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Demigods of Bestiary 6

Thursday, March 23, 2017

With the reveal of Pathfinder RPG: Bestiary 6's fiendishly ferocious cover last week, the time is finally right to start looking INSIDE of this book... or should I say the STARS are right? Because yes indeed we've got three more of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones appearing in this book. In fact, one of the recurring themes you'll notice right away (it's right there on the cover) is that we're including more statistics for demigods in Bestiary 6 than any other bestiary we've done. Now, obviously a stat block for a creature of CR 26 to CR 30 in power isn't going to be useful for every game, but that's not the only way to use a demigod in your game. These are foes not only intended to be the end bosses for full-on mythic campaigns, but movers and shakers for multiple campaigns. Demigods work best when they're NOT just stacks of hit points for your players to deplete... but printing statistics for them helps to quantify in a player's mind just how powerful they really are. In addition, each demigod entry is fully supported with rules for how their worshipers function, including information on cleric domains, subdomains, and favored weapons. We've also added a new appendix to this bestiary at the very end that reprints several domains and subdomains that have never before been printed in the RPG line, making it easier than ever to play a character who wants to use powers from the Scalykind domain or the Revelry subdomain, for example.

But enough about that. The point of this blog (and the next several to come over the following weeks) is to show off some art!

In Bestiary 6, we've got 4 categories of demigod represented—archdevils, empyreal lords, Great Old Ones, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We've also got representation from the next tier down—so called "quasi deities" like qlippoth lords or the verdant Green Man. I've chosen three of these to illustrate below, focusing on new illustrations for each: the archdevil Baalzebul, the aforementioned Green Man (of which there are multiples—some neutral, some good, and some evil), and Tawil at'Umr.

Illustrations by William Liu, David Melvin, and Will O'Brien

Actually, that last one's a somewhat unusual case. As an avatar of Yog-Sothoth, Tawil at'Umr has never really been quantified as a Great Old One before, but the Lovecraft mythos are nothing if not mutable and accommodating. And rather than invent a brand new category of demigod, I decided that this eldritch master of time and space would work best in the Great Old One category. He (she? they?) certainly fits into the category, rules-wise, with the ability to kill you in your dreams only to immediately reincarnate you into a new body on another world, or the power to hurl those who gaze upon its true form into their own permanent microcosms. Tawil at'Umr was first introduced to the world in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price. In the story, the entity is referred to as 'Umr at-Tawil, but in Bestiary 6 I decided to shift the name around a little to match Chaosium's preferred (and more grammatically correct when one interprets the name as being inspired by the Arabic language) version used in their Call of Cthulhu RPG, but just like all of these mythos monstrosities, changes to names or roles in world likely won't matter if your character decides to throw down against them. Tawil at'Umr is probably the toughest monster in the book, and in fact, might be the toughest monster we've ever statted up in a bestiary. He's "only" CR 30, but as an avatar of Yog-Sothoth, killing it isn't gonna stop it. From the Great Old One's Immortality entry in it's stat block:

"If Tawil at'Umr is killed, Yog-Sothoth can create a new avatar immediately. The replacement Tawil at'Umr typically does not reappear where it was killed, and it usually does not seek revenge against those who slew its predecessor. Usually."

James Jacobs
Creative Director

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Tags: Bestiary 6 David Melvin Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Will O'Brien William Liu
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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
Unfortunately not yet. No new about the Great Old Ones, just that they aren't the ones designed for Pathfinder by Mr. Jacobs.

More specifically, the Tyrant Lizard King said that all three are "from Lovecraft."

Which means Mhar, Xhamen-Dor, Orgesh, et al. are off the table.

Since we already have Cthulhu and Bokrug (and Hastur, although he's not, strictly speaking, "from Lovecraft"), and the Strange Aeons bestiaries have covered Lovecraft and Heald's Ghatanothoa, Clark Ashton Smith's Tsathoggua, Atlach-Nacha, and Mordiggian, August Derleth's Ithaqua, I have to second the prediction of Yig.

Not sure about Rhan-Tegoth, but that critter'd be... interesting, and it's definitely available.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Who else is there though? I did miss accounting for one, Chaugnar Faugn, but he is Frank Long's creation, not Lovecraft's, and I think is also locked behind product identity.

For the record, what I'm doing is using the 10 GOOs from the "Elder Mythos" Article in "In Search of Sanity" as my guideline. I suppose there could always be another Great Old One that wasn't on that list like Tawil at'Umr, but I'd be very surprised.

I am confused about Chaugnar Faugn in general. The hounds of Tindalos are Long's creation as well, but not locked behind copyright. So its kind of hard to figure out what is and isn't at times.
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I like the idea of Yig best. He got good use in a Freeport game I ran, as a god of the degenerate serpentfolk/Valossians, among other things, so I'm partial to the snake-dude.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Just saying we didn't see Tawil at'Umr coming, so Shaurash-ho, Juk-Shabb, some treatment of Lovecraft's take on Coatlicue could happen...
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have to say I'm also interested to see how Arch devils stack up against the Demon Lords of bestiary 4.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
10 people marked this as a favorite.

Hi all! Glad folks are enjoying the preview so far. Going forward, we're shifting to other topics other than demigods, so I guess now's as good a time as any to confirm who the other two Great Old Ones are in this book; in fact, I'd meant to mention them in the blog post but forgot.

Rhan-Tegoth
Yig
Paizo Employee
James Jacobs wrote:

Hi all! Glad folks are enjoying the preview so far. Going forward, we're shifting to other topics other than demigods, so I guess now's as good a time as any to confirm who the other two Great Old Ones are in this book; in fact, I'd meant to mention them in the blog post but forgot.

Rhan-Tegoth
Yig

Woo Yig! He's always been a favorite of mine, it'll be nice to have stats for high level (or high fatality) play.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Prince Setehrael wrote:
James Jacobs, I was pondering something about the Demon Lords and I'll use Nocticula as my example. So She is a CR 30 being and Demon Lords are not Mythic. But within her Abyssal Rift She has counts as being MR 10. So does that mean while in the Midnight Isles she is considered to be CR 35? Please explain and elaborate.

She's CR 30 regardless of where she's encountered. That's as high as CR scores officially go. She doesn't have mythic ranks, but is treated as a mythic creature.

In fact, in all cases, the CR score listed for any monster or NPC in a book we publish is the actual CR score. I personally think including the "MR" value for mythic creatures is confusing, since knowing that value is not necessary to use the monster in a game—it's merely a guideline used when creating a mythic monster using the mythic rules.

Thank you James for clearing that up for me. Makes sense now and actually more excited for the Upcoming Demigods.

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Yig

IA! IA!

YIG DA BESSSSSSSSST!

*Looks up Yig* Neat, I like snakes ^^
James Jacobs wrote:

Hi all! Glad folks are enjoying the preview so far. Going forward, we're shifting to other topics other than demigods, so I guess now's as good a time as any to confirm who the other two Great Old Ones are in this book; in fact, I'd meant to mention them in the blog post but forgot.

Rhan-Tegoth
Yig

Rhan-Tegoth got the dub? Wow is that ever getting obscure.

It's great to see that he and Yig got in.

Is "The Green Man" the same deity that is mentioned in the D&D module Beyond the Crystal Cave?
Paizo Employee
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Cubed wrote:
Is "The Green Man" the same deity that is mentioned in the D&D module Beyond the Crystal Cave?

I'd guess just inspired by the same source.

Now we know the name for all the Archdevils, Horsemen, Great Old Ones, Empyreal Lords and Kaijus. Besides the Qlippoth Lords, are there any other announced unique creatures I'm forgetting about? Do we know their names as well?

I'm hoping to know more about at least one of the following subjects in the next preview: 1) True dragons; 2) The Wild Hunt and what makes its members so strong; 3) The powerful oozes; 4) The entothropes.

Anxiously waiting for more!
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'll toss in another wild hunt vote.
Shadow Lodge
James Jacobs wrote:

Hi all! Glad folks are enjoying the preview so far. Going forward, we're shifting to other topics other than demigods, so I guess now's as good a time as any to confirm who the other two Great Old Ones are in this book; in fact, I'd meant to mention them in the blog post but forgot.

Rhan-Tegoth
Yig

Woot! Yig's getting stats! Also happy to see some I hadn't heard of! Surprised we didn't get more Outer Gods that were given art in the Strange Aeons chapter but am happy for the unexpected ^-^.

In other news, love the diversity of the spoiler. Happy to see Green Men, Archdevils, and Outer Gods in the spoiler. Excited to see what we get next in these spoilers.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Are Demigods affected by Antimagic field?
It says artifacts and deities are not, so I assume it wouldn't affect them. But I need another opinion or official ruling.
For a certain upcoming battle, my players plan to tackle Mephistopheles in Hell's Rebels and have request that battle to be added. And I have a Counter Mage who loves Antimagic Field.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Prince Setehrael wrote:

Are Demigods affected by Antimagic field?

It says artifacts and deities are not, so I assume it wouldn't affect them. But I need another opinion or official ruling.
For a certain upcoming battle, my players plan to tackle Mephistopheles in Hell's Rebels and have request that battle to be added. And I have a Counter Mage who loves Antimagic Field.

Demigods are not affected by antimagic field unless said antimagic field comes from something equally or more powerful. AKA: PC antimagic fields don't work on demigods; they count as deities in this manner.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Prince Setehrael wrote:

Are Demigods affected by Antimagic field?

It says artifacts and deities are not, so I assume it wouldn't affect them. But I need another opinion or official ruling.
For a certain upcoming battle, my players plan to tackle Mephistopheles in Hell's Rebels and have request that battle to be added. And I have a Counter Mage who loves Antimagic Field.
Demigods are not affected by antimagic field unless said antimagic field comes from something equally or more powerful. AKA: PC antimagic fields don't work on demigods; they count as deities in this manner.

Thank you -Devilish Laugh- I got ya now, Merrick.

Thank you for always taking the time to answer our madness, Overlord T-Rex.

Mr. Jacobs,

Back in the days of the Hell's Rebels adventure path publication, I had asked you if Archdevils would be part of the books like Demon Lords were for Wrath of the Righteous. At the time, you said no as no one was really interested in creating them. Although I loved the Demon Lords you designed, especially Nocticula (the encounter between my players and Nocticula in Midnight Isles will remain one of the most powerful roleplay moment of my 30 year rpg "career" as a game master) and Sikfesh, I was disappointed not to feel the love for my personal favorite, the Archdevils.

When I saw B6 was coming out and Archdevils were included, I got very excited. Throwing in stats for Charon and Great Old Ones just added to my joy and anticipation for this book.

All this long message simply to say thank you, I am grateful. You made an old gamer very happy indeed.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Eric Hinkle wrote:
So, what does 'Tamr at'Uwil translate to in English, anyway?

About 'Umr at-Tawil / Tawil at'Umr:

Hmm...I am hardly an expert in Arabic, but 'Tamr at'Uwil is probably not what you were looking for (depending on how you write that in Arabic...you might get something like "long/longer undertaking").

(Arabic incoming: remember to read the Arabic right-to-left.)

Regarding Tawil at'Umr...it's a bit off. Tawil (طويل) is "long", and Umr (عمر) is "life" or "age"; that's fine. The at' here is probably meant to be a definite article al (ال). Generally, you wouldn't see at'Umr, but rather al-Umr. You would pronounce ال as "at" if it prefixed a word beginning with T (e.g. Tawil), but not for a word beginning in U. I believe Chaosium reordered the transliteration of عمر الطويل (transliterated: 'Umr at-Tawil). Essentially they swapped "Umr" and "Tawil", but forgot that "at" should be "al" when used as a prefix to "Umr". More properly, Chaosium should probably have used Tawil al-Umr (طويل العمر) which is an acceptable writing of "long-lived".

However, this does not mean that 'Umr at-Tawil is actually wrong. In fact, it is a relatively common phrase for "longevity" or "long life", generally with the definite article "al" (ال) as a prefix. This means you might see العمر الطويل (al-Umr at-Tawil) used for "longevity". Removing the definite article "al" (ال) from the front of the phrase would leave you with the familiar 'Umr at-Tawil, still perfectly acceptable.

(Warning: Opinions Follow)

Grammar aside, it is a shame that Chaosium felt the need to change the name of a character created by H.P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price. The original authors gave the name 'Umr at-Tawil; that should be fine for everyone.

(/End Opinion.)

I acknowledge that I may possibly be mistaken about one or two things here (as I said, I'm hardly an expert)...

Regardless, I can wholeheartedly say I am barely able to contain my excitement for this new bestiary. How can you say "no" to such lovely eldritch horrors and demigods?
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