13th Age Exclusive Bestiary Preview: The Naga

Morrus · Nov 21, 2013

Pelgrane Press has sent along an exclusive preview of the 13th Age Bestiary! The book will be a 220-page hardcover book in early 2014, and the preview highlights the Naga: "Naga aren’t unreasoning monsters. They generally have perfectly sound reasons for wanting intruders dead. Interactions where they’re willing to talk with twolegged mortals are also troubled by the fact that the nagas’ arrogance and condescension mean you will soon want them dead." It's quite the extensive preview - 8 gorgeous full-colour pages detailing various naga types - the Swaysong Naga, Sparkscale Naga, Manafang Naga, Elder Swaysong Naga, Elder Sparkscale Naga, Elder Manafang Naga, and nastier specials, background information, adventure hooks, and more.

Find it right here!

(Psi)SeveredHead · Nov 21, 2013

This is much better than I expected. (I was worried that lighter rules would result in less interesting monsters.)

The math looks like it will be much faster (it just has flat damage rather than damage rolls). I especially like how the escalation die is integrated into its encounter powers.

Dungeoneer · Nov 21, 2013

Wow, interesting! A few points:

The short monster entries in the core book were obviously due to space constraints. If the Naga section is anything to go by, the monster entries in the Bestiary will be lavish. Half a page of flavor text to start with, and then two pages of tactics, icon relationships, and historical info.
The idea that older nagas are smaller is a fun inversion of the usual monster tropes.
The naga stat blocks strike me as a lot more complex than the typical core book stat block. I like the Arcane Mirror and Mystic Escalator ideas, but put together they represent a lot of moving parts to keep track of. Hopefully monsters in the Bestiary represent a spectrum of complexity like the classes. I don't mind a couple complicated creatures, but simple-but-cool monsters are important too.
The basic form of Mystic Escalator seems too easy to deactivate. It doesn't even require a hit!
I didn't previously care about nagas. Now I do. Win.

Based on this sample, I'm excited for the Bestiary to come out. Granted, I'm a sucker for a good monster.

Dungeoneer · Nov 21, 2013

(Psi)SeveredHead said:
The math looks like it will be much faster (it just has flat damage rather than damage rolls).

Most 13A monsters do flat damage.

A I noted above, the nagas are a little more complicated than your typical core book monster.

(Psi)SeveredHead · Nov 21, 2013

On another note, I'm amazed I never saw the redcap before. In any event I converted it into an elite lurker for 4e. The bad word thing is hysterical! (It's also the right level for me to drop into my next game.)

Redcap link: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?1067-Exclusive-13TH-AGE-BESTIARY-Preview-The-Redcap!

Agamon · Nov 21, 2013

Wowzers, I'm waiting to get this from the FLGS (the owner's one of my 13A players), really looking forward to it!

Evilhalfling · Nov 21, 2013

Yoink!

And a plot hook for a low level witch that was taken over by Naga crystals and thinks she is one.
in fact I like that idea better than a de-leveled Naga, for a low level party. Plus it explains the lack of constructs and other Naga trappings that I don't want to use.

jreyst · Nov 22, 2013

That preview, while certainly awesome, appears to be missing its OGL-required Section 8 Declaration of Product Identity/Open Game Content. Morrus could you contact whomever sent that to you to let them know? For now it APPEARS to be non-compliant with the OGL (unless I'm missing it?)

Dungeoneer · Nov 22, 2013

The entire last page is an OGL declaration.

jreyst · Nov 22, 2013

The OGL says you have to designate what is product identity and what is Open Game Content. Just having an OGL in a product isn't designation of anything. Without a statement saying "This <x> is declared as Open Game Content" then the product is not compliant with the OGL. You don't have to declare ANYTHING OGC but you have to clearly indicate such within the product. This is a very often overlooked requirement of the OGL.

13th Age Exclusive Bestiary Preview: The Naga

Morrus

Well, that was fun

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