I feel like I'm in a basketball game and have just committed a foul [raises hand].
Akyrak 1
Jake 0
I feel like I'm in a basketball game and have just committed a foul [raises hand].
Oh no, not a chance! You were following the play. If anyone takes it, it's on me.
-MiKe (who goes over to argue with the ref.)
P.S. Awesome article Jake!
I don't want to see either of you anywhere near this thread again. You hear me! Both of you guys did awesome, Awesome work in #10. The only thing you gents need to concern yourselves with is what's next!
MiKe, you are a point of light in a thread full of darkness. Thanks buddy!
P.S. Right back at ya - History of Ashes rocks!!
I don't want to see either of you anywhere near this thread again. You hear me! Both of you guys did awesome, Awesome work in #10. The only thing you gents need to concern yourselves with is what's next!
Oooh!! I call dibs on the starfish panda!
Owlbears themselves are kind eh. Owlbears with wings are cool.
Strictly speaking, Pegasus was an individual of the hippogriff race
I think you mean "Pegasus was a unique winged-horse creature." Pegasus is not and never was a birdface. ;) Also, Pegasus = Greek, hippogriff = European and centuries later. ;)
Actually...
I really would like to see a Starfish Bear in Pathfinder. Grant you, I'd imagine it's real name would be something more serious, but the idea of it actually kind of creeps me out. In a cool way. I'm imagining an immense beast, broadly ursine in outline, but uncomfortably covered in the pebbled texture common to echinoderms... or perhaps a slimy and rubbery hide... and a gaping splay of radial arms where the head of an animal should be by all rational biologies. And when it disgorges its own stomach to enfold and digest a PC... (a variant on Engulf, as per oozes, perhaps?) Oh, that I like.
Just don't tell the Playerss it's a Starfish Bear, and I can picture them going, "Holy Crap, what's that thing, and what's it doing to Seelah?" Feels rather Cthulhu Mythos-esque.
So, if you guys don't like half-this and half-that monsters, how come you included a bunyip in Burnt Offerings?
Took me ages to find the source, only to learn that it's a half-shark half-seal that could have just as easily been replaced by a shark. Or a seal. But it seems someone thought Thistletop would be more colorful with a weird non-core hybrid creature guardian.
So, if you guys don't like half-this and half-that monsters, how come you included a bunyip in Burnt Offerings?
Took me ages to find the source, only to learn that it's a half-shark half-seal that could have just as easily been replaced by a shark. Or a seal. But it seems someone thought Thistletop would be more colorful with a weird non-core hybrid creature guardian.
I think creatures based on actual mythology, urban legend, and folklore get a pass on the whole 'Deadline Monster' definition. Otherwise, half of the cool monsters (in the SRD and a bunch OGL) would get left out and it would make us sad.
Besides, I don't think James or anyone over there's devoted against chimeric combination creatures (Otherwise they wouldn't have tapped Mr. Baboon/Octopus/Dinosaur/Man for the final print Adventure Path for Dungeon,) just lazy ones that feel like they've been put together at the last minute.
In the case of the Bunyip, you have an attempt to define something strange from Aboriginal Myths into D&D terms, and myth-to-D&D translations are both a time honored tradition, and not inherently lazy.
That's just my take on the matter.
Also, seals can be scarier predators than for which people give them credit. The idea of a man-eating seal gives me the squinglies.
Creative Director
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So, if you guys don't like half-this and half-that monsters, how come you included a bunyip in Burnt Offerings?
Took me ages to find the source, only to learn that it's a half-shark half-seal that could have just as easily been replaced by a shark. Or a seal. But it seems someone thought Thistletop would be more colorful with a weird non-core hybrid creature guardian.
The bunyip comes with two pedigrees; it's been in the game since the 1st edition Fiend Folio, and it's got a long history as a cryptid/mythological monster in Australia. It's no more a deadline monster than a chimiera or the yeti or the Loch Ness monster.
An identical monster called a "sealshark" would be mocked by me, though.
An identical monster called a "sealshark" would be mocked by me, though.
See, maybe it's just been a very long time since I really read through a copy of an old 1st Ed Fiend's Folio, and I regretfully don't own a copy of Tome of Horrors, (when are we gonna get a reprint, please?) but I don't remember the half-shark bit. I thought it was mostly a huge freakin' hunting seal evolved to the same kind of predatory eco-niche as tigers, large sharks, etc. And that seems pretty awesome to me!