As a DM, I have always struggled with the vague advice about world building that I was given. This book offered exactly what I needed: creative freedom supported by guidelines. Creativity thrives under limitations, and the framework provided by this PDF (not to mention the pre-made cities, villages, and towns) is perfect for writers of DMs alike!

I love this book! I downloaded RealmWorks again to use the two together in an effort to build a world, one settlement at a time.

Now, with Cyberpunk: Red having been released, it would be cool to see a similar book for a sci-fi setting. Sure, the future is fantastic, right? But there's room for nomad settlements, and cities need some history to them.

I just have to say wow! Ive purchased the odd 3rd party monster manual before, well this my friend is what you need for those creative juices to start flowing. Just browsing through the book I was amazed by ever entry I read, not only that but all of a sudden I want to run a classic horror campaign, zombies, ghouls, Ghasts and Liches, Oh my! and thats just chapter one.

On page 6, is the first monster entry, sort of, each creature type has a full 2-3 page intro about the specific creature, in this case GHOSTS. Origins, Environments, Role playing notes, and tactics, and Encounter tables. Then come the entries themselves, 9 differient types of ghosts for your players to encounter, and my god I want to throw one of these creatures into my next game right now... or better yet give me an idea next time one of my players dies.

then onto the next creature type. Anyway, I got to page 59 and though wow I never thought I'd want to put my players up against a Litch.... (I mean Lich, LOL) Now I do.

And the book just keeps going and going, 270 pages, Lycanthropes, Mongrel folk, Mummies, Revanents, skelletons, vampires, wraiths and more, 14 pages on Animated objects, 16 pages on player options, and to put Icing on this cake they have also encluded A few Lair Maps to enspire you with. This book has way more then I was expecting. Every publisher doing monsters books, take note! Nord Games just Set the bar for me! Please Make More Monster Manuals Guys!!!

PS Ive been playing since 1e, and this is one of the few books that has me very excited to have in my collection!

This book is useful but a bit underwhelming. If you want a slew of rogues and fighters to use, this is the book for you. If you are hoping for any wizards, sorcerers or clerics, think again. There is not a single wizard, sorcerer or cleric in all the npc's that they made. I'm not sure what person thought no one would ever want any of these as an npc in their game. The closest you will get is a couple of warlocks in here. It's almost as if they looked at primary caster classes and said "meh, too much work". Also ther are no Paladins either and only a single barbarian ....but if you want rogues and fighters, they definitely have you covered.

It should have been called "Ultimate Fighter & Rogue NPCs", very disappointing for the money.

German review: Nord Press hat mit dem Ultimate Bestiary: The Dreaded Accuresed einen sehr tolles Monsterbuch für Spielleiter geschrieben, die ihre Kampagne hauptsächlich im Horrorgenre ansiedeln möchten oder für Curse of Strahd neue Monster suchen.

Wie der Titel verrät, behandelt dieses Monsterbuch Untote und Kreaturen der Nacht. Angefangen mit Skeletten, Zombies, Werwölfen und Vampiren, gibt es aber auch eher ausgefallene Monster wie z.B. Mumien. Für die jeweilige Monsterkategorie hat Nord Press mehrere Monstern unterschiedlicher Schwierigkeitsgrade und thematischer Hintergründe kreiert und erleichtert somit die schnelle Vorbereitung und das Balancing von Kämpfen.

Bisher mehrere gespielte Encounter mit den Monster-Stats haben sich als sehr “rund” und ausbalanciert ergeben und die Monster haben alle kleine Eigenheiten, die sie einzigartig machen. So sind Gruftschrecken z.B. in der Lage, lebende Kreaturen zu erspüren. Hier werden also nicht nur Monster-Stats mit TP und Angriffen präsentiert, sondern die Kreaturen authentisch und lebendig gestaltet.

Neben den Monstern sind im Buch auch Regeln für Monströse Spielerklassen und Krankheiten enthalten. Dies ermöglicht es Spielern, selbst ein Vampir oder Geist zu werden. Die Krankheiten sind besonders für Spielleiter interessant, die neben der Gefahr, die die Monster darstellen, auch noch den Horror einer untoten Erkrankung in ihr Spiel implementieren möchten.

Alles in Allem ein super Buch für jeden Spielleiter. Für Spieler sind leider lediglich die Klassenoptionen interessant und dafür lohnt sich die Anschaffung meiner Meinung nach weniger.

Einziger kleiner Kritikpunkt: Die Artworks wirken in der PDF z.T. etwas pixelig und verwaschen. Große Rechtschreibfehler sind nicht aufgefallen und die Formatierung ist gut gelungen.

Quick english review:

• Really lovely designed monsters for your horror game or Curse of Strahd campaign for many different CR!
• I would say the monsters are well balanced; so far no encounter has been too difficult or stats felt overpowered
• Monsters are designed "authentic" and all come with a special feature: Wights for example can track living creatures down
• Exotic monsters like mumies are included aswell
• Options for monster playerclasses
• Options for undead diseases to create a threat for your players... or maybe they enjoy becoming a zombie
• Only negativ point so far: some artworks look pixelated and washed-out

Would definitly recommend for every DM if you want to run a horror/undead themed campaign or want to add extra monsters to Barovia. 5/5 would buy again... maybe I will... by buying the hardcopy.

Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery is part of a series of books by Nord Games that provides a very handy list of characters of various race, background, class, and alignment. The book contains character sheets for each character at level 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. The character classes include bard, barbarian, fighter, warlock, and ranger, covering roughly half the class options in the Player's Handbook. There are 10 races represented, excluding sub-races, featuring most of the standard races, and even a shapechanger! There are 30 characters in total, with some tables that a dungeon master can roll on to get a random character. There are even tables by alignment in case you're looking for a charatacter that's good, neutral, or evil-aligned. However, this book doesn't have to be for dungeon masters alone. If you're in a pinch and need a character for a game, say at a gaming convention or a pick-up game, this book is very useful. Since the character sheets take up one page each for the characters at each level, you can simply print up characters from the PDF file or photocopy them and hand them out when needed. The character's backstory is even included. This can make the game easy for those just getting started who don't yet understand the character creation process.

On top of all of this, the book has a few pages at the end with some nice equipment options. Much of these are items are things like enhanced tools, kits, and musical instruments that often give bonuses to tool proficiency checks. There are some very interesting items, such as the 'Book of Blackmail' that gives bonuses to persuasion checks against nobles listed in the book who don't want their secrets exposed. Items like this require some DM judgement as to how they are to be used. There are a few weapons listed as well, including the 'powerful crossbow' and 'scalpel', which have some special rules for dealing extra damage. These are things that a DM should be aware of before allowing them in their game. As well, there are some new poisons and magic items to add some flare to your game. There is also a handful of new spells, most of which are really useful. Some of the spell descriptions, such as for the spell 'Donnybrook', which causes a crowd of at least 15 creatures to start fighting each other, are also open to DM interpretation. Most of the spells nicely match the book's theme of skulduggery, giving some nice options for thiefs, such as the 'Sticky Fingers' cantrip that grants advantage on Sleight of Hand checks.

Overall, this book is greatfor DMs. You can use it to introduce a new NPC when you need to, and have stats for that NPC as they rise in level. You can use it for extra characters when you have new players. You can use the items as treasure for your party, and you can surprise and vex your party with spells that they haven't seen before. This is a great book if you're looking to reduce the prepwork before your game, and I can't wait to see what other books Nord games offers in this series.

See the full review at Geeksagogo.com!