Shhhhh... Don’t tell anyone, but here at Paizo we love our classic and misfit monsters. There is a tendency to look back at some of the oddball monsters that popped up in the sources of our youth and lament on how strange or even dumb they are. We take a different tact. Instead we revel in their strange and iconic natures. Any chance we get, we look for reason why even the most inexplicable monsters might exist in a fantasy world.
If you’re a fan of our Misfit Monsters Redeemed, you will like how many of those monsters show up in Bestiary 3. From the strangely philosophical flail snail, to those inexplicable fan favorites, the flumphs, to the downright creepy wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing, let’s just say this book is full of some strange old friends. But wait, there’s more!
Misfit Monsters Redeemed is not the only source of inspiration for the classic and misfit monsters that made the cut for Bestiary 3. Many Bonus Bestiary monsters found their way into Bestiary 3—from the axe beak, to the caryatid column, to the unholy huecuva—old favorites abound in this tome.
Now for those of you who buy nearly all of Paizo’s products, and are maybe becoming worried that you’ve seen many of the classic monsters that are appearing in Bestiary 3, don’t worry. While most of the monsters see updates, new information, and maybe some streamlining of mechanics, there are also some old favorites that show up for the first time in a Paizo product. Some of those highlights include the penanggalen, the vodyanoi, and one of my favorite old monsters, the kamadan, which is previewed below, along with its two variants: the dusk and polar kamadan.
Illustration by Eric Belisle
Kamadan CR 4
XP 1,200
NE Large magical beast Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +8
Defense
AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +5 natural, –1 size) hp 42 (5d10+15) Fort +7, Ref +6, Will +2
Offense
Speed 40 ft. Melee bite +7 (1d6+3), 2 claws +7 (1d3+3), snakes +2 (1d4+1) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with snakes) Special Attacks breath weapon (30-ft. cone, sleep, Fortitude DC 15 negates, usable every 1d4 rounds), pounce
Statistics
Str 17, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 5, Wis 12, Cha 9 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 22 (26 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility Skills Acrobatics +6 (+10 when jumping), Perception +8, Stealth +6; Racial Modifiers +4 Stealth Languages Aklo
Ecology
Environment temperate or warm plains Organization solitary, pair, or pack (3–9) Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Breath Weapon (Su) A kamadan can exhale a cone of gas that makes living creatures fall asleep for 5 minutes (Fortitude DC 15 negates). Slapping or wounding awakens a creature put to sleep by this attack, but normal noise does not. This is a sleep effect. The save DC is Constitution-based. Snakes (Ex) A kamadan’s snakes attack simultaneously; this is always a secondary attack.
Dusk Kamadan (CR +1): A dusk kamadan has midnight black fur and snakes bearing black and red ring patterns on their bodies. A dusk kamadan has the advanced creature template, and its snakes have a poisonous bite: Snakes—injury; save Fort DC 17; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con; cure 2 consecutive saves.
Polar Kamadan (CR +2): A polar kamadan has white fur with black spots like a snow leopard. Its snakes are furred as well. A polar kamadan has the advanced creature template and batlike wings that grant it a fly speed of 60 ft. (average). The breath weapon of a polar kamadan is particularly cold—those who succumb to it also suffer 1d4 points of Dexterity damage from numbness.
Well, that’s it for this week. Come back next week when we unleash more monsters that will make their appearance in Bestiary 3!
1) snakes +2 (1d4+1)
and
Snakes (Ex) A kamadan’s snakes attack simultaneously; this is always a secondary attack.
So the kamadan has a single attack for all its snakes that deals 1d4+1? (this is just clarification)
2) "The breath weapon of a polar [b]kamadan 3[b] is particularly cold"
I think this is just an editing mistake, at some point before the name polar kamadan, some one said "lets have some kamadan variants, kamadan 1 is the base and looks like a normal leopard, kamadan 2 looks like a black leopard, and kamadan 3 like a snow leopard." But before they were formally named, at least kamadan 3 was named kamadan 3. Or there is an errant 3?
1) snakes +2 (1d4+1)
and
Snakes (Ex) A kamadan’s snakes attack simultaneously; this is always a secondary attack.
So the kamadan has a single attack for all its snakes that deals 1d4+1? (this is just clarification)
2) "The breath weapon of a polar [b]kamadan 3[b] is particularly cold"
I think this is just an editing mistake, at some point before the name polar kamadan, some one said "lets have some kamadan variants, kamadan 1 is the base and looks like a normal leopard, kamadan 2 looks like a black leopard, and kamadan 3 like a snow leopard." But before they were formally named, at least kamadan 3 was named kamadan 3. Or there is an errant 3?
1) Correct. The kamadan's snakes attack similarly to how a medusa's snakes attack—as a single mass of bites. (We did this in both cases because giving either monster lots of separate snake attacks would end up with it doing FAR too much damage.)
2) The extra "3" is a typo in the blog post. There should be no 3 there at all. (Looking in Bestairy 3, the point where the "3" would show up is on a line break, and I suspect that when we copy-pasted the text from the PDF that all of the line breaks carried over as hard line breaks and so we had to go in and manually remove those and in the process hit the 3 instead of the "ENTER" key on the numerical pad to do so on that line.)
Like the stats, don't like the looks. Too "put 2 monsters together and get a new one", but it's mentioned that it's an old monster so there probably wasn't much choice.
Damn, if it would shown 2 weeks ago I would use it instead of manticores on a "random" encounter when our party traveled outside the city. Luckily they will probably wander around more trying to reach nomad clans meeting at holy place in a few weeks.
Also, party half-elf fighter will be happy - Kamadan's breath is supernatural and thus magical so won't put him to sleep like nonmagical poison used by Xtabay.
BTW: I assume that its damage dice for all natural attacks are deliberately lowered from the standard values for Large creature? It has realy weak claws - two steps below standard.
BTW: I assume that its damage dice for all natural attacks are deliberately lowered from the standard values for Large creature? It has realy weak claws - two steps below standard.
Yup. Even with lowered standard values, it's still doing slightly more damage per round on average than a CR 4 creature should. We adjust the standard attack values all the time for this reason.
Excellent! Paizo fires up the WABAC Machine and fields a replacement for the displacer beast. As Mairkurion said, "Well played."
Except for the displacement part. ;)
*cough* Coeurl *cough*
*whisper *sadly copyright exist
We statted them up in Pathfinder #22, actually... I think that's what Gorbacz was coughing about. They're not open content, but that doesn't mean you can't use them in your Pathfinder game at all.
I'll picking this up just days before a convention. I haven't finalized what I'm doing yet. So this will definitely give some more critters to play with.
That polar kamadan is kind of weird. It's breath weapon is so cold, it causes numbness, but it doesn't deal any cold damage. And, despite breathing numbing cold every 1d4 rounds, the polar kamadan isn't immune or resistant to cold.
MHAHAHAHAHA!!! soon my squishy caster PCs will fear the dreaded purple...i mean...leopard printed cat....with tentacles...i mean..snakes...yeah snakes, coming out of its back
(lol Paizo for the win)
*edit oh and there ones that fly holy crap yes this is my new favorite kitty
Excellent! Paizo fires up the WABAC Machine and fields a replacement for the displacer beast. As Mairkurion said, "Well played."
Except for the displacement part. ;)
*cough* Coeurl *cough*
*whisper *sadly copyright exist
We statted them up in Pathfinder #22, actually... I think that's what Gorbacz was coughing about. They're not open content, but that doesn't mean you can't use them in your Pathfinder game at all.
Coeurl also wasn't game content, and I doubt A.E. Van Vogt's estate or whatever publisher has current rights to The Voyage of the Space Beagle* would mind that creature turning up in Pathfinder; it's free advertising, after all, and doesn't include nearly enough content from the story to constitute an actionable infringement of their copyright -- most book reviews would probably include more.
* Or would that be Erik Mona? It seems like exactly the sort of thing he'd snap up for Planet Stories if it happened to be out of print with the rights available for a reasonable price.
Coeurl also wasn't game content, and I doubt A.E. Van Vogt's estate or whatever publisher has current rights to The Voyage of the Space Beagle* would mind that creature turning up in Pathfinder; it's free advertising, after all, and doesn't include nearly enough content from the story to constitute an actionable infringement of their copyright -- most book reviews would probably include more.
* Or would that be Erik Mona? It seems like exactly the sort of thing he'd snap up for Planet Stories if it happened to be out of print with the rights available for a reasonable price.
Actually, we secured permission from Van Vogt's estate to print the stats for the Coeurl, but they didn't want it to be open content, which is why that's one of the few non-open rules bits we've published in a Pathfinder product.
Yeah I remember that AP, the Coeurl is cool, I wish it was open content.
Why? Do you do a lot of publishing of d20 products?
Open content doesn't matter for games you run or play in. You can use all the coeurls you want in your home game as long as you're not publishing that game as a public resource or product.
I like the base and Dusk versions, I think they are interesting but the arctic one is weird, it doesn't have cold resistance and the bat wings feel out of place.
I'm totally going to reflavor the dusk kamadan as a lion with cobra heads peeking out of it's mane, for use in Osirion.
The nastier version will be a dire lion with *spitting* cobra heads... :)
Was it created in the Nexian flesh-forges? Did the cult of Lamashtu have something to do with it's creation? Did the mysterious naga have a hand in framing it's cruel symmetry? Yes. To all.
Thanks to a Qadiri satrap, who brought some back for his personal menagerie (and their subsequent escape), they can also be found in Qadira, now.
Galnörag
James Jacobs
Creative Director
Paris Crenshaw
ulgulanoth
Gorbacz
Callous Jack
Set
