What it says on the cover. Kind of like the Monster Manual but not as much info.
The foreword is interesting, saying that this is the last supplement and don’t hold your breath for another. It’s like D&D is “done” and there’ll only be minor new stuff in Dragon magazine.
And a funny note about this volume attempting to be an antidote to Monty haul 40+ level characters, what with gods only having 300hp. Which in some ways is odd. What’s the point in providing all these being’s details if not to encounter and potentially defeat them in a campaign? It’s almost exacerbating the problem.
As to the listings I won’t say much. It would be interesting to know what process the authors used to figure out what abilities the entities have.
Favourite sentence: “Brahama rides a 70 foot tall goose.”
One thing that’s odd is how the layout of each mythos differs. It’s like there was a division of tasks between authors and they never had an upfront talk about how to define each character and section.
The Norse gods get extended entries. Odin gets a page and a half and Thor almost a page. It’s fun to compare what’s in here vs the Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Finnish section is the most different in layout. It’s like it’s done by a student who’s trying to maximise their page count. Which is kind of funny because later in the Central America section they say “due to the lack of space in this booklet…”
Depending on what printing you get, you may get the Conan and Elric sections. There are some very strange monsters in these.
For the most part, this is a pretty tedious book to read. I know – it’s probably not meant to be read straight through. But even as a reference it’s also a bit odd. Had they not heard of the putting things in alphabetical order at TSR? It seems to be a recurring theme! Because of the randomness you get mistakes like the purple lotus getting two entries in the Conan section.
Another favourite line: “she fights with a large silver spoon…”
Otherwise save this book for when you want to fall asleep… Not the most exciting book in the history of D&D.
Date Information
This is pretty simple. The foreword is dated July 4th. The Acaeum says July. Enworld says July. DriveThruRPG says July. Strategic Preview 5 (which came out in July) says it’s available. And apparently the copyright date is July 21. There’s an ad for it in the August Dragon mag (#2).