I picked this up over the weekend as a preview/review copy. Initially, my interest was in the Rockstar, and had high hopes it would fit into a weird, "Gonzo," game I've been running. Not only did the Rockstar not disappoint, all of the other classes are solid as well. Admittedly, they aren't normal, or for a normal game, but if you're running something a little weird, or silly, I think all the classes would work well in the right setting. I have a player getting ready to use the rockstar next to a Summoner Halfling that's Calvin and Hobbes. Very cool product.
Cleric is the first reforged pdf I have read, and I have to say, it is awesome. What makes a cleric unique? Channel. Yet, very few good options exist for this basically bland heal-bot action. Cleric Reforged takes channel and turned the amp up to 11. Varies abilities, scaling more than just the dice rolled, and feats galore to make channel, what can be the core of the class, worth being the core of the class. I am 100% implementing all the channel rules within for my home game. If that isn't enough for you, numerous other abilities like domains and such get a tweak or two, with side bars that I think are very helpful, especially for those of us that haven't been playing since the 80's. Amazing product here.
I picked up Rawr II because I have a dragon PC in my current campaign and this book covers a lot of options for dragons and dragon descendents. The rules are solid, I've played with building some stuff and all seems to work well, and you can customize how much or little dragon blood you have. I don't want to give too much away, but this is a highly customizable system for dragon descendants. The rules to supplement dragons themselves are also well thought out, and I will probably use almost all of them. The new monsters are balanced and well written, and I especially like the viper.
My only complaints would be that this PDF is single column, and that there is not art for all the new monsters. Both minor nitpicks in an otherwise great book.
I have a soft spot in my heart for reptiles, so I jumped at the chance to get the Saurian book, another in the line of Racial Ecologies series. I’ve read and reviewed a lot of the books in this series, so let’s see how this one compares.
This is an 11 page PDF, with 10 pages dedicated to the race, and the 11th the legal mumbo jumbo required. The first page is background fluff, and while it’s solid, it doesn’t inspire the way the Grippli one did. My take on these Racial Ecology books is that to truly get the best out of them, you need to flesh out the race. It also has the first piece of art, and it’s a lizard head on a man body, complete with flesh and nipples. I noted this copy/paste head in the Catfolk book as well. Going forward, a look at the Advances Race Guide would help. That book in some ways gives you more usable content in fewer pages. Page two covers personality, appearance, relationships with other races, religion, homeland and languages. It also has a side bar for names, and a good number for both genders.
Page three gives Race Traits, Racial Traits, and Alternate Racial Traits. Here is where the PDF starts to shine to me. Lizards are found all over the world, so how do you represent that variety in a single stat block? You give Terrain Stride in their home terrain. Good thinking here. You get a few solid options here, but there really isn’t enough variety for me (more on this later). One nitpick: Jungle Homelands should be varied like their Terrain stride, but this is a MINOR nitpick and easily hand waived.
Page 4 is Favored class options for every class, and Vital Stats. Everything here is solid, and I noticed no issues with balance. I like that the Druid entry has an option for AC and non AC using druids.
Page 5 is Feats, Knowledge of the Saurian, and the start of Equipment. All of the feats are fine to my eye, though Hardy Brawler gives you a boost to resist non lethal damage, and has a prerequisite. I can’t really see this one being taken. Carrion Feeder is my favorite in the section, and give really good, cool boosts.
The Equipment section gives weapons, armor, and some mundane gear. The new axe here will be taken quite a bit, but doesn’t seem to be overpowered when I compare it to other weapons in its class. The Magic Items section gives you Boots of the Raptor, which I love and have quite a few alternate uses, and The Fossilized Eye Crown, which is a great spy tool. Next is the Collar of Beast-Speech, which I’ve seen in a few products, and the price is always all over the map. This gets to what I think it should be, effect and price wise. Lastly is a Dancing weapon shield called the Dinosaur Shield.
Pages 8-9 are Saurian Heritage. These pages connect the Saurians to their dinosaur ancestors. It gives different racial spreads to represent the original races of Saurians, before they interbred and produced the standard Saurian. (One this that bugs me throughout is the Dinosaur->Reptile connection, when it’s Dinosaur->Bird. This, however, is Paizo’s fault, because in Pathfinder, Dinosaur->Reptile is the official ruling.) All of these original Saurian races are good, short descriptions of the ‘sub-race’-‘proto-race’ it represents. I plan on sitting down today and making a Theropod Barbarian as a natural attack build to see how it comes out. There are four options here, and while all have obvious class leanings, I like each of them.
Page 10 is my least favorite page in the PDF. Random Saurian Traits is a d100 chart to give you quirks of the appearance. I’d of way rather seen this page as more feats, traits, something to modify your character in a meaningful way. Nothing here is BAD, it’s just not useful, and in 10 pages, 1 page not being helpful hurts. Also, you get a croc head on what looks to be a teifling barbarians body.
Final verdict, I give this book 4.25 starts, rounding to 4. With a little more crunch or fluff, and a little less filler, it would definitely be a 5.
I picked up all of the race books from Fat goblin games, and I’ll be going through giving a short review of each one. I’m very into the study of animals, and I like seeing how the wonder of nature is combined with high fantasy.
Fourth, I’m doing Minotaurs.
This is a 9 page PDF, with 5 pages dedicated to the minotaur, 1 page to a location, 1 page to a new Minotaur monster and Character Race Traits, 1 page for an NPC, and 1 to legal mumbo jumbo, as is required.
The lead in is the History section, with a half page dedicated, as in the Ratfolk and Catfolk PDFs. It is standard fare, and while not as good as the Grippli history section, it is better than the Catfolk or Ratfolk.
Next is Physiology. These minotaurs are listed as 9 feet for males, and 7 feet for females, on average, with some being twice the height of a man. They are a Medium sized race in the stat block, so this size is fluff only. It details how they do not believe in adornments other than on their horns, other than magic items that boost combat abilities. One peeve here is they have babies once every 5 to 10 years, and the young are adults by age 10. Yet, they can live over 200 years, even though that rarely occurs because of their brutal way of life.
Psychology and Society is next. It goes into how brutal and dumb minotaurs are, and how they live for straight forward combat. Then the different types of society are discussed, and the high status of priests, and their differences, are touched on.
Now we get to the stats. As previously stated, repeatedly, minotaurs are dumb. No penalty to intelligence though, it’s to charisma. They have a boost to axes and hammers, which slightly contradicts the fluff on the same page. There are three alternative racial traits, Imposing Figure, Seafaring (an homage to Faerun), and Albino, which will be taken by every non martial class minotaur, as it trades away attacking abilities for 3/day augury and 1/week divination.
Next are three weapons, a double crossbow, a spell component (yes), and a huge maul/hammer. They are all fine stat wise, other than being obscenely over heavy, like a lot of weapons in pathfinder.
Page 5 is 8 feats, and they are well, cross edited, making sure if you have a horn booster, actually having a horn attack is required (you can give up your horn attack for some options). Only two of these feats require you to be a minotaur (well, one is minotaur and one requires a gore attack), and they seem solid.
Pages 6 and 7 have a bare bones of a lair, and a new CR11 minotaur to put inside. The notes are solid, give you a good idea of what the writer is thinking, and enough room to customize easily. It is also level consistent, an issue in the Catfolk adventure. I could easily plug this locale into any setting, and it would fit thematically. CR11 creatures in groups brings the CR higher than most campaigns regularly visit in my experience, but raiding a holy site should always be at that level.
Racial traits are on page 7 (probably should have gone by page 5, but the 3 column lay out of these products is wonky). All of them are solid, and balanced.
Page 8 is a Barb5/Fighter5 that is a killing killer that kills. This character, to me, puts a spotlight on what is wrong with this PDF. It hints at a greater culture and society, but the vast majority of it is monster kill kill kill stuff. A Racial guide meant for players should not promote, “I monster, me kill,” play for the majority of its text. Anyone can make a KillBot without needing a PDF to walk them through it. This product would have been much better served showing how to use minotaurs as player characters, not how to build a monster with PC rules.
Typos editing errors
As stated in the other reviews, the background color in the lowest corners blocks some text, though not too bad here.
Page 2, “minotaurs are a carnivore race” carnivorous.
Page 3, “favor weapons that kill by concussion.” That is not a type of weapon, blunt trauma is what is meant here.
Page 4, “If the spell craft check is successful, the horn is consumed in the casting ( along with any other components needed for the intended spell) and gains a +1d4 enhancement bonus to Strength for a number of rounds equal to his caster level.” Who and what gains the bonus? I know it’s the caster, but still needs clarification or someone will use this on bulls strength on a party mate and try to give the extra 1d4 strength on top of the bull strength.
Page 5, “Benefit: Your darkvision range of your darkvision is doubled.” No need for the first darkvision.
Page 5, Driving Charge has no prerequisites.
I picked up all of the race books from Fat goblin games, and I’ll be going through giving a short review of each one. I’m very into the study of animals, and I like seeing how the wonder of nature is combined with high fantasy.
Third, I’m doing Grippli.
This is a 10 page PDF, with 7 pages dedicated to the grippli, 1 page to a PC, 1 page to an add, and 1 to legal mumbo jumbo, as is required.
The lead in is the History section, which is the best one thus far by a wide margin, and connects the grippli to lizardfolk and boggards in a neat way. The name heqet refers to the frogmen races, the grippli, This is the first race PDF from Fat Goblin games that reads as a race guide from page one, and not the authors opinion of the animal the race is based on. There are tons of plot hooks from step one, and I already want to play a grippli before I get past the history of the race, which is about one page of text total. Bravo.
Next comes Physiology, which is about half a page, but packs a ton of info in a clear fashion. I know what they look like, and how they dress, very quick and evocatively. It does make some assumptions that you know what a frog looks like, assumptions the other race books should have made. Grippli are noted as starting their lives as tadpoles, as most frogs do, but glazes over the slow morph from tadpole to frog. It also calls them tadlings once they hit land, and not froglets as with real frogs, but that’s a minor quibble. I would like to see something about how they protect the tadpoles, either in special vernal pools or spawning dens, or a change to the fluff that there is no tadpole stage, and that they emerge from the egg as froglets, like the Solomon Island frogs (Ceratobatrachus guentheri), or if you wanted to add, ‘pregnancy,’ steal from the Surinam Star Fingered toad (pipa pipa), toads that carry the eggs of their young in the fleshy pores of the females back. Note that these are science nerd nitpicks you could easily add to your game, and detract in no way from the product.
Psychology and Society is next, and again, this reads like a real PC guide, not a monster one. Grippli are a friendly, good aligned race, and while wary of outsider, can be welcoming to new friends and are very positive in outlook. It talks about their villages and cities built in the trees, and how they are laid out for the community. Interestingly, it mentions marriage here, which reminded me that nowhere does it say how many grippli occur from one mating. I’m running with one, as with most intelligent races. A note to avoid PCs trying to produce swarms quickly perhaps? This section also details social structure, and gives some good, quirky notes about what grippli enjoy, like drums, fruits, and insects. It has notes on clothing a decoration here as well, and discusses the technology level of this type of tribal culture. There is a sidebar that goes into the other types of villages, and covers all ways that frogs/toads live, except for the fringe animals that live completely underwater. (EDIT, They do cover this later) Considering how few campaigns occur underwater, this is no issue whatsoever. Enemies and Allies follows as a short section, again it’s clear and concise.
We then get to the PC info, which gives the racial stats for Grippli, and quite a few alternate traits. Cold Blooded comes first, and is the first mention that grippli are warm blooded. It’s well balanced, but unlikely to see play in anything but a dark sun style game, where it would be taken without question. Deep Breath is next, which nullifies my previous statement that this document does not cover fully aquatic frogs/toads, because this does EXACTLY what they do. One issue for clarification here. It replaces fast movement, so RAW, these guys can’t move. RAI they can’t climb, but still. Swim does what you think it does, and replaces camouflage. Tongue Lash and Terrifying Croak are both amazing frog powers, and both replace swamp stride. Last is Toxin, which replaces camouflage. I feel like too many things replace camouflage, but I don’t know what else they should replace. After that, you get two racial traits, both of which read as good, but I don’t use traits in my games.
Feats are next, and there are five solid feats here. With stacking, you could make a Grippli Monk that could jump insane heights! All the feats here are solid, and I’d give them more detail, but I want to touch on the Favored class options! Not something you see in a lot of third party race books, and they all fit well, except for Paladin. I don’t really read the Grippli as getting this for Paladins, but none for Druid. Just my $.02.
Page 6 is info on how to run a grippli of most classes, skipping such as the gunslinger and samurai. On the right, we have a mount, the emerald dragonfly, the only actual complaint I have about the book. This should have been written with vermin companion rules or a cost like a horse, to keep consistency. How else will my PC get one?
Page 7 is all new mundane equipment, which is all appropriate and solid, but I’m not 100% on the armor stats, they might need a slight tweak to fall in line.
Page 8 is a PC example, that could be dropped in as a first line grippli to a group of outsiders.
Typos editing:
The green in the background blocks some text from being clearly read on the bottom of a few pages, as in the other racial books.
Page 4, Clarify what Deep Breath replaces.
I picked up all of the race books from Fat goblin games, and I’ll be going through giving a short review of each one. I’m very into the study of animals, and I like seeing how the wonder of nature is combined with high fantasy.
Second, I’m doing Catfolk.
This is a 9 page PDF, with basically 5 pages dedicated to the catfolk, 1 page to an adventure hook, 1 to a PC, and 1 to legal mumbo jumbo, as is required. The lead in is the History of the catfolk, with this as the lead in sentence: “The true nature of their society, whether a single pride in a single village, or a confederacy of smaller prides occupying scattered villages, may never be known.” Why did I buy a PDF to see you’re take on a race, if you’re take is, ‘it’s an known secret?’ This section is a half page, as in the ratfolk PDF, and again reads poorly. This one honestly reads like the scattered cliff notes of a DM telling someone about their home campaign, which is what I wanted, minus the scattered, cliff notes part. There is a throw away comment about gnolls, which might help someone who didn’t know lions and hyenas kill each other all the time. Not sure who would want to play a lion man and not know that though.
Page 2 is physiology, with 2/3 of the page dedicated to what the definitions of cat colors are, and reads like a guideline to showing cats for judging, and I have no idea why you’d waste most of a page on that, when there are only 5 pages dedicated to info on catfolk. The other 1/3 is half a shorter version of the 2/3 section, along with explaining what a cats eyes look like. The last section details the fluff of how you can look like a housecat/small big cat (Felinae), or a big cat (Pantherinae). This, to me is one page of completely wasted information, and that means 20% of the catfolk info is useless.
Page 3 is Psychology and Society. This section tells you how to act like a catfolk, with mood swings, impulsive behavior, and an elitist attitude. There is nothing in the Psychology section that gives you anything about catfolk other than ‘act like a house cat.’ Then it goes into the female governed, polyamorous social groups, which are lead by the alpha couple. No type of cat lives in a matriarchy, and if it’s a matriarchy, then how does it have alpha couples?
Enemies and Allies is next. The enemies section is a copy paste of how hyenas and lions interact, but I know I’m a science nerd, and not everyone may know that. Then we move onto allies, which is a two sentence paragraph. If you’re a nomad and worthy, you can join their pride.
Page 4 starts with equipment, which is 2 weapons, a drug, and two magic items. The weapons are an exotic scimitar that has a step up in damage and is finessable, and a wolverine style claw set, that aids in climbing, They seem fine and relatively balanced. Catnip is the drug, and it is well written. Not sure about the 80gp cost though. The magic items are a ~20Kgp +1shield that give a calming effect on a group of animals once a day, and 150gp one use war paint that gives a boost depending on what type of cat you paint yourself as. It’s a +5 boost for 3 hours, so it should see a lot of play in any group that could make it for 75gp. I don’t know of an item that gives a rogue +5 to stealth for 3 hours at that cost.
Page 5 is the PC section, and the art here suffers from the ‘paste a cat head on a human body’ issue pretty badly. You get the basic race info here from bestiary three, and then some alternate traits. Cat eyes, which replace cat’s luck with a +2 against illusions, Midnights grace, which replaces sprinter with a boost to 50% miss chance when you’re in dim light. For some reason, this trait requires your fur to be black. Climb, which replaces sprinter with a climb speed, and seems way better than sprinter. Lastly, you get Bite and Claws, which both replace cats luck. To take either, you must be a Pantherinae. You may remember that as the completely fluff decision on page two where you pick what type of cat you are, that has no affect on the race whatsoever, other than here. Why? Ignoring that issue, with bite or claws, you can replace cats luck with either one 1d3 attack, or 2 1d4 attacks, which is glaringly not balanced, even if the text says the bite can be a secondary attack. Then you get a traits section that gives you 4 traits that are untyped. RAI, they are racial.
Page 6 starts with three feats, Rending Claws, Feral Fury, and King Of The Pride. Rending claws adds a rend to your claw attaks, and has the prerequisites of BAB +6 and Pantherinae, but doesn’t require claws. This editing mistake is not noted below. Feral Fury gives you +2 to melee damage and +10 temporary HP once a day for 2+Con. Bonus rounds, and has the prerequisites of BAB +1 and catfolk. I know this is supposed to be a cat in a corner thing, but a level one fighter can get +2 damage and +10 hp for ~5 rounds at first level? Not at my table. King Of The Pride says, “Add your Strength modifier to Diplomacy checks with catfolk, martial types, and professional warriors.” It also lets you use Strength on leadership, and requires character level 7 and Strength 13. Curiously, this does not have any racial requirement, and with the editing in this book, I’m not sure if that’s purposeful or not.
Then we get an adventure skeleton, which is the standard, ‘something is killing our livestock, it must be the (catfolk)’, and the PCs are to solve the crime. It suggests giving clues that are hard to read, and discusses mundane ways to find the killers, like traps and investigation. At the end, you find out it’s a group of similodon, also known as saber toothed tigers. These are CR8 creatures, and there’s a group of them. How will my level 8 or higher PCs have any issue finding a group of CR8 animals? Then it talks about the pelts being worth more than the reward, but, “The matter of hauling the extremely heavy hides through the woods to a civilized marketplace where they can find a sufficiently wealthy buyer could be a new scenario in itself.” At level 8+, this is an issue?
Page 8 is a PC that does nothing to evoke any sort of emotion.
Typos/editing issues:
I neglected to write down the previous ones, but spell check and a once over should find them.
Page 5 Half ling
Page 5 catfolkk
Page 5 throws, not hrows
Page 5, periods used as commas
Page 5 traits section, lots of bold not bold issues
Page 5, traits are untyped.
Page 6, “camp o the edge” on
Page 6, “a young goatherd” goat herder
Page 6, “any typ of ealing with the pride dangerous at best.. Type, dealing.
Page 6, “as maybe they thing the predator is one of their pride.” Think, not thing
Page 7, pride, nd most likely” and
I picked up all of the race books from Fat goblin games, and I’ll be going through giving a short review of each one. I’m very into the study of animals, and I like seeing how the wonder of nature is combined with high fantasy.
First, I’m doing Ratfolk.
This is a 9 page PDF, with 7 pages dedicated to the ratfolk, 1 page to a new monster, and 1 to legal mumbo jumbo, as is required. The first (half) page is the History of the Ratfolk, and is very vague and cryptic. It has a very Skaven/Ratkin from W:tA/Secret of Nimh feel. It’s a little too, “THEY ARE UNKNOWN ZENOPHOBE MONSTERS,” for me, but there is more on their society later, and we’ll touch on that then.
Next comes the Physiology Race/Subrace section, and we get three options here. This section is all fluff, with the crunch coming later. First you get the Ratlings, Halfling size rats that can walk bipedally, with human-like hands and prehensile tails, that are for some unknown reason furred. Maybe this is an homage to the Kercpa, or a hint that you can re-skin these guys to be a Kercpa without having to do a whole PDF for them. You don’t know what a Kercpa is? Head to google my friend, immediately. Second, the Ratfolk, which are the name sake and original ratlike race from the bestiary 3. Nothing much for them in this section, nor should there be in a 9 page PDF. We already have the information. They do reiterate how reviled they are though. Lastly, the Nezumi are the largest race, that have a very strong L5R feel to them. Last, we have a section on coloration, and how it affects the rat races in their societies. This is a fluff only consideration, as it should be, and does not limit anything about your character later on. (This is an issue in the Catfolk book, though it’s easily hand waived there)
Now we reach Psychology and Society. Right away they tell you how these races are selfish, treacherous, greedy races with no concept of love or loyalty, and that they will backstab a friend. First, from the science side, rats are HIGHLY social creatures that form strong familial bonds, and that is reflected in their living in tight groups and swarming ability. Not only does this not match up with the crunch for the race, or how rats actually work, it doesn’t match up with how any society would work. “Even when presented with irrefutable proof, the common man regards them as an urban legend….” This is a common thread in this book, and the most frustrating thing in the PDF. Part of how these rat races survive is they are denied? Why WOULDN’T someone accept ratmen, when there are all of the other things going bump in the night?
Enemies and Allies is next, and again we get, “…and while virtually all races loath ratfolk, humans, for the most part, believe them to be a fairy tale, and even cities they’ve attacked only hold memories of the preceding violence which resulted for two or three generations.” Dwarves are immune to this, and there is a racial hatred between the two. Drow work with them, as do monstrous races.
Starting on page four we get Racial info, starting with the ratlings. Ratlings are loyal, good humored, playful, and help the cities they lurk under by tending the waterways and holding the wilderness back. The change in feel and tone is so jarring it’s almost like someone else wrote it. This is what a rat race should be like, and read like. Next are the Ratfolk, who again invoke the Skaven in a very blatant way, which is in all ways a good thing, and consistent with Paizo material. Nezumi are last, and their similarity to L5R nezumi stays, which I love. So, we now have a wide range of alignment types, with the ratlings being neutral style, the Ratfolk being evil style, and the nezumi being listed as chaotic or lawful, but they read as chaotic, with a neutral/good lean. Halfway through the PDF, it reads like a PC race guide and not a monster one.
Now that you have the stats for three PC races, You have some very short sections on racial traits, gear, and new feats. The racial traits are Cave Dweller (Ratfolk only), Prehensile Tail (good, replaces swarming), Scent (replaces the trait of your choice, which works, actually), and Plague Born (replaces swarming, which is too bad, and I don’t know that it fits thematically). The gear is all filth related, and will see more antagonist use than PC use, but is still solid. The feats are all combat related, and all good. Pack fighter (also a teamwork feat), Artful Dodge, Dwarf Hatred, and Scavenger. With all the bits about dwarves, maybe there should be a side bar adding a bonus to a dwarves roll against ratfolk?
Last is a solid monster, the rat ogre, which is exactly what I wanted it to be.
I’m torn on what to tell you about the quality of this PDF. I feel like it suffers a lot from self editing, and is inconsistent with its presentation. Maybe the intention of the first parts of the fluff to be read as the opinion of outside races, but it doesn’t read that way, and it’s not a good move to make in 8 pages. Currently, I consider the fluff to be a 2, but with one round of clarifying and refocusing, that could jump up easily. The editing is OK, but it appears to be self edited, and that’s hard (I’m sure I messed up in this review). That said, the crunch is all rock solid, and my only complaint about any of it is the aforementioned sidebar giving dwarves a bonus against the ratfolk. On crunch, I’d give this book a 5.
Typos/editing stuff:
Page 2, should be collecting, not collection.
Page 2, weird punctuation: “Ratfolk are usually treated with disdain for their appearances, treated badly, many have become bitter.”
Page 2, the text in the lower right is very hard to read, at least in my PDF, because of the dark backround color in the layout.
Page 3, first sentence, than/then mixup.
Page 3, the text in the lower left is very hard to read, at least in my PDF, because of the dark backround color in the layout.
Page 3, “the only rule which they follow are” should be is.
Page 4, Darkvision not bold.
Page 4, Rodent Empathy not bold.
Page 4, the text in the lower right is very hard to read, at least in my PDF, because of the dark backround color in the layout. Page 5, Page 6, and Page 8 have it as well.
Page 5, Rodent Empathy not bold.
Page 6, the prehensile tail cannot and cannot do things.
Page 7, the, “or higher,” on the scavenger feat is not needed.
(Discloser, I was given a free PDF to review this product)
First level foes is the forth book in a series of themed monsters, this one, as the title says, is new foes for first level PCs. The creatures cover a range of CR, from ½ to 3 (Two ½, three 1, and two 3). As in my review of book three, I will go creature by creature.
First is the Aquib, a CR ½ small aberration that is a magic eating spider-like opponent. It doesn’t seem too tough, and I think that most of the signature characters at first level would take this as a solid opponent. I wonder if an optimized spell caster will have any issue with the SR it possesses though. I threw a large group of them at some level 3 PCs, and they didn’t manage to land many attacks. They did draw a lot of resources though, be it spells or rounds of rage. The players never figured out how they were feeding into the creatures magic eating, so I plan on throwing them at the group again.
Second is the Psittacosaurus, a CR ½ small dinosaur. The creature right up is solid and flavorful, and I will use them when the story is right. They may be my favorite entry in the book. At the end of the stat block and info, there are rules to use them as Animal Companions. A lot of the Animal Companions just don’t stack up, and this is one of them. This is not an issue specific to this PDF, but one Paizo is more guilty of than anyone, and they set the standard. I may be wrong on that, and in the right story (Kobold hunting especially) these would be amazing. Maybe it’s the type of stories I run. Either way, I like ‘em.
Third is the Nuppeppo, a CR 1 undead monstrosity. I’m not a huge fan of the art, but I used it the same session I used the Aquib, and with a good description, it creeped the players out just like a good undead should. When a player is yelling, “Don’t let it touch me,” you have a winner.
Fourth is the Puuk, a CR 1 tiny dragon, and it’s Advanced and Giant evolution the Kaukas. This is my other potential favorite monster in the book, and I can see a lot of used for it. A LOT. I already have plans to make one the arch nemesis of a pseudo dragon PC, and their ability to infiltrate society makes them a great option for a reoccurring villain, scalable with growth and class levels. Great monster.
The fifth entry is the Rawhead, a CR 3 undead that could be amazing or just OK. This is the animated, assimilating corpse of an animal. The set up is key on this one, because its creation requires an awakened animal or an animal companion. To really get good use out of this you need to use a PCs dead pet.
Lastly, the sixth foe is the Veytha, a CR 1 large humanoid that is like an entry level giant. Good write up, cool flavor, and a tundra dweller, so you can use them on the way to the giants. This race also has a write up for character use, something I complained about in the last PDF with the Mole people, who did not have it. However, this is a large, Dex boosted, clawed, bow proficient race with Point Blank shot for free and a stealth boost to balance out their size. They also don’t eat or drink more than a medium character, so the only penalties for size are the -1 to hit and AC, and the potential to be unable to use items and cover a medium character could use. Not sure how I feel about this one as a PC, but solid as a monster.
(Discloser, I was given a free PDF to review this product)
It Came From The Silver Screen is the third in a series of monster books, themed on different types of monsters. This volume covers the pulp-y monsters my parents grew up on. It’s short and sweet, so I will review each monster, not so short, and sweet.
Alchemical Mutant is a template that can be applied to any animal. This is your toxic run off/magic wild zone/mana wastes mutant monster template. The example creature is a bear, but when I tested it this week in my game, I ran a game in a port city with a Dr. Jeckyl like Alchemist, and applied the template to a crab, a rat, and a pigeon (sparrow). Note that applying this template to a tiny or diminutive creature may not function in a way that is to everyone’s taste, but applied to small or larger creatures is really what I think it was meant for, and it works great there. Personally, I love glass cannon pigeons.
The Beach Horror is the first creature in the book, in a awesome, ‘thing from the black lagoon’ style, that is an aberration I refluffed to be undead. Plays awesome, and is one monster that will recover, and then some, if allowed to escape. A great way to lure your PCs into traps, once they understand the beast.
Crawling Terror’s are a kinda blob, kinda ice world cthuloid monster I won’t use often, but I tend not to run to a point where CR 13+ comes into play, unless it’s an iconic battle like a dragon. Well written, and easy to expand upon. Alien cultures are always a plus. I would use these as master manipulators behind the scenes, with their build in minions as the ‘main’ adversaries.
Dire Rabbit and Dire Shrew are what they say right on the tin, but both can be animal companions, and I am a sucker for new animal companions. One works as a mount, and the other works for rangers. The Permanently Reduce Person-ed Halfling in my group wants the rabbit, and I think I’m going to allow it.
Molekin, #€!! Yeah, Molekin. Everything but the art makes me think of 1960’s Fantastic Four, and I plan on setting up a huge moleman society my PCs will deal with on their way to a hollow earth dinosaur land. Love these guys, but they get my only complaint of the book. When something can be advanced by a character class, you need to put base stats in. If this sort of thing doesn’t bother you, then bump my review up to 5 stars. Really, I would have liked to see it as a playable race with the racial abilities as add ons through traits or feats, but hey.
Undying Head ends the book with another template, that is the floating head of an evil spellcaster that cannot rest in death. What’s nice about this one is it could actually be the reoccurring bad guy for your whole campaign. I’ll probably use this template next campaign, with the PCs defeating a rival party, and the sorcerer coming to un-life for revenge! Very cool template.
Based on this book, what I’d like to see in a futire book (Hint, Hint) would be:
Molekin base race stats.
80’s and 90’s monsters, wolfman, etc..
Victorian/Steampunk monsters. I could really see this style of book doing Spring Heel Jack and such very well.
(I was provided a free copy for this review).
Along the Fairy Path is a $2.99 PDF that comes in at 22 pages. The book reads partially as an in world gazetteer, written from an in character perspective, and the use of different font and layout makes this changeover easy to navigate, and would allow you to print a page as a players handout if you wanted them to find part of the book.
The first new game material you are introduced to is the new Faerie Realm. (Note: The book uses both Fairy and Faerie, and I am not sure if this is an editing mistake or intentional.) This is a Realm far more user friendly for casual players, and definitely more friendly to lower level PCs. In my 20+ years with DnD, I never really had much use for sending characters to the planes, other than as a climax to a story. The Faerie Realm is much easier for PCs to access, and the mythology connected to it steals liberally from folklore, with a Fey version of domains, similar to the realms of Ravenloft (in a good way), and a sprinkling of Fair Folk that makes me reminiscent of Exalted’s Raksha (in a very good way).
You then get four faeries, with a gazetteer page, a stat page, and a picture.
A seer who is a well written plot hook, and I like quite a bit. It is a great ‘deal with the devil’ style of fey that gets paid in memories, and the only thing that needs to be done to really get great mileage out of it is to make sure those minor childhood memories HURT once they are gone.
A harvest fey, who fills a time honored niche for faeries, but has some errors (no listed size in stat block, assumed tiny, and listed as a hermaphroditic creature instead of a parthenogenetic one.), and that causes negative energy, which I’m not sure I’d leave as that type of energy if that sort of thing mattered in my game. I’m not sure what I’d change it to though, and kudos for not adding a new type that no creatures will have a resistance to.
The third is the Spindler, which is hands down my favorite creature, but it also has three issues. One, the flavor text has its power effecting the victim, and the crunch has the affect effecting the viewers of the victim. Maybe this is supposed to be an in character mistake, but it doesn’t read like one. Secondly, a CR 4 creature that’s most powerful, most flavorful, and signature attack requires a grappled opponent should have improved grapple. Lastly, in the ecology section, there is this: “The desire to force his creations on humanoids might also explain why the creature developed blood their advantage.” I have no idea what that sentence means.
The final creature is the Thin Man, a well written creature that, while an effecting monster (the only real monster of the four, the rest being obstacles, but not really ‘bad guys.’), could be used to really freak out a party if the groundwork was laid out properly.
Overall this is a really good book, and well worth the price. This is the only material I have read from Clockwork Gnome Publishing, but if your first books only issues are minor editing errors, bravo to you. I certainly would buy further products from this company based on this book, and I can see grognards like myself getting a lot of use from this book, along with those new to Pathfinder. I plan on using the Faerie Realm and the Spindler in an intro to DnD I am running Friday night for a group of 5 newbies. For $3, any book that will drive a session is well worth it, in my book.
