Herein is a fine and fascinating array of monsters, most with supernatural aspects and worthy of songs and legends... indeed it is suggested that to make the most of them you should be also using the Mythic Adventures rules. Fitting adversaries for those who fancy themselves as such legendary heroes, perhaps...

The Introduction is mainly explanation of how each monster entry is presented, complete with handy icons used to enable you to tell at a glance the creature type and the terrain and climate that it favours. These are supplemented by appendices that list them by CR, terrain and so on thus enabling you to populate a chosen area with ease. Other appendices deal with special abilities and other details, including a fascinating section on monster creation, another on monster advancement and one on monsters as player-characters.

The main bulk of the book is composed of an alphabetical listing of the monsters. Each comes with a colour illustration and stat block, with plenty of detail and description to enable you to work out suitable uses for it and how it will behave when encountered by the party.

Beginning with the abaia, an eel with a strong regard for the environment which acts as guardian to a body of water... and turns quite nasty if you do not respect the lake it inhabits (it doesn't mind people who take only what they need, it is those who abuse nature that upsets them), there follows a fascinating array of creatures.

The almiraj, for example, looks like a cross between a rabbit and a unicorn, but it's no fluffy bunny! If nothing else, anything slain by its horn is turned to stone so if the poor almiraj wants to eat whatever it has attacked (it's apparently a carnivore), it has to eat its prey alive.

One of the weirdest is the colour out of space. This is an eerie radient incorporeal ooze that leaches life out of its surroundings until it reaches maturity, at which time it departs into the interstellar depths from which it came. If that's not enough for you, the Great Old Ones are here, so if you wish to combat Cthulhu or Hastur or the like, now you can... if you dare. Most have cults associated with them, details of which are also given.

If it's monsters out of legend that you want, there are beings such as Grendel, if you prefer more mundane ones there are gremlins or even giraffes! Undead too, and an alchemist's error called a hungry flesh, a giant ooze. To cap it all, how about an immortal ichor, which is an intelligent mass of blood from a dead evil deity...

This is indeed a collection of monsters rich and strange, ones whose very being deserve a song or story, never mind those that will be written when heroes defeat them in battle!

Return to Bestiary 4 page.

Reviewed: 16 December 2013