Before reading my review, you should probably know that I've been collaborating with the great guys at Purple Duck Games on several projects and that I received a free copy of this product. However, I have nothing invested in this product and feel that I can speak freely.

Ever wanted to play a medusa? Well, I haven't, but if you have, now you can with this legendary race from Purple Duck Games. Even if you are not looking to play a medusa (perhaps because you are a GM), you can still pick it up and get a lot of useful material.

Lets look at some of the material. Within these pages you get a complete ecology of the medusa (which only lacks a lore table), new discoveries for medusa alchemists (there are some really cool ones, like the gorgon skin and serpent transformation), two new playable races (the medusa racial class and the half-medusa). The medusa is a little powerful, or at least she will be when she reaches 8th level, but I guess that she has to be. The half-medusa has no class levels and seem nicely balanced. The half-medusa also gets a complete writeup with racial options, alternate racial traits and favored class options.

Within these pages, you'll also find a medusa bloodline for sorcerers (which, I guess, is the same as Adamant Entertainment's, from their Bloodlines product), a couple of feats (both quite useful), 3 medusa variants (that give your medusa a new edge, to surprise players), a template, and three new monsters (blood summoner medusa, gorgon and the strange, but cool, medusa husk). There is also scattered a couple of medusa NPCs throughout the product.

Basically, you get a lot when you buy this product and I didn't find a lot that seemed unbalanced. I've noticed that the Purple Ducks like to bring options to both GMs and players, and this product is no different. The layout is a little messy and nothing that impressed me, I especially didn't like the image in the background. There were a couple of stupid mistakes that would have been caught with the help of a couple of proofreaders, but nothing terribly important.

I probably wont use the medusa player options (they are just not for me), except perhaps some of the alchemists discoveries and maybe one of the feats (swift poisoner), but as a GM, there are plenty of material that will prove useful in my current Sword & Sorcery campaign.

Overall, you get a lot of varied material for your money and it follows the high quality of Purple Duck products. If you are not a GM and not a player looking to play a medusa or half-medusa, this is probably not for you, but if you are... go for it. I'll settle for a 3.5 verdict, rounded up for the purpose of this format.

Legendary Races: Medusa by Purple Duck Games

This product is 16 pages long. It starts with a cover, toc, and credits. (1 page)

Medusa (4 pages) The first part starts off with basic information about the race. This is followed by 8 new alchemist discoveries and one elixir. This section ends with a medusa racial class. Their starting stats and then a 8 level race class. It also has a sample full stat block medusa using these rules. D10, 4 skills, simple weapons and a few more, light and medium armor/shields, 2 good saves, full BaB. All told from all 8 levels the medusa PC would get. +8 con, +4 chr and Dex. +4 natural armor, stunning gaze a few times a day, snake hair, poison bite and petrifying gaze.

Half-Medusa (3 pages) Starts off with a bit of fluff about the race like most races. The stats are. +2 con and chr and -2 wis. Darkvision, +2 intimidate, serpents gaze(can stay others for one round, limited use). Following this is a section on how they fit in with the classes and racial options. There is 7 racial traits a new favored class option for about half the classes. It ends with a full stat block of a sample medusa.

Additional Rules (5 pages) Sorcerer Bloodline, 1 feat, 3 variant medusa, snake-bodied template, and 3 full stat blocks of variant medusa.

It ends with a OGL (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. The artwork is mostly black and white and ranges from fair to pretty good in one case. Layout and editing where pretty good. There was a couple of odd spots with layout, such as it being in a 2 column format but on one page at the very bottom is a magic item that goes across the whole page in single format just fitting at the bottom of the page. But all and all it is pretty good. The full medusa felt a little powerful mostly due to the stat bonuses, it has a side bar about the gaze attack and while powerful I can see at higher levels it loses some of it's effectiveness. Still I felt it was a strong racial class. The half medusa is a lot better as are the extra stuff in the book. For the cheap price it is worth picking up for just those things. So what's my rating? Well the medusa I am not convinced makes a good PC, but could still be used for a NPC well and the rest I think works pretty well. So I am going to give it a 4 star review.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.