Dark Mistress
First Post
In the Company of Minotaurs by Rite Publishing
This product is 22 pages long. It starts with a cover, and credits. (2 pages)
Introduction (1 ½ pages)
This has a nice interesting story about how Minotaurs came into being. It was very Greek inspired, in that it read like many of the old Greek tales. I have never read the Greek tale of the minotaur so I have no idea how similar this might be.
Minotaurs (6 ½ pages)
This section gives more information about the race, history, ecology, society, etc. It also explains why there are not female minotaurs or at least why there is very few of them. It is all written from a IC point of view of a minotaur, they are noble race. While they are not vicious evil and they obviously don't consider themselves evil at all. But if you read between the lines it creeps through. It makes them a much more interesting race.
Player Characters (4 ½ pages)
This section has the stats to make one of them as a PC. There is also stats for the mereitaur which are minotaurs who for what ever reason look more like mixed blood, or humans with only mild minotaur features. There is 7 different racial trait to make the race a bit different, some based on what other race they are part and other where they was raised.
The next part talks about classes and which ones are common. It also has a list of alternate favored class options. There is also two class archetypes listed, one for Barbarian and one for Monk. There is also a Sorcerers bloodline as well. It has everything you need to play one of them as a new race in your game.
Racial Paragon Class (2 pages)
This section is about their racial class, a 1-20th level class.
D10, 2 skills, all weapons, light armor, full BaB, 2 good saves, natural armor, and natural gore attack. There is plenty of class abilities that make perfect sense and capture the idea and feel of a minotaur, a great thing to use if you want to use one as a NPC and scale it up or down to challenge the party.
Feats (½ page)
There is 7 new feats all but two of them are for Minotaurs only.
Weapons and gear (1 page)
This has 5 new weapons, and a new smoke bomb.
It finishes off with a OGL, 2 ads. (3 pages)
Closing thoughts. I liked this book a lot. It really made the minotaur race interesting. Not just as villains but in general. The fluff was very well written, interesting and made me want to included them in my games. It made them come across as both noble and almost not evil, yet the evil taint beneath is plain to see, if you look closely. The art work was black and white and pretty good to good. Weapons all seemed well done, as did the new feats.
The Paragon race was very nice and can either be used for a PC's or to build minotaur monsters of varies CR's to challenge your PC's. Not to mention the fluff gave me lots of idea's for plot hooks. The two new base race options where well done, though the Taurian (minotaur) I felt was a little strong. Not even for a EL but a strong base race for a PC. Which is really my only real critic of the book as well. So what's my rating? Well finding virtual no flaws and the one minor issue I had was minor, though something GM's may want to consider before allowing. I am going to give it a 5 star, the fluff alone makes it a good pick up.
This product is 22 pages long. It starts with a cover, and credits. (2 pages)
Introduction (1 ½ pages)
This has a nice interesting story about how Minotaurs came into being. It was very Greek inspired, in that it read like many of the old Greek tales. I have never read the Greek tale of the minotaur so I have no idea how similar this might be.
Minotaurs (6 ½ pages)
This section gives more information about the race, history, ecology, society, etc. It also explains why there are not female minotaurs or at least why there is very few of them. It is all written from a IC point of view of a minotaur, they are noble race. While they are not vicious evil and they obviously don't consider themselves evil at all. But if you read between the lines it creeps through. It makes them a much more interesting race.
Player Characters (4 ½ pages)
This section has the stats to make one of them as a PC. There is also stats for the mereitaur which are minotaurs who for what ever reason look more like mixed blood, or humans with only mild minotaur features. There is 7 different racial trait to make the race a bit different, some based on what other race they are part and other where they was raised.
The next part talks about classes and which ones are common. It also has a list of alternate favored class options. There is also two class archetypes listed, one for Barbarian and one for Monk. There is also a Sorcerers bloodline as well. It has everything you need to play one of them as a new race in your game.
Racial Paragon Class (2 pages)
This section is about their racial class, a 1-20th level class.
D10, 2 skills, all weapons, light armor, full BaB, 2 good saves, natural armor, and natural gore attack. There is plenty of class abilities that make perfect sense and capture the idea and feel of a minotaur, a great thing to use if you want to use one as a NPC and scale it up or down to challenge the party.
Feats (½ page)
There is 7 new feats all but two of them are for Minotaurs only.
Weapons and gear (1 page)
This has 5 new weapons, and a new smoke bomb.
It finishes off with a OGL, 2 ads. (3 pages)
Closing thoughts. I liked this book a lot. It really made the minotaur race interesting. Not just as villains but in general. The fluff was very well written, interesting and made me want to included them in my games. It made them come across as both noble and almost not evil, yet the evil taint beneath is plain to see, if you look closely. The art work was black and white and pretty good to good. Weapons all seemed well done, as did the new feats.
The Paragon race was very nice and can either be used for a PC's or to build minotaur monsters of varies CR's to challenge your PC's. Not to mention the fluff gave me lots of idea's for plot hooks. The two new base race options where well done, though the Taurian (minotaur) I felt was a little strong. Not even for a EL but a strong base race for a PC. Which is really my only real critic of the book as well. So what's my rating? Well finding virtual no flaws and the one minor issue I had was minor, though something GM's may want to consider before allowing. I am going to give it a 5 star, the fluff alone makes it a good pick up.
