One of the hardest things about using summon monster spells if you're a new player or DM (or even if you're experienced) is that you have to apply templates to most of the creatures you can summon with these spells. And if your character has the Augment Summoning feat, then you also have to recalculate anything in the creature's stat block that has to do with Strength or Constitution.

Like summon monster, the summon nature's ally spell chain is tricky to use because it summons a wide variety of different beasts that may need to be modified if the caster possesses the the Augment Summoning feat from the Core Rules.

The summon monster spell chain is useful, but it's challenging to players and Dungeon Masters alike because it summons a lot of different creatures, applying the celestial or fiendish templates many of them. The Augment Summoning feat from the Core Rules additionally modifies the summoned creature's Strength and Constitution scores, which changes its hit points, Fortitude save, and usually its grapple modifier, attack and damage modifiers, and skill check modifiers as well.

Tolrea is home to over three dozen races of sentient being, although many of them are rare. This figure includes a variety of races which, in a traditional Dungeons and Dragons setting, might otherwise be considered "monster" races.

After finding myself pleasantly surprised by Races of Stone, I was quite hopeful that this book would offer a similar treatment of humans, half-orcs and half-elves. Boy, was I wrong!

Like Races of Stone, this book divides the ‘Races of Destiny’ into three chapters.

It might be surprising that I waited so long to acquire this book.  After all, I love dwarves.  As a race they exhibit tremendous heroism yet remain deeply flawed.  Back in the days of 1^st edition it was clear that dwarves lived *ON* the mountains more than *IN* the mountains.  Their homes were close to the surface, and full of natural light.  Over succeeding revisions, dwarves have moved deeper and deeper underground and come to resemble their Duergar cousins more and more in behavior and outlook.  So I was reluctant to purchase this book – I was afraid I would get nothing but ‘