Monster Chronicles: Inevitable (PFRPG) PDF

4.30/5 (based on 3 ratings)

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What Makes an Inevitable Tick?

The slaad have a long history in gaming, back to White Dwarf and the Fiend Folio. The Inevitables are more recent creations, but just as strange in their own way. How strange? Designer Stefen Styrsky shows us in this, the second installment of the Monster Chronicles.

Monster Chronicles: Inevitable takes the tick-tock guardians of order and shows you how to deploy them in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Indeed, with insight into what makes the inevitable work (and not work), the Monster Chronicles: Inevitable is positively celestial, but totally practical.

The Monster Chronicles series provides ecologies and variants for lesser-known monsters as well as some gaming classics. Every monster will come with adventure hooks and surprises to catch even the most seasoned adventurer off-guard.

Stefen Styrsky's prior credits include Dwarves of the Ironcrags, Sunken Empires, the Iron Gazetteer, and articles in Kobold Quarterly.

Pick up Monster Chronicles: Inevitable now, and give your Inevitable a surprising twist!

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4.30/5 (based on 3 ratings)

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Review

4/5

Since the release of the Pathfinder Bestiary, I have wondered why certain monsters were excluded. Sure, mindflayers and beholders aren’t OGL (their exclusion is rather self-explanatory), but reasons for other exclusions, like the inevitables, weren’t so immediately obvious. So, of course I was interested when I heard that Kobold Quarterly was going to tackle the inevitables as part of their Monster Chronicles series.

The 10 page PDF contains an impressive amount of information. Opening with a Nietzche quote to get readers into the correct gear, the text details a rather interesting origin story of the first inevitable, Zurvan, the Iron Angel, and how and why it (the text refers to Zurvan as an ‘it’) created the other inevitables.

Styrsky also manages to squeeze in information about the more common inevitables (the kolyarut, marut and zelekhut) and some examples of unique or named inevitables (all of which can easily be slotted into any game). The text also contains new inevitable feats and variant builds for inevitables (to suit specific missions, for example). The PDF also includes a new cleric domain, compulsion, granted to clerics of Zurvan. I found this to be quite a nice added touch, since every game can benefit from a crazed machine cult.

The PDF ends off with a detailed description of Zurvan and his combat statistics. I managed to run a short game with Zurvan and it provides a very tough encounter. I found the selection of spell-like abilities and recommended combat tactics to be quite interesting and fun to run.

I do have one small gripe though: I wish that the PDF contained a PFRPG conversion of the 3.X inevitables. I know that complete stat blocks take up quite a lot of space, but a short summary of the bigger or most important changes such as CMB, CMD and the changes of attack related feats, such as power attack, would have been nice.

I have to also mention that the text does reference the Free City of Zobeck (a KQ setting) quite often. Obviously, this MC adds value to the Zobeck Gazetteer. The ideas behind Zurvan, despite not being that setting-neutral, are still easily ported over to other settings.

The PDF reads well and contains a tonne of great ideas and plot hooks. I really like how the text has managed to inspire me to use inevitables in more creative ways – beyond mere plane-traveling terminators, but actual personalities that can interact with PCs on many different levels.

Review originally posted here.


Clockwork Angels? Hell yeah!

4/5

This pdf consists of 10 pages, 1 page cover, 1 page credits (and some text) and 1 page OGL and some text. It's in the same, nice, horizontal, easy to read style as the first installment of Monster Chronicles.

The text starts off with a mentioning of Zobeck. Having been a patron of the project, that tugged right at my heart's strings.

We get a sidebox detailing knowledge of Inevitables, that PCs can glean. Nice.

Then, the pdf provides an all new and yet canon-consistent origin myth for the Inevitables and introduces "Zurvan, the Iron Angel", Inevitable of Destiny and his involvement in the material plane.

After that, we get notes on Inevitable psychology and society, complete with a side-box on defect (i.e. chaotic) Inevitables. A fond memory of "Nordom" later, we get 3 Inevitable feats and 5 new additional mission packs, i.e. new abilities that may or may not influence the CR of Inevitable.

"Known Inevitables" has some examples for Inevitables. Any DM worth his salt could spin an encounter of any of them.

Then, we get some information on the rising cult of Zurvan as well as a new domain, "Compulsion". I considered the domain to be boring and a waste of space, as it was not original enough for my tastes. One alternative spell from the "Zobeck Gazetteer" is mentioned, though, and I would have LOVED to see more alternatives given to the standard core spells.

After that, we get 3 short customized summon lists, stating what kind of summon spell would be used to summon Inevitable/clock-work creature X. While it does feature a creature from the "Zobeck Gazetteer" I really love, I considered that superfluous, too.

4 cool adventure hooks follow up, again with ties to my favorite clockwork city.

Finally, the pdf concludes with advice on Zurvan's appearance, how to portray him and his EPIC statblock (CR 20, btw.!) as well as his awesome and innovative abilities. "Clockwork Aura" is one of the coolest abilities I've seen in quite some time.

Conclusion:
This pdf is clever and does not yet provide Inevitable stats, as they have not yet been released in the Pathfinder Bestiary, but probably are sure to follow. That does limit the usability of the Inevitable modifications and feats for now, though. Zurvan is really cool. However, neither the cult, nor the new domain really did seem that original to me or made me want to use them. To be honest, the paragraph on the cult actually bored me. The artwork, while nice (especially Zurvan on the cover!) is not as good as in the predecessor.
The frequent "Zobeck"- references, while tugging at my heart's strings, also make me wish that the pdf had been more geared (bad pun, I know) towards Zobeck, however that might have reduced it's general appeal. With the Zobeckbonus, I'd give it 4.5 stars, but due to the fact that the Zobeck tie-in felt a bit half-hearted to me as well as the aforementioned, minor flaws, I'll round it down to 4 stars. It's still a good product with great production value and if you're interested, check it out!


An RPG Resource Review

5/5

It had to happen. If the good dwarves and humans of the Free City of Zobeck spend all their time creating clockwork mechanisms, some of them are going to start thinking mechanically as well... and take that to extremes, as someone always does, and you have a cult on your hands. A cult, in this instance, which believes that the universe runs like clockwork and anything, anyone who might interfere needs to be dealt with. Permanantly.

Trouble is, the cult - as such cults do - has attracted the attention of a powerful being from the lawful plane of the Universal Clock. This being, Zurvan the Iron Angel, is the creator of the subject of this discourse: the inevitables.

Beginning with the mythology and history of the inception of the plane of the Universal Clock and Zurvan's own creation, by automated systems. Once made, Zurvan was able to alter them to produce constructs of its own devising, the inevitables: a whole range of different models depending on intended purpose. The purposes are to ensure the orderly running of the universe by enforcing contracts, making sure death is not cheated and meting out punishments suitable to the crime and such like - hence the inevitables are not the most popular constructs around! Their psychology and society are discussed, there's even a debate as to whether or not they have souls! There is plenty packed in here, feats and modifications available to inevitables, the domains available to clerics who worship Zurvan and more.

Winding up (sorry!) with a collection of adventure seeds and the Iron Angel's own stats, this short work contains a lot of material that can be used to good effect in any world where clockwork is a known technology.


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