And Flumphs are cool!
So everyone knows right here and now. Flumphs are on a list... somewhere.
It's probably a little too "mim" for our take on the fey.
Affectedly modest or demure? Primly silent?
It's probably a little too "mim" for our take on the fey.Affectedly modest or demure? Primly silent?
Sparky, pastel, fairies-with-flowers-in-their-hair-y.
Now like 80 people are going to be all like "No, that's not what they're all about" and that's fine and cool and I know. But, regardless, these words come with certain connotations and traditions. And our take on the fey is going to be a good deal different than that. Different, and cool.
Don't expect Changeling, though.
Thanks! I learned a new word today. (Wes + OED)
Remember this when you check out a certain list in the intro to PF #25's Bestiary. Who's on the ball? Oh, that'd be me. :P
What was lost were genuine alien 'architects of evil'. A race that enslaved other races, when they weren't eating them. They were sophisticated builders and makers. Manipulators and puppet masters. Without question they screwed over good races, but they also screwed over rival evil races too.The mastermind is the niche or the "role" that some of us are seeking...
Hahaha.. I'd send you a pizza on August 3rd (the day that the international shipments start to go), but I'm too damn poor. If I come into some money, maybe I'll change my mind.
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Remember this when you check out a certain list in the intro to PF #25's Bestiary. Who's on the ball? Oh, that'd be me. :P
What was lost were genuine alien 'architects of evil'. A race that enslaved other races, when they weren't eating them. They were sophisticated builders and makers. Manipulators and puppet masters. Without question they screwed over good races, but they also screwed over rival evil races too.The mastermind is the niche or the "role" that some of us are seeking...
Tease. ;-)
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Oh man...
Ever heard of the Horned Women?
I've wanted someone to do something with them for a long time. Twelve possibly dangerous fey home invaders with a strong unifying visual theme, possibly each with their own unique powers(either equal or going up in power per the number of horns).
They always struck me as beings that could work as pests that you can only rid yourself of by jumping through the appropriate folklore-ish hoops(you need twelve iron horseshoes taken off three pregnant horses or somesuch) or as mysterious movers-and-shakers that could serve as harbingers for incoming strife, either to warn people or to make sure whatever disaster is coming comes. Or both. You know, fickle fey attitudes and all..
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I was digging the C'thulhu creature rehashes, and would look forward to more of that sort of thing.
I think moonbeasts have a lot of potential as a "villain race" if they got a power boost along the lines of the Denizens of Leng.....
I also like the Divs, and the additional daemons that have been showing up hither and thither.
That new "armadillo crocodile/real life bulette" fossil they found in Argentina a few ago begs for a statblock. Hmmmm.....
Finally, any kind of really interesting template is useful.
I've had a lot of fun combining the ogrekin template with....things....
I don't consider the result necessarily a form of ogrekin, I merely use it to come up with my own deal.
As far as templates, I think instead of "half fiendish" templates, a "half-specific demon/devil" might be cool. Would a half-fiend whose daddy was a gelugon have wings? Why? Daddy doesn't....
Although I did make my own "kongamato bat people" out of half-fiend templated gnomes. They're useful when every p.c. is 7th or 8th level and gets a Legion flight ring.
"Two words. Variant otyughs." :-D
I'll second the calls for:
More daemons
More evil fey
More Lovecraftian beasties
Triffids
More cryptids
The peluda
And I'll add a few refrains of my own:
More, more interesting than the SRD, dinosaurs (I feel heartened by the lengthy dino-thread started by James Jacobs)
More stuff from medieval bestiaries--the leucrotta and peryton were cool (although the peryton might not count [the first known reference is in Borges, I believe, to medieval writings that haven't actually been found]), but what about yales? A Questing Beast? Dare I hope for a bonnacon?
Monsters based on American folklore/lumberjack tales. We have a wendigo (a really sweet wendigo) and a chupacabra, but how about a tripodero? A hodag? A snoligoster or a squank or a hoop snake?
More daevas, like the one in Curse of the Crimson Throne. A tantalizing taste, to be sure.
Monsters from other planets. Pathfinder 14 gave us some good ones, but I want the four-armed Akitian warriors and the philosopher liches of the asteroid belt.
Dire corbies! DOOM! DOOM!
Oh, and I can't wait for the Bestiary. I'm waiting for the monster creation rules to come out before continuing my own Pathfinder homebrews, and hoping to convert what I've already got.
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More monsters that I stumbled across while searching on Wikipedia...
Umdhlebi: The Umdhlebi is described as having large, fragile green leaves, and two layers of bark - a dead outer layer that hung off the tree, and a new living layer that grew beneath it. The fruit of the tree was reported to be red and black, and to hang from branches like small poles.
Parker said the Umdhlebi poisoned animals that approached so that the natural process of decay would fertilize the soil in which it was growing. Symptoms of the tree's poison reportedly included headache and bloodshot eyes, followed by delirium and then death. The source or nature of its poison was never identified, but hypothesized that it secreted a poisonous gas from the soil around its roots.
Isnashi: According to local tales and several legends, the creature is a black-furred hominid over 7 feet (2.1 m) tall, covered in thick fur which makes it almost invincible to bullets and arrows. It has long arms ending in sharp claws, an oval-shaped head, and a massive mouth with menacing and dangerous tusks. In some areas in Brazil, the Isnashi is said to have two eyes, while in other accounts it has only one, like the Cyclops of Greek mythology. Most tales tell of a gaping and smelly mouth in the monster’s belly through which it devours humans which have been unfortunate enough to cross its path. All accounts agree that the creature gives out a strong, grotesque odor, and because of this, the creatures are often surrounded by clouds of flies. Even the strongest warriors are forced to run away from the mere smell of the monster; others find themselves dazed and sick for days after an encounter with an Isnashi.
The Dullahan (also Durahan, Gan Ceann) is a type of unseelie faerie. It is headless, usually seen riding a headless black horse and carrying his head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head. The flesh of the head is said to have the color and consistency of moldy cheese. The dullahan's whip is actually a human corpse's spine, and the wagons they sometimes use are made of similarly funereal objects (e.g. candles in skulls to light the way, the spokes of the wheels made from thigh bones, the wagon's covering made from a worm-chewn pall). When the dullahan stops riding, it is where a person is due to die. The dullahan calls out their name, at which point they immediately perish.
There is no way to bar the road against a dullahan--all locks and gates open on their own when it approaches. Also, they do not appreciate being watched while on their errands, throwing a basin of blood on those who dare to do so (often a mark that they're among the next to die), or even lashing out the watchers' eyes with their whips. Nonetheless, they are frightened of gold, and even a single gold pin can drive a dullahan away.
This one I've always wanted to see... When I was very young, I remember reading about him in some old book.
Jack-In-Irons is a mythical giant of Yorkshire lore who haunts lonely roads. He is covered with chains and wears the heads of his victims. He wields a large, spiked club. His name may not be Jack as other Yorkshire folklore refers to "Jack-of-Green" and more so the name Jack may just be a term for calling the person an unknown male, like John Doe today.
Seelie and Unseelie Sidhe
The Wild HuntOooof, while there will totally be room for these in our world, I wouldn't expect to see any of these phrases in our products. It's probably a little too "mim" for our take on the fey.
The SluaghGot a link on this? I was just looking this up from my notes yesterday and totally failed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sluagh
The way I've seen the Sluagh represented, it was as the creatures of Faerie too terrible for inclusion in the Unseelie Court. Or as the enforcers of Faerie.
Fey that butcher those who fail to match there fickle needs by the most horrific and nightmare-inducing as possible. At the higher CRs, this gets NASTY.
Heffalumps and Woozles.
Watcher, really, I know exactly what you mean. That role is missing. It needs to be filled.
Which is why I was glad to stumble on the seugathi in the Pathfinder Wiki, and definitely plan to pick up "Into the Darkness"; about the right CR and theme. If it doesn't do what I want, I can beat it into shape.
I know this wasn't the point of your post, and it was made 50+ posts ago, but it warms the cockles of my monstrous heart to hear that information you found on the wiki has inspired you to further investigate the setting with a book purchase. When you get the book, or with what you already have, consider contributing to the community and making some additions of your own so the next person looking for something knows what book to go look in for more info.
Also, Wes, you should make a wiki monster that absorbs knowledge from all it's victims, combines similarly themed factoids and then poos them out at the next band of adventurers to inspire them to go adventure in some other remote part of the world, in a different book.
Sorry if these are already included, but I didn't see them in the incomplete Bonus Bestiary list:
- * Banshee
* Carrion Crawler
* Catoblepas
* Myconid
Here are a few ideas:
- * Imaginary Friend: This creature has no reality in and of itself, but instead feeds on the belief of a child in order to grow more and more real. As a symbiote, it can impart supernatural powers to the believing child. It can be harmed by any weapon with the unreal special quality. As it becomes more real, it becomes increasingly vulnerable to weapons with the ghost touch special quality, taking partial damage as a percentage of how real it has become. A successful Diplomacy check opposed by the child's Sense Motive skill (or the Imaginary Friend's Diplomacy skill, whichever is higher, but only while it forgoes combat) deals 1d6 damage plus additional damage equaling the amount that the check exceeds the DC. Charm Person and Suggestion against the child can also damage the Imaginary Friend, but add a cumulative +2 on the child's Sense Motive check for each successful save.
* Awakened Illusion: The illusion of a person or creature is so convincing that it comes to life. Once awakened, it acts independently of its caster and gains a duration of d12 years (its lifespan). Near the end of its life it begins to fade. Limited Wish adds a year to its life, and Wish adds d12 years. It can only be harmed by magic weapons, and all damage is reduced by 50%. All damage it inflicts, whether by magic or melee, is half illusionary (counted as subdual damage) and half real. It is vulnerable to illusion magic, taking double damage from any illusion spell, which is automatically treated as 100% real to an Awakened Illusion (no save). Occasionally (about 20% of the time), an awakened illusion is not truly independent, but under the control of an evil spirit.
* Fairy I have ideas for many different kinds of fairy, but they all have a few things in common. They originate from another plane, and all need to return to that plane occasionally in order to survive. Return to the fairy world is difficult and only possible under special circumstances different for each type. Since time passes more quickly in the fairy worlds, their time away from the mortal world need not be longer than a few hours or days. Travel back to the mortal world is easy, but only the briefest of visits can avoid prolonged difficulty returning home.
* Dream This is essentially a golem created out of dreamstuff and combines some of the illusionary and unreal traits hinted at above. A dreams tends to have ability scores heavily skewed toward the extremes (+d6 to above average scores, -d6 to below average scores). A special talisman anchors the dream to the real world; destroying the talisman dispels the dream. A dream loses one level each time someone whose dreams contributed some of its substance dies, and they live until the death of the last dreamer (reforming in one day if killed).
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Not sure if it has been mentioned but...
Monstropedia is a great resource for Monster of legend and folklore.
Sorry if these are already included, but I didn't see them in the incomplete Bonus Bestiary list:
* Banshee
* Carrion Crawler
* Catoblepas
* Myconid
Of these, banshees have been in Pathfinder--volume 17, if memory serves me correctly. Carrion crawlers and myconids are closed content owned by WotC, so can't be used (although there are still vegepygmies for you fungus-fans). Catoblepas are a real-world monster, so their future appearance is entirely possible.
The horrid threadjack revived, with apologies:
Inspired by the recommendations of others, I went and read Pathfinder #6 and Pathfinder #21 looking for info on the Denizens of Leng.
I now fully accept them as an adequate Illithid substitute, and retract my request for a new species. I'd like to see the Denizens expanded in that direction. Could we get a made up name for them, something like "Illithid" to the "Mind Flayers?" That alone might bridge the gap. ("Dihtilli" Maybe?)
Calling them Denizens of Leng each time is sort of a mouthful.
If you're wanting the same kind of humanoid, scheming, aberrant, slaver race with tentacle face (or worse), look no further. In some key ways, they are actually more illithid than illithid. Bravo!
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There was a nice take on sluagh, muryans, and others in the 2e Ravenloft book, The Shadow Rift; although I thought the good-aligned ones were too cutesy, the evil and CN ones were very nasty, and very cool! ;-)
As long as "the list" that the Flumphs are on that Wes referred to is a "never to be seen again list", I'll be happy with that.
I am not sure I want to see that "list"....
On the other hand, the Ravenloft shadow rift stuff was very cool. I would like to see the Paizo version of that. I have always been a fan of shadow fey.
The horrid threadjack revived, with apologies:
** spoiler omitted **
TR
More on the Denizens of Leng. If we can not use githyanki or mind flyers, then this is a good substitute.
Agreed.
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Swanmays - I always liked them.
And I liked charging PCs with hordes of gibberlings.
As for Fey
So far my experience of Fey in Paizo stuff has been 95% evil and lethal.
I'm not surprised anymore, it's not shocking or gripping: nasty fey are now normal, drifting dangerously toward boring...
I have often found that endearing Fey make a nice alternative and magical group of people to hep my PCs, or for my PCs to protect, or to host my PCs in an otherwise forbidding environment.
Sometimes there seems to be self-righteous rejection of any fey that might be mildly cute because... "How dare those mimsy Victorians go and change fey from their earlier terrifying aspect. We need to be purists and go back further - plus, pah, I'm too hardcore for Tolkein and his cutesy Tom Bombadills: Tolkein's for RPG tourists!"
...and I just think: "Do you remember how one good Drow was cool, and two or three was interesting, and whole communities was going too far and a million Drizzts was just painful?"
More on the Denizens of Leng. If we can not use githyanki or mind flyers, then this is a good substitute.Agreed.
There's even mention of their servitor races, who are slightly more humanoid. These could perhaps be expanded into a race with a Githyanki/Githzerai type split.
That would be nice. I'm not a huge fan of the gith races, but I think something more uniquely pathfinder to replace the setting role in the astral would be parsimonious. Might make an interestng player race, if we should ever see sourcebooks that would merit that (I'm thinking PathJammer).
I agree about the Denizens of Leng. I hope they made the bestiary.
On another point, maybe since we have the Denizens of Leng playing a mindflayeresque role, maybe it would be cool to have more information on Leng itself.
Director of Narrative
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I also like this guy. He's from the amazing anime, Ninja Scroll, and though I don't know if he's based on a specific mythological being, he was probably my favorite villain. In short, he's an ugly old man with a wasp nest in his back. The wasps obey him, of course.
As a bug lover, I completely agree with you on this villain. That guy rocked!
The Dullahan (also Durahan, Gan Ceann) is a type of unseelie faerie. It is headless, usually seen riding a headless black horse and carrying his head under one arm. The head's eyes are massive and constantly dart about like flies, while the mouth is constantly in a hideous grin that touches both sides of the head. The flesh of the head is said to have...
Hah, that's pretty funny. Both Sutter and I wrote up takes on the Dullahan separately. So there's little doubt you'll see him charging down the road in the next year or so.
More on the Denizens of Leng. If we can not use githyanki or mind flyers, then this is a good substitute.
Although they didn't make the Bestiary, the Denizens of Leng are currently our defacto mastermind villains, so expect to see plenty more about them for some time to come.
Oh man... Ever heard of the Horned Women?
Dude, that's creepy. Maybe a new kind of hag. Pretty cool. Noted!
More, more interesting than the SRD, dinosaurs (I feel heartened by the lengthy dino-thread started by James Jacobs)
There will be more dinos. With James at the helm, no doubt about that!
More stuff from medieval bestiaries--the leucrotta and peryton were cool (although the peryton might not count [the first known reference is in Borges, I believe, to medieval writings that haven't actually been found]), but what about yales? A Questing Beast? Dare I hope for a bonnacon?
I'm a big fan of several of these and am drawing quite a bit from some old bestiaries. The leucrotta and peryton are just the tip of the iceberg.
Monsters based on American folklore/lumberjack tales. We have a wendigo (a really sweet wendigo) and a chupacabra, but how about a tripodero? A hodag? A snoligoster or a squank or a hoop snake?
Oooh, don't know a few of those. I'll have to look them up. The hoop snake, though, ha, awesome.
More daevas, like the one in Curse of the Crimson Throne. A tantalizing taste, to be sure.
Coming.
Monsters from other planets. Pathfinder 14 gave us some good ones, but I want the four-armed Akitian warriors and the philosopher liches of the asteroid belt.
Also on the list, though likely a good ways out.
Dire corbies! DOOM! DOOM!
Strangely, on "a list."
Oh, and I can't wait for the Bestiary. I'm waiting for the monster creation rules to come out before continuing my own Pathfinder homebrews, and hoping to convert what I've already got.
You guys are going to be so impressed with this book. It really really is a work of art. And just holding the print out and paging through was making my arm hurt. But seeing it all together and in color, I think you're all going to be blown away. Monsters have always been my favorite part of the game and this - even though I realize I might be a bit biased - is doubtlessly the coolest bestiary I've ever seen. Can't wait to show you all in just a few more weeks here!
Humans and demihumans.
It may not sound terribly exciting like that, but the majority of actual challenges a group of adventurers encounters consists of more of these than any of the rare, mythical beasts.
In a dangerous fantasy world most intelligent (demi)humans respond potentially hostile to a group of unfamiliar battle-hardened adventurers that try to go places they were not invited to.
Guards, patrols, scouts, bandits, mercenaries, thugs and pirates are a few examples of groups of people that are encountered with some frequency.
Besides the obviously different demihuman races, Golarion has almost a dozen distinctly different human cultures. On top of that there are quite a few factions.
Compositions of encountered groups vary with each culture and faction, as do their weapons, equipment and skills.
Mounts and other accompanying animals can be diverse as well.
Since unlike monsters each group likely has one or multiple classes, each with levels, placing such a group when needed is often significantly more effort than just looking up a context appropriate monster, especially at the higher levels. Which is a shame since they can bring more surprises than a well known monster.
What I would love to see for each of the different human and demihuman races and subraces is:
Short, anonymous, pre-generated statblocks with typical classes, equipment and skills for each of the cultures and types of encounters (such as a guard, or a pirate), for a comprehensive range of levels.
Short descriptions of appearance, to ensure diversity of humanoid encounters.
Tables with group compositions, referenced against the CR they represent.
But perhaps this is something suited for the GameMastery Guide.
But perhaps this is something suited for the GameMastery Guide.
Approximately 50+ pages of the Game Mastery Guide in fact. Don't worry, you will be well served for versatile statblocks early next year by a few products.
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I think leprechauns offer many design options for unique encounters. Speedy, lucky, with spell-like abilities and wishes as treasure. A Lucky Charms leprechaun that uses its magic to escape pursuers. A Leprechaun movie style evil leprechaun that mercilessly hunts any creatures that steal its gold. There is a lot of potential to tap.
Creature from African and Middle-African myths, to populate and terrify the Mwangi expanse.
They would be really characterful and very little covered in most fantasy worlds/games.