Eberron: Bestiary

Eberron: Rising from the Last War has a fair number of new monsters and creatures to fill out your encounters.

Again, suggesting some similar sensibilities between myself and the creators of this setting, there are a large number of Aberrations. The Daelkyr are subterranean lords of aberrations - while there are six listed, only two get full stat blocks, but you might be able to homebrew some based on them. Belyyshara is tied to Beholders - appearing as a sort of older woman with a halo of eyeballs, this is actually a terrifying Great Old One-like entity that has many Beholder-like abilities. Drynn, similarly, looks like a humanoid man but can manifest various tentacles and has a number of Mind Flayer-like abilities. Both are CR 22, offering decent "campaign boss" options.

In addition, the Quori are a different sort of Aberration, coming from the plane of dreams. These are essentially living Nightmares, and are allied with the "Inspired," which are humans who have taken these beings into themselves. Excellent villains, especially if you have any Kalashtar party members, who are basically like the Inspired but who are bonded to a benevolent dream creature.

Of note, there are a fair number of very high-CR monsters here, many of which are specific legendary creatures. There are also generic stat blocks for NPCs from the new Eberron races.

While a lot of this is tied into the lore of the setting, you can easily loot a lot of these if you're looking for some new things. In particular, I like the Radiant Idol - which is basically a fallen angel - and the Undying, which are good-aligned undead animated with energy from the Positive Plane.

Also, there is a fun template for Living Spells, which allows you to take damaging Evocation and Conjuration spells and turn them into monsters that you can fight (or potentially employ?)

Finally, one that really excites me is the Warforged Colossus. Notably, the Colossus is also considered an adventure location. Most of these are thought to be inactive ruins that can be explored like a derelict Jaeger from Pacific Rim, but if you come across one that still works... make sure you stay on its good side because these things are CR 25.

Aside from actual new monsters and stat blocks, I really like the way that Eberron treats its creatures. While in other settings, Gnolls or Beholders would always be dangerous evils, here they can potentially be just people, and potentially allies. Notably (and I might cover this in a future post) in the very Noir-ish level 1 adventure they provide (which, having run neither, feels more interesting than Krenko's Way in Ravnica) they have the party assaulted by a group of criminal gnolls, but shortly thereafter, a civilian gnoll comes to aid them if they get attacked, just as a good samaritan bystander.

This book is massive, and I've jumped around a little. I've got a ton more to read, but so far I'm really enjoying it.