Roy Greenhilt

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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 4. Goblin Squad Member. RPG Superstar 6 Season Dedicated Voter, 7 Season Star Voter. **** Pathfinder Society GM. 411 posts (632 including aliases). 2 reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 20 Organized Play characters. 4 aliases.



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4/5

The book begins with a short introduction by the lead designer, Steven Russell, in which he explains the idea behind the book and explains how to read and use the templates provided. I felt that he does a good job of explaining the relevance and the application of templates, the layout of the entries and how to apply the templates. Then its straight into the actual templates.

This book doesn’t rely on the more mundane templates, such as arctic or aquatic variants – the templates presented are much grander than that. However, that means a GM needs to apply a lot more thought (not necessarily work) when applying these templates, since each embodies a specific theme and may only suit a specific few types of game. Thankfully, Russell presents many sample creatures and fluff to help get the creative processes going.

I enjoyed reading the Book of Monster Templates, since it’s so full of rich ideas. Though not every template appealed to my GM style, those I liked, I really liked. The art is good and the text is presented in an easy to read two-column format. Modifying a monster, using Russell’s methodology is pleasantly quick and easy. The templates, coupled with adventure hooks and the added bonus material and mechanics (like a few new feats) are a great GM resource.

I wrote a fuller review here, which looks at two of the templates provided.


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Review

4/5

Since the release of the Pathfinder Bestiary, I have wondered why certain monsters were excluded. Sure, mindflayers and beholders aren’t OGL (their exclusion is rather self-explanatory), but reasons for other exclusions, like the inevitables, weren’t so immediately obvious. So, of course I was interested when I heard that Kobold Quarterly was going to tackle the inevitables as part of their Monster Chronicles series.

The 10 page PDF contains an impressive amount of information. Opening with a Nietzche quote to get readers into the correct gear, the text details a rather interesting origin story of the first inevitable, Zurvan, the Iron Angel, and how and why it (the text refers to Zurvan as an ‘it’) created the other inevitables.

Styrsky also manages to squeeze in information about the more common inevitables (the kolyarut, marut and zelekhut) and some examples of unique or named inevitables (all of which can easily be slotted into any game). The text also contains new inevitable feats and variant builds for inevitables (to suit specific missions, for example). The PDF also includes a new cleric domain, compulsion, granted to clerics of Zurvan. I found this to be quite a nice added touch, since every game can benefit from a crazed machine cult.

The PDF ends off with a detailed description of Zurvan and his combat statistics. I managed to run a short game with Zurvan and it provides a very tough encounter. I found the selection of spell-like abilities and recommended combat tactics to be quite interesting and fun to run.

I do have one small gripe though: I wish that the PDF contained a PFRPG conversion of the 3.X inevitables. I know that complete stat blocks take up quite a lot of space, but a short summary of the bigger or most important changes such as CMB, CMD and the changes of attack related feats, such as power attack, would have been nice.

I have to also mention that the text does reference the Free City of Zobeck (a KQ setting) quite often. Obviously, this MC adds value to the Zobeck Gazetteer. The ideas behind Zurvan, despite not being that setting-neutral, are still easily ported over to other settings.

The PDF reads well and contains a tonne of great ideas and plot hooks. I really like how the text has managed to inspire me to use inevitables in more creative ways – beyond mere plane-traveling terminators, but actual personalities that can interact with PCs on many different levels.

Review originally posted here.