Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited

Classic Monsters Revisited

The d20 license and the OGL did a lot of great things for D&D and role playing. The one area it failed was that people did continually reinvent the wheel. There were plenty of books on elves and dwarves and while each had its only take on the subjects there was a lot of material that was very similar. It would have worked better to see books build on the books of other instead of everyone just creating their own versions of the same things. There is really only one book that reinvented the wheel to over use this phrase and come out with a much better wheel. Classic Monsters Revisited takes the reader into well known territory and surprises us with creativity, originality, and a fresh take on creatures that have gotten a little stale.

Classic Monsters Revisited is a softbound book by Paizo Publishing. The book is part of the Pathfinder Chronicles product line though none of the Pathfinder books are needed to make use of this excellent product. It uses the basic 3.5 D&D rules and is an OGL product. Each section has a different author the covers a different single creature. The book is sixty four pages long and done in full color. The art is all very good and brings these creatures to life. The book is $17.99 which I found to be a great deal considering the amount of use this book has gotten at my gaming table. I was taking this book to gaming more constantly then any other book aside from my campaign notebook.

Classic Monsters Revisited is one of the most fitting titles ever to be stamped on a role playing book. The book takes ten of the most common and classically used monsters in Dungeons and Dragons and takes a new look at them. The monsters are not changed that drastically. It is not like they are now sweet little flowery creatures or anything else that would destroy their core being. Instead Piazo has taken a number of monsters that have gotten stale over time. They are just used so much and everyone knows them that nothing new was being done with them. It was just another goblin, or orc, or ogre. They had become boring and the only way anyone was trying to spice them up was by giving them class levels or templates. That changed the mechanics of them and was not really doing anything to the core problem. The monsters had gotten boring.

Paizo in the launch of the new Pathfinder product line took goblins and gave them a new twist. They were silly and fierce. They made it so they could be both comedy relief and something to fear. The mechanics really are not changed on any of the monsters. But they have been redefined and reinvented. They are now better then they have ever been. Okay, not all of the monsters in here are home runs. But the amount of detail each creature got is an improvement even for the ones I did not completely care for. The sheer genius of this book is that these monsters are so commonly used in modules and campaigns that this book becomes more useful then the Monster Manual for a DM that is willing to embrace these changes. The creatures in here are the Bugbear, Gnoll, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kobold, Lizardfolk, Minotaur, Ogre, Orc, and Troll. Each monster is given six full pages of information. This is the strength of Paizo products in my minds. I have always enjoyed their writing and their descriptions more so then other parts of their books. It is why this book shines so much.