This review has been sponsored by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Lucas Anderson, with Matthew Campbell, Purple Bog Press, Solomon Wyatt, Endhy Pino, and Jack Weighill
From the designers of holiday-themed monster books such as 12 More Christmas Slays and 13 Horrors of Halloween, comes Tumblestrum’s Tome of Unicorns. While lacking in holiday theming, this new monster book creates several new unicorn statblocks featuring some creative abilities.
Tumblestrum’s features nine new unicorns, or 12 if you include a few weaker foal variants, plus two humanoids and a dozen unicorn-themed magic items.
The original unicorn in the 5e Monster Manual is a large CR 5 Celestial with Charge, Hooves, some minor spellcasting, and legendary actions and regional effects.
The new unicorns follow this trend, with each unicorn featuring some cool movement-triggering abilities, blessings and curses, and legendary actions.
The Phantom Unicorn is a ghostly, evil, undead creature with life-draining horn attack and multiple debilitating curses. It can even bestow temporary exhaustion just by moving near its foes.
The Mechanical Unicorn has swappable horns like a Swiss Army Knife, engaging drill horns, thunder horns, and grappling hook horns for a truly unpredictable matchup.
The huge, crystalline CR 14 Prismatic Unicorn has one of the craziest abilities I’ve ever seen: a basic attack that creates copies of its enemies! These copies only have 20 hit points (and only cantrips if they cast spells), but feature all the stats of the original, and obey the unicorn’s commands.
On top of that, the Prismatic Unicorn has its own special “Gifts” (which are really curses, in keeping with its chaotic theme), and creates random effects whenever it moves akin to the spell Nathair’s Mischief.
The new humanoid statblocks are both CR 10, with the Dark Hunter as an obvious hunter of unicorns (with the Sentinel feat and a nasty celestial-slaying crossbow), while the Pureheart is a staunch defender, using unicorn blessings to power their abilities.
My only complaint is the actual presentation. The statblocks and descriptions are presented in an ezine style, while the creature art is very bold color-sketches resembling stylized album covers, with mixed results. The art means a lot in monster books, and I don’t see most of these creatures looking good in a virtual table top.
On the plus side, Tumblestrum’s Tome of Unicorns has everything I could ask for in a themed monster book. Every creature has a meaty description, multiple adventure hook ideas, and even sample skill checks to give players a chance to learn about them. And the statblocks feature some really creative ideas in a variety of concepts.
Pros:
- Over a dozen unicorn (and unicorn-adjacent) statblocks, from CR 2 to CR 17
- Each entry includes original art, adventure hooks, skill check player info, regional effects, and legendary actions.
- 12 unicorn-inspired magic items.
Cons:
- Questionable art design.
The Verdict: Tumblestrum’s Tome of Unicorns expands a relatively simple statblock into multiple interesting ideas, themes and concepts
A review copy of “Tumblestrum’s Tome of Unicorns” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 