Monsters Unleashed V.2 (PFRPG) PDF (based on
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Purple Duck Games
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Monsters Unleashed V.2 is the second release in an exciting line of short monster supplements designed to update a host of 3.X monsters to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ruleset. The monsters for this series have been selected by the patrons of the Monster Update Project that was launched by Purple Duck Games as our premier product of August 2010. All patrons of the Monster Update Project will receive all the Monsters Unleashed releases for free.
The first Monsters Unleashed features updated statistics for the clay warriors, corpse orgy, Fenris Wolf, knollman and quickgrass. All have been updated to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ruleset by Stefen Styrsky and Mark Gedak and illustrated by Michael Scotta. Multiple counters for each creature are also included.
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This pdf is 16 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 3 1/3 pages of SRD and 1 page featuring tokens of the critters, leaving 9 2/3 pages of content for the new beasties, so how are these beasties going to plague our PCs?
One classic aberration makes its triumphant and disturbing return in the CR 13 Corpse Orgy, a dread creature that can emit painful shrieks and absorb bodies. Hell yeah! The beast also comes with its own lore section, as all the other critters herein.
Next up are the Clay Warriors, Archers and Cavalrymen (CR 3, 3 and 5, respectively), construct guardians based on the fabled terracotta army of Xi'an. Surprisingly, each type comes with at least one, sometimes more abilities that sets them apart from brethren and other beasts - neat! Even better, they come with construction notes.
Tired of PCs being no longer afraid of wolves? Has the shield-time begun in your campaign? Excellent, then unleash the CR 22 Fenris Wolf upon your unwitting players and make them tremble (and perish) while you cackle with glee. Oh yeah, you don't have to blast your mythology asunder or usher in Ragnarok for your campaign to feature the Fenris Wolf (though it helps) - a nice sample idea is given that involves a chained clone.
Unfortunately, the entangling, str- leeching burial-mound guarding CR 8 knollmen don't live up to the standard set until now, providing no unique signature ability and feeling like just another burial mound undead. Next. Or at least, that's what I thought. Thankfully, the guys from Purple Duck seem to have thought the same and provided 3 alternate signature abilities as well as a truly cool take: Why not take the myth of the fisher king and twist it to an undead ruler seeking to reclaim his kingdom? The result is an additional CR 14 statblock, a fiendish gorilla companion, a antipaladin feat, a new spell to force allies to kill each other (quite powerful, but great for specific NPCs) and a satisfied Endzeitgeist.
I consider plant monsters to be creepy. I don't know why, I just always did. The camouflaged Quick Grass, a slick CR 4 predator makes a nice addition to said roster.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are ok - I did notice some letters that were bold when they shouldn't have been, but other errors seem to be absent from the pdf. Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and the b/w-artworks by Michael Scotta are neat and not something I'd expected to see for this low price. The pdf is extensively bookmarked. This installment of Monsters Unleashed is vastly superior to its predecessor, providing cooler critters, signature abilities for all of them, and even variants. Combine that with the very low and fair price and you get a hearty recommendation and a final verdict of 4.5 stars due to the editing glitches, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
This product is 16 pages long. It starts with a cover, credits, and ToC. (2 pages)
New Monsters (10 ½ pages)
Corpse Orgy – CR13 aberration, despite the name it is not a undead. It is a creature that eats dead bodies and the remains remain visible giving is a gross look. I like it.
Clay Warriors – these are a collection of clay constructs. There is also construction information about the constructs as well.
Clay Soldiers – CR3, clay statue of a spear infantrymen.
Clay Archers – CR3, clay statue of a archer.
Clay Calvarymen – CR5, clay statue of a horse and rider.
Fenris Wolf – CR22 Outsider, yes it is THAT Fenris Wolf. It is the same history though told in a generic way. The lore chart is interesting in that at the highest lore you find out he is free and a clone is chained in his place. Which is why your PC's can run into him and get eaten by the big bad wolf.
Knollman – CR8 Undead, it is sorta a cross between a zombie and skeleton... sorta. It is typically bound to a location.
Lord Alvariss III – CR14 Antipaladin Knollman sample undead with a undead pet gorilla.
Reward of Corruption – A Antipaladin feat.
Murderous Command – Antipaladin spell.
Quickgrass – CR4 Plant, A plant in the center with 30ft of grassy surface around it. Which it can cause to become slick and tilt toward the center. Which makes creatures slide towards it mouth.
The book ends with one page of pogs that can be printed out and used. Two for each monster.
It ends with a OGL and contact Info. (3 ½ pages)
Closing thoughts. The art work is black and white and pretty good. Editing and format are pretty good. There is a few spots of editorial notes around the book explaining why the authors made some of the choices they made. The Corpse Orgy was hands down the coolest new monster. The Clay warriors are neat and fill a niche, made me think of a the China terracotta warriors which I am sure was the point. The Quickgrass was pretty cool as well, I would like to see more plant monsters. Fenris Wolf was ok, it was nice to see a high level CR monster and it was built fine but I also wasn't blown away by it. I felt much the same about the knollman, a solid undead but a bit to similar to to many other undead already. So what's my rating? Well for the price I am giving it a 4 star review. A couple of the monsters was very cool and a couple was meh. But worth the money and to check out.