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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793.93
EAN num: 9780786934331
ISBN number: 0786934336
Label: Wizards of the Coast
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: October 08, 2004
Publishing house: Wizards of the Coast
Release Date: October 14, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 28240
Studio: Wizards of the Coast
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
An art-filled sourcebook about undead in the D&D world.
This title takes a comprehensive look at undead creatures and characters in the D&D world. It includes information on playing undead characters and how to run or battle undead in a fight. There is new information on traditional undead creatures (liches, zombies, and so on), as well as new monsters and information on customizing monsters to any adventure. There are new rules, feats, spells, and prestige classes, as well as ready-to-run undead characters for instant play. Extensive story and campaign elements and flavor information add interest and dimension to playing or fighting undead. The book itself will be designed in prestige format, with heavy use of art throughout, a full-painted cover, and construction from premium materials.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead should be in the library of any self respecting Cleric of any deity or alignment.
It will inform you of what each type of undead can do and therefore ensure you will be properly prepared when facing them. If you're more inclined to seek controlling such creatures, Libris Mortis will also help you in deciding which kind would be best suited to your needs.
Happy Undead Hunting.
Rated by buyers -
This book is an outstanding resource for dm's and players alike. It has several different functions, without going into the specifics of chapter by chapter reviews (which has already been done).
First, it includes a section on the various "ecologies" of the undead. This is an outstanding tool for designing new undead, designing campaigns and plot hooks for players. Several techniques are described for how undead feed and their effect on the undead psychology.
Second, the book provides for a way to quickly return a player to the game. Nothing is worse than having a character die early in the session and having to wait for your character to be raised or to make a new character to continue play - with this manual, you can quickly join back in the game AND have a quest to complete at the same time - either the destruction of your sire, or the raising of your corpse. Much in the spirit of Ghostwalk, this manual allows for the game to go on even when your characters' pulse didn't.
The book also contains a selection of new items and feats geared toward undead. Whether your character hunts undead or is one himself, there is something in here for them. In addition, it is useful for DM's in the same fashion to "bulk up" one of the villians with these additional feats and powers and thus suprise the players.
All in all, another outstanding product from WOTC.
Rated by buyers -
Where to begin? I suppose I should begin by saying that if you can't stand the sight of cysts, and disembodied heads being swarmed and eaten by rats, then you shouldn't get this book. Also, if you can't stand the thought of children perishing then being brought back and being used by an evil Necromancer to sow chaos, then you might steer clear of this book. But if the aforementioned doesn't bother you, or already has your mind filled with a million and a half ideas for your campaigns, then let's talk.
Firstly, let's talk about... oh, I don't know... say, the monsters. There's fluff and there's crunch, very first of all, or if you don't know what that means, things that are overall useless and things that have you saying, 'bout time. Brain In A Jar? Who needs that? Grave-Dirt Golem? I know what you're thinking, 'Oh, No! Not another Construct!' but bear with me, while it's not necessarily necessary, it is fun to have a Golem made of dirt, with bones of people who perished and were unlucky enough to have their graves used for the Golem. Besides, it fits a Necromancer, or any class, really, who builds Constructs for whatever reason who likes to hang around graveyards. So yeah, like I said, fluff and crunch. Also, there's fluffy, crunchy creatures including the Slaughter Wight, the Wheep, and the Spectral Lyrist. I'll leave it to you to decide what's fluff and crunch among those, and every other new monster in the book.
Secondly, let's talk about the prestige classes, there's classes like the Death's Chosen, the True Necromancer, and the Pale Master. Now, those aren't the only classes in this book, there's also the Dirge Singer and the Master of Radiance. I'll talk about those. The Dirge Singer, as you've probably guessed, is a prestige class for the Bard who specializes in songs that fill their enemies with sorrow and dread and, by my gathering, I haven't read in detail yet, can control some undead. The Master of Radiance is a prestige class for a druid, but you also have to have some levels as a cleric, at any rate, the Master of Radiance can use spells that channel sunlight and destroy undead who are destroyed by sunlight (blasted vampires). And on the subject of Clerics, I know, they're lame, let's not kid around here, about all they can do is heal and turn undead. But in this book, they can also summon undead. Yes, Clerics of Nerull, rejoice. You can summon undead to do your dirty work, while you use your Inflict spells to keep them at full strength (Instead of doing damage, Inflict Grievous Wounds recovers a lot of damage for that Huge Skeleton you summoned).
Thirdly, and the last I'm going to write about, is the nuts and bolts of campaign planning included in this book. The people who made this book were generous in giving several sample undead to use as minor villains, or use as the big baddie for your newbie players if your a DM. They also included a few scenarios to use if you're running an undead-centered campaign, including World of Shadows in which undead and the living coincide in day to day life, and Undying Rulers where powerful undead like a lich or a vampire rules the land. Needless to say, if you're the DM, you can change things about these and the other campaign over-views presented as you see fit. Do the undead and the living live in harmony and work together in World of Shadows? Did that lich just recently come into power after a very long line of undead in Undying Rulers? It's up to you. Of course, they're not stand alone. You can use these campaing overviews in conjunction with others described not only in this book, but others, as well, but you'd have to be pretty crafty to interweave a whole bunch of them.
It's ultimately up to you whether you want this book or not, I'm just trying to point you in the right direction if you want an undead-centric campaign or at least to incorporate undead into your campaign. Also, it's a pretty good read as is.
Rated by buyers -
One close look inside this book and you will quicky see that it was written for the Dungeon Master. This does not detract from it's sincere reading enjoyment for everyone. I find the prestige classes offered to be interesting, but mainly for NPC's, the true necromancer was a big disappointment, and has no where near the flavor of the Dread Necromancer presented in Hero's of Horror. Great art thought. I contrary to others am interested in detailed descriptions of the Undead, such as eating habits, this can really enhance the role playing of such creatures, and deepen plotlines. As a PC, you can make good use of some of the items presented here, whether you are a Cleric of Nerull or a Paladin or Pelor. Will you use this whole book in its entirity? probably not, but you will probably use some of it. If you use a lot of undead in your campaign, then this book is dead on for you.
Rated by buyers 
-
I would say that this book is greatly overrated.
A lot of the rules laid out are bland or silly-do we really need rules codifying the eating habits of the undead? Further, the majority of the new undead are absurd and the feats have struck me as... lacking.
More time could have been spent on fluff material instead of trying to cram in as much weird new crunch as possible.
That said, some of the prestige classes are fun to use for antagonists. There are undead varients and premade liches that can provide quick adventure material. I wouldn't say I'm sorry I bought this (I got it cheap), but a good half of the book is useless to me unless I want to make use of the gross-out factor mosters.
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