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Monster Classes: Pinnacle and Pit (PFRPG) PDF

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DRS2237E

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Since the release of the first bestiary, the first monster book, there have been those who asked—can I play something exotic, can I play a monster instead of a regular character?

In this release of the Monster Classes series, you have the opportunity to play as one of two outsider races—the angellic hound archon or the demonic succubus! As a member of these races, your experience playing in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is sure to be unique and filled with unexpected situations.

This book includes two monster classes—the hound archon and the succubus, along with the associated feats necessary to build interesting characters, that at the same time are true to the concept presented in the Bestiary.

Enjoy!

Written by Jeffrey Swank, with artwork by Jacob Blackmon

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An Endzeitgeist.com review

3/5 —

This installment of Dreamscarred Press' Monster Classes-series clocks in at 13 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page of advertisement, leaving us with 9 pages of content, so let's take a look!

So, what is this? In one sentence: It's Dreamscarred press providing the Savage Species type of "Play monsters"-rules for the context of the Pathfinder roleplaying game. The pdf does acknowledge that this series (or even, individual installments) may not be for everyone - the fact is that most modules are humanocentric and thus, playing monsters can wreck havoc with the assumptions of a given game...more so than players are liable to anyways.

Let's not kid ourselves here - the guidelines presented in the bestiaries aren't really doing a good job; CR = levels doesn't work out too well - the concept needs a finer balancing. The series acknowledges exactly this requirement. The solution here would be to employ basically racial paragon/monster classes; instead of progressing in a class, the respective critters advance to grow into the full power array. While SP-gaining is presented as an option, the pdf does champion the approach of exchanging those for spontaneous spellcasting, which is drawn from the cleric list for the hound archon and based on Charisma. Testing this material, I'd add my voice to this suggestion - the experience is more versatile and rewarding. The hound archon featured herein adds message as a cantrip to his list, greater teleport as a 6th level spell.

The second monster class herein would be the succubus, who also uses the cleric spell list and Charisma as governing attribute; at 2nd level, she adds detect thoughts, suggestion, tongues and vampiric touch; charm monster at 3rd, dominate person at 4th and ethereal jaunt, greater teleport at 6th level.

But I'm getting ahead of myself - the hound archon's base racial stats would be +2 Str and Cha, normal speed, they are outsiders with the good subtype and darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, +2 to Stealth and Survival and +1 natural AC.

The monster class gets d10 HD, 6 + Int skills per level, proficiency with simple and martial weapons, full BAB-progression, good Fort-and Ref-saves and covers 6 levels. The class begins play with a 1d6 bit attach that increases to 1d8 at 4th level as well as change shape based on beast shape II, but only canine forms - first only Small canines and 3rd level unlocks Medium canines , 5th Large canines. The ability didn't italicize the spell properly. The class begins play with 9 + HD SR and 2nd level provides +10 ft. land speed. Every even level of the class provides +2 natural AC and 3rd level immunity to petrification, 6th level electricity. 3rd level also provides scent and a secondary slam attack at 1d4; 4th level nets DR 5/evil, which increases to 10/evil at 6th level. 4th level provides truespeech and 6th nets the signature aura of menace.

The three supplemental feats allow you to sniff out lawbreakers, smell evil...and the scaling bonus damage feat the astral deva installment had. Still not sold on that one.

Attribute-gain-wise, the hound archon is a bit more conservative: He gains +2 Str, +2 Con, +2 Wis and +4 Cha. As a whole, the hound archon ends up being pretty strong, but still remains within the realms of what is acceptable within most gaming groups. I wouldn't allow him in 15-pt-buy/rare/low magic-campaigns, but that's it. Nice job!

The succubus presented here gains +2 Con and Cha, are outsiders with the chaotic and evil subtypes, darkvision 60 ft., fire resistance 10, electricity resistance 5 and poison immunity as well as +1 natural AC. They also gain +2 Perception and +4 Bluff, for an overall imho slightly too strong base array of traits.

The monster class of the succubus is 8 levels long and gets d10 HD, 6 + Int skills per level, proficiency with simple and martial weapons and begin play with 1d4 claws that increase to 1d6 at 6th level. She also begins play with 10 + HD SR. 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter provides +2 natural armor. The Perception of the succubus increases by +2 at 2nd, 4th and 6th level. 2nd level nets gliding wings, which get upgraded to full functionality (50 ft., average maneuverability) at 6th level.

3rd level nets alter shape based change shape (italicization missing) and at 4th level, the defenses are upgraded: Cold and acid resistance 5; electricity resistance 10 and upgrade of fire resistance to 20. At 8th level, acid and cold resistance are upgraded to 10. Also at 4th level, DR 3/cold iron or good is unlocked, which is upgraded to 5/cold iron or good at 6th level, 10/cold iron or good at 8th. 5th level provides telepathy, with a range-increase at 7th level. Also at 7th level, the racial Bluff bonus increases to +8. At the final level, the succubus unlocks immunity to both electricity and fire and energy drain. The reference to suggestion in the latter ability once again lacks italicization.

The succubus' supplemental material includes Flyby Attack, Profane Gift, the nice feat for redeemed evil outsiders and Full Immersion, which lets you fully take on the personality of your disguises, even versus detect thoughts. Nice one.

Attribute-gain-wise, the succubus gets +2 Str, +6 Dex, +6 Con, +4 Int, +4 Wis, +14 Cha...and this does not include the "+2" that fails to note the attribute it's supposed to apply to. That's 36 points. +7 to Cha-based DC. Insane. Overpowered. Not suitable for any campaign I'd run...even before taking the MASSIVE resistances/immunities into account. How this one can be in the same pdf as the hound archon...I have no idea.

The pdf ends with a nice glossary for our convenience and we do not get age, height or weight tables or FCOs.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are okay -the pdf sports unnecessary glitches and a couple of annoying formatting hiccups. Layout adheres to Dreamscarred Press' two-column full color standard and the pdf comes with a second, more printer-friendly version. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The artwork is okay.

Jeffrey Swank's Pit and Pinnacle's title couldn't be more eponymously named - while the powerful, but well-tuned hound archon represents a pinnacle in the series, the succubus represents the very worst the monster class-series has to offer, OP in all but the most powerful/who cares about balance/minmaxy environments.

How to rate this, then? Well, in the end, I'll settle on exactly the middle -at 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

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Thanks, Chris!

I have a copy of this and it's pretty good. I did notice a couple of errors on the succubus class write-up on page 8. Under 'Special' for 2nd level, it lists '+2 Dex, +2, +2 Cha, keen senses (+4)'. Just what is that second '+2' for? Is it just a typo?

Also, under 'Special' for 5th level it has 'profane gift' among the benefits the succubus gains. But at the same time the PDF lists a feat 'Profane Gift' for a succubus level 8 and character level 11. Which is the right one?

On page 4 under the natural armor heading the armor gained at level 5 is missing but is on the level chart

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

take floating +2 was +2 CON, as I found a number of other points that needed fixing

and you forgot that the Succubus does not get armour which is a dent in the classes defenses so close combat would be very bad for them.

I did not forget that succubi don't get natural AC. They get +7 to Cha-based DCs, so close combat isn't a particular good choice for the race anyways.

Succubus does get natural armour (+6 at 7th level), but not an armour prof.

but close combat is a weakness, so a smart opponent would target that weakness as if they were a wizard/sorcerer.
Also that +7 to DCs is a bit misleading as the succubus selection of SLAs is narrow and almost all are useful out of combat.
If they take the spell option they gain some versatility, but now have limits to the number of uses.
So even after finishing the class and picking something like bard or sorcerer, they may have high DC's but the caster level and spell options will be very limited compared to a human sorcerer that is of equal CR
Endzeitgeist wrote:
I did not forget that succubi don't get natural AC. They get +7 to Cha-based DCs, so close combat isn't a particular good choice for the race anyways.

Actually, she does. But not all at once. She begins with +1 natural, with the "Tough Skin" racial feature, and gains +2 each at 3rd, 5th and 7th level as per table 1-2 on page 8 of the Pinnacle and Pit PDF.

Urgh, yep, noted as much; that's what I get for not checking before replying.

Still, does not change +7 to DCs. Considering the existence of save-or-suck spells and options at low levels that usually are held in check by bad DCs, though, even a vanilla succubus with low level access to them suddenly can eclipse even high level casters regarding DCs. Add some minor optimization and...well. The "close combat can kill wizard"-angle is a fallacy; if someone gets into melee, the caster has already failed in most cases.

I maintain my stance that she's way OP.

Well, perhaps. She is a monster, after all. However, if the player were to voluntarily restrain the abilities she has, then she could be very playable as a character race. I generally view such restraint as an attempt to "fit in."
John Napier 698 wrote:
She is a monster, after all. However, if the player were to voluntarily restrain the abilities she has, then she could be very playable as a character race. I generally view such restraint as an attempt to "fit in."

If you have that line of thinking shouldn't you just use the bestiary's rules for playing monsters? The whole point of monster classes is that they are reasonable enough in power for players to use, they should not be overpowered or underpowered.

Having come back to this thread after a long absence, and having watched too many cartoons in the recent part of the meantime, suddenly the cover gives me this vision of Wile E. Coyote as a Hound Archon . . . .
Milo v3 wrote:
If you have that line of thinking shouldn't you just use the bestiary's rules for playing monsters? The whole point of monster classes is that they are reasonable enough in power for players to use, they should not be overpowered or underpowered.

I do. If there's nothing else available. I was responding to Endzeitgeist's post that the class was overpowered, and that advice was meant to alleviate those concerns. I myself have no problems using this class as written. Which is why I bought the entire first series of Monster Class PDFs.

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