While I love the idea of Pathfinder OGL monsters being converted over to Dungeon Crawl Classics, and having all the monster abilities laid out for DCC is nice, this book is different from the main DCC bestiary in a few critical ways.
First up, the hit dice are too low. An elite stone giant in this bestiary has 6d8+6 hit points. In the DCC rulebook, this is 12d10 hit points.
Second, the damage and attack numbers are too low. The same stone giant in this bestiary can do one of three attacks: a +7 melee attack for 3d8+4, a +2 rock attack for 1d8+6, or a +7 slam for 2d6 + 4. In the DCC rulebook, this is a +18 melee attack for 3d8+10, or a +10 hurled stone for 1d8+10.
Third, the monsters have a few strange action dice entries. In DCC, all monsters start on a d20 on the dice chain. In this bestiary, giants and two action dice (for the elite, again), of 1d20 and a 2d24 roll. 2d24 means two d24 attacks, and not one 2d24 attack. I got very confused by this.
The AC is also low, with the stone giant being a 12-14 in the bestiary, and a 17 in the DCC core book.
To use this, a few adjustments are required.
First, pick a scaling factor for hit points and multiply by one to three times, depending on the size of the creature.
Second, ignore the action dice and multiply the given attack bonuses by one to two times.
Third, add another 0% to 30% to their attack damage, which is up to another whole damage die for most monsters. Some monsters at the lower levels do a bit too much, such as the orc.
Up the AC of all monsters by +0 to +5.
I am using the stone giant here, but this is a generally good baseline example. A few monsters, like the orc, are very close to DCC and work fine. Having action dice for monsters is nice, but I wish they were more varied, with the d14 and d16 used more often for some additional but weaker humanoid and low-level monster attacks.
DCC is an odd game; it has monsters with similar hit points, attack values, and damage outputs to 3.5E or Pathfinder 1e monsters (And the Aquilae Pathfinder compilations have numbers closer to DCC). Pathfinder's AC values are too high and need to be reduced by two-thirds (multiply the PF 1e AC by 0.66) and capped at 10. In this case, it is a more straightforward recommendation for the Pathfinder bestiaries by the same publisher as the DCC ones, but I wish the DCC books were more in line with the DCC rulebook.
It still is a nice book as a compilation, but you still need to go by the DCC rulebook to get your monster's stats in the correct ballpark for the game, "as intended." A great selection of monsters, but some tweaking is needed to keep them from being pushovers. We are supposed to tweak everything anyway, so if you don't really care much about the numbers and want something that gets you close enough, this book works.
I still love this book, though. It's a hard one to put down, since it gives me so much. I love the monster abilities listed under each entry. The different levels of creatures are fun. The quality level is very high.
Here is the critical factor. This book assumes a different baseline for the conversions, though. You also need to factor in "number appearing," which, if a bunch of the DCC monsters, as is, appeared, the fights with ten stone giants would take forever using the DCC official stats, versus these with the lower hit points, AC values, and lesser damage attacks. Lower hit point monsters would be quicker, more epic, and heroic fights, where you can take on hordes without the game dragging. Since the AC values are lower, you will hit more, and the fights will be faster.
Conversions are hard!
And the number of creatures in a fight matters.
This may be for a different type of DCC entirely. Used as a consistent bestiary, it may be a fun game. the numbers are not DCC-like, but DCC assumes each monster is the only one in the world, and this bestiary assumes they are one of many.
The balance does change with multiple creatures in a group, and if all you used were these numbers, but tweaked slightly, you could be fine. Keep the monsters consistent and from one source.
In short, a helpful book that will enhance your game, perhaps for the better. Just keep consistent and use only these monsters, and see how it goes!
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