Gazae et Monstri: Treasures & Monsters from Greek & Roman Myth
This pdf is 14 pages long, 1 front cover, 1 editorial and 1 page OGL. That leaves 11 pages of content.
We get 6 magic items and 5 new monsters from the mythologies of old.
Magic Items:
-Cap of Invisibility (Greater Invisibility for 7 minutes per day – nice trickster’s tool)
-Cesti of Eryx (Two magical spiked gauntlets that hit hard)
-Cuckoo Scepter (Shapechanging (self and unwilling others), whispering wind etc. – no note on the amount of charges the item, has, though)
-Girdle of Hippolyta (Girdle that stores weapons)
-Nemean Hide Armor (grants DR 3/bludgeoning)
-Pandora’s Box (instead of unleashing terror, this box can unleash an array of symbol spells)
New Monsters:
-Antaeus (Unique Giant, CR 10):
A strong Giant with some earthen abilities that encourage PCs to fight smart.
-Mare of Diomedes (CR 3):
Carnivorous horses that make for a nice surprise for PCs.
-Nemean Lion (CR 8):
High-end predator whose hide destroys non-magical weapons
-Python (Unique dragon-creature, CR 15):
Extremely lethal, legendary serpent-creature with interesting tactics
-Stymphalian Bird (CR 2):
Birds that shoot razor sharp feathers in volleys.
The pdf closes with two pages of magic item cards to hand out to your players.
The whole pdf has good editing and formatting as well as good public domain art and is easy to read. It lacks the subtle humor of the other publications by Spes Magna, though.
Conclusion:
Unfortunately, the magic items disappointed me. All of them. They somehow all work as I expected they would and every one of them underwhelmed me in some manner – from a rather weak Cap of Invisibility to Pandora’s Box, which is NOTHING like you’d expect from the item. It’s more usable that way, granted, but a box of symbols somehow does not coincide with my notions of…well…friggin’ Pandora’s Box.
The monsters fared better: While I really thought that the Nemean Lion would have worked better as a very powerful single creature, I liked it. Antaeus and Python are really cool, but both the Mares of Diomedes and the Stymphalian birds somewhat fell short of the wonder associated with these creatures and feel like something PCs will wade through without any thought of the wonder of the creatures. That being said, the pdf is only $0.99, which is VERY cheap, so if you’re looking for some creatures/ ready-to-drop-in ideas, go ahead and check it out – Python and Antaeus are quite cool.
As it stands, I’ll give it 2.5 stars due to the lack of wonder associated with the items and the 2 subpar monsters.
