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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Misfit Monsters Redeemed (PFRPG)

4.40/5 (based on 9 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Misfit Monsters Redeemed (PFRPG)
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Everyone Deserves a Second Chance

Over the course of its decades-long history, fantasy gaming has produced countless monsters both terrifying and alien, some pulled from mythology and others sprung full-formed from the twisted imaginations of their creators. Yet as with any idea, not every monster can be a winner. Or can it?

With Misfit Monsters Redeemed, Paizo Publishing has taken 10 of the most notoriously bad monsters in RPG history—the lamest, most hated, and flat-out silliest creatures in the genre—and attempted to make them fun allies and adversaries for players and Game Masters alike. Each monster comes complete with updated statistics for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, lengthy ecologies explaining how the monsters behave and why they are the way they are, tips on how Game Masters can use them in a campaign, notes on how to fit the monsters into the world of the Pathfinder campaign setting or your own home game, and more.

    Inside this 64-page book, you'll find monsters such as:
  • Flumphs, everyone's favorite flying jellyfish monster, come from the stars to warn innocent civilizations of the cosmic horrors lurking in the darkness.
  • Disenchanters, the blue-furred camels who live to prey on adventurers' magical gear.
  • Flail snails, the magic-warping gastropods who weave slowly through the subterranean Darklands, writing epic poetry with their slime trails.
  • Doom-screeching dire corbies, the bird-headed terrors of the darkest caverns.
  • Lurking rays, the stealthy ambush predators that are really three manta-like monsters in one: the executioner's hood, the trapper, and the lurker above.
  • Adherers, those sticky, mummy-like monstrosities whose wrappings of flayed skin are the scarred relics of a horrible experiment by phase spiders from the Ethereal Plane.
  • Other loveable losers like the delver, the lava child, the tojanida, and of course, the infamous wolf-in-sheep's-clothing!

Misfit Monsters Redeemed is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-270-8

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

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Redemption is Hard

2/5 —

"Everyone deserves a second chance" is the tagline on the back cover of Misfit Monsters Redeemed. D&D has decades of Monster Manuals and the like, filled with hundreds of creatures. It's inevitable that some would land with a thud, and others would be unintentionally, hilariously bad. The goal of this book is to provide a new take on some old duds and salvage them for use. As the introduction explains, Paizo had had good luck with its ". . . Revisited" series of books that added fresh flavour to classic monsters, but this book arose from a dare on the forums to see if the company could take the worst creatures in fantasy RPG history and breathe new life into them. Redemption is attempted for ten monsters, each receiving six pages of coverage divided into the following sections: ecology, campaign role, variants, role on Golarion, stat block, and new artwork. I'll give my verdict on each attempt at redemption below, but the short conclusion is that . . . some of these creatures really didn't deserve a second chance, and just couldn't be redeemed. However, there are a few nice surprises.

Before getting into the content, I'll just mention the cover artwork (fairly poor, in my opinion) is reproduced in the inside back-cover sans logo, while the inside front cover is a funny "Hall of Shame" listing the monsters covered with a "before" and "after" to show what the book has tried to achieve.

*Adherers: Before, they were essentially sticky mummies that could trap weapons used against them; now they have damn creepy origin as essentially living livestock for phase spiders on the ethereal plane. I think their CR is too low given the awesome build-up for them in the text. Nonetheless, my verdict: Redeemed.

*Delvers: Before, they were subterranean cave slugs that feast on ores, and filled a pretty bland role alongside things like xorns and earth elementals. Now, they're intelligent, spiritual beings that could serve as guides for spelunkers. My verdict: Redeemed.

*Dire Corbies: Before: evil crow-men. Now: Xenophobic bipedal birdmen of the Darklands. There's a lost opportunity to tie them into tengu somehow. They're okay, but essentially just disposable random encounters for subterranean explorers. My verdict: Guilty as Charged!

*Disenchanter: Before, blue camel-like creatures that can destroy magic items. Now: Pretty much the same, with a bit of a better backstory. I don't get their weird headband fetish, and they're truly goofy looking. My verdict: Guilty as Charged!

*Flail Snail: Before, they were giant snails with maces on their faces. I have to admit I was surprised they could be improved, but now they're long-lived, intelligent zen monks with magic reflecting shells. My verdict: Redeemed.

*Flumphs: Before, they were weird floating jellyfish-like creatures. Now, these lawful good creatures warn of horrors from other worlds, and good make for really good adventure hook vehicles. My verdict: Redeemed.

*Lava Children: Before, they were a forgettable race of feral subterranean humanoids. Now, they're the creations of shaitans meant to survive in the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth. I still don't get why metal passes through them, and despite the admittedly creepy artwork, I still don't see much of a role for them in a campaign. My verdict: Guilty as Charged!

*Lurking Ray: Before, they were underground ambush predators. Now, they have a really interesting, well-defined ecology with different niches for three variations. Still, each variation is a subterranean ambush predator and they're nothing more than random encounter fodder. In addition, Pathfinder's suffocation rules are such that they're not really dangerous. My (reluctant) verdict: Guilty as Charged!

*Tojanida: Before, they were aquatic crustacean-like monsters. Now, they're aquatic outsiders trapped ages ago in a bizarre shell form, and they can't remember why. I just can't really get a read on these creatures and what role they're supposed to fill in a campaign. My verdict: Guilty as Charged!

*Wolf-in-Sheep's Clothing: The only creature in the book I'd ever actually used, this forest predator (pictured on the cover) with a dumb name disguises itself as a tree stump with a small rabbit or squirrel on it before pouncing on any PC who gets too close. Its ability to manipulate corpses is creepy, and the book provides some admittedly interesting ideas on how to use a surprise monster that will only ever work on players once. It's a good try, but my verdict is still: Guilty as Charged!

By my count, the book successfully redeems four of the ten monsters it covers. That's not bad considering what the writers had to work with. That being said, I don't really see this book as being useful for anyone but real old-school gamers who would get a little kick out of seeing a modern updating on an old loser of a monster. Everyone else could happily stick to the six Pathfinder bestiaries for all their monster needs. To me, that makes Misfit Monsters Redeemed among the least essential books in the Campaign Setting line.

Warning: Terrifying!

5/5 —

I bought this book because it featured an old relic: Wolfs in Sheep's clothing. While the original concept of them was just a living log with a bunny, Paizo has managed to give me NIGHT TERRORS about these things. They now insert their vines into corpses, and animate them like puppets. Sure, this sounds like something not TOO bad, but that's just the beginning. I flipped through the pages, and noticed an image of the Druid Iconic, 'Lini', sitting on the WOSC. This was slightly scary, but there was something different about her. I couldn't figure out what it was. So I kept looking through the book, until I came to the last chapter, talking about these monsters. But what was truly terrifying was the image of the beast, dragging the Druid towards it, preparing to kill her. I flipped back to the first picture, and figured out what is was. Her skin was cracked and decayed, and a root attached to her back...

5/5 —

I've reviewed this book over on RPGGeek.com.

Great choices

5/5 —

This book re-presents some of the weirdest monsters to come out of dnd over the years. I eagerly read this book and wanted to use everything inside. In the Sargava game I’ve been running prior to all the new material to aid games set there, I wanted to populate the southern continent with new and unusual monsters. I trawled through manuals grabbing monsters from other systems, other d20 products and fringe material. I actually added in a region well-populated by the flail snails, which the party travelled to, so it is amusing to see them added to golarion. What made me chuckle was the point that they can be found on all levels of the darklands (more encounters ahead delvers) and that they are actually intelligent and Zen Buddhist like in their philosophy. When the party of my game ran into them, spells re-bounded, hit allies, someone got set on fire, causing quite the fuss. It was really very funny. They are a counter to warlocks or invokers. Note: do not use the base reflection rules, use the d100 table provided, it adds a lot more possibilities. Moar flail snails!

The other monsters can be quite the added treat. I’ll throw in the adherer although I already did something similar by taking your average Osirion mummy, give him some fighter levels and the weapon locking feat. The various lurking rays are perfect to turn a bit of spelunking into a horror game, cornbys could be added as fringe tribes in unexplored regions, disenchanters could follow wizards around who have all their body slots filled (although I prefer nishruus), and the wolf-in-sheep’s clothing could get quite a chuckle, but a savvy adventurer will know to stay back from what is cute and fuzzy in nature.

Enjoyed it too much not to give it five stars.

Misfits no more

5/5 —

Okay heres the deal I've played this game for more years than i care to think about and yeah there are some real stinkers out there. I was initially unsure about this title until I read that the wolf in sheeps clothing was getting reworked. A fan of the old expedition to the barrier peaks I had to see if the rework would make an old favorite of mine usable again. Much to my surprise it is as are most of the others in this book. There are a couple that although strictly speaking more playable than they used to be are still just a bit too odd to see much long term use. Everything in misfits could be used once or twice with ease and some of the creatures many times. Kudos to Paizo for bringing out the weird and making if fun. I personally would like to see a book 2 of fan voted stinkers reworked. How about it Paizo 10 more ?

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Paizo Employee Director of Narrative
cappadocius wrote:
FenrysStar wrote:
even goofier wolf in sheep's clothing
You're dead to me.

For doubting the flumph and discounting the Adam/Colin "weird monster photoshoot"....likewise. ;)

Of all the monsters mentioned here it's the flumphs that I most want to see. I am getting this because of that.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Updated cover image and description to reflect the finished product.
Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

This cover RULES.

This is the book I'm most looking forward to of the end-of-year releases!
Dark Archive
Jason Nelson wrote:

This cover RULES.

This is the book I'm most looking forward to of the end-of-year releases!

I...I didn't think it was possible to make the wolf-in-sheep's clothing to be actually scary.

It sounds like the King of Misfit Monsters missed the cut: the Tirapheg! It's either hermaphroditic or asexual, part-tripod, triple-headed, and tri-limbed all in one. Strangely, it only has one mouth that we know of, but they even placed it in an armpit. It even has part-Fachan genetic material mixed in (that one could test some loremasters). If the two authors of these two beasts weren't the same person, they had to have had a secret rendezvous to gene splice their mad creations together sans TSR knowledge. I can't in my wildest Cthulhu nightmares imagine how the conversation went for inclusion.
Contributor

YES. Yes, come to me, my pretty little snacks. Just... a little closer.

(this is an awesome cover)
Contributor

Also, I hope that the word "slurry" remained in the WiSC's description, because that's what happens when its prey gets into its mouth.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Varl wrote:
It sounds like the King of Misfit Monsters missed the cut: the Tirapheg! It's either hermaphroditic or asexual, part-tripod, triple-headed, and tri-limbed all in one. Strangely, it only has one mouth that we know of, but they even placed it in an armpit. It even has part-Fachan genetic material mixed in (that one could test some loremasters). If the two authors of these two beasts weren't the same person, they had to have had a secret rendezvous to gene splice their mad creations together sans TSR knowledge. I can't in my wildest Cthulhu nightmares imagine how the conversation went for inclusion.

Unfortunately I am pretty sure that the Tirapheg was never reprinted in Tome of Horrors so there isn't an OGL version for Paizo to use. So it was out of the running right away.

Colin McComb wrote:

YES. Yes, come to me, my pretty little snacks. Just... a little closer.

(this is an awesome cover)

I hope they use my 3500-word cloaker porn story for this!

This cover rocks!

I love Vinod Rams' stuff!
James Jacobs wrote:

Stop the mirth. This book is serious business.

DEADLY serious.

(very stern look)

How many playtester have you killed with this book?

LMPjr007 wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Stop the mirth. This book is serious business.

DEADLY serious.

(very stern look)

How many playtesters have you killed with this book?

Yes, do tell!

How many players were added to the ignominy which is "Killed by a flumph"?

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
Liberty's Edge

I showed my wife this cover and she thought ok a rabbit on a stump. Cute but so what.

I had to point out the little deadly details. She got an expression of ohhhhhh. Proably like the iconic will in a second.

Love the cover. In fact I might print it out if it is on the inside back cover like they have been with nom writing.

Pretty neat.

Sean
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I LOVE the cover of this.
Sovereign Court
Colin McComb wrote:
Also, I hope that the word "slurry" remained in the WiSC's description,

mmmm, slurry.

Dark Archive

Mmmmm, I can get on board that!

Oh, sorry, I thought you said 'slutty'.

What, no umpleby?
Sovereign Court
Shadowborn wrote:
What, no umpleby?

Not *all* misfit monsters can be redeemed... :)

Rob McCreary wrote:
Shadowborn wrote:
What, no umpleby?
Not *all* misfit monsters can be redeemed... :)

*snort* Next you'll be telling me that the carbuncle can't be made into anything other than treasure on legs...

Honestly, if you guys have made the tojanida into something I'd actually consider putting into my games, my hat is off to you.
The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Each of these entries has a rich history, dating back to AD&D. There are just as many new monsters created for the Tome of Horrors itself, just as lame. Anybody remember the "Owlephant"? Or the donkey-afflicted-with-homothropy?

Okay, I have to admit that this book is too dang funny. I found it kind of sad that I could look at the cover and immediately thought, "no way, the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing? Seriously? Wait a second, it isn't even anywhere near April..."

I'm also amused that my very first thought upon reading the title was "Flumph?"

I can't stop giggling about this, but I will try to keep an open mind; after all, when I first saw MMII I never thought that modrons would ever be anything but a failed joke, and now they're one of my favorite races.

Cover = great stuff!
Scarab Sages

Great cover! I've been looking forward to this book for a long time!

Now that I see the real cover art, the book looks even better. And, seriously... connecting flumphs to the Cthulhu Mythos? Now that is truly different.

I wonder, will they include a flumph bloodline for sorcerers?
Paizo Employee Director of Narrative
Eric Hinkle wrote:
I wonder, will they include a flumph bloodline for sorcerers?

Funny you should ask. I did include a bloodline with my flumph chapter, but it's more related to their origins than actual flumphs. Now, the bloodline got cut because it wasn't really the best choice for the piece, but just last night I sent an email asking if I could repurpose the cut bloodline for something else (Wayfinder #4, maybe?). I'll let you know if it surfaces when it surfaces.

Eric Hinkle wrote:
And, seriously... connecting flumphs to the Cthulhu Mythos? Now that is truly different.

The Spawn of Cthanid??

:innocent:

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
Shadow Lodge
Wanda V'orcus wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:
And, seriously... connecting flumphs to the Cthulhu Mythos? Now that is truly different.

The Spawn of Cthanid??

:innocent:

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda

Do not mention Lumley's bastardization.

Kthulhu wrote:
Do not mention Lumley's bastardization.

Cthanid!

Cthanid!!

Cthanid!!!

[grin]

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
Chris Mortika wrote:
Each of these entries has a rich history, dating back to AD&D. There are just as many new monsters created for the Tome of Horrors itself, just as lame. Anybody remember the "Owlephant"? Or the donkey-afflicted-with-homothropy?

Hey! My adventure "Night of the Asswere" is going to be the scariest thing since "The Tomb of Horrors."

OK, add my own surprise that you could actually make a wolf in sheep's clothing look like anything but goofy. But that cover...you flipped my opinion. I am SO looking forward to this book. Oh and for the one who wants a flumph bloodline for sorcerers?It's in the core book under aberration unless they're changing the flumph's creature type.

Does anybody know the precise launch date of this product yet??

I wants me some flumph! ^__^

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
FenrysStar wrote:
OK, add my own surprise that you could actually make a wolf in sheep's clothing look like anything but goofy. But that cover...you flipped my opinion. I am SO looking forward to this book.

Heh, that picture of Seoni and Merisiel doing the "Awww, it's so cute." bit just seems so much funnier now that I've finally seen the original Little Shop of Horrors.

FenrysStar wrote:
Oh and for the one who wants a flumph bloodline for sorcerers?It's in the core book under aberration unless they're changing the flumph's creature type.

Firstly, I was just kidding; but thanks for reminding me of that.

Pretty funny cover.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Wanda V'orcus wrote:

Does anybody know the precise launch date of this product yet??

I wants me some flumph! ^__^

We don't set *precise* dates until the book is in our warehouse, but we're currently anticipating shipping subscription copies and preorders in late October, with a retail release date in early November.

You can always check out our current estimates on the product schedule page.
Silver Crusade

Simple concept for the cover but I love it!!!

"Ahhhhhhhhhh a little bunny.................CHOMP!"

Makes me wonder how late is late October? I have a convention at the end of the month.

Does Paizo hold by the usual Tuesday releases as a lot of other book publish dates go by? Because if they do, we know it will most likely be Oct. 26th, or maybe even the 19th.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Hobbun wrote:
Does Paizo hold by the usual Tuesday releases as a lot of other book publish dates go by? Because if they do, we know it will most likely be Oct. 26th, or maybe even the 19th.

1. In our industry, retail releases are usually on Wednesdays (because many game stores also sell comic books, which are released on Wednesdays).

2. The product schedule page indicates release windows for subscription copies and preorders, not retail release dates (which will be a Wednesday about two weeks after subscription copies start going out).

3. It takes us several days to fulfill subscriptions and preorders, so there *is* no single day.

4. There's really not much point in trying to guess more specific dates based on the somewhat vague dates we give in advance—the whole reason they're vague is that we can't know precisely when products shipping by boat from China will clear customs and be trucked to our warehouse. Generally, we know when stuff will arrive for sure only about a day or two before it arrives.

In short, "late October" is not secret code for any given date—it's code for "we currently think this stuff will probably arrive in our warehouse sometime in late October."

Ok, first, I didn’t think “late October” was some sort of secret code, I just figured you did not know the date. (Which is what you did end up saying).

Second, I was not sure if your schedule released on Tuesdays, I have found a lot of books (along with movies/games) do so.

Third, I wasn’t trying to speak for you in any stance, only was trying to make a guess when we ‘might’ see it. Sorry if that overstepped in any way.

Thanks for your answers, Vic. :)
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

No worries!

you Know I ordered this, not realizing that it wasn't out yet... Does anyone know when it does come in?
Dark Archive

It's arriving sometime in late October. The exact date isn't set yet due to variabilities in how long it takes to ship the product from China.
Lord Gadigan wrote:
It's arriving sometime in late October. The exact date isn't set yet due to variabilities in how long it takes to ship the product from China.

The proverbial "slow boat"? ;-)

Cheers, JohnH / Wanda
Magathus wrote:
after all, when I first saw MMII I never thought that modrons would ever be anything but a failed joke, and now they're one of my favorite races.

They're mine too... I wish WOTC would get their grubby mits off them so we can have some Modron fun in PF...

By the way, this wait might just kill me...

ah, Modrons, the other set of lovable losers after the flumphs in my book. OK, not to seem ungrateful or anything but it's October 20th already how much later in October are ye gonna be?
Paizo Employee Director of Narrative

Just guessing, but I bet the wait right now is based solely on getting the book into the warehouse so they can ship it. The boat's probably in the harbor.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
FenrysStar wrote:
ah, Modrons, the other set of lovable losers after the flumphs in my book. OK, not to seem ungrateful or anything but it's October 20th already how much later in October are ye gonna be?

On a side note, Modrons are WotC IP, so no chance they could be included.

Contributor
Adam Daigle wrote:
Just guessing, but I bet the wait right now is based solely on getting the book into the warehouse so they can ship it. The boat's probably in the harbor.

Do you think the flumphs would have warned us if anything... bad... happened to the boat?

Paizo Employee Director of Narrative
Colin McComb wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
Just guessing, but I bet the wait right now is based solely on getting the book into the warehouse so they can ship it. The boat's probably in the harbor.
Do you think the flumphs would have warned us if anything... bad... happened to the boat?

I would hope so.

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