Pyramid Review
Horde Book 1: A Swarm of Stirges (for the d20 System)
Published by Behemoth3
Written by Travis Allison
Illustrated by Sang Lee
54-page perfect bound book; $12
One of the many things to occur with the launch of Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, and the d20 System being made available to third parties, has been a re-examination of some of the classic monsters from the Monster Manual. Mongoose Publishing led the way with The Slayer's Guide series, and many publishers have followed suit with titles of their own. The latest to leap aboard this bandwagon is first time publisher Behemoth3 with the Masters and Minions Series, launching itself with two titles in the series at GenCon '04. The first of these is Horde Book 1: A Swarm of Stirges, the other being Maze of the Minotaur.
The humble Stirge can be best described as a blood-sucking cross between a bat and a fly (or, as one friend put it, "bats with big bums"). Since its first appearance in the Monster Manual in 1979, the Stirge has always been dismissed as a bothersome nuisance, a creature much like the Kobold to be put to the sword before going up a level. Having just celebrated their silver anniversary, this new book sets out to develop the ecology of the Stirge. It draws on the previous examinations written by Ed Greenwood and Tim Richardson, but goes further to add new creatures that either make use of the Stirge or appear because of its life cycle.
The first thing the supplement does is represent the Stirge itself, unchanged . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 11, 2005
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