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Monsters Unleashed V.1 [PFRPG]

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Average Rating:4.3 / 5
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Monsters Unleashed V.1 [PFRPG]
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Monsters Unleashed V.1 [PFRPG]
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Kenneth A. C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/06/2012 13:11:33

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 (probably) received a free copy of this product. However, I have nothing invested in this product and feel that I can speak freely.

Monsters Unleashed is (or rather was) a very cool project that allowed people (who signed up) to nominate their favorite 3.5e monsters for a little Pathfinder update. Now everyone has the chance to buy these updated monsters, and this is the very first product.

In this pdf you get the following monsters; barrow wight (standard vengeful undead who hunt down those who violated their privacy and property), crystalline horror (a strange aberration of crystal and glass, with no facial features), devil dog (which has nothing to do with devils, but may be a distant relative of winter wolves), dragonnel (looks sort of like a dragon, sounds sort of like a dragon, but is a magical beast or... a dinosaur), kech (monkey-like humanoids that live like monkeys but act like humans, which is also a playable race). Among these, the crystalline horror is my absolute favorite. It has the cool ability to bend light and blind creatures.

Most of these creatures are rather boring/neutral (a standard undead, wolf and monkey-like creature), but I don't think this is any fault of the authors. Afterall, they were asked to update these creatures and weren't paid enough to recreate the story behind each of the creatures. They succeed in what they set out to do, to update a bunch of monsters chosen by others. All the monsters seem balanced and has a nice piece of artwork. The layout is pretty nice and makes the monsters easy to use.

For the low price, this is a winner!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Monsters Unleashed V.1 [PFRPG]
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Thilo G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/28/2011 04:39:24

This pdf is 7 pages long, 1 page front cover and comes with an extra pdf for SRD and a 1-page extra containing tokens.

The first in a series of monster update products, this pdf offers us 5 monsters that have been updated to PFRPG. The write-ups of the respective monsters come with lore-sections as well as b/w-artworks. The first monster is the CR 4 Barrow Wight, an undead creature with a keen treasure sense. The statblock mentions a resurrection vulnerability, but not exactly what that entails - while a quick check of the PF-SRD offers results of this quality, a short reprint would have enhanced usability. The insanity gaze special attack does not specify what failing the save entails - while "Insanity" is written there, it's not in italics, which could be seen as a problematic formatting glitch.

The CR 5 Crystalline Horror (a shard-spewing, light-bending humanoid crystalline creature)comes with not one, but two cool signature abilities - neat!

The CR 3 Devil Dog was one of my favorite creatures from the 2nd edition days of old and unfortunately I don't think that the canine's once deadly throat rip ability has been well translated to PFRPG as a bland "can't resurrect coup-de-graced foe" - a special combat maneuver would have been nice.

The poor flyers of old, Dragonnels also make a comeback at CR 6 and retain their cool (albeit somewhat goofy) qualities from the original critters, especially due to nice touches like "Trained Dragonnels rarely eat their riders". While "bad flyer, sometimes crashes" might be funny, the creature lacks a distinct signature ability, something I've come to expect from new creatures. However, they do come with an alternate set of stats for Dinosaur Dragonnels and a mini-block to use them as companions - laudable.

The final new critter would be the CR 3 Kech, primitive ape-like humanoids that pass without a trace and come with a full set of racial abilities, should you wish to create Kesh characters of your own. While once again ok critters, I don't consider the Kech something to write home about.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are ok, but at this length unnecessary omissions like the vulnerability of the wight and the italics-glitch could and should have been avoided. The b/w-artworks are ok for the price, though nothing to get overly excited about. And that's unfortunately my main gripe - while the pdf is extremely cheap and at this price point, you can't do much wrong, the monsters herein somewhat range in quality - while the Crystalline Horror is exactly the kind of cool creature I'm looking for in a pdf and the Dragonnel made me nostalgic for a hilarious session of my first campaign, the other 3 creatures felt rather bland to me - they just lack the signature quality I've come to expect from new PFRPG-critters. In the end, this may be a very affordable little set of creatures, but not one I could necessarily recommend to everybody - I'd usually rate this lower, but due to the very fair price, my final verdict will be 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Monsters Unleashed V.1 [PFRPG]
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Dark M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/11/2011 14:36:06

Monsters Unleashed by Purple Duck Games

This product is 7 pages long. It starts with a cover. (1 pages)

New Monsters (6 pages) There is 5 monsters that have been updated to Pathfinder in this section. The section ends with the introduction and credits. Each monster gets a full page with art and a DC knowledge check chart. The five monsters are. Barrow Wight – CR4 This is a wight that is created due to Greed. Crystalline Horror – CR5, a elemental looking aberration, made of glass. Devil Dog – CR3, half wolf, half winter wolf. Dragonnel – CR6, kinda a prehistoric predragon/dino of sorts. This one has a second stat block as well to be used as a non magical animal, plus rules for them as companions. Kech – CR3, monkey's that look more human, with leathery bodies. There is rules for them as a PC race as well.

Closing thoughts. The art is black and white and pretty good. Layout and editing is good, though putting the introduction at the back of the book seemed a bit odd, plus the OGL is a separate PDF, other than that it was fine. The monsters are all updated from 3.x to Pathfinder rules. I thought the updates where pretty well done, but then I am not a huge number cruncher. If it looks like it will play well and these do, then I am happy. So what's my rating? Well I couldn't really find anything wrong with the product, it delivers what it claims and does it well. Combined with the cheap price I am going to give this one a 4.5 star review. I was tempted to give it a 5 but I wasn't blown away, it's good and worth the price though.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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