Book of Beasts: Monster of the River Nations describes new fierce and fantastic denizens of the Lands of Low Character. This volume teems with never-before-seen magical beasts, capricious fey, tormented undead and vicious plant creatures. Bring new life and peril to your adventures.
Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations is a 32-page, fully Pathfinder Roleplaying Game-Compatible supplement containing twenty-four brand-new monsters, several pre-statted-out humanoid encounters, new diseases, templates, haunts, drugs and gambling games.
Written by 2013 RPG Superstar™ Steven Helt!
RPG Superstar is a trademark of Paizo Publishing, LLC.
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When I was made aware that the first printing provided to Paizo was sold out, I paid attention for the next round and when I saw that a print+PDF bundle was just under $9, the pricing for this was a clincher!
Of course it helps that the subtitle to this release is a wink and nod to a recently completed Paizo adventure path, but it does provide additional beasties to mix things up if you're the type of GM that wants to go off the beaten path and catch your PCs off guard - toss a little more sand into their faces in an AP that was advertised to be a sandbox in the first place!
Twenty new monsters (twenty four, if you're counting four more that are essentially templates) to choose from. Creatures that caught my attention were the Autumn Death (don't ever jump into that pile of raked leaves again!) & the Garmunchi, which gives you a monsterous tribal race that will confuse your PCs into thinking it may first be a troll or an ogre by appearances alone.
In addition to the new creatures, it's the appendix that really sells the product with the humanoid encounters (to assist in your sandboxing) and a new gambling game to introduce to your PCs!
I was extremely happy with the selection presented in Book of Beasts Monsters of the River Nations. Every entry was fun to read, and amazingly I could find a use for just about every entry in the book.
CRs range from 1/2 to 16 with oozes, plants, demons, dragons, fey, undead etc etc etc. There are new quick and easy templates that I thought were creative. Diseases that I can find immediate uses for. There are even new haunts!
But my FAVORITE part was the humanoid encounters. The Cursed Brethren made me laugh and wring my hands in sadistic glee.
The point of the name I submitted for them was to leave clues to the real-world mythic origin of the armouchiquois, but not have it seem out of place in River Kingdoms. I wasn't in the loop about why the name was changed, but as freelancer all you can do is write and cash the check. The hard work of changing names to fill out the alphabet or put a page in just the right layout and all that is for someone else!
A similar thing happened with the addanc. There are a few similar-sounding names for the crocodile/beaver hybrid, which I think originally was a Scottish lake spirit. But someone in a contest for mosnter design I entered submitted an 'athanc' and got published, which led to my changing to one of the other old names for it.
Many thanks for everyone's comments. I am working to find out how to get from 'on the list for an Ennie nomination' to 'nominated'!
The judges will handle that. Its in their hands at this point. JBE got the book in to the Ennies crew on time, and until July 8 there's nothing else that can be done.
For Black Friday, this PDF will be on sale for $1.25. Be sure to grab this Award-Winning, Highly-Acclaimed monster book this weekend for this low, LOW price.
All week long, the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations will be on sale for $3 because it was written by Steven Helt, the new Superstar of RPGs. Grab it today.
They are ideal creatures to throw at your players explore dangerous wilderness, start their own nation on an unclaimed stretch of land or any other type of adventures in such an environment.
..and some of them are unsportsmanlike. : }
I imagine a monster that crawls in your mouth and makes its own exit out your belly button would be considered very unsportsmanlike. ;)