Messageboard Golem
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Four new creatures create a Horde for the minotaur and restore the master of the maze to his rightful place in legend.
Horde Book 2: Maze of the Minotaur (print)
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John Cooper
Explorer
Masters & Minions Horde Book 2: Maze of the Minotaur
By Brian Stith
Behemoth3 product number BEH3502
60 pages, $12.00
Maze of the Minotaur is the second in Behemoth3's "Masters & Minions" series, each book dedicated to bringing new life to a D&D monster with roots all the way back to the original, 1st Edition Monster Manual. This one adds depth to the minotaur, creating not only an "advanced" version of the bull-man from Greek myth, but also two types of females of the minotaur race and a quadruped offshoot of the race as well.
The cover is once again by Sang Lee, and sticks with the format introduced with A Swarm of Stirges: the monster in question (this time a charging minotaur) in full color against a white triangle with red background, superimposed upon which is (this time) a stone pattern. This is another fine work; I especially liked the nice texturing of the fur, the glowing, red eyes, and the excellent detail of having the minotaur's hot, wispy breath visible!
Sang Lee also does most of the interior artwork (again, with some assistance by Bernie McGougal), which in this book consists of 15 black-and-white illustrations. Once again there's a little bit of "recycling" going on, as the full-color charging minotaur on the cover shows up in black-and-white on page 9; most of him appears again on page 1 with a different stone pattern for the floor and walls; and yet again on page 5, although this time it's just the same minotaur face peeking through a slot in the wall at the dwarf in the maze. Sang also has some fun this time hiding his "yin-yang S" symbol inside the artwork: it shows up on the dwarf's knee on page 5, embedded on the bull lord's chest armor on page 7, and as part of the intricate stone sculpture on page 27. It looks like Bernie's contribution this time around is the bull-like tauron illustration on page 15, which again demonstrates his affinity for strict black-and-white shading (with no gradation). All in all, I rate the artwork in Maze of the Minotaur as above average. My biggest quibble is that the female minotaurs (the minotrice and minotrice maze mage) look kind of silly with those six breasts apiece, but that's not the artist's fault, as that's how they're described in the book. Oh, and page 38 is half white space; I'm not sure why this wasn't filled with some artwork, especially as the artists (and graphic designer Nathaniel Sims) have already demonstrated their resourcefulness when it comes to merging different pieces of art together into new forms.
Once again, the inside covers are treated as normal pages, maximizing the amount of information the reader gets for his money. The lettering was still a bit splotchy here, but nowhere near as bad as in A Swarm of Stirges (of course, that may have been just in my two copies - the "splotchiness" may well vary between different copies of each book).
Proofreading and editing is still pretty good, but it falls down a notch or two from the previous book in this series. I found two errors on the inside front cover alone: "distribution" being split along two lines without being hyphenated (although in their defense, I can't tell whether the hyphen was simply "splotched over" in my copy of the book), and Maze of the Minotaur being described as "the first book in Behemoth3's Master and Minions series," when in fact it's the second book (obviously, this was a copy-and-paste error from the first book). Despite using the term "DM" throughout the book, the term "game master" shows up occasionally as well; while this isn't really a mistake, it does show a lack of standardization - most game companies pick one term and stick with it (also, most who choose the term "Game Master" capitalize it). The Hide skill isn't capitalized (in two separate instances), and similar usage of the normally-capitalized terms "Dexterity," "Strength," "Common," "Giant" (these last two in the context of language names), "Medium," and "Large" fail in this regard as well. Finally, I was sad to see some actual typos make it past editor Tavis Allison ("lead" instead of "led," "mnotaurs" instead of "minotaurs"), as well as one case each of a missing word ("the"), improper pronoun usage ("their" instead of "her"), and incorrect apostrophe usage (lack of an apostrophe denoting possessiveness). While none of this is game-breaking, and while it is in fact still probably better than the "average" game book, it's especially disappointing after the excellent job that was done in this regard in the first book in the series. Okay, enough nitpickiness on my part!
Maze of the Minotaur is laid out as follows:
There were a few oversights in the material, however. While it was nice to see a mention of "gallduroi" on page 13, those who haven't read A Swarm of Stirges won't have any way of knowing that gallduroi is stirge gallbladder - it might have been worth mentioning exactly what gallduroi was for the benefit of those readers (or even those who haven't read the first book in awhile; ask me what gallduroi is in two years and I may not be able to tell you). The Savage Species-style monster levels section was nicely done, but since minotaurs all speak Giant, I don't think it was quite accurate to have bull lords (advanced minotaurs, recall) only speak Common in the "developing" stage and pick up Giant once they've fully matured - surely that should have been the other way around?
And then there were the game stats themselves. Some of these were a bit off as well; in the interests of providing the reader with more correct game stats (and with the heads-up that I've already sent Behemoth3 a list of these errors, which have already been incorporated in the errata for the printed product and already changed in the PDF version), I recommend making the following changes:
The map of the 2-level minotaur labyrinth is a little bit on the basic side, but I suppose with any maze the bigger and more complex it is, the more boring it will be for the players as they continue to map every twisting passage. Still, I think this one might be just a bit on the "too simple" side - it must be a relatively new bull lord running the place.
Maze of the Minotaur finishes up with a slew of appendices that once again will be an enormous time-saver for a DM needing quick stats for an NPC of any of the four "humanoid build" creatures in this book. Because there are many more such charts in this book than in the first one (A Swarm of Stirges only had one such NPC chart, since there was only one creature in that book capable of taking on class levels), the page count ends up being slightly higher than the first book as well: 60 pages vs. 54. It was very nice of Behemoth3 to keep the $12.00 price tag on a book that has one-ninth again as many pages as the original. At $12.00, you're definitely getting your money's worth with Maze of the Minotaur. I rate it as a strong "4 (Good)."
By Brian Stith
Behemoth3 product number BEH3502
60 pages, $12.00
Maze of the Minotaur is the second in Behemoth3's "Masters & Minions" series, each book dedicated to bringing new life to a D&D monster with roots all the way back to the original, 1st Edition Monster Manual. This one adds depth to the minotaur, creating not only an "advanced" version of the bull-man from Greek myth, but also two types of females of the minotaur race and a quadruped offshoot of the race as well.
The cover is once again by Sang Lee, and sticks with the format introduced with A Swarm of Stirges: the monster in question (this time a charging minotaur) in full color against a white triangle with red background, superimposed upon which is (this time) a stone pattern. This is another fine work; I especially liked the nice texturing of the fur, the glowing, red eyes, and the excellent detail of having the minotaur's hot, wispy breath visible!
Sang Lee also does most of the interior artwork (again, with some assistance by Bernie McGougal), which in this book consists of 15 black-and-white illustrations. Once again there's a little bit of "recycling" going on, as the full-color charging minotaur on the cover shows up in black-and-white on page 9; most of him appears again on page 1 with a different stone pattern for the floor and walls; and yet again on page 5, although this time it's just the same minotaur face peeking through a slot in the wall at the dwarf in the maze. Sang also has some fun this time hiding his "yin-yang S" symbol inside the artwork: it shows up on the dwarf's knee on page 5, embedded on the bull lord's chest armor on page 7, and as part of the intricate stone sculpture on page 27. It looks like Bernie's contribution this time around is the bull-like tauron illustration on page 15, which again demonstrates his affinity for strict black-and-white shading (with no gradation). All in all, I rate the artwork in Maze of the Minotaur as above average. My biggest quibble is that the female minotaurs (the minotrice and minotrice maze mage) look kind of silly with those six breasts apiece, but that's not the artist's fault, as that's how they're described in the book. Oh, and page 38 is half white space; I'm not sure why this wasn't filled with some artwork, especially as the artists (and graphic designer Nathaniel Sims) have already demonstrated their resourcefulness when it comes to merging different pieces of art together into new forms.
Once again, the inside covers are treated as normal pages, maximizing the amount of information the reader gets for his money. The lettering was still a bit splotchy here, but nowhere near as bad as in A Swarm of Stirges (of course, that may have been just in my two copies - the "splotchiness" may well vary between different copies of each book).
Proofreading and editing is still pretty good, but it falls down a notch or two from the previous book in this series. I found two errors on the inside front cover alone: "distribution" being split along two lines without being hyphenated (although in their defense, I can't tell whether the hyphen was simply "splotched over" in my copy of the book), and Maze of the Minotaur being described as "the first book in Behemoth3's Master and Minions series," when in fact it's the second book (obviously, this was a copy-and-paste error from the first book). Despite using the term "DM" throughout the book, the term "game master" shows up occasionally as well; while this isn't really a mistake, it does show a lack of standardization - most game companies pick one term and stick with it (also, most who choose the term "Game Master" capitalize it). The Hide skill isn't capitalized (in two separate instances), and similar usage of the normally-capitalized terms "Dexterity," "Strength," "Common," "Giant" (these last two in the context of language names), "Medium," and "Large" fail in this regard as well. Finally, I was sad to see some actual typos make it past editor Tavis Allison ("lead" instead of "led," "mnotaurs" instead of "minotaurs"), as well as one case each of a missing word ("the"), improper pronoun usage ("their" instead of "her"), and incorrect apostrophe usage (lack of an apostrophe denoting possessiveness). While none of this is game-breaking, and while it is in fact still probably better than the "average" game book, it's especially disappointing after the excellent job that was done in this regard in the first book in the series. Okay, enough nitpickiness on my part!
Maze of the Minotaur is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: Opening with a half-page of fiction, this section details the minotaur's past, touches upon the creatures presented in this book, and explains different ways to integrate this material into a campaign; plus, there's a racial preferences chart showing how these creatures react to the other standard D&D races
- Monsters: Besides the standard minotaur (with game stats slightly tweaked from how they appear in the Monster Manual), we also get the bull lord (advanced male minotaur), minotrice (female counterpart to the male minotaur, who acts as a huntress for her herd), minotrice maze mage (albino, female, druidic spellcaster), and tauron (Medium-sized bull-like creature, a naturally-occurring mutant minotaur that can eat through solid rock - they're the guys responsible for digging the underground labyrinth!)
- Characters: Using the above monsters (except for the nonhumanoid-build tauron) as PCs, with "monster level" advancement in the style of Savage Species
- Adventures: 3 new magic items (tauron stomach, portable wall, portable secret door), a new treasure (minotrice stonecraft), and 5 adventure hooks involving minotaur herds
- Denizens: 5 sample NPCs, one each of the 5 creatures presented in the second chapter, and each with at least one character class and/or template added on
- Encounters: Different "Tactical Units" (Beast & Mistress, Bull Lord, Coven, Hunting, Tunneling Crew, and Young Male), ensuring the DM has a wide variety of ready-made encounters of varying CRs, with combat tactics for each; plus a sample (2-level) minotaur lair
- Appendices: Credits, Minotaur horde stats at a glance, Unit Encounter charts for Levels 5-13, 20-level NPC stats for bull lords, minotaurs, minotrices, and minotrice maze mages (each with full stats and appropriate gear), and the obligatory Open Game License
There were a few oversights in the material, however. While it was nice to see a mention of "gallduroi" on page 13, those who haven't read A Swarm of Stirges won't have any way of knowing that gallduroi is stirge gallbladder - it might have been worth mentioning exactly what gallduroi was for the benefit of those readers (or even those who haven't read the first book in awhile; ask me what gallduroi is in two years and I may not be able to tell you). The Savage Species-style monster levels section was nicely done, but since minotaurs all speak Giant, I don't think it was quite accurate to have bull lords (advanced minotaurs, recall) only speak Common in the "developing" stage and pick up Giant once they've fully matured - surely that should have been the other way around?
And then there were the game stats themselves. Some of these were a bit off as well; in the interests of providing the reader with more correct game stats (and with the heads-up that I've already sent Behemoth3 a list of these errors, which have already been incorporated in the errata for the printed product and already changed in the PDF version), I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 6, Bull Lord: The stated Will save DC for the bull lord's Onslaught special ability is 19, yet this doesn't follow the formula of 10 + (1/2 creature's Hit Dice) + (relevant ability modifier). I would expect that either Wisdom or Charisma would be appropriate, but as it is none of the bull lord's abilities has a +4 modifier, which is what would be needed to come up with a DC of 19 - unless there's some sort of racial bonus in effect. As it is, using either Wisdom or Charisma, the DC should be 15. Also, the Powerful Charge should be at +17 melee, not +18 melee, the same as its gore attack.
- p. 8, Minotaur: Gore damage should be 1d8+4, not 1d8+6 - it doesn't get the "1.5 times Strength modifier" since this isn't its sole natural attack.
- p. 12, Minotrice Maze Mage: Not really an error, but I don't think that a "coven" should contain only 1 individual, as listed under Organization: "Coven (1-3)"
- p. 30, Baragor, Male Bull Lord Minotaur 8/Bull Lord 9/Sorcerer 6/Dragon Disciple 10: I'm not sure what effect the "Armor Skin" feat has, as there are no details on such a feat in this book, and it doesn't appear in any of the three core rulebooks for D&D. Greataxe damage should be +32 melee, not +30 (+18 STR mod times 1.5 = 27, 27 + 5 magic weapon bonus = 32). Gore damage should be 1d8+18, not 1d8+25. Powerful charge damage should be 4d6+27, not 4d6+25. Finally, the DC for the Onslaught special ability has the same problem as the Bull Lord, as mentioned above. There may be additional problems with the stats as well, but I don't have the 3.5 information on Dragon Disciples to properly check the creature's BAB, breath weapon stats and DC, and so on.
- p. 32, Thrice, Male Minotaur Minotaur 8/Fighter 4/Expert 4: Under Full Attack, gore attacks should be at +14 melee, not +19 (-5 for a secondary attack).
- p. 33, Jarno, Female Minotrice Minotrice 6/Rogue 3/Assassin 3/Shadowdancer 1: Under Full Attack, shortsword attacks should be at +12/+7 melee, not +13/+8 (+8 BAB, +3 STR, +1 magic weapon bonus), or +11 melee for claws (not +12) and +6 melee bite (not +7).
The map of the 2-level minotaur labyrinth is a little bit on the basic side, but I suppose with any maze the bigger and more complex it is, the more boring it will be for the players as they continue to map every twisting passage. Still, I think this one might be just a bit on the "too simple" side - it must be a relatively new bull lord running the place.
Maze of the Minotaur finishes up with a slew of appendices that once again will be an enormous time-saver for a DM needing quick stats for an NPC of any of the four "humanoid build" creatures in this book. Because there are many more such charts in this book than in the first one (A Swarm of Stirges only had one such NPC chart, since there was only one creature in that book capable of taking on class levels), the page count ends up being slightly higher than the first book as well: 60 pages vs. 54. It was very nice of Behemoth3 to keep the $12.00 price tag on a book that has one-ninth again as many pages as the original. At $12.00, you're definitely getting your money's worth with Maze of the Minotaur. I rate it as a strong "4 (Good)."
coyote6
Adventurer
Regarding Baragor's gore damage -- the regular minotaur in the 3.5e MM does 4d6+6 damage with its Powerful Charge, which seems to include 1.5x its Str bonus. All creatures with a version of Powerful Charge add greater than 1x their Str bonus. I'd say that Baragor's Powerful Charge should be 4d6+27, assuming he has Str 46 or 47.
John Cooper
Explorer
Hey, good eye, coyote6! Baragor has a Str 46, so he has a +18 Str modifier, one-and-a-half of which would be +27. I edited the review to reflect your input. Thanks!
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
I’ve always had a fond spot for minotaurs. It may have started with Mayfair’s Role Aids and their version o the minotaur, or perhaps some of the excellent art on the various Magic the Gathering cards or even with good old Kaz the minotaur novel. I remember using The Complete Humanoids book for 2nd edition to craft many a minotaur NPC and even a player character or two when GMs were foolish enough to let me.
In 3rd edition, we still have some minotaur action in the Dragonlance setting and general d20 has Savage Species, but there haven’t been a lot of sourcebooks on them. Enter Horde Book 2, Maze of the Minotaur. Written by Brian Stith and illustrated by Sang Lee, the copy I have is $12 for 60 black and white pages.
The layout is crisp and easy on the eyes. No fancy borders but good use of white space. Chapter indicators are on the outer edge of the paper and flow like those in a reference book with the marker being in different spots on the edge for quick reference. Interior covers are used, the front being copyright & credits, the back, copyright and license information. One thing shocking is that there are some recommendations for other companies products here like Emerald Press’ Campaign Options :Mazes or the Complete Spell Cards by the Other Game Company.
Sang Lee’s art has two styles here. The first is the excellent detail given to most of the illustrations like his mighty bull lord on page seven or his charging minotaur on page 9, also reproduced on the cover. However, sometimes his work seems like a different artists. Take the minotaur illustration on page 16. I don’t know if it’s a reproduction problem, but the lines are very faint, almost sketch like and this is opposed by the dwarf drawn on page 5 where the style is very dark but the dwarf looks like he’s been blue-screened into the illustration.
Much like the previous book in the Horde series, this book focuses on allowing the GM to bring more to the table when he introduces minotaurs to the game. For instance, in this version, the minotaur in the Monster Manual is just a pup whose on his way to becoming a mighty bull lord. Bull Lords then go about and get their own herd and have several types of inhabitants like the minotrice, the female version of the minotaur or the maze mage, a minotrice born with hairless pale skin with innate magical abilities. Add to these the tauron, a bull like creature capable of tunneling through stone, useful to expanding the lair of the bull lord.
Each section includes full game details as well as a section on ecology. This allows the GM to quickly see how all things link together and how best to use them. Base challenge ratings range from 9 for the bull lord to 1 for the taurons.
The book doesn’t stop there though. It provides numerous tools to help the reader make the minotaurs their own creature. For example, how about advancement tables for minotaurs on their way to bull lords and levels for bull lords who aren’t standard? Done. Looking for the information on minotrices? Done. Looking for an example as to how this would play out? Done.
While there are a few general adventure hooks, the real meat of utility comes in the form of the NPCs. Each NPC includes background, game stats, and adventure hooks, as well as an illustration. None of these are what you’d call standard minotaurs. The first one for example, Baragor, is a bull lord with levels in both sorcerer and dragon disciple making him an awesome CR of 25, a powerful leader of a pack of minotaurs who don’t follow the standard rules of society set out in this book. An excellent example of breaking a rule to show the reader how it can be done.
Another unusual one is Thrice, a minotaur with levels in both fighter and expert who does not seek to become a bull lord and is happy acting as a sheriff to a small town. How about the assassin minotrice Jarno or the leader of her own tribe, Sharna, a maze mage who didn’t want to labor under a “dull witted male” Another example would be Derth, an awakened tauron.
The book includes other tools for time pressed GMs. Need an example of what a
minotaur maze look likes? They’ve included a small two level maze. Need a breakdown of encounter levels and what’s appropriate for a wide range of levels? Look at the appendix. Need a bull lord NPC on a moment’s notice? Once again, the appendix is your friend as it includes NPC listings for 1st-20th level and includes starting ability scores, advancement ability scores, NPC gear, and trait generators like homelands, first name and deed name and appearance. Tables are included for minotaurs, mintrices and maze mages as well, enabling a GM to almost use the material on the fly.
One of the nice things about a book like this, is that I can shake up what my players expect to happen in the game. For instance, I’m reading over Caverns of Thracia, an updated Judges Guild product, and I’m thinking, yeah, the minotaur material in here can be adapted to Caverns without too much work.
If you’re looking to increase the potency of minotaurs in your campaign or just looking for new ideas to throw at your players, Maze of the Minotaur helps with NPC’s, adventure seeds, maps and new monsters in spreading ideas around.
In 3rd edition, we still have some minotaur action in the Dragonlance setting and general d20 has Savage Species, but there haven’t been a lot of sourcebooks on them. Enter Horde Book 2, Maze of the Minotaur. Written by Brian Stith and illustrated by Sang Lee, the copy I have is $12 for 60 black and white pages.
The layout is crisp and easy on the eyes. No fancy borders but good use of white space. Chapter indicators are on the outer edge of the paper and flow like those in a reference book with the marker being in different spots on the edge for quick reference. Interior covers are used, the front being copyright & credits, the back, copyright and license information. One thing shocking is that there are some recommendations for other companies products here like Emerald Press’ Campaign Options :Mazes or the Complete Spell Cards by the Other Game Company.
Sang Lee’s art has two styles here. The first is the excellent detail given to most of the illustrations like his mighty bull lord on page seven or his charging minotaur on page 9, also reproduced on the cover. However, sometimes his work seems like a different artists. Take the minotaur illustration on page 16. I don’t know if it’s a reproduction problem, but the lines are very faint, almost sketch like and this is opposed by the dwarf drawn on page 5 where the style is very dark but the dwarf looks like he’s been blue-screened into the illustration.
Much like the previous book in the Horde series, this book focuses on allowing the GM to bring more to the table when he introduces minotaurs to the game. For instance, in this version, the minotaur in the Monster Manual is just a pup whose on his way to becoming a mighty bull lord. Bull Lords then go about and get their own herd and have several types of inhabitants like the minotrice, the female version of the minotaur or the maze mage, a minotrice born with hairless pale skin with innate magical abilities. Add to these the tauron, a bull like creature capable of tunneling through stone, useful to expanding the lair of the bull lord.
Each section includes full game details as well as a section on ecology. This allows the GM to quickly see how all things link together and how best to use them. Base challenge ratings range from 9 for the bull lord to 1 for the taurons.
The book doesn’t stop there though. It provides numerous tools to help the reader make the minotaurs their own creature. For example, how about advancement tables for minotaurs on their way to bull lords and levels for bull lords who aren’t standard? Done. Looking for the information on minotrices? Done. Looking for an example as to how this would play out? Done.
While there are a few general adventure hooks, the real meat of utility comes in the form of the NPCs. Each NPC includes background, game stats, and adventure hooks, as well as an illustration. None of these are what you’d call standard minotaurs. The first one for example, Baragor, is a bull lord with levels in both sorcerer and dragon disciple making him an awesome CR of 25, a powerful leader of a pack of minotaurs who don’t follow the standard rules of society set out in this book. An excellent example of breaking a rule to show the reader how it can be done.
Another unusual one is Thrice, a minotaur with levels in both fighter and expert who does not seek to become a bull lord and is happy acting as a sheriff to a small town. How about the assassin minotrice Jarno or the leader of her own tribe, Sharna, a maze mage who didn’t want to labor under a “dull witted male” Another example would be Derth, an awakened tauron.
The book includes other tools for time pressed GMs. Need an example of what a
minotaur maze look likes? They’ve included a small two level maze. Need a breakdown of encounter levels and what’s appropriate for a wide range of levels? Look at the appendix. Need a bull lord NPC on a moment’s notice? Once again, the appendix is your friend as it includes NPC listings for 1st-20th level and includes starting ability scores, advancement ability scores, NPC gear, and trait generators like homelands, first name and deed name and appearance. Tables are included for minotaurs, mintrices and maze mages as well, enabling a GM to almost use the material on the fly.
One of the nice things about a book like this, is that I can shake up what my players expect to happen in the game. For instance, I’m reading over Caverns of Thracia, an updated Judges Guild product, and I’m thinking, yeah, the minotaur material in here can be adapted to Caverns without too much work.
If you’re looking to increase the potency of minotaurs in your campaign or just looking for new ideas to throw at your players, Maze of the Minotaur helps with NPC’s, adventure seeds, maps and new monsters in spreading ideas around.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
Maze of the Minotaur
I like the books that center on a tight and specific topic and expand upon it. I thing these books really give the gamers good details and ideas on the subject. The Master and Minions series which Maze of the Minotaur is part of is a nice series that takes a single monster and expands on it. It makes these creatures useful and more then just something to kill. I have been very critical on books like the Monster Manual that give only basic combat information and make it so the only way to use the creature is in combat. There is nothing wrong with just using monsters that way, but I feel that gamers need to be given more options. Too much material is written under the assumption of a combat oriented role playing game.
Maze of the Minotaur is the second in the Master and Minions series. The first is the Swarm of Stirges and it really did a nice job of exploring those creatures and offering new and interesting creatures. I do like that one better, but both of them I fear suffer from the same thing: the writer contains the creatures to a certain challenge rating. This book does offer higher level challenges then the Stirge book and by combining some of the elements one can even challenge higher parties. But the higher levels are an area that are not covered enough of and Minotaurs as the classic creature from Greek myth I feel could have done that.
That is not to say the book is bad, far from it. The book takes a great look at Minotaurs and gives them an ecology that they have been lacking. It answers some of the age old questions like where is the female of the species. Maze of Minotaurs is a new sixty page softbound book by the guys of Behemoth3. This is their second product and it really leaves me really looking forward to the next creatures they decide to tackle. The book uses good art and the layout is good with a few areas of excessive white spaces. There are some great tables in the back. I think I neglected to point these out in the Stirges book. It is great for easy reference and showing the different groupings, and different levels of minotaurs combined with classes.
The book starts with a great introduction. Details are something that Behemoth3 are not afraid of. They cover the Greek origin and the classic labyrinths Minotaurs are known to haunt. They even include attitude adjustments for the typical Player Handbook races and the new creatures presented here.
There are some really good new additions here as well. The first is the Bull Lord. This is the mean old alpha male of the herd. He is physically powerful and should be able to dominate in melee combat. The only problem I found, and it’s a small one, is the alignment is Chaotic Evil. I would think Lawful Evil would be better suited since it is the leader of the herd. One great thing that the author does is include the Designer Note’s. These are great to give ideas and how it was used in the play testing. It is nice to see that they were actually play tested since it does seem there are some books that get printed without it. After the Bull Lord the regular Minotaur is presented here greatly expanded on with good notes on ecology. I like that that they note that the regular minotaur just isn’t powerful enough to reflect how it was presented in the Iliad. They really did a great job of just expanding on the basics and keep it true to what people know at the same time.
People have always wondered about the female Minotaurs. In this book they are presented as the Minotrice. They are skilled hunters and trackers being more agile then their male counterparts. I like that they are pack hunters and use tactics to their advantage. And some of them know magic and are called the Minotrice Maze Mage. They are the spiritual leaders and their magic is much like that of a Druid. And then there are the Tauron, the Maze builders. I find it a little odd they choose not to make them biped though. They do serve as very strong beast of burden and even though they are not super challenging in a fight should provide an additional challenge when encounter in groups and with other minotaur types.
The book does not stop at just presenting the creatures though. It also goes into using all of them except the Tauron as player characters. Each has racial levels and is presented fully as a character race. And then there are the ways to use these creatures. There are plenty of adventures and NPCs and encounter ideas in the last section to really make the players think twice and to make the whole experience seem more alive. A lot of thought and creativity went into this book and it really shows.
Maze of the Minotaur is another good solid addition. It will take the creature that people think they know and really present in a clever and thought out way. It makes the minotaurs come alive and seem real in a campaign world.
I like the books that center on a tight and specific topic and expand upon it. I thing these books really give the gamers good details and ideas on the subject. The Master and Minions series which Maze of the Minotaur is part of is a nice series that takes a single monster and expands on it. It makes these creatures useful and more then just something to kill. I have been very critical on books like the Monster Manual that give only basic combat information and make it so the only way to use the creature is in combat. There is nothing wrong with just using monsters that way, but I feel that gamers need to be given more options. Too much material is written under the assumption of a combat oriented role playing game.
Maze of the Minotaur is the second in the Master and Minions series. The first is the Swarm of Stirges and it really did a nice job of exploring those creatures and offering new and interesting creatures. I do like that one better, but both of them I fear suffer from the same thing: the writer contains the creatures to a certain challenge rating. This book does offer higher level challenges then the Stirge book and by combining some of the elements one can even challenge higher parties. But the higher levels are an area that are not covered enough of and Minotaurs as the classic creature from Greek myth I feel could have done that.
That is not to say the book is bad, far from it. The book takes a great look at Minotaurs and gives them an ecology that they have been lacking. It answers some of the age old questions like where is the female of the species. Maze of Minotaurs is a new sixty page softbound book by the guys of Behemoth3. This is their second product and it really leaves me really looking forward to the next creatures they decide to tackle. The book uses good art and the layout is good with a few areas of excessive white spaces. There are some great tables in the back. I think I neglected to point these out in the Stirges book. It is great for easy reference and showing the different groupings, and different levels of minotaurs combined with classes.
The book starts with a great introduction. Details are something that Behemoth3 are not afraid of. They cover the Greek origin and the classic labyrinths Minotaurs are known to haunt. They even include attitude adjustments for the typical Player Handbook races and the new creatures presented here.
There are some really good new additions here as well. The first is the Bull Lord. This is the mean old alpha male of the herd. He is physically powerful and should be able to dominate in melee combat. The only problem I found, and it’s a small one, is the alignment is Chaotic Evil. I would think Lawful Evil would be better suited since it is the leader of the herd. One great thing that the author does is include the Designer Note’s. These are great to give ideas and how it was used in the play testing. It is nice to see that they were actually play tested since it does seem there are some books that get printed without it. After the Bull Lord the regular Minotaur is presented here greatly expanded on with good notes on ecology. I like that that they note that the regular minotaur just isn’t powerful enough to reflect how it was presented in the Iliad. They really did a great job of just expanding on the basics and keep it true to what people know at the same time.
People have always wondered about the female Minotaurs. In this book they are presented as the Minotrice. They are skilled hunters and trackers being more agile then their male counterparts. I like that they are pack hunters and use tactics to their advantage. And some of them know magic and are called the Minotrice Maze Mage. They are the spiritual leaders and their magic is much like that of a Druid. And then there are the Tauron, the Maze builders. I find it a little odd they choose not to make them biped though. They do serve as very strong beast of burden and even though they are not super challenging in a fight should provide an additional challenge when encounter in groups and with other minotaur types.
The book does not stop at just presenting the creatures though. It also goes into using all of them except the Tauron as player characters. Each has racial levels and is presented fully as a character race. And then there are the ways to use these creatures. There are plenty of adventures and NPCs and encounter ideas in the last section to really make the players think twice and to make the whole experience seem more alive. A lot of thought and creativity went into this book and it really shows.
Maze of the Minotaur is another good solid addition. It will take the creature that people think they know and really present in a clever and thought out way. It makes the minotaurs come alive and seem real in a campaign world.
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