This is a very interesting game. The rules outside of combat are barebones, but in combat it is a completely different beast! A combination of a beat-em up arcade game with OG Fatal Fury bosses (in the OGFF, you could battle two against the CPU "boss"). It is a very build-heavy game, and theorycrafters will have a field day with it. I really, really like the engine. If you are bored with always checking for succes and want to depend more on your strategy, this is the game for you! And the Game Masters will love the competitive side! three thumbs up!

Fable Beast? Consider me intrigued!

DISCLAIMER: This review is based on a free PDF provided by the author and the publisher, which in no way had an influence on the final score.

Introduction Under Azoth Games, James Ray released his second book under the Species Archive line of products, this time focusing on the Fable Beast, an interesting race of fable characters becoming real. Isn’t that intriguing? Read on!

What’s inside? 25 pages of content (not counting covers, ads etc.) for 5 bucks (great!), which include:

-The Fabled Beast species and 13 heritages: After a short introduction explaining the nature of fable beasts and the product line, the author presents us with the new specie. Basically, fables, myths and legends that perdure in the Akashic Records sometimes sip into the material world, transforming an animal into a kind of avatar of the character from the tale. This is AWESOME! The concept of the Akashic Records is great as it is, but the idea of having the possibility to have anything imagined by all sentient beings is worth exploring!

Each fabled beast (FB from now on) appears as an exceptional example of their race. They were animals, and as such don’t have a society of their own. They tend to be neutral and keep to themselves. Their names are descriptive, with things like Roar or Black being perfect names for them. However, there is an exception if the FB was raised by humanoids. As adventurers, they favor “natural” classes like huay or rangers, but also classes that would go well with their nature (vizier owls or monkey gurus for example). On the rule side of things, they are magical beasts with the akashic and augmented (animal) subtypes. They count both as animals and magical beasts for spells and effects, but as intelligent creatures, cannot be awoken or taught tricks. The greatest hurdle they have as characters is that they don’t have a humanoid anatomy, which is tackled by the rules. Another interesting aspect is their Fable language, which lets them communicate with other FBs and with animals similar to them.

As mentioned above, 13 heritages are presented. Each heritage has a short, fluff-y paragraph, ability score modifiers (which vary from the standard +2, +2, -2 to unusual +4, +2, +2, -4), some racial abilities and 2 inherent skills (from which they choose one as a class skill and get a +1 on the other) and two racial veils (again, they chose one, and it doesn’t count as a veil for class purposes). We have the housecat, great cat, crow, dog, fox, frog, hare, horse, mouse, shark (nice for underwater campaigns), snake, tortoise and wolf. Not only that, we get several alternate traits: Adopted (not as aloof, get along with humanoids, lose natural armor), Apocalypse Beast (lose racial veil, gain access to a horsemen constellation), Less Preternatural (lose racial veil but gain an extra point of essence and skill focus), Mystical Gifts (gain eschew materials but their natural attacks are weaker) and Tactile Telekinesis (can “wield” a weapon or other object by handling it telekinetically). All of them present options that could potentially change the player’s experience, which is great. Finally, as favored class bonuses, they break the norm and have 4 possibilities open to any class.

-2 new veils: Enduring Fortress is a chest veil available to Daevic, Khseshig, Nexus, Stormbound and Vizier classes, and lets you lace adamantine into your flesh to get natural armor bonuses and some DR beaten by bludgeoning damage, with the possibility of lowering your speed to get Endurance and increase the DR; essence increasing the natural armor and DR plus giving you a Fort save bonus. The bind makes the DR/-, and by lowering your speed to 0 you become a protected by a resilient sphere! The only nitpick I have is that this veil should have (IMHO) the Fleshwarp descriptor and losing it only with the bind ability.

The Sheep’s Clothing is a shoulders veil open to the eclipse, fisherking, promethean, vizier and volur classes that lets you disguise self, but inclusing more creature types. When essence is bound to this veil, you get bluff and disguise bonuses, plus the disguise fools magic if at least 4 or more essence is bound to it. The bind gives the disguise shadow magic qualities in the form of a small spell list imitated via false transmutation III, which is awesome!

-12 racial feats: a couple are heritage-specific and some are akashic feats, and all of them are inspired by fables or legends, or even by the animal itself. Scion of Caduceus, for example, let fabled snakes prepare alchemical items as if they had the proper tools and, well, hands? This is accompanied by a minor racial skill bonus. None of the feats are boring, but the crow one which increases your fear-inducing abilities makes me want to play a crow dread.

-4 reprinted feats: Essence-Honed Flesh, Thick-Skinned, Tooth and Veil and Weapon Fusion, all of them nice additions and appropriate to the fabled beast arsenal.

-2 magical items: The fang grip +1 special melee weapon quality lets a creature with the bite natural attack to wield a weapon in their mouth. The Collar of the Unexpected Weapon Master gives the above quality to any melee weapon wielded. This section also includes a really handy table of magical item slots by body type, including all fabled beast heritages.

-Bonus content: A new member of the Akashic pantheon, Progenitor, is depicted, with all its faith stat block, herald, religion traits and a new feat. Apart from that, we get 24 reprinted veils from various sources for convenience, plus the false alteration I and III spells.

Of Note: The concept of using the Akashic plane for things that aren’t real via imagination is incredible intriguing! The specie itself is also interesting and feels challenging to play.

Anything wrong?: The book feels kind of short on new things, and the new magical items bring some questions to their use.

What I want: More heritages based on other cultures! With maybe some insects too!

What cool things did this inspire?: A radiant/summoner archetype (maybe a variant summoner) that summons fabled beasts and characters would rock! Or maybe a Fabled cosmology

Do I recommend it?: This is where it gets weird. While I really enjoyed the book, I think it will not be for everyone. If you just want new Akashic stuff like the domains, mysteries and blessings, I would rate it 3 stars. But if you read the premise for the race and like it, then this is 5 virtual star material! I will give the book a score in the middle, so 4 fable stars from me.