Monsters of NeoExodus: Scythian (PFRPG) PDF

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The Scythians are rarely spoken about. When their name is mentioned, it is whispered, as though one would like to forget the word as soon as it is spoken. Most consider them as a monster out of Exodus’s past, some believe these creatures never really existed and stories created by others as urban legend. While no one on the surface of Exodus has reported a Scythian in the last five centuries, they are far from forgotten.

The Scythians are soldiers of the First Ones. Not as tough as the kroca, nor as stealthy as the sobeka nor as numerous as the exodites, the Scythians were cunning and dangerous opponents. They revel in mayhem and destruction to a level rare even among the First Ones. The Scythians are not First Ones themselves, but are often considered to be one of them, due to their close associations. The Scythians say that they have been involved in every conflict the First Ones ever engaged in, a fact they proudly present. The Scythians’ mastery over their bones and the bony protrusions that grow from their bodies makes them both unnerving and extremely dangerous. A Scythian is never truly unarmed.

This supplement includes:

  • The History of the Scythians
  • Scythian equipment including new material and magic items
  • Using Scythians in your game and adventure ideas
  • Building a Scythian and PC
  • Over 15 Scythian feats including Bone Blade, Disjointed Skeleton and Reinforced Bones
  • Sample Scythians from CR 1/2 to CR 10
  • Six Scythian monsters including Barbed Scythian, Half-Scythian and Scythian Bone Swarm
  • Scythian counters
  • Initiative and Monster Cards

This 18-page PDF is just the sort of thing needed for GMs to get started playing in the fantasy world of NeoExodus. Written by JP Chapleau with Louis Porter Jr.

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LPJ9519E


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3.00/5 (based on 1 rating)

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V2.0 of the Bonespur-growing creatuires has clear mechanics

3/5

This pdf is 18 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page creature counters, 2 pages monster sheets, 1 page combat & initiative tracker, leaving 12 pages of content for the Scythians.

The pdf kicks off with two pages history of the Scythians, a servitor race of the first ones. While they look humanoid, the bonespur-growing creatures are engines of destruction and feature their own warrior-culture and reproduce via "hatching" bonespurs. Disturbing. 4 infamous Scythians are mentioned. Although no stats are given, each can serve as a nice adversary.

A new material, a new alchemical item and a new magic item, focusing on lessening the costs of material spell components are provided.

After that, we get 6 adventure/campaign ideas, all but one (that was the standard "go below, encounter enemies") of which had something going for them.

While they are not intended as playable characters, their racial traits are given and, should you be so inclined, you could play one. A variety is also given, the dark Scythian, bred with a natural invisibility that he can use a limited number of rounds per day. The central idea of the race is that they can grow bone weapons from their bodies at will and thus, many of the feats presented herein expand upon this idea. We get 16 new feats:

-Bone Blade: Grow a longsword-like bonespur instead of the standard short-sword-like one.

-Bone Blade, Greater: Grow a bastardsword-like bonespur instead of the standard short-sword-like one.

-Bone Caltrops: Litter the floor with bony caltrops. COOL idea!

-Bone Knuckles: Unarmed Strike as if one size larger, monks increase their damage dice by one category.

-Bone Razor: Self-grown bone weapons are considered masterwork.

-Bone Spikes: Shoot spikes like a handcrossbow.

-Bone Tools: Create thieves tools from your bones.

-Bone Tools, Greater: Create masterwork thieves tools from your bones.

-Disjointed Skeleton: Squeeze through small spaces.

-Facial Contortions: Alter face 1/day as if by disguise self.

-Intimidating Mask: Use Con instead of Cha for Intimidate, but get the same
penalty to Diplomacy.

-Natural Invisibility, Extra: 2 extra uses of natural invisibility.

-Natural Invisibility, Greater: Char-level rounds, your natural invisibility works as Greater Invisibility.

-Natural Invisibility, Improved: Your natural invisibility lasts for minutes instead of rounds.

-Reinforced Bones: Gain DR 1/piercing and become immune to nonlethal whip damage.

-Reinforced Bones, Improved: DR increases to 3/piercing.

After that, we get 5 sample Scythian statblocks:

-Scythian Bone Flower Initiate (Monk 5, CR 4): I noticed that there are probably some miscalculations here, e.g. in the initiative and AC (Wis 10 should not grant a +1 bonus to AC) of this one.

-Scythian Soldier (CR 1/2): Rank & file Scythian

-Scythian Sergeant ( Fighter 4, CR 3)

-Scythian Captain (Fighter 10, CR 9)

-Scythian Commander (Fighter 10, CR 10)
We also get two Scythian mini-templates, Barbed Scythian (Half-barbed devils, CR +1) and Half-Scythians (CR +1). Both get a sample statblock.

-Barbed Scythian Monk (Monk 5, CR 5)

-Half-Scythian Hill Giant (CR 8)
We also get three new monsters:

-Scythian Bone Golem (CR 6): Cool bone Golem that explodes when killed and can shoot bone shards, comes with means of construction

-Scythian Bone Swarm (CR 8?): A swarm from unborn Scythian bone shards. The editing has improved in this revision of the file: While the statblock contradicts still itself, being CR 8 and only 600 XP, its HP-count has been fixed.

-Scythian Cemetery (CR 12): This is supposed to be an undead conglomerate of Scythians, but I'm not entirely sure whether this is supposed to be a swarm or not. While it's type is undead and it has no swarm-traits, it also mentions "Immune: weapon damage". An additional clarification would have been nice here

Scythian skeletons are also mentioned as a variant of the burning skeleton.

Conclusion:
Artwork and Layout are beautiful and you get quite a lot of content for the low prize of 2 bucks. The writing could use some improvements, though, as the fluff didn't impress me that much and the Scythians, although cool, seem rather one-dimensional to me, which is a pity, really, as I think they could have made an even cooler critter. The central feature of the race, growing bone blades, has been revised and its mechanics are now clear and concise. Unfortunately, the pdf still suffers from some editing glitches. Thus, I'll settle for a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform.



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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Do you mean the Nomadic Horsemen that troubled the Greeks?


Lord Fyre wrote:
Do you mean the Nomadic Horsemen that troubled the Greeks?

No, I mean humanoids who's mastery over their bones and the bony protrusions that grow from their bodies makes them both unnerving and extremely dangerous by way of making weapons or tools.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nice review End.


Thanks D_M!


Modified my review to reflect the changes of the file.


The cover looks like a Jim Lee cover.

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