tome (which is why I give it 4 stars instead of 3), but your mileage will vary.
Like all of the Kobold material I've seen so far, the production quality/values here are quite good. The illustrations are strong, the text is compelling and complete, and so on.
But not unlike the Tome of Beasts, I find a nagging "is it worth it?" question. I mean, after all the D&D material, all the Paizo/Pathfinder material and so on, it's pretty tough to come up with new and interesting things for your murder-hobos to kill and rob. I think there are more useful monsters in this one than Tome (which is why I give it 4 stars instead of 3), but your mileage will vary.
May 14, 2019
This is an excellent supplement for D&D 5th edition. The monsters are complementary to the monsters in the Monster Manual. This is the second of two monster compendiums. I bought it and liked it so much that I bought the first one as well. The book is about 400 pages long and averages about one monster a page so there are a huge number of potential monsters. The monsters are really orientated towards narrative and story creation and while you could use them as beasties in a random dungeon they naturally give rise to story ideas. I also think that while the monsters for the most part are written as species with a minority of them being unique beings (although there are still a lot of these), they lend themselves to being unique monsters. I intend to use the book primarily this way, which will allow a more mythic and fantastic character without exhausting in any way the huge number of potential monsters.
Really a first rate compendium. Better than Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and I really liked both those books.
Really a first rate compendium. Better than Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes and I really liked both those books.
July 2, 2024
The sequel to the Tome of Beasts, the Creature Codex compares very well to its predecessor. Both books have a massive amount of monsters, around 400 each; both books draw on previous Kobold Press material, as well as a variety of mythological, legendary, and literary sources; and both books cover virtually every category of monster D&D has to offer. However, of the two, the Creature Codex seems a little more solidly designed, with monsters that are more consistent in quality and more broadly useful than the ones in the Tome of Beasts. The Codex also covers some iconic monster archetypes (such as the Lady in White) that hadn't been covered in either the Tome or official 5E sources.
That said, the Codex isn't perfect. There are still some overly specialized monsters (like the library-focused creatures) or redundant concepts (like "little pyromaniac creature"), akin to the original Tome; there's also a fair number of monsters suspiciously similar to non-open official D&D creatures. A few otherwise interesting monsters also have some turn-offs built in (the archdevil Belphegor being a particular example of this). Still, like the original Tome, those issues aren't deal-breakers.
In short, while both the original Tome and the Codex are good... if you have to pick one, go with the Codex. Some particular highlights:
- Ahu-Nixia, basically fantasy Daleks
- Kobold Press's take on Baba Yaga, including her rogue dentures
- Bar Brawl, a drunken mob built as a swarm
- Cauldronborn, accidental constructs that feed on potions
- Wasteland Dragon, warped victims of a magical disaster
- Fierstjerren, undead that become more dangerous as they're damaged
- Fragrite, sand/glass elementals created by bolts of magical lightning
- Gargoctopus, undersea scholars only interested in knowledge
- Armory Golem, walking weapon supply
- Fractal Golem, shatters into smaller golems when destroyed
- Iron Sphere, which can deploy weapons from within
- Kobold Junk Shaman, which draw magical power from scrap
- Necrotic Tick, undead-tainted ticks that can spread undeath
- Ouroboros, snake-like dragons that regenerate like Time Lords
- Shoth, extradimensional oozes that want you to want to be oozes too
- Storm Spirit, may be summoned by vengeful druids, but hard to undo
- Xenabsorber, crystalline entities that copy other creatures (A-)
That said, the Codex isn't perfect. There are still some overly specialized monsters (like the library-focused creatures) or redundant concepts (like "little pyromaniac creature"), akin to the original Tome; there's also a fair number of monsters suspiciously similar to non-open official D&D creatures. A few otherwise interesting monsters also have some turn-offs built in (the archdevil Belphegor being a particular example of this). Still, like the original Tome, those issues aren't deal-breakers.
In short, while both the original Tome and the Codex are good... if you have to pick one, go with the Codex. Some particular highlights:
- Ahu-Nixia, basically fantasy Daleks
- Kobold Press's take on Baba Yaga, including her rogue dentures
- Bar Brawl, a drunken mob built as a swarm
- Cauldronborn, accidental constructs that feed on potions
- Wasteland Dragon, warped victims of a magical disaster
- Fierstjerren, undead that become more dangerous as they're damaged
- Fragrite, sand/glass elementals created by bolts of magical lightning
- Gargoctopus, undersea scholars only interested in knowledge
- Armory Golem, walking weapon supply
- Fractal Golem, shatters into smaller golems when destroyed
- Iron Sphere, which can deploy weapons from within
- Kobold Junk Shaman, which draw magical power from scrap
- Necrotic Tick, undead-tainted ticks that can spread undeath
- Ouroboros, snake-like dragons that regenerate like Time Lords
- Shoth, extradimensional oozes that want you to want to be oozes too
- Storm Spirit, may be summoned by vengeful druids, but hard to undo
- Xenabsorber, crystalline entities that copy other creatures (A-)
October 21, 2018
A great addition to my Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition rule books! This codex includes a whole bunch of interesting creatures for your players to encounter, along with new NPC classes. Very inspiring for encounters of all levels - at least that's my experience here. The illustrations are lovely (and/or creepy, depending on what they're portraying, as is fitting), the rule tables for each creatures are clear and it's easy to find creatures based on type, challenge rating and favored environment. Recommended for all DMs!
May 11, 2020
Very good art. I enjoyed this book and very much the approach of considering each monster not as a stand-alone but how it could be the main villain / antagonist in a story. Each and every one of 400+ monsters gets it's own page, illustration and plot hooks.
Some were derivative or repetitive, but that's going to happen when D&D has been active for so long. Plenty of fresh ideas in here, well worth adding to any GMs stable of baddies.
Some were derivative or repetitive, but that's going to happen when D&D has been active for so long. Plenty of fresh ideas in here, well worth adding to any GMs stable of baddies.
November 4, 2023
It's a reference book, but I'll be damned if this isn't counting toward my Goodreads goal for as much time as I spent pouring over every page building my random encounters spreadsheet for a homebrew that istg will see the light of day. Great supplement that goes hard. Highly rec.
February 19, 2020
Another fantastic addition by Kobold Press to my D&D 5E library.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews