Mythic Monsters 12: Fairy Tale Creatures (PFRPG)

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The 12th volume in our Mythic Monsters series, Mythic Monsters: Fairy Tale Creatures brings you a dozen and one celebrated storybook creatures, a few friendly, more of them malevolent, and every one dangerous. This product certainly celebrates the fey, but it incorporates a selection of monsters of many types inspired by fairy tales, often with a decidedly Celtic flair. From blarney-filled leprechauns and luminous pixies to terrible banshees keening their anguish and whether bringing succor like a unicorn or murderous spite like a redcap, these creatures bring the full flavor of the realms of faerie to your campaign. We have hungry green hags ready to gobble their victims living or dead alongside flitting faerie dragons that just want to have fun, bogeymen that use terror as a weapon and will-o'-wisps that feed upon it like sweet nectar. We also delved into the madcap tales of Lewis Carroll to bring you not only mythic versions of the famous frumious bandersnatch, jubjub bird, and jabberwock, but also a brand-new thirteenth monster for this collection, the strange and elusive boojum snark! In addition to these fabulous fairy tale creatures, this product includes a selection of non-mythic and mythic spells, including call woodland beings, faerie form, and fey crossroads, as well as fey-inspired mythic versions of existing spells! The 13 monsters contained herein, ranging in CR from 3 to 28, are updated for the mythic rules, and when we say updated we mean complete stat blocks, yes, but more than that every one has its own unique and exciting new mythic abilities, from a mythic green hag's grisly gobble and insatiable stalker to the death coach and immortal anguish of a mythic banshee!

The Mythic Monsters series from Legendary Games brings you dynamic and exciting mechanics alongside evocative and cinematic new abilities that really help creatures live up to their flavor text, whether they are creatures of real-world myth and legend or creatures born out of the RPG tradition itself. These creatures can work just as well in a non-mythic campaign as they do in one that incorporates the full mythic rules, as you can throw them at your jaded players who think they’ve seen it all or know the standard monster stats as well as you do. That look of surprise and “What was THAT?” will warm any GM’s heart.

Download this 30-page mythic monster supplement today, and look forward to future releases in the Mythic Monsters line.

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An Endzeitgeist.com review of the revised edition

5/5

This installment of Legendary Games' Mythic Monsters-series clocks in at 30 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page blank inside front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of introduction on how to use, 1 page advertisement, 1 page blank inside back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 20 pages of content, so let's check this out!

As has become the tradition with Mythic Monster-pdfs, we begin with supplemental information - which this time comes in the guise of mythic versions of fairy-tale associated spells - the call woodland beings variants and the faerie form spells and even the rather iconic fey crossroads spell receive a vast plethora of additional options, not only in the context of the mythic variants provided herein - two thumbs up!

Now the meat, of course, would be the fairy tale creatures provided herein -first f which would be the Mythic Banshee at CR 16/MR 6, who not only receives enhanced sonic tricks, despair-causing anguish and the like - she also gets an ability most iconic - conjuring forth a massive, spectral carriage to assault foes with! The creature is a superb example of the best in mythic monster design - taking all those iconic options and unique signature effects from mythology and making the creature truly distinct. Oh, and the mythic wail of the banshee is thankfully just as lethal as it ought to be!

At CR 12/MR 5, the mythic Boogeyman is a terror to behold as well - quite literally, for non-mythic creatures better gear up - immunity to fear may just disperse...Oh, and have I mentioned the great potential for rejuvenation? If you require more inspiration, combine this with the fluff of 3.5's "Dark tales"-Ravenloft-sourcebook for adventure ideas galore.

In direct comparison, the CR 3/MR 1 mythic faerie dragon feels a bit less iconic - yes, suggestion may be nice, as would be the euphoria-inducing bite, but compared to the former two, it still feels a bit less inspired than it could have been. What about more illusions and similar prankster gambits? Especially since his brethren, the CR 3/ MR 1 Leprechaun with his memory lapse, hideous laughter etc. causing babblings and daze-causing shillelagh proves that the Legendary Games-team can make awesome low CR/MR-creatures with unique mythic signature abilities. Mythic Pixies would be another example here -at CR 5 / MR 2, these fellows can generate flying dust (à la Tinkerbell), illusory decoys and also receive better arrows - cool!

The CR 7/ MR 3 Mythic Green hag is once again back to form - enhancing the fearful cannibalistic notions of the base creature become grand stalkers that also can consume the dead or helpless - a terrifying prospect indeed, even before taking increased coven magic prowess into account - awesome and much closer to what the creature ought to be able to do. At the same CR/ MR, Mythic Redcaps, bitter and blasphemous and full of hatred for thieves, these guys are deranged slayers that neatly tie bleed with the theme of their caps - and if you require inspiration for these fellows beyond the cool abilities they receive, let me recommend "Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey" - another true gem of the 3.5 era that ranks among my favorite fey-related tomes ever. The Will-o'-wisp, at once again CR 7/ MR 3 receives the power to shoot electrical arcs (THANK YOU - Will-o-wisps sans these feel incomplete to me...) and their increased lure options also feel nice, but still - these guys feel like they could have used another ability - while I love that they can eat e.g. rages and effects the like, actually using these to fuel some other abilities would have been the icing on the cake.

Now, sometimes you just want an endgame killer - so what about a CR 28/ MR 10 Jabberwock receive even more deadly options (like tail sweeps), lethal average damage outputs further increased by the option to SKIN GRAPPLED PEOPLE ALIVE and healing resistant wounds - urgh. Ouch. Beautiful, deadly, all I want from such a beast, including an updated fear of vorpal weapons.

The CR 18/ MR 7 Mythic Jubjub Bird may spring attack with full attacks thanks to mythic power and is lethal in its own right - these harbingers of slaughter are NOT to be crossed lightly. Oh, and their shriek actually can kill foes via sonic damage and much like its jabberwock brethren, it features planar acclimatization.

Mythic Unicorns at CR 4/MR 1 receive an aura of purity and receive an increased healing option via their horn, learning to use mythic power to apply mercies. Per se, there is nothing wrong with these fellows, but I still would have loved this to go slightly further - perhaps it's due to Middle Ages Bestiarium correlations assigning the unicorn with the figure of Christ, but I always felt the poor creatures could have used more abilities to represent their unique natures. Perhaps it's also due to the romantic in me still getting a bit teary-eyed at "The Last Unicorn" - I don't know. What I do know is that I prefer this unicorn over the non-mythic one and wished it had gone even further.

EDIT: It seems like my file was, once again, not properly updated on OBS. The revised version that since then has found its way into my claws also sports a true beauty of a statblock - the frumious bandersnatch at CR 23/MR 9. If you thought bandersnatches were bad news - wiat till you have these guys at half hp and they BURST INTO FRIGGIN' FLAMES! The beast's entry spans a massive 2 pages and provides a big bad brutal beast that will send characters (and potentially their players) whimpering!

And now, the creature we've all been waiting for - this installment's unique, new creature, the Boojum Snark at CR 10/ MR 4.- these creatures are part walrus, from the hip downwards look like tentacles of giant squids, live in hermit crab-like shells and can be charmed easier by SOAP. Oh, and their gaze can send you towards the realms of the fey. See, THIS GETS fey; The creature is evocative, weird and the full-page artwork reflects that just as well as the stats.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to legendary Games' 2-column full-color standard for the Mythic Monster-series and the 2 full page full color original pieces of artwork by Mike Lowe fit awesomely with the aesthetics of other fey-themed Legendary Games-supplements. The pdf has a bookmarked ToC, but not the usual bookmarked navigation help almost all pdfs come with these days, which constitutes quite a comfort detriment in my book. That being said, Mr. Legendary Games Jason Nelson will be fixing these as soon as LG's busy schedule permits and since I do not doubt his integrity in the least, I will let that one rest.

Jason Nelson, Alistair Rigg, Tom Phillips and Benjamin Bruck have delivered quite a fine array of fairy tale creatures straight from the myths - and with quite a less pronounced focus on fey than I would have imagined, I might add. And these creatures feature some of my favorite beings in the genre - which is both a blessing and a curse in this installment. Having researched a lot of these critters, I am hard to surprise regarding the respective tricks they sport and have conversely an exceedingly high expectation - also due to the years upon years of Ravenloft-DMing and gobbling up just about all fey-related books I could get my hands on. That being said - it's HARD to impress me in that regard anymore and I expected this to fall short. It did not. And that should be considered quite an achievement. Some of the beings herein did actually come over with the superb array of options I expected and wanted to see and the weirdness of the new critter falls square into this area - unique, cool, two thumbs up.

On the other hand, while the vast majority of creatures herein adhere to this superb level, here and there one or two creatures fall a bit behind their brethren - they are "only" good, not superb. Combined with the lack of bookmarks, this makes me settle on a final verdict of 5 stars....

EDIT: ...And with bookmarks coming up AND one glorious beast of a bonus creature, this is now well worth a final verdict of 5 stars PLUS seal of approval!

Endzeitgeist out.


The best of a good line

5/5

Mythic Monsters Fairy Tale Creatures opens with 8 normal spells that feel oddly fitting, as though they were missing from the core rulebook and only now put back into the game as intended. They are fey equivelents of shadow walk, polymorph, and planar calling. Additionally those spells have mythic versions and mythic version of a few other fairy tale related spells are presented.

After the spells we get to our first mosnster the mythic banshee. Right away we see that it's charisma has been increased to both make its special abilities more lethal and radically increase its hit points. The increased durability is very important given the high level combat its CR puts it in. Additionally it has shout as an at will spell-like ability which gives some fun utility to the banshee and allows it to harm inanimate objects which was all but impossible for non-mythic banshees. In the more unique abilities the mythic banshee receieves an aura that surpreses fear immunity and gives a penalty to saves versus fear effects which make the last dispelling part of the banshee's terror ability a lot less important but doesn't entirely negate its usefulness. Additionally they have an aura that affets those in it with crushing despair, a ghostly dullahan driven coach, and the ability to mix sonic and negative energy damage in their wails. For the most part other banshee abilities are left untouched from their non-mythic version. Overall these upgrades make the mythic banshee much more of an event boss than normal banshees. It would be exceedingly difficult to run more than on at a time but that's okay because a mythic banshee should be the main focus of any fight its in or at least an important solo support for the main enemy.

Next is the bogeyman. Aside from standard stat adjustments they gain the see-in-darkness ability as well as hungry darkness and deeper darkness as spell like abilities. These nicely compliment eachother to help keep bogeymen as unseen foes until confronted my magical light. Their deepest fear ability has been renamed deepest dread. It no longer gives 24 hour immunity on a successful save, got a slight bump in save DC, and allows the bogeyman to spend mythic power to bypass fear immunity. Their claws now consider all those suffering from fear effects to be flat-footed, making sneak attacks easier, and cause fear effects to worsened on a critical hit. Lastly Terrible Rejuvenation now allows bogeymen to ressurect after several days so long as someone was suffering a fear effect in their aura at time of death. Those suffering from the fear effect are plagued by nightmares while the bogeyman rejuvinates. I really enjoy the bogeyman as a monster and especially enjoy the fact that it is able to function effectively entirely around a darkness and fear themed ability set. The mythic upgrade significantly helps to keeep fear as a credible threat even into higher levels and makes permanently dealing with them exceptionally difficult.

Faerie dragons as per normal low level mythic creatures don't have a lot added to them. Their main addition in euphoria being added to their bite attack. It essentially operates as a bard's fascinate on creature bitten including the ability to give them suggestions. This adds to their overall trickster archtype and helps set up mysteries or puzzles involving a faerie dragon manipulating other creatures.

The bandersnatch is one of my favorite creatures in Pathfinder period and the mythic version does the apex fey realm hunter justice. Most of its new abilities are focused on increasing its ability to survive in high level combat. The mythic frumious bandersnatch gains dual initiative, feral savagery, around one hundred hit points and a general small upward number improvements. Additionally its tail attack is significantly more deadly as its damage has been multiplied and its pain now causes the target to become staggered in addition to being sickened. Probably its most interesting ability is hard to kill which revives a slain bandersnatch through breath of life and an increased fast healing so long as it has a mythic power to spend. This results in a monster that by itself is exceedingly difficult to kill, but if paired with a more spellcaster oriented fey will be a boss fight that players never forget. The only real disappointment is that feral savagery and frumious overlap a lot and the bandersnatch doesn't gain much by having both of them. Even so that is one small complaint on an otherwise excellent monster.

The mythic green hag is for the most part unchanged in the stat department aside from a few small buffs here and there. Her main bonsues come in the form of abilities focused on her most traditional of fairy tale past times, eating people. She can eat helpless or dying creatures to bolster herself and strike fear into her enemies. Additionally she can track tasty morsels exceptionally well, even across water ways and into buildings. These abilities are for the most part utility and certainly help for story telling but might not make up for the increase in her CR.

The mythic jabberwock has numerous abilities retooled and added. First is their barble which goes from confusion to mythic confusion and the sonic blast version goes from a line to a cone. Its eye rays can overcome non-mythic fire resistance. Additionally it can skin foes alive after successfully grappling them, which is all but a death sentence unless they receive regeneration. Manxome foes is akin to frightful presence but instead staggers and sickens foes. It also gains a slew of spell-like abilities relating to fire and air as well as a tail sweep, both of which make it feel more like one of the traditional dragons. Overall the design of the mythic jabberwock serves well for a massive boss monster, but suffers from how fragile its action economy is. Without some way to full attack and more or have dual initiative the mythic jabberwock will quickly be out manuevered by all but the most sluggish parties. Its probably best to use them with a large number of minions or give them the dual initiative ability.

The jubjub bird gains fortification, dual initiative, and its adaptive defense now grants immuntiy rather than resistance. Additionally it can spend a mythic power to gain improved versions of pounce, whirlwind attack, or lunge. The jubjub bird feels like a monster designed to be best fought by ranged combatants. Its defensive abilities are mostly against energy damage and its abilities allow for a lot of hit and run without allowing retaliation. As a result it could be an effective and frustrating foe against a traditional party, but against archers desperately needs to use terrain for cover. It would probably shine as a pack encounter at high levels in a forested region. Some place that multiple jubjub birds can perform hit and run attacks while duckin behind trees.

The mythic leprechaun has a surprising number of added abilities for a creature so low CR. It is able to apply spell-like abilities to individuals it is bluffing without them noticing includin modify memory. Additionally its club can daze and knock enemies prone on a critical hit. Mythic leprechaun are very useful in a trickster NPC role but are also capable of defending themselves against PCs once the gig is up.

The mythic pixie gains the ability to give other creatures flight from its dust ala tinekr belle, as well as the ability to create an exploding decoy. Like the normal pixie the mythic pixies abilities seem most suited for a supporting fighter ratehr than an encounter by itself.

The mythic redcap is a deadly if fragile melee monster for its CR. All of its attacks have gained the bleed ability, and it gains an extra attack when harming bleeding creatures. Additionally it gains bonuses against those that try to exploit typical redcap weakness. For instance it gains a bonus and increase attacks of oppertunity against those that try to disarm its cap or scythe, and it enters a rage if it succeeds its save versus its irreligious weakness. I'm overall not sure if I like the redcap's new mythic abilities. While I understand the need to keep weaknesses from being crippling it's easy to go to far the other way and punish players for fighting intelligently. I'll have to play a few more games with it to be sure, but overall the idea seems to be in the right place. Anti-redcap tactics are high risk high reward.

The mythic unicorns new abilities are for the most part simply increasing its connection to purity. Its circle of protection from evil now provides the mythic protection from evil to all creatures within and evil creatures who do enter are sickened. Additionally all cure spells used on the livin by the unicorn are maxmized and can have paladin mercies applied to them. The mythic unicorn feels more like a supportive unit, cohort, or event NPC than something that would actually get into combat with any but the most evil of PCs. Even so tis mythic stats are helpful as a sort of good aligned "lord of the forest" character.

Mythic Will o wisps have a much trickier combat setup than their non-mythic counterparts. Their electricity can daze enemies and cause them to become shaken. They now have light-based spell-like abilities and their feed on fear ability now works on all emotions. That last change makes it much easier to envision a non-evil will o wisp and helps to give them more goals than simply killing all nearby creatures. Overall the changes are very good and help make a will o wisp tht can more easily aid other fairy tale creatures as a member of their population.

Last is the new monster the Boojum Snark. It is always a welcome sight to see more Lewis Carroll creatures making their way into Pathfinder. All of its habits and abilities from the original story "The Hunting of the Snark" are worked in either mechanically, as its vanishing gaze and fondness for bathing machines, or in its flavor text. The only real disappointment I have with it is by stating that it the least powerful Tane the book implies that non-boojum snarks don't exist. This would be a fine twist on the snark hunt, but the belief in less dangerous snarks is never mentioned or addressed. Still an excellent monster that is quite useless for random encounters or an organized hunt.

Overall this book is exceptionally useful. It covers a group of often neglected but classic creatures, and is well worth your purchase.


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Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Thanks for the post-up Crystal!

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Thanks for the excellent review, Alex!


I just read the review of this, and I have to be getting a copy next week when I can afford to. Green hags? Redcaps? And yes, Will O' The Wisps? Pity we didn't get the Spriggans, but something had to be held back for Mythic Monsters Fairy Tale Creatures 2, I imagine.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

I think you'll really enjoy it. And we definitely have plans for more fey stuff to come!


Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.


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Endzeitgeist wrote:
Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

That's one amazing review, Endzeitgeist, and it provided all the information anyone could hope for. The will-o-the-wisp and green hag especially sound amazing.


Thanks for the kind words, Eric! FYI, just posted the review of the MM: Dragons-book on my site. ^^

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

Thanks for the great reviews as always!

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Any idea if/when the print edition will be available again?

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