D&D General [Let's Read] Playable Monster Sourcebooks

[Libertad]

All oni lived two lives. Their prior life was as a kami, a spiritual being who refused or was unable to perform their divine mandate in defending someone or something. They were thus cut off from being able to influence the mortal world. In their desperation, many disgraced kami entered into deals with evil entities to gain a new mortal form on the Material Plane known as an oni. While many oni are evil or eventually become evil as a result of this deal, there are also oni who renege on their end of the bargain with the wicked patrons who gave them their new lives. There is great risk for such deniers, who face an unknown fate upon true death and will be hunted by agents of the spurned patron. But what all oni share in common is a second chance, for good or ill. The oni who turn on their patron are known as maverick oni, and are presumed to be the default PC type.

Oni vary widely in physical traits, with their subspecies sharing common features with particular giant or humanoid subspecies, but oftentimes with traits unusual to that species such as horns, a third eye, and skin tones not naturally found among said species. While an oni's creation is an individual supernatural occurrence, the event is more common than people realize. Oni of similar ideologies and circumstances often band together for safety in numbers, but oni mavericks are more likely to be different, both ideologically and physically, than their brethren who choose to serve their evil patrons. Maverick oni are instead divided into five factions, sometimes called habatsu. The three that have D&D backgrounds are Atoners (question the unjustness of their divine punishment and seek to do acts in line with preventing similar tragedies that destroyed their ward), Codifiers (create or adopt a new moral code to replace that of the gods that spurned them), and Hedonists (seek to find personal happiness for themselves are lifestimes' worth of servitude and hardship). The backgroundless factions are Free Spirits (seek to live on their own terms without any patron deity or punishment and prize personal freedom) and Saviors (the unjustness of their punishment encourages them to fight for the rights of others oppressed by systemic injustice).

Thoughts: While quite a bit of Battlezoo content pulls from Pathfinder canon more than D&D canon, the oni is perhaps the most blatantly Pathfinder lorewise. I like this one more, as it has both a compelling backstory and adventure hook and expands the variety of types beyond just the iconic "ogre mage" who is still a playable option in this book. I also like how each of the factions reflect different ways that oni deal with their past trauma. I was honestly a bit surprised to not see saviors be given a background, as they're bonafide stereotypical Good Guy material.

The base oni ancestry gets an ability score boost to either Strength or Charisma and one other score of their choice, are Medium or Large size depending on their subspecies, have an average walking speed, low-light vision or darkvision depending upon system, have the fiend, oni, and humanoid types in Pathfinder and their type is either Giant or Humanoid in D&D, and they can magically change shape between their true form and that of a specific alternate form that is a certain kind of giant or humanoid depending upon their subspecies.

Oni have the largest variety of subspecies/heritages in this book, counting nine in total. They are earth yai (Large stone giants, ignore difficult terrain from rubble and rocks), fire yai (Large fire giants, resistance to fire damage and environmental heat), ice yai (Large frost giants, resistance to cold damage and environmental cold), ja noi (Medium hobgoblins, can reroll a failed Wisdom/Will saving throw once per long rest/day), kuwa (Medium human, proficiency in Diplomacy/Persuasion, can more easily gather information and rumors), nogitsune (Medium kitsune, can change shape into a kistune anthro fox form as well as a humanoid species prevalent in the area they grew up, in Pathfinder are trained in Deception and gain the Charming Liar skill feat), onidoshi (Large ogres, proficient in Intimidation, gain Quick Coercion skill feat in Pathfinder and advantage on saves vs becoming frightened in D&D), water yai (Large storm giants, are amphibious, in Pathfinder they can create a simple garment for themselves out of water), and wind yai (Large cloud giants, are immune to all fall damage).

Thoughts: Oni tend to gravitate either towards physically-inclined or social builds, and just about every subspecies has a worthwhile effect. The D&D nogitsune gets the short end of the stick in basically getting one bonus specific shapechanging form vs more substantial benefits. The earth yai and water yai's terrain-based abilities are also quite situational based on environment. The ja noi's ability to reroll a failed Wisdom/Will save can be useful over the course of a campaign, while the fire yai and ice yai gain resistance against common damage types. The onidoshi is also quite decent, being good for Intimidation builds in both systems and likelier to resist the frightened condition in D&D.

Oni get 32 feats in D&D and 39 in Pathfinder. The first level feats are overall minor abilities, such as Gourmet (proficient in Crafting or Perception skill depending on system, also trained in cooking tools/lore), Oni Magic (learns 1 or 2 cantrips from the druid/primal list depending on system), Spirit Oni Familiar (gain a familiar who is a friend or family member who also faced a similar punishment from the divine but was saved by you), Third Eye (requires belonging to one of the yai subspecies, can shoot a ranged unarmed attack from a third eye on their forehead dealing an appropriate energy damage type), and Water Garment (water yai only, can create clothing out of water to guard themselves from harm; adds half proficiency bonus to AC in D&D when not wearing armor, is treated as medium armor in Pathfinder). Pathfinder has exclusive feats: Darksight grants darkvision, and Oni Weapon Familiarity grants training and the critical specialization effects for oni weapons and similarly themed weapons such as greatclubs and mauls.

The 4th/5th level feats common to both systems are Indomitable Maverick (can make a Will/Wisdom save once per turn when they are mentally controlled to be paralyzed instead of being forced to do something against their will), Oni's Orders (can order a target to follow one of your commands on a failed save once per hour/short rest), and Water Yai Swimmer (water yai only, increased swim speed). The Pathfinder version has a lot more feats, such as Flavor Food (can temporarily improve the taste of nonmagical food and water for up to 1 hour, has no game mechanic effects), Frozen Strike (ice yai only, once per hour can apply the slow condition on a critical hit with a melee attack), Smoke Vision (fire yai only, can see normally in smoke), and Sound Control (wind yai only, gain resistance and bonus on saves vs sonic damage and auditory effects).

The 8th/9th level feats are more overtly combat-related, such as Cloak of Winds (wind yai only, can spend reaction to gain a bonus to AC/impose disadvantage on a ranged attack depending on system and can apply to siege weapons in Pathfinder), Despairing Terror (cast Fear or impose the Frightened condition as an AoE attack depending on system), Enveloping Garment (water yai, can incorporate their water-made garments into an unarmed strike with the finesse property dealing lightning damage and can grapple targets, doesn't require a free hand in Pathfinder), Infused Criticals (deal persistent damage against a target they crit, damage type depends on subspecies), Misty Stride (can use mists to better Hide from people), Oni's Levitation (gain a fly speed for 10 minutes), Regenerative Recovery (automatically heal hit points when resting for 10 minutes in Pathfinder, rolls each Hit Die twice and uses better result on short rests in D&D), and Spiky Skin (earth yai only, can grow spikes as a reaction to being attacked in melee and deal piercing damage). The Pathfinder book has Deep Sight as an exclusive feat, granting deeper darkvision for 1 minute once per hour.

The 12th/13th level feats generally grant effects reflective of intense willpower and just regular overt power. They include Perfect Discipline (ja noi only, can reroll failed Wisdom/Will once per hour/short rest), Roaring Gale (wind yai only, can generate a gust of wind as an AoE that deals damage and forced movement), and Yai's Reach (increased reach while Large size, must have that as a natural size as a prerequisite in Pathfinder). The Pathfinder-exclusive feat is Never Again (once per hour as a reaction can suppress one effect that imposes the controlled, paralyzed, or similar condition where they're unable to act for 1 turn).

The 16th/17th level feats represent oni who master effects of great social influence and physical might. They include Contagious Whisper* (nogitsune only, can magically influence a creature once per long rest/day to do a statement if they fail a Wisdom/Will save), Oni's Regeneration (once per long rest/day can rapidly regenerate hit points and regrow lost limbs and organs for 1 minute), Repel Magic (bonus/advantage on saves vs spells and other magical effects), Voice of Earthern Power (earth yai only, can speak to earth and stone), and Yai's Growth (water and wind yai only, can become Huge and gain increased damage on weapon attacks for 1 minute, can be done once per 10 minutes in Pathfinder and once per short rest in D&D).

*This is listed as being a 12th level feat in D&D despite being grouped in with the 16th level feats, so I presume this is a typo.

Some feats have varying levels in terms of prerequisites. Hobgoblin Commander and Human Infiltrator are 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder. In D&D, divination spells show them as members of the aforementioned humanoid species instead of an oni, and they are treated as said species for various effects and prerequisites. In Pathfinder, they gain the Adopted Ancestry feat for the relevant species and a 1st level ancestry feat of that species. Insubstantial Form is 8th level in D&D and 13th in Pathfinder; in the former system, it's a once per long rest casting of Gaseous Form, while in the latter system the oni can take on a gaseous form or also liquid if a water yai. In this case, it lasts up to 5 minutes and can be done once per hour. Vanishing Trick is 9th level in Pathfinder and 12th level in D&D, letting the oni become invisible for 10 minutes in Pathfinder once per hour, or able to cast Greater Invisibility once per long rest in D&D. Constant Levitation is 13th level in Pathfinder and 16th in D&D, granting permanent flying speed. Dredge Out Darkness is a 13th level feat in Pathfinder, where they can cast Darkness at 4th level once per hour, while in D&D it's 4th level and can cast Darkness once per long rest.

Last but not least, the Pathfinder version of oni get a new weapon type at the very end: the tetsubo. It's a 0 level item of Uncommon rarity and is an advanced melee weapon in the club group. It is two-handed and deals 1d10 damage, has the backswing, razing, and sweep traits, and the backswing and sweep traits add a +2 circumstance bonus to attack rolls made with said traits.

Thoughts: As is the case with a lot of ancestries in this book, the low-level ones are quite weak and situational. Gourmet is not going to be useful in most campaigns, while Flavor Food quite honestly doesn't deserve to be a feat at all. Oni Magic and Spirit Oni Familiar are competing against Magic Initiate in Pathfinder, and while the Third Eye sounds cool it is outdamaged by equivalent cantrips like Fire Bolt and Ray of Frost for D&D.* Of the better feats, Indomitable Maverick can be worthwhile in campaigns with enemies that deploy mind-affecting effects. For the middle-level and higher feats, Enveloping Garment can be useful for monk types in being a finesse unarmed strike that deals additional damage while grappling, and Spiky Skin is similar in granting a decently-damaging reaction-based close-range counterattack. Regenerative Recovery is pretty good at healing faster during brief periods of rest, and Oni's Levitation is a good stepping stone to Constant Levitation while still granting a decent duration of flight. Most of the 16th/17th level feats have some worthwhile choices, although Contagious Whisper and Voice of Earthen Power are rather weak at this tier of play in mimicking lower-level spells.

*Although the Yai Adept covered below rectifies this.

The final piece of content for this chapter is the Yai Adept, a feat tree that only oni of the yai ancestries can take. It represents maverick oni who focus heavily on developing the elemental powers of their subspecies. But the path they walk is full of temptation, for the element of void plays upon negative emotions and can cause them to fall down a similar path not to the one they took with their evil former patron.

The Yai Adept feat tree begins with Yai Adept Dedication, granting them the benefits of the Third Eye feat, and if they already have said feat they increase the damage they deal with their eye lasers. They have 15 further feats to choose from spanning various levels, many of which have their own prerequisites on top of the base Yai Adept Dedication. They include such options as Distant Missiles (increase the attack range of their Third Eye), Focused Missile (can spend a bonus action/additional actions depending on system to "charge up" a more powerful attack with their Third Eye in the form of greater range increment and damage), Impaling Push (can make a melee attack dealing slashing or piercing damage that deals damage and causes forced movement and grapple in D&D or persistent bleed damage and possibly off-guard in Pathfinder), Towering Yai (permanently become Huge size), and Yai's Reprisal (deals a weapon or Third Eye attack as a reaction to a nearby foe that can disrupt the intended action on a critical hit). Each yai subspecies also gets a special feat to use in conjunction with Focused Missile, imposing a debuff relevant to their element on top of the base effects.

But what of this sinister, mysterious Void? Well, its allure is represented as its own series of feats: Void Missile can make the Third Eye deal necrotic damage and disintegrates targets killed or knocked out by it. Void Form lets the oni take on an insubstantial form much like Gaseous Form or the feat of the same name,* along with bonuses on Stealth checks and related actions in Pathfinder. Void's Enervation increases the power of a Void Missile to make a creature take additional damage equal to their level in Pathfinder or twice their Challenge Rating in D&D on a failed Fortitude/Constitution save. And Void Trap lets the oni teleport away, leaving a miniature black hole in their original location that is a damaging AoE effect that draws in targets closer to it on a failed Strength/Fortitude save. As for the "temptation," it's corrupting effect is more of a role-play tool rather than having a baked-in penalty or "morality points" style subsystem. The major downside of Void feats is that necrotic is a commonly-resisted damage type in D&D.

*and an oni with that feat can retrain it.

Thoughts: First off, I like the idea of an elemental-focused oni supercharging their laser eye beams for more powerful effects. However, it is quite feat-intensive in both systems: even for Pathfinder, you're going to have to substitute quite a bit of class feats if you invest in it unless you're using the Free Archetype variant rule. Compare this to Nymph Queen, who has a broader array of powers both in and out of combat. There are some feats that don't play off of the eye beams, such as Towering Yai and Impaling Push, although they don't feel tightly connected to the elemental themes save perhaps in flavor text or being used in conjunction with unarmed attacks which eye beams count as.

Thoughts So Far: Overall I really like the oni in both flavor and as an ancestry, although I wish that yai adept wasn't so feat-intensive and the lower-level feats had more worthwhile options. The ancestry may need to take some special consideration to fit into some non-Golarion settings given their particularly specific divine origins, but that isn't too big of a setback.

Join us next time as we visit the faerie courts of the sidhe!

 

[Libertad]

Also known as the Fair Folk, sidhe are fey who create courtly realms in the plane of faerie which operate by storybook logic. Through the power of utter confidence in their beliefs, they can make the archetypes and cliches of fiction and folklore into ironclad rules that affect all who dwell within their domains. It is through such rules and their enforcement that a dark reputation arose among mortal society, forming the origin of cautionary tales told to children.

A sidhe's physical appearance can vary widely depending upon their subspecies, but they share humanoid traits and those more "humanlike" than animalistic are often described as "elves, but more so" with fine, slender features. Cait sidhe and cu sidhe have features more in line with their animalistic forms while humanoid, with hair and fur color the same in both forms.

Sidhe are long-lived even more so than elves, and most are content to spend lifetimes in their own realms pursuing various passions. Those sidhe who seek to explore the mortal realm and other planes are nicknamed "sidhe heroes" with a bit of playful derision among their brethren. It is these sidhe who form most adventurers among their kind. Sidhe society is an intricate, bureaucratic network of laws, taboos, and social obligations heavily derived from literary tropes. While sidhe growing up in such a realm have adapted to it, they can find life outside to be rather liberating, just as outsiders can find the sidhe rules overly complex.

Sidhe can be of any alignment, but good alignments are rarer than neutral and evil. In fact, sidhe are aware of alignment as a cosmic concept, but they find it to be arbitrary and hypocritical, asserting them to be shaped by the subjective biases of the gods. For example, sidhe will point out that many humanoids who raise and slaughter animals for food and industry will not register as evil in this system, but to do the same to other sapient beings would shift their alignment so. The sidhe claim that their own realms and storybook logic are superior and "free of bias." Many sidhe, as a result, are irreligious, although those who do take up faith often worship archfey and famous figures among their kind who achieved heroic status in their culture. Some even worship Fate, viewing it a cosmic force that exists as its own metanarrative shaping reality.

Sidhe heroes operating outside the faerie domains adopt their own goals and codes of conduct as a guiding influence known as paradigms. There are five paradigms, each modeled after prominent examples of sidhe heroes from past eras. The ones with backgrounds in D&D are Builders (seek to create something that will endure and earn a place in history), Knaves (sidhe who were forcibly banished from their society, usually due to defying a literary archetype), and Knight Errants (sidhe modeled after romanticized ideals of some group or society). In the case of Knight Errants, they can even be modeled after dishonorable and villainous groups who, due to propaganda, gained a virtuous status in the collective consciousness that they don't deserve. The backgroundless paradigms are Authors (those who feel that Fate's narrative is flawed and seek to take control of their destiny themselves) and Watchers (those who realize how important mortal stories are in shaping sidhe society and thus go out to learn and live among them to make future predictions about their people).

Thoughts: The sidhe are a really cool take on the "reclusive world of fey," and their storybook logic has plenty of convincing motivations for them to leave their society and become adventurers. I also find it clever that the sidhe have an in-universe criticism of the alignment system, acknowledging that's how things work but still disagreeing with the status quo.

The base sidhe ancestry gets an ability boost to either Intelligence or Charisma, plus one other ability of choice. They are Medium size, have average walking speed, possess either low-light vision or darkvision depending on system, and are fey instead of humanoid. In D&D they also have Fey Ancestry like elves do, and possess a once per long rest ability called Not Today where they can reroll a failed saving throw, provided that said effect won't "result in an appropriate end to their story" at the DM's discretion. In Pathfinder, said ability is available as a 1st level ancestry feat.

The sidhe has six subspecies, representing those who have a common line of ancestry based off of commonly-occurring literary archetypes. The aes sidhe represent scholars and crafters who learn a bonus arcane/occult/wizard cantrip, and in D&D are also proficient with artisan's tools and can craft magic items with half the time and materials. The baobhan sidhe are performers who feed on the blood of others, growing claws as unarmed attack and in D&D are proficient in Performance and have expertise in the skill when using it to dance. The cait sidhe are tricksters capable of shapeshifting into felines, which take the form a mundane cat and in D&D also begin with a once per long rest ability to jinx a nearby target to force their next attack/save/skill to be made with disadvantage if they fail a Wisdom save. Cu sidhe are messengers who can take on the form of a mundane dog and in D&D can let out a series of barks that can be heard up to 3 miles away over the course of a minute. Daoine sidhe represent feuding nobles in all their forms, being trained in Society and get Courtly Grace as a bonus feat in Pathfinder. The D&D version gets a similar special ability to the latter feat in being able to substitute History for Charisma checks when attempting to influence and impersonate the nobility, as well as advantage on saving throws vs the frightened condition. Finally, leanan sidhe are muses who provide talent to artistic types at the cost of draining their life force, where they can grant a willing creature a bonus on Performance and Crafting/tool checks depending on system, but then suffer a penalty on saving throws vs the leanan sidhe's abilities. The leanan sidhe in D&D are proficient in Persuasion and have expertise in the skill when influencing artists and performers.

Regarding the sidhe who can take animal form, the D&D version lists the cat and hyena stat blocks to represent their abilities while shapeshifted. In Pathfinder, they don't substitute wholesale stats for an alternate form and instead have a list of restricted and altered functions when taking on said form. They do get unarmed attacks with their natural weapons when in animal forms, however. Additionally, the special subspecies abilities that come automatically with the D&D versions are available as 1st level ancestry feats in Pathfinder.

Thoughts: The Pathfinder equivalent for the sidhe and its subspecies feel quite lacking in comparison to their D&D counterparts. For example, it's weird to see that D&D's aes sidhe are good crafters, but the Pathfinder version doesn't even get training in Crafting. As for the subspecies' overall appeal, the cait sidhe's jinx in D&D is the most broadly useful, while the aes sidhe's magic item crafting is going to be situational given that such rules aren't really fleshed out in the corebooks. A daoine sidhe's advantage vs the frightened condition is pretty good, but the History substitution in regards to nobles is of variable usability depending on the adventure.

Sidhe have 21 feats in D&D and 41 in Pathfinder. As mentioned before, the special abilities the sidhe and its subspecies get automatically in D&D can be chosen as 1st level ancestry feats in Pathfinder. But beyond those, the 1st-level feats we have include Ancestral Longevity (can gain proficiency/training in one skill/tool of choice until the next long rest/daily preparation, is available to anyone at least 100 years old and not just sidhe), Enforce Decorum (can impose a week-long debuff curse on someone who violates a willing agreement or term the sidhe and target agree to), and Sidhe Magic (gain 1-2 bonus bard/sorcerer/wizard or occult cantrips depending on system, in D&D can choose from one of three 1st-level spells that gain fairy trappings and enhancements, like the Alarm spell being a ring of mushrooms that can curse targets who break the circle). The Pathfinder-exclusive feats are Familiar's Fealty ( grants a familiar to the sidhe in line with some narrative archetype) and Midnight Sight (grants darkvision).

The 4th/5th level feats lean heavily into the metanarrative of Fate. They include Check the Narrative (grant a +1 bonus/advantage on an Intelligence-based skill check for "determine the role" of a new person or creature encountered once per short rest/day)* and Fated Strike (once per long rest/day can declare their attack to have some Fateful importance and roll with advantage/roll twice and take better result). The system-exclusive feats are for Pathfinder, and 3 of them are actually the D&D-specific spells gained from Sidhe Magic taken at 1st level. The fourth Pathfinder-exclusive feat is Storied Leadership, granting their allies increased bonuses while Following the Expert during Exploration Mode provided that the sidhe is the leader.

*This isn't a typo, the refresh rate of this ability and some others differs widely depending upon the system in question.

The 8th/9th level feats are a mixture of social influence and narrative magic. They include Expert Longevity (become expert in a skill/gain expertise in a skill or tool as per Ancestral Longevity) and Story Sense (can perform a divination effect on a single creature to reveal a single word that is relevant to the sidhe's own story in the next day or hour, depending upon the creature's status as a "background character" or "major character" in the adventure). The Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Marshal Rule (grants the benefits of the Marshal dedication feat, even if they're at the maximum amount of dedication feats for their level), Sidhe Power (requires Sidhe Magic and grants even more occult spells), and Narrative Pacing (can cast either Haste or Slow once per day, can choose each day what spell they'll cast).

The 12th/13th level feats focus on more direct manipulation of Fate's narrative. They include Enforce Commitment (magically enforce a character who declared that they will do something to actually do it or suffer a -1 penalty on rolls against the sidhe/suffer the Geas spell effect in D&D), Faerie Ring Transport (cast Tree Stride once per short rest/day but only via rings of mushrooms), Read the Narrative (via written research and charts, can learn a cryptic clue or piece of advice for a goal or activity they intend to perform within 1 week), and Twist Fate (curse a foe once per long rest/day to meet a dangerous accident 1d4 rounds later, dealing damage of an appropriate type). The Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Sidhe Sovereignty (requires Sidhe Power, grants even more occult spells), Stylemaven (can use Sidhe Style at will with no frequent limitation), and Turn the Tables (once per minute, whenever the sidhe would make a saving throw against the same triggering effect, can roll twice and take the better result).

The 16th/17th level feats allow the sidhe to call upon the grandest of magic in order to gain mastery over their personal story. They include Conjure Abode (cast Magnificient Mansion once per long rest/day and the mansion and servants are the same each time the spell is cast), Deduce Story (can automatically learn details about the past by spending at least a minute pondering about how the circumstances fit together to tell a greater story), and Plot Armor (once per long rest/day can miraculously avoid death or being knocked unconscious by some absurdly-timed miracle). Regarding Plot Armor, this ability cannot work during climactic 'campaign-ending encounters' and similar incidents that would spell an appropriate end to the sidhe's story, per DM discretion. The Pathfinder-exclusive feat is Collective Pacing, which lets the sidhe cast Haste/Slow as 7th-level spells and thus can target multiple creatures.

It might seem that the sidhe doesn't have a lot of feats, but the reality is that a lot of their feats are gained at widely different levels. They include Sidhe Styling (1st level in D&D, 5th in Pathfinder, can magically alter their clothes' aesthetic style once per short rest), Fairy Messenger (5th level in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder, can summon a fairy to deliver a message once per hour/short rest that functions much like Animal Messenger), Sidhe Hideaway (4th level in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder, can create a hidden portal to a minor sidhe realm, functions as an extradimensional storage space), Comprehend Mental Narrative (4th in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder, cast Detect Thoughts/Mind Reading depending on system and without spell components in D&D), Fey Skin (8th in D&D and 13th in Pathfinder, just like the gremlin and nymph feat), and Never Today (8th in D&D and 13th in Pathfinder allows them to use Not Today once per short rest/hour).

Thoughts: I'm quite the fan of most of these feats, and even the lower-level options have some rather nifty broadly-useful effects like Ancestral/Expert Longevity, Check the Narrative, and Storied Leadership. Fated Strike is rather weak in D&D given that gaining advantage on an attack roll can be done in a variety of ways, and I don't know how much I'm a fan of locking some of the subspecies effects behind 1st level ancestry feats. Additionally, several of the feats that rely upon dramatically-influential people and events are highly subject to DM Fiat. Although given that a PC is spending a precious feat slot on them, a good DM should make them broad in use.

The faerie scion is our Versatile Species for this chapter, representing mortals with a touch of sidhe influence. They might be the classic changelings, swapped with a mortal child, or they could have a literal sidhe ancestor in their family tree. They often appear almost identical to their mortal parent, save for a slight oddity marking them as unusual in line with their influential sidhe. In D&D, playing as a faerie scion is represented as a feat that any non-sidhe species can take, granting +1 Intelligence or Charisma, the Darkvision and Fey Ancestry abilities, and are treated as a sidhe for the purposes of meeting species-specific prerequisites. In Pathfinder, they are a Rare heritage who gain the faerie scion and sidhe traits on top of the base ones of their ancestry, and either low-light vision or an appropriate ancestry feat if they already have that sense type. Faerie scions in both systems gain access to sidhe-exclusive feats, and there's one feat for each sidhe subspecies that grant some of that subspecies' inherent abilities plus Not Today for the D&D scion. Sidhe Stride is a Pathfinder-exclusive feat that boosts the Faerie Scion's walking speed by 5 feet, but has no effect if their starting speed is already 30 feet from their base ancestry. Personally speaking, I'd word things so that the feat cannot be taken rather than being taken and thus useless in this case.

Thoughts: Like the doppelborn and nymphtouched, the faerie scion represents another species with a trace of monstrous heritage. Also like them, the scion is highly appropriate given that the fairy archetypes this chapter's drawing on are those known to dally with mortalkind.

Thoughts So Far: Of the ancestries in Classic Creatures, the sidhe is one of my favorites. It is a broad monstrous archetype that can fit a lot of creatures, has compelling reasons for them becoming adventurers, and their feats have a lot of open-ended potential. The low points are the rather situational and lackluster subspecies, particularly for Pathfinder.

Join us next time as we review the most iconic beginner-level JRPG monster: the slime!

 

[Voadam]

I do like the literary tropes as archetypes for fey.

 

[Libertad]

Most slimes are mindless creatures, but nature and magic still finds a way for some of them to develop self-awareness. Sapient slimes usually come about this way as a result of natural evolution, and often among colonies of their non-sapient brethren. The intelligent slimes thus seek out the companionship of other intelligent beings out of curiosity and intellectual stimulation, and can further evolve in a variety of ways.

Slimes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but what they share in common is a nucleus that serves as the sole major vital organ which is surrounded by an amorphous gooey layer. A slime's body isn't fixed upon creation, and they are capable of growing and changing over time as their nucleus develops new powers. Slimes reproduce asexually via mitosis, and slime "children" are capable of developing entirely different abilities than their parent, making their species incredibly adaptable. Slimes of every alignment can be found, although they have a bias towards neutral alignments rather than the four extremes. Their religious beliefs are usually the first deity they learn about, or whatever faith is most popular among their cluster.

Intelligent slimes usually gain sapience alone, so their societies are most often "found families" which can include non-slimes. Broad tendencies among slime societies are known as clusters. There are seven types of clusters listed in this book, three of which have D&D backgrounds. The ones with backgrounds include Bondforgers (seek to create their own societies and settlements made up of like-minded people), Devourers (slimes who wish to partake of as many different experiences as possible), and Mysteria (focus on intellectual stimulation and scientific innovation). The backgroundless ones include Apallites (seek to disguise themselves as humanoids), Fractals (offspring are born with a near-duplicate mind as their parent, use this uniformity to create their own societies), Inheritors (slimes whose sapience is heritable but can develop independently unlike fractals, and their societies often have a single ancestral "founder"), and Melded (slimes who can incorporate the properties and personalities of dissolved sustenance into themselves). While many of these fractals sound less like cultures and more like biology, we do have some societal fleshing out for the various entries. Such as inheritors, who often make use of goods and services both they and humanoids enjoy to foster trade, such as massages, saunas, and hot springs. Although in the slimes' case, their idea of a good massage might include being slowly compacted into small spaces that reshape their bodies.

Thoughts: The slime strongly reminds me of the mimic earlier in this book, being a highly morphic being who tends to be isolated from others of their kind. While both have internal change as a recurring theme, the slime's change isn't necessarily the core mechanic or cultural default. This is because slimes tend to settle into a preferred form or society, but said options differ widely between types of slimes.

As an ancestry, slimes get a bonus to Constitution and either a free ability boost of choice in Pathfinder or a boost dependent on their subspecies in D&D, are either Small or Medium* have the ooze instead of humanoid type, a slow walking speed, resistance to nonmagical piercing damage or precision damage depending on system due to having only a single vital organ, can change between their natural form or an obviously-ooze humanoid form and squeeze through tight spaces in both forms (1 inch wide in D&D or as one size smaller in Pathfinder), can grow pseudopods that can manipulate objects like normal limbs, and have either blindsight or imprecise motionsense depending on system.

*Barring the Tiny Slime subspecies, listed below.

Slimes have five subspecies/heritages to choose from. They include Agile Slime (has a normal instead of slow walking speed), Amphibious Slime (are amphibious and gain a swim speed), Fractal Slime (gain proficiency in 2 skills of choice in D&D, or gain training in one skill and become expert at 5th level in said skill in Pathfinder), Tiny Slime (are Tiny size and proficient/trained in Stealth, gain the Terrain Stalker feat in Pathfinder), and Twilight Slime (gain either low-light or darkvision depending on system).

Thoughts: The base slime ancestry's most potent ability is its motionsense/blindsight, which despite its short range makes them very good at sensing invisible and visually hidden targets. Their lack of low-light or darkvision barring the Twilight subspecies makes it difficult for them to function as scout types in typical dungeon crawls, given they will need a light source or other means of seeing in the dark. But their ability to fit through tight spaces can be situationally useful. When it comes to subspecies, the Fractal Slime and Twilight Slime have the most widely-useful abilities for most builds, while Agile Slime might be less appealing in that it's merely making the slime have a normal speed rather than a truly fast movement.

Slimes have 33 feats in D&D and 36 in Pathfinder. The 1st-level feats center around consistent enhancements to their forms and abilities, such as Bouncy Slime (reduced damaging from falling in D&D or immune to fall damage in Pathfinder), Convincing Face (humanoid form looks indistinguishable from an appropriate humanoid), Energy Slime (deal bonus energy damage with unarmed strikes and being grappled, gain resistance to energy type chosen in D&D), Engulfing Container (can store objects within itself), Heal Slime (slime has healing properties that it can apply by touch), Magislime (gain bonus arcane/occult cantrips), Metal Slime (+1 AC when unarmored or treat body as medium armor depending on system), and Slimy Grappler (can more easily grapple targets with unarmed strikes, gain training in Athletics and can grapple without a free hand in Pathfinder, successfully grappled targets who escape have reduced movement speed in D&D). The D&D book has quite the number of exclusive feats: they include Compress (can become one size category smaller but weight remains the same due to increased density), Dissolve (deal increased unarmed damage vs objects), Slime Familiar (cast Find Familiar but the type is ooze and uses octopus stats), Stretch Out (can interact with objects up to 30 feet away), and Toxic Slime (resistance to poison damage, can deal bonus poison damage with unarmed attacks and when being grappled/swallowed).

The 4th/5th level feats are almost entirely different depending on the sourcebook. The only one they both share is Second Evolution, where they gain the benefits of another subspecies that isn't fractal, as that one is more 'innate' in being determined by parent rather than developed later in life. The D&D-exclusive feat is Slime Spit, which turns the bonus damage type from Energy/Toxic Slime into a ranged attack with a bonus debuffing effect, the latter of which refreshes every short rest. The Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Energy Spit (like Slime Spit but no bonus debuff effect, is treated as being in the sling weapon group but is unarmed), Minor Pseudopod (gains a bonus pseudopod that can perform basic tasks), Resilient Slime (DC to remove persistent damage effects is 5 less than normal), Slime Hug (creatures the slime grapples take penalty on movement should they escape), and Split (activated as a reaction up to once per minute, can split into two selves upon taking slashing or piercing damage, are treated as separate targets but the first one to take damage dissolves into nothing, also dissolves if one turn passes).

The 8th/9th level feats represent more direct and active applications of their anatomical abilities. They include Energy Surge (deal persistent damage of an energy type of their Energy Slime feat upon dealing a critical hit with an unarmed attack), Massive Consumption (can automatically heal damage when consuming large quantities of food, much like the mimic's Rejuvenating Gorge), Ooze's Resilience (gain +1 hit point per level, in D&D has a chance to turn a critical hit into a normal hit and in Pathfinder reduces the DC of recovery checks when dying), and Ooze Shape (polymorph into an ooze monster once long rest/day, is the Ooze Form spell in pathfinder). Pathfinder has the Medicinal Slime exclusive feat, where they gain their choice of the Herbalist or Poisoner dedication feat even if they have their maximum amount of dedication feats. That feat requires both the Heal Slime feat and either Battle Medicine or Natural Medicine feats as prerequisites.

The 12th/13th level provides major changes to the slime and broad uses of their ooze form. They include Big Slime (become permanently Large size and bonus melee damage) and Superbounce (requires Bouncy Slime, further reduces fall damage and triples jump distance in D&D, grants +2 bonus on Acrobatics checks to Tumble Through an opponent's space in Pathfinder, both systems allow them to bounce back into the air half the distance they fell and continue to bounce until they bounce less than 20 feet). Both books have exclusive feats. The D&D one is Engulf (can blind, restrain, and suffocate a single grappled target), while the Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Amorphous Protection (has a chance of turning a critical hit into a normal hit via a flat DC 17 check, gains increased resistance to precision damage), Omnidirectional Vision (immune to being flanked by a creature of equal or lower level), Sacrifice Nucleus (automatically turns a critical hit into a normal hit as a reaction once per hour), and Slimy Replica (can form temporary objects of simple functionality out of their own slime).

The 16th/17th level feats represent powerful once per long rest/day abilities. They include Energy Avatar (can transform into a Huge-sized form for 1 minute with increased reach and melee damage, and deals energy damage appropriate to the Energy Slime feat), Misleading Split (turns invisible for up to 1 minute and creates two illusory fakes), and Ooze Surge (transforms into a line-shaped AoE tide of ooze dealing bludgeoning or energy damage if has the Energy Slime feat, materializes at the end of the line in an unoccupied space)

The feats of variable level include Confounding Split (4th level in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, can split into multiple versions of which only one slime is the "real" slime much like Mirror Image and is once per long rest in D&D and once per hour in Pathfinder), Ooze Climb (4th in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, gain a climbing speed), Ooze Empathy (1st level in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder, can communicate simple concepts to oozes), Transparentize (9th level in Pathfinder once per hour and 12th level in D&D Proficiency Bonus times per long rest, can cast Invisibility but shorter duration by becoming transparent), Motion's Revelation (12th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder, can cast True Seeing once per long rest, also grants constant See Invisibility in Pathfinder while in D&D the True Seeing functions within the blindsight radius), Ooze Aegis (12th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder, D&D spends an action to gain resistance to a non-physical damage type until it's used again, Pathfinder grants resistance 5 to a broad variety of energy damage types), and Ooze Shifter (16th level in D&D and 13th level in Pathfinder, can assume higher-CR ooze forms in D&D and once per short rest, can cast Ooze Form once per hour and a 5th-level once per day version in Pathfinder).

Thoughts: A lot of the lower-level feats tend to be situational at best, suboptimal at worst. However, there are some standouts in the form of Energy Slime, which provides a good means for monk and unarmed warrior types to deal non-physical damage with their attacks, and Metal Slime is a pretty good means of giving an AC boost to unarmored builds. Slimy Grappler's Pathfinder version opens the slime up to some creative combos in not requiring a free hand, from sword-and-board fighters to two-handed raging barbarians. The fact that Energy Slime plays off of or serves as a prerequisite for higher-level feats enhances its appeal even further. I'm not sure why Toxic Slime is D&D-exclusive. Confounding Split is another useful defensive feature for slimes who get into the fray, and Massive Consumption can make great use of the Goodberry spell as mentioned with the mimic-equivalent feat earlier in the book. Ooze Aegis is a pretty useful defensive feat to take, and Motion's Revelation grants access to a very good spell. Transparentize is rather weak in a party with the Invisibility spell in that it comes in rather late to replicate a lower-level spell, although its ability to be used frequently can help set the ooze up for ambushes and to sneak around better. Ooze Empathy is going to be rarely used in most campaigns, given the scarcity of oozes as a creature type.

The slimeheart is perhaps the most unusual of the Versatile Species in this book, in that the prior ones covered at least made some sense from a reproductive perspective. Slimehearts originate from any number of strange origins. What slimehearts share is that they appear like normal members of their ancestry save that they are partially made of ooze which can be concealed with a lot of clothing/armor. Most slimehearts survived an encounter with a hostile ooze that partially melded with them, and despite what is commonly believed their condition isn't contagious. The next most common origins for slimehearts are as the result of magical and scientific experiments, or who form a symbiotic link when either or both the slime and non-slime is at risk of death and merging together ensures survival. Finally, the rarest kinds were born that way, coming from when a slime consumes a creature just before dividing to reproduce.

Like the other Versatile Species in this book, playing a slimeheart is represented as a feat in D&D or a rare heritage in Pathfinder. They are treated as a slime for the purposes of meeting prerequisites, and gain that ancestry's resistance against nonmagical piercing/precision damage. They also gain access to two new feats: Slime Form, which lets them change into a slime form that can fit into tight spaces and grow pseudopods for manipulation, and Motionsense (prerequisite being at least 4th/5th level) which grants the slime's sense type depending on system.

Thoughts: I don't have much thoughts to share on the slimeheart, besides that their base feat isn't very powerful in comparison to the other Versatile Species. Fitting into tight spaces will be less situationally useful than darkvision/low-light vision, or being able to adopt different kinds of humanoid disguises.

Thoughts So Far: The slime's a nifty little species, and its various special features and feats are unique while remaining relatively balanced. I will say that a lot of the feats feel like they veer quite a bit into encouraging unarmed builds, although there's still a good bit of other feats that can be useful for other classes and roles.

Join us next time as we finish up this book with the petrifyingly dangerous sthenos!

 

[Libertad]

The euryale are a serpentine species who were cursed by their evil patron deity to gradually go insane from corruptive nightmares. An individual named Stheno sought to escape this terrible fate, and turned to another deity in hopes of protection. The euryale's patron deity sought to kill Stheno, but the rebel euryale used her own life force to grant each snake upon her head to become an individual being. They lithered away to safety, becoming the first of the species who would take on Stheno's namesake.

Bearing similar traits to medusae, the sthenos are capable of reproducing with other creatures, slowly growing their numbers. Their physical appearance has made it difficult at times to form alliances with outsiders, but they still managed to find a place in the world with enough searching and dedication. While all sthenos look like humans with snakes for hair, they can range in a variety of skin and scale tones, although they all lack conventional body hair. Additionally, a stheno's hair is made up of actual non-venomous snakes who have minds of their own and can move of their own accord, although in sharing the same body they and the stheno often influence each other's emotions.

Sthenos live in tight-knit communities, and are almost always a minority part of larger settlements. They are noted as being open and welcoming, so their tight-knit nature doesn't necessarily lend them to xenophobia.

Given that their species is relatively young (the original Sthenos died about a century ago), sthenos haven't really developed any long-held traditions, and their communities are experimenting with a variety of different art forms and philosophies. They vary widely in alignment, although at the moment they're more likely to be good than evil due to the more benevolent groups detailed below having more general acceptance and greater number of adherents.

The seven most prominent stheno groups are detailed, with three having backgrounds in D&D. They are aesthetes (seek to dedicate themselves to artistic innovation), ophidiacs (have an affinity for snakes and go out of their way to collect and domesticate them), and progenitor disciples (seek to follow in the ways of the first hundred members of their species, the progenitors, who are rumored to still be alive and in hiding). The backgroundless groups are flower bearers (dedicate themselves to the deity the original Sthenos worshipped, and emphasis the power of redemption for even the most vile people), gorgoneions (seek to emulate medusa and find ways to closely emulate their powers), nightmare dreamers (believe that the original Stheno made a mistake in turning her back on the power of the euryale and seek to become monstrous and wicked), and two skies (sthenos who have one stheno, one non-stheno parent and are searching for ways to blend both parent's cultures).

Thoughts: Most other ancestries in the Battlezoo line outright state that the PC version of the monster is for all intents and purposes that monster, save when it comes to Monster Manual stat blocks. Due to this, I am a bit surprised that they didn't just make the stheno a medusa. If I had to guess, that monster's iconic petrifying gaze was perhaps deemed too powerful, but as we saw PC versions of the medusa in other third party products like Odyssey of the Dragonlords and Frontiers of Eberron, it is something that can be done. But as to the stheno ancestry in and of itself, I think that it works well in being a young species still finding their place in the world. I do feel that the sample groups are a bit simplistic, which I suppose makes sense given their newness, but I would've preferred some more fleshed-out details for the ones with D&D backgrounds.

The stheno's base ancestry gets a bonus to Charisma and one other ability score of choice in Pathfinder, Charisma and two other ability scores of choice in D&D, netting a total +4 modifier due to ancestry for the latter system much like the 2014 Half-Elf. They are Medium size, have an average walking speed, can communicate with snakes, and their head full of snakes makes them more perceptive. In D&D this takes the form of a passive Perception score that never decreases below 10 + Proficiency Bonus, and in Pathfinder it takes the form of a separate Perception check made for the snakes with a modifier 5 less than the stheno's. In D&D, sthenos are also proficient in one bonus skill of their choice.

Sthenos have six different subspecies/heritages. They include euryale atavism (have a snake tail instead of legs as the lower half of their body, are proficient in Acrobatics in D&D and are more resistant to forced movement and the prone effect in both systems), faithspark (learn a cleric/divine cantrip and are proficient in Religion in D&D), fanghair (head of snakes is an unarmed attack), moonsight (they and their hair snakes gain low-light vision or darkvision depending on system, gain proficiency in Perception in D&D), museborn (gain expertise in one set of artisan's tools in D&D, gain training in the Crafting skill and the Specialty Crafting skill feat twice in Pathfinder), and venomproof (more resistant to poison in bonuses/advantage on saves and resistance to poison damage).

Thoughts: The base stheno ancestry doesn't feel very impressive. First off, being able to speak with snakes is rather situational. Their snake heads' minimal passive Perception in D&D would take effect if they're taking a penalty to it, such as via fast movement overland or in dim light. This can be very useful if the D&D is enforcing lighting conditions, but as they don't have darkvision by default, they still don't see very well in comparison to most other ancestries. The second roll at a penalty in Pathfinder is a bit more useful. As to the subspecies/heritages, moonsight feels the most broadly useful, venomproof can be good given that poison is a pretty common offensive ability among monsters, and euryale atavism can be good for melee fighter builds. Faithspark, fanghair, and museborns are more situational.

Sthenos have 27 feats in D&D and 34 in Pathfinder. The 1st-level feats are actually have quite a few nifty abilities, and include Coiffure Familiar (a snake from their hair can detach and become a familiar, in D&D is more powerful than a standard snake familiar), Coil Switch (can disguise their snake hair as regular hair), Euryale's Sight (gain blindsight out to 10 feet in D&D, or upgrade from normal to low-light or low-light to darkvision in Pathfinder), Lethal Hair (snake hair becomes an unarmed attack, fanghairs increase the damage die by 1 and in Pathfinder can deal critical specialization effects), Scaleswap (polymorph into a tiny poisonous snake once per short rest/hour), Slither (euryale atavism only, can crawl half their speed, also gain +10 to speed in D&D), and Stheno Dynamism (can more resist effects that petrify, paralyze, or reduce speed, in D&D also grant Constitution or Wisdom save proficiency). This category has feats exclusive to Pathfinder, which are Martial Culture (can choose uncommon weapon of an ancestry in the prevailing region they grew up in, gaining a free piece of it at character creation as well as training in it, can choose an advanced weapon if trained in all martial weapons) and Serpents' Sight (spend an action to be immune to being flanked until start of next turn).

The 4th/5th level feats provide supernatural abilities more in line with their euryale/medusa forebears, including Antivenom Blood (can use their blood to treat poison on themself or an ally), Gripping Coiffure (can grapple with their snake hair), Guardian Statue (summons a stone duplicate of themselves once per long rest/day and can interpose itself in front of an incoming attack), and Petrifying Finish (can choose to petrify a target they would kill or leave dying). The Pathfinder-exclusive feats include Serpentine Shifts (have reduced penalties to AC/Reflex/Perception when unconscious and asleep due to conscious snake hairs), Serpent Scent (gain scent as an imprecise sense out to 30 feet), Share Slightering Senses (can share their senses with their Coiffure Familiar), and Two Skies, Two Suns (gain Adopted Ancestry feat and a 1st-level ancestry feat corresponding to their non-stheno parent).

The 8th/9th level feats represent more powerful displays of their monstrous ancestors. They include Hair Trigger (hair snakes roll initiative individually with a worse modifier, stheno uses the better result between themselves and their hair), Ophidian Critical (deal persistent poison damage when critting with their snake hair unarmed attack, also imposes poisoned condition in D&D), Petrifying Critical (can restrain the target on a critical hit with a melee attack, representing partial petrification), and Snake Form (can polymorph into a more powerful snake). The Pathfinder-exclusive feat is Serpents' Vigilance (provides constant immunity to being flanked against creatures of equal or lower level).

The 12th/13th level feats are overtly supernatural abilities. They include Pit of Snakes (once per long rest/day throw a cluster of snake hair that fill an AoE, dealing damage and restricting movement) and Profane Vision (once per long rest/day can choose to roll twice and take the higher result for a die roll when they'd ordinarily roll twice and take the lower result).

The 16th/17th level feats represent the stheno attaining the vaunted powers of a real medusa, or become more like the snakes in their hair as many creatures instead of one. The feats include Gaze of Mercy (once per short rest/hour can unpetrify a creature by looking at them), Gorgoneion's Gaze (once per short rest/hour can do a single-target gaze attack that restrains and eventually can petrify a target), and Serpentine Discorpation (once per short rest/10 minutes can transform into a swarm of regular snakes, can remain in that form for 5 minutes in Pathfinder, 10 minutes in D&D, can be voluntarily ended early in both systems and ends in D&D if reduced to 0 hit points).

The variable level feats include Blessing of Redemption (1st in D&D, 5th in Pathfinder, lets them cast the Bless spell once per short rest in D&D and once per day in Pathfinder), Oracular Insight (4th in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder, can cast Augury once per long rest in D&D, once per hour in Pathfinder), Sculptor's Glance (8th in D&D, 13th in Pathfinder, can cast Stone Shape/Shape Stone once per long rest in D&D and once per hour in Pathfinder), Shattering Shriek (4th in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder, can let out a single-target scream attack once per long rest/day dealing thunder/sonic damage and deals double/maximum damage against petrified creatures), Stheno's Defiance (casts Blessing of Defiance once per day in Pathfinder, can grant themselves and allied targets nearby advantage against one specific spell or ability chosen when the feat is selected once per long rest), and Stone Elocutionist (13th in D&D, 17th in Pathfinder, can speak with petrified creatures and stone).

Thoughts: The stheno's ancestry feats pleasantly surprised me, as quite a few of their low-level feats are worth taking in D&D. Blindsight, even short-range, is good to have when dealing with invisible and hidden opponents, and Stheno Dynamism grants proficiency in one of two commonly-used saving throws. Blessing of Redemption is a bit hard to justify in comparison to Magic Initiate, but being able to cast a very good spell once per short rest can see good use as a party buff. Guardian Statue can be a useful defensive feature, and Shattering Shriek deals one of the least-resisted damage types in the game. Its ability to deal extra damage vs petrified creatures is going to be rare unless the stheno takes appropriate racial feats, as Flesh to Stone and Prismatic Wall (the only 2 spells that can impose said condition) only come into play at higher tiers. Hair Trigger is a useful mid-level feat in that, even with a worse modifier/disadvantage, the swinginess of a d20 means that this can still result in higher initiative results for the snake hair. On the Pathfinder side of things, Serpents' Sight and Serpent's Vigilance are useful in avoiding flanking, and Oracular Insight's once per hour refresh rate is bound to get used often and can be broadly useful if the player knows when to use it. Sculptor's Glance grants use of a pretty potent battlefield control spell that can work in the typical dungeon terrain, or any terrestrial location with access to natural earth for that matter.

Of course, there's quite a bit of feats that are weak and/or situational, but the sthenos has them more spread out rather than being all bunched up at the lower levels, so you have more worthwhile choices at every tier of play.

Thoughts So Far: The sthenos is a fine ancestry to wrap up this book. Its lore is brief but has enough detail via their origin and philosophical groups for the DM to work with something. Their feats have a good diversity of techniques, from direct offense to divination to battlefield control.

Final Thoughts: Battlezoo Ancestries: Classic Creatures is well worth your time, be you a D&D or a Pathfinder fan. It has the right balance of fluff and crunch for its monstrous species, and provides plenty of interesting factions, outlooks, and historical/cultural details to give them a place in the world beyond the stereotypical "mostly evil beings with some non-evil rebellious PCs." Even for monsters who normally hew heavily towards certain classes and roles, the book tries to give them enough options via subspecies and feats to let them play against type if desired.

While I'm still a relative newbie to Pathfinder 2nd Edition, the ancestries and feats overall look balanced and they don't seem too out of whack. As for the D&D 5e version, that system's handling of feats makes it so that Pathfinder's tiered nature of leveled feats doesn't work as well, and you end up with more cases of feats being either not worth it or no-brainers to take. If it were up to me, I would've liked to see something akin to feats that progressively gain new abilities via leveling up to better emulate Pathfinder 2e's system. But such an innovative subsystem would be beyond the scope of this book. Even then, there's still enough worthwhile material in Classic Creature's 5e version to give something for everyone looking for monstrous PCs.

 

[Libertad]

Drive-Thru RPG Store Page.

Itchio Store Page.

Okay, a dog isn't technically a monster, but the concept is offbeat enough that it's a worthy inclusion for this review thread. For those not in the know, Dungeon Crawl Classics is one of the most popular OSR games on the market. It has generous third party support which is further encouraged by the parent company Goodman Games. Zines are a particularly enduring form of product, and Breaker Press' Rabid Dogs was one such line. Designed to support the homebrew Stennard setting, one of their biggest hits was the Canine class. The idea sprung from a scenario when a PC died, but their animal companion survived. This is something that can easily happen in Dungeon Crawl Classics, on account that more than a few of its 0-level occupations give a PC a domesticated animal as their starting "equipment."

Breaker Press eventually made an updated version of the Canine class as its own standalone product, which we'll be reviewing here. I will also note what has changed between the two versions near the end of this review.

The Canine easily represents virtually any breed of dog. When it comes to supernatural powers and uncanny intelligence, the class is closest to Lassie in theme: the Canine can be far smarter than they seem, but in terms of story is still an "ordinary" animal. The class has a modest 1d6 hit points per level, cannot wield typical equipment but fights with bite and claw attacks which deal 1d4 damage, and gain access to Mighty Deeds of Arms and a Deed Die much like the Dwarf and Warrior. Most Canines are smaller than adult humans, so they can fit into areas most bipedal humanoids cannot access. While Canines can be equipped with armored coats, their baseline unarmored Armor Class is 12, and their movement speed is a nimble 40 feet (human average is 30 feet). While Canines can understand simple words and their meanings in most languages, they cannot speak save via barks and growls, which attentive people can get the gist of it.

Without conventional weapons or magic to fall back on, Canines that become PCs must be lucky in order to survive, so they get better uses for spending Luck. Instead of gaining a flat +1 bonus for each point of Luck spent, a Canine adds a Luck Die for each point of Luck instead. The Luck Die is the same as their Deed Die, meaning it starts at a d3 at 1st level and climbs up by 1 (d4, d5, d6, etc) every level until 8th onwards, where it increases by 2, to a maximum of d16 at 10th level. They also recover lost Luck every night in the same manner as a Thief. Canines also use the Monster Critical Hit Table when they crit, and their saving throw progression is rather average all-around.

On the roguish side of things, Canines can Sneak Silently and Hide In Shadows like a Thief, but they also get a unique skill, Detect and Follow Tracks, which works much the same as a Thief Skill but is for tracking the scent of other creatures and learning details about said creatures; such as when they were last in an area, and how many are in the group. The bonus a Canine receives on these skills is determined by a relevant ability score modifier, level, and alignment. Lawful Canines have the best progression when it comes detecting/following tracks but the worst at hiding; neutrals are the best at sneaking silently but worst at following/detecting tracks; and chaotic ones are the best at hiding but worst at sneaking.

When it comes to Mighty Deeds of Arms, a Canine has access to any Deeds that would make sense. The book calls out several from the core book such as Disarming Attacks, Trips, and Throws. The class has two unique sample Deeds: Pounce, where they make a rushing attack at a target to knock them off-balance, and Tenacious Grab where they tightly bite the target as a grapple. The Pounce Deed's greater effects can leave the target on the ground for longer and cause them to lose the use of their action die as potential results, while Tenacious Grab can impose automatic bite damage while the grapple's maintained and even trigger a critical hit on higher results!

Finally, the book wraps up with Canine Occupations & Other Tables. We get a d10 occupation table for determining the role they were raised for and thus their starting Trade Good. For example, a Herding Dog begins play with a rag doll, while a Tracking Dog has a favorite stick. We also get dog-centric equipment such as different types of armored coats (range from 0 to +3 AC), bells, brushes, collars, and the like. The +0 AC armor is a Warm Coat that makes the dog more comfortably subsist in cold environments.

For differences between the more current class and the old one from Issue 1 of the Rabid Dogs Zine, the formatting in this one is more streamlined, such as combining the smaller size and fast speed into one paragraph rather than as two distinct class features. Pounce and Tenacious Grab originally functioned like Thief Skills rather than Mighty Deeds. They still had a Deed Die, but Pouncing and Grabbing were their own rules. In being reduced from 5 Thief Skills to 3, this allowed for a more balanced progression: for example, chaotic Canines originally had good progression in Pounce and Grab, but average in the stealth and tracking skills.

Furthermore, the dog-specific equipment didn't exist back then, either, and the wording for Canine language was eased up on. For the latter example, the original text implied that the player would have to pantomime or flat out not be able to get across all but the most simple concepts. Canine 2.0 has it so that they cannot speak in the conventional sense as their major limit.

Overall Thoughts: In terms of party role, the Canine is a sort of Warrior-Thief hybrid. Its d6 and Deed Die make it sturdier than the latter class in a straight-up fight, but it lacks the staying power of a Dwarf or Warrior who get much access to much better gear and have larger Hit Dice. And while a Canine can do a decent job at remaining undetected, its lack of other iconic Thief Skills such as Find Traps and Climb Sheer Surfaces means that they can't wholly replace that class either. The Canine's ability to Detect and Follow Tracks is perhaps its most unique niche, and can be quite useful in determining the presence of nearby and fleeing enemies. Their ability to spend and recover Luck faster and with better bonuses to rolls can pair nicely with their Mighty Deeds in making the most of an otherwise middling attack roll result.

If there are any major weaknesses or shortcomings, it's that the Canine lacks any significant form of ranged attack. Additionally, their lack of opposable thumbs means that a lot of unique gear and magic weapons that PCs recover in adventures may be unusable by the party dog. Relatedly, their only major ability to deal damage coming from their natural attacks means that enemies that are dangerous just to touch or grab will be extra-deadly to Canines. And while it can be assumed that non-Canine PCs will understand their four-legged companion, GMs who enforce the limited speech can make social interactions in general a lot more difficult for them to contribute. For these reasons, while the Canine does look to be a fun and unconventional idea without any significant balance issues in and of itself, I'm not sure of how well they can last in a longer campaign.

 

[Libertad]

Edition Note: This book was designed for the 2014 5e and pre-Remaster Pathfinder 2e rulesets.

Roll For Combat Storefront (PDF & Hardcover, both systems)
Drive-Thru RPG Storefront (D&D 5th Edition)
Drive-Thru RPG Storefront (Pathfinder 2nd Edition)

As has been evidenced in this very thread, the idea of turning traditionally antagonistic creatures into protagonists is a popular sentiment among publishers. It was only a matter of time before people sought to make PC-friendly versions of the only monster whose very name premieres in the title of Dungeons & Dragons. In broader media, dragons played roles of companions to heroes, if not being the heroes themselves, such as the Eragon book series, while among the furry fandom dragons are one of the most common fursonas. On the D&D/Pathfinder front, metallic dragons’ well-known reputation for moral goodness makes them easier to slot into protagonist roles than most other monsters who are traditionally evil-aligned.

And yet, dragons have been quite hard to balance as playable characters in D&D and its inspired systems for a multitude of reasons. The first is that they get multiple features which are highly potent: flight, large size and strength, natural defenses, an AoE breath attack, and spellcasting are consistent elements in both D&D and Pathfinder, and even having just one of these would be a powerful choice for a base race/species trait. Additionally, dragons increase in power with age, and a lot of attempts at playable dragons* often restricted them to beginning or remaining as children, sometimes being as effectively young as toddlers. Furthermore, the mental image many players have of a dragon was often deemed too powerful to replicate by existing rulesets, such as Savage Species’ Level Adjustment making it so that even wyrmling dragons were effectively mid-level PCs. This often meant that even at high levels, playable dragons were almost never adults, or if they advanced in level often created weird cases like a child dragon effectively becoming an “adult” over the course of a campaign that only lasted months or years.

*or PCs with dragon mounts and companions.

One of the first books published by Roll For Combat was Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons. Unlike the later books in the Ancestries line, which focused on multiple playable monsters, Dragons was all about the most iconic monster of the world’s oldest roleplaying game. Instead of trying to cram all of the most iconic traits into a single race or limited set of options, this product has a more holistic “build your own dragon” by splitting up features between race, class/subclass/archetypes, and feats/gifts to allow one to fine-tune one’s dragon character. Beyond just the most stereotypical big, bruising marauder, the options within seek to emulate the many roles and powers evidenced by the many different draconic families seen in D&D and Pathfinder.

In the Pathfinder fandom, Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons is one of the more well-regarded and discussed third party sourcebook. Part of it is that Mark Seifter is one of its writers, a man who co-designed Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Another part is that it takes aim at many of the above design concerns of playable dragons and finds ways to rectify them that many people have said turned out to be surprisingly balanced. With both a D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e version existing, I will be reviewing both.

An important element of Battlezoo Ancestries: Dragons is the Lux Aeterna, a powerful yet controversial ritual among dragonkind that allows one to bypass the typically-slow method of attaining power via age. Dragons who undertake the ritual are known as aeternal dragons, with typical members of their species known as “traditionalist” by comparison. The magical foundations of an aeternal dragon’s body undergo major, permanent transformations that allow them to “jumpstart” traditional methods of growth, such as growing to the size of an elder wyrm in a matter of years rather than millennia, or unlocking spells and supernatural powers not typically possessed by their traditionalist brethren. Undergoing intense training and stress further accelerates the magical pathways of an aeternal dragon, so this leads many of them to take a more active role in the world. Like going on adventures!

The Lux Aeterna ritual makes use of a variety of magical disciplines, ranging from ley lines and spiritualism to transmutation. Its tradeoff is that the end result reduces the existing dragon’s power, where a once-mighty adult becomes the size of a wyrmling and effectively “forgets” much of the powers and abilities attained over their lifespan. The opinion of the Lux Aeterna’s usefulness and morality varies greatly among dragonkind, not just between subspecies and cultures but even among dragons of the same types and moral outlooks. Critics might look down on it as a risky gamble undertaken by power-hungry dragons, while those who embrace the aeternal mindset might justify it as a practical plan of short-term loss for longer-term power. In terms of physical and observant traits, aeternal dragons typically look similar to their traditionalist kin, with a few commonalities. As their physical size is reduced, many aeternal dragons can more effectively play at being relatively weak or inexperienced to fool less knowledgeable folk, and people who can sense magic and been around dragons long enough often notice that the magic flowing through an aeternal dragon’s body is different than that of typical dragons. Additionally, aeternal dragons are much more likely to make use of weapons and armor, and the use of such tools is often a dead giveaway of a dragon’s aeternal nature. Finally, the Lux Aeterna’s effects grants a greater degree of autonomy among dragons who are ordinarily locked into specific alignments, and they can find themselves adopting new and very different mortal outlooks over time.

Basically, the Lux Aeterna ritual takes a Monster Manual dragon and changes them into a “starting-level/newborn dragon” in power, but allows them to gain the iconic features of older dragons by gaining experience levels. In terms of game mechanics, the D&D and Pathfinder books take slightly different approaches. A dragon is a race in both systems, with 45 unique subspecies known as Draconic Ancestries (or Draconic Heritages in Pathfinder). The subspecies are drawn from existing D&D/Pathfinder varieties, along with ones original to the Battlezoo line. But in D&D, a Dragon is also a class with two subclasses, representative of common draconic roles known as the Draconic Ravage and Dragon Mage. These subclasses exist in Pathfinder as two new archetype dedications.

In 5th Edition, the dragon’s base racial features are +1 to a single ability score of choice, are either Small or Medium Size, a 30 foot movement speed, 60 feet darkvision, are the Dragon type rather than Humanoid, have a bite (1d6) and claw (1d4) attack as natural weapons, speak Draconic and Common, gain one Draconic Gift for free (whose rules are detailed later in the Dragon class), and their Draconic Ancestry/Heritage determines further additional traits such as damage resistances and breath weapons. In Pathfinder, they are Rare rarity as a species option, grant 8 Hit Points, have a 25 foot speed, are Small or Medium, grant one free ability score boost of choice plus either Strength or an alternative option dependent on their Ancestry, have the darkvision sense, and more or less have the same traits as D&D when it comes to natural weapons, languages, and being dragon type instead of humanoid.

Thoughts: I like how the Lux Aeterna provides an in-universe reason for why PC dragons don’t function similarly to dragon as monsters. I also like how the ritual has a viable reason for why dragons would accept its otherwise depowering nature in bypassing the slow-yet-assured method of power by aging. While the base traits of a dragon race might initially appear ho-hum, the following subspecies, class/archetypes, and feats/Gifts help flesh out the draconic PC with more substantial and thematic options. I think the base race thus serves its purpose in covering the bare-bones yet broad traits people associated with dragons as a whole.

With 45 options, there’s just too many Draconic Ancestries/Heritages to cover here. They more or less function as a subrace, signifying what family of dragons the character belongs to. They include the classic chromatic and metallic dragon families, plus ones associated with planes of existence and conceptual phenomena such as the space-dwelling Lunar Dragons and the morally righteous Paradise Dragons. In 5th Edition, an Ancestry grants +2 to the player’s choice of either Strength or another (typically mental) ability score, while in Pathfinder the secondary score serves as the non-free ancestry ability boost option. In Pathfinder, the Heritage also determines what school their innate spells belong to; for instance, a Blue Dragon’s innate spells are arcane, while an Infernal Dragon’s are divine.

Ancestries/Heritages grant 2-3 other benefits, which range the gamut of function, from bonus skill training/proficiencies, resistance to a certain energy type, advantage on rolls/recovering faster from certain negative effects and conditions, a bonus language proficiency, and more specific powers such as a tail which can naturally produce an ink-like substance for writing simple text and glyphs (Edict Dragon), a swim speed and amphibiousness (various aquatic families of dragons), being trained/proficient in cooking and alchemy-related stuff depending on the ruleset (Toadstool Dragon), and the innate ability to cast the Light cantrip (Solar Dragons). I noticed that some subspecies abilities exist for a particular dragon type in one ruleset, but not another, or are granted for free in D&D but have to be taken as a feat in Pathfinder. For instance, the Solar Dragon in D&D always knows how long it will take for the sun to rise or set, but doesn’t have this ability in Pathfinder. Or Dream Sight, which Dream and Nightmare Dragons get for free in D&D but is a 1st-level feat in Pathfinder, where they can see a creatures’ dreams as a hazy image above their heads, and thus can grant the observing dragon bonuses/advantage on social skill checks for 24 hours.

In a few cases, abilities which are feats in Pathfinder but don’t exist in D&D are made into subspecies abilities in the latter RPG, such as the Harlequin Dragon gaining the Impressive Performance feat in Pathfinder, which in D&D becomes a racial ability allowing them to substitute a Charisma (Performance) check in place of Charisma (Persuasion) to improve someone’s attitude. Additionally, the Pathfinder subspecies grant additional unarmed weapon attacks for free beyond the jaws and claw such as horn or wing, but not so in D&D. Such attacks can still be gained, but via the Evolution option for Improved Natural Weapons of the Dragon class.

A dragon’s Ancestry/Heritage also determines the damage type of their breath weapon once they get it, along with that damage type applying to similar offensive and defensive traits for relevant feats, class features, and the like. For example, a Blue Dragon has Lightning as an associated damage type, and their breath weapon takes the form of a line.

Thoughts: I am impressed that this book manages to cover so many different dragon subspecies; even moreso given that the later chapters provide nearly 50 pages’ worth of fluff text about their cultures and typical approaches to the Lux Aeterna ritual. Of course, such variety means that a lot of subspecies traits can range the gamut in overall utility. For example, the Toadstool dragon is proficient with two tool types in D&D and has the Seasoned feat in Pathfinder, both of which are quite dependent on the campaign incorporating crafting rules as a regular feature. Compare this to a Crystal Dragon, who gains tremorsense in both systems which is more broadly useful for campaigns heavy with dungeon-crawling. Or an Indigo While some otherwise unimpressive initial abilities might be balanced out by later feats/Gifts, as those aren’t freebies I feel that many players will be looking at what they can get now vs what they must pay for in character building.

But some of the more situational abilities can be useful with the right builds and campaigns. For example, Cloud and Sky Dragons can see normally in fog and mist, which can supplement real well with Fog Cloud/Obscuring Mist in order to blind enemies. The Crypt Dragon’s ability to more easily hurt incorporeal creatures with their natural weapons in both systems and add double their proficiency bonus to Religion checks when it comes to knowing about undead creatures will be great for horror-focused campaigns, which are the most popular kinds of adventure paths in both D&D and Pathfinder.

But even so, there are some draconic families who just don’t have very impressive abilities. The Time Dragon merely gains training in lore regarding the Dimension of Time in Pathfinder, while in D&D they gain proficiency in History and know exactly how much time has passed since any event they personally experienced. In both systems they cannot die of old age. The White Dragon, besides gaining resistance to cold damage, gets no other unique things for free, save in D&D where their vision is unobscured by snow. A Havoc Dragon in both systems gains proficiency/training in Performance in both systems, gains proficiency with one musical instrument and advantage on saves vs the deafened condition in D&D, and in Pathfinder gains Virtuosic Performer as a bonus feat. While their breath weapon damage type is the rarely-resisted sonic/thunder, the Tumult Dragon can also gain this damage type (among acid, cold, electricity/lightning, fire, or sonic/thunder) and has more attractive features: one bonus skill/tool of choice in D&D, resistance to their chosen damage type, and can retrain their damage type every long rest/one month of downtime depending on system.

Thoughts So Far: While it’s a bit hard to judge the initial chapters in isolation, I feel that they help build a good foundation for the meatier mechanical aspects of a dragon PC. My major complaint is that there’s a bit of mechanical inconsistency in what abilities the dragon subspecies get in certain editions. In some cases this can make sense, like an ability that would be too powerful to grant for free in Pathfinder being allowed as a feat instead, but otherwise this can appear unintuitive. The Sovereign Dragon is a good example of this: in D&D they get bonus proficiency in Deception, History, or Persuasion to reflect their knack for politics, but they don’t get any equivalent skill training in Pathfinder. As there are Pathfinder subspecies that can grant free skill training, this feels odd to me.

Join us next time as we cover the D&D Dragon Class for D&D, the Draconic Ravager and Dragon Mage archetypes/subclasses, and the Draconic Diehard archetype and Draconic Scion Versatile Heritage for Pathfinder!

 

[Weiley31]

am impressed that this book manages to cover so many different dragon subspecies;

As an add-on to this, they even released FOUR MORE books which cover Leshy, Misfits, Battle, AND Fairy Dragons.

Keep in mind tho, all four of those books REPRINT the EXACT same Dragon Race, and 2 Classes (Ravage/Mage) from the original Battlezoo Dragon Ancestries book. But they offer new lore, Great Wyrms and stuff for the new dragons despite that.

 

[Libertad]

Now that we covered the dragon as a “race,” we will now cover the class-focused building blocks for character creation as well as a new Versatile Heritage. The two systems have quite a bit of different content. The D&D version has a new Dragon class with two subclasses, while in Pathfinder the aforementioned subclasses are instead archetype dedication feats as well as an exclusive Draconic Diehard Class Archetype and a new Versatile Heritage in the form of the Draconic Scion. Another thing I’d like to take note of is that Pathfinder is more feat-intensive, and a lot of choices that are class features for the 5e Dragon Class are turned into feats. The 5e book doesn’t have any new feats, and the bulk of what would be Ancestry and Archetype feats in Pathfinder are instead known as Draconic Gifts in D&D in a similar vein to a Warlock choosing from a list of powers. For those who read my preceding Battlezoo Ancestries: Classic Creatures review, this book follows a similar format in that the Gifts feats locked behind higher levels are generally more powerful than lower-level ones in both systems, and to reflect their different standards of character advancement the non-1st level Gifts/feats follow a 4/5, 8/9, etc of level-based prerequisites.

We will be covering Gifts and Feats in the post after this one due to the sheer variety out there. This post will first cover the Dragon Class for D&D. It is highly customizable, with the role a Dragon plays in the party further determined by its Gifts and subclasses. The class’ base features are 1d8 Hit Dice, proficiency in light armor and simple weapons, Constitution and Charisma saves, and can choose two skills from a broad list of physical/wilderness/scholarly skills and Intimidation for the sole social skill. All Dragons gain access to a Breath Weapon, which functions similar to a Dragonborn’s in being a line/cone-based AoE dealing a particular damage type, although its damage progression is much greater in starting at 2d6 and increasing by 1d6 every 2 levels thereafter. It also recharges on either a short or long rest, making it more reliably usable than the dragonborn’s. Dragons also are competent in melee, with Draconic Surge letting them make a claw or bite as a bonus action whenever they use an Attack action with just those weapons. They also gain Extra Attack at 5th level like most martial classes.

Evolutions are the first taste of role diversity, representing universal traits possessed by almost all dragonkind that represents the lux aeterna ritual returning their iconic abilities at an accelerated rate. They gain their choice of Evolution at 1st, 6th, and every 4 levels thereafter as well as 20th, which provides persistent benefits. An Evolution can be chosen more than once, further increasing its power, either up to a total of 3 or 5 times. They include Draconic Resistance (gain resistance/short-term and eventually permanent immunity to the damage type associated with your ancestry), Dragon Scales (gain a better innate AC plus chance to negate critical hits, armor proficiency lets you choose better AC options to make up for loss of said armor), Flight (gain increased jump distance and eventually short-term/permanent flight), Frightful Presence (AoE fear-based debuff, increased range and uses), Improved Natural Weapons (additional and increased damage dice of natural weapons), Size (gain increased Hit Dice, reach, and size, all the way up to Gargantuan), and Unconquerable (increased saving throw proficiencies and can reroll a failed save 1-3 times per long rest).

The Draconic Archetypes are cleanly divided into martial and magical roles, which both grant access to Gifts unique to said subclasses. The Draconic Ravager represents dragons who focus on increasing their physical and combat prowess, and gain weapon/armor proficiency akin to a Fighter plus a bonus skill as well as a bonus Evolution, and at later levels gain access to 4 unique Fighting Styles reflective of draconic combat, an additional Draconic Gift, Fighting Style, and Evolution. Their 14th and 20th level class features make their natural weapons deal 1 or 2 additional weapon dice worth of damage respectively.

The Dragon Mage represents wyrms who hone the magical arts. Unlike a primary caster they are more akin to a gish in the vein of a warlock, where the highest level spells they gain access to are 5th level. They are spontaneous casters, meaning that they are limited to spells they know based on level, but have great variety in that they make the initial choice of whether their spell list comes from the Cleric, Druid, or Sorcerer class. Their key spellcasting ability is whatever mental ability score they get a +2 from due to their ancestry, or Charisma if it doesn’t increase any of those three scores. The Mage’s supplementary class features revolve around using their spell power to enhance their draconic nature, such as a bonus Draconic Gift, using a bonus action once per short rest to recover an expended spell slot, and at middle-to higher levels can expend spell slots to make their natural attacks and breath weapons deal additional damage.

Thoughts: The 5e Dragon Class looks to be a surprisingly balanced means of playing a true dragon that slowly grows in power, and between the ancestries, Gifts, Evolutions, and subclasses you can easily make a dragon who can encompass most archetypical fantasy roles. The class isn’t really built for “pure mage” types, as they have a limited set of spells, and for dragons who want to take on thief/skill-user roles they will need to pay particular attention to their ancestry plus appropriate Gifts.

Another thing I like is that the use of Evolution allows draconic PCs to eventually emulate the majestic feel of a flying, scaled terror of destruction at middle to higher levels. However, unlike a traditionalist adult/ancient dragon, they will not have the full range of such powers, and their Evolution slots force them to prioritize certain choices. While the Ravager and its Fighting Styles can grant bonus Evolutions, most players will need to make do without some of the more iconic abilities at higher levels.

While Pathfinder 2e doesn’t have a new class, the Draconic Ravager and Dragon Mage fill much the same roles as their D&D subclass counterparts, where most of the subclass features are converted into feats. There are several feats new to this particular system, such as Bite of Opportunity that lets the Ravager make a bite attack against someone doing something which would normally provoke an attack of opportunity.* Several Gifts/Feats that have the same name work slightly differently due to the system. For example, the Devastating Bite Gift increases a bite’s critical threat range to 19 to 20 in D&D, but in Pathfinder it lets the Ravager spend two or three Actions to deal additional weapon damage if they hit.

*In Pathfinder, Attacks of Opportunity are not available to characters by default, and must be earned via being a particular class like the Fighter or taken as a feat.

One interesting difference for Pathfinder is that several Gifts for certain ancestries in D&D are locked behind these specific Archetypes as feats. For example, Fool’s Wisdom of the Harlequin Dragon is a 1st-level Gift in D&D, but in Pathfinder it’s a 4th-level feat restricted to Draconic Ravagers who are also Harlequin Dragons. Both versions do much the same thing, in making a contested skill check for the dragon to learn a secret piece of information about a target, with the Pathfinder version having more detail such as its interaction with the influence subsystem and a wider range of effects for critical success/fail results. Interestingly, the size-increasing Evolutions in D&D are restricted to Draconic Ravagers in Pathfinder, meaning that players who want to be a Gargantuan lizard wizard will either need to pursue a gish type build (such as playing a Wizard who takes Draconic Ravager archetype dedication feats) or rely upon more conventional spells to increase their size.

As for the Dragon Mage, the archetype dedication initially grants skill training in a skill appropriate to their chosen magical tradition, and they choose their spells from one of the four main magical traditions in Pathfinder. Some feats unique to Pathfinder include Talisman Keeper (occult dragon heritage only, grants Talisman Dabbler Dedication feat and access to said archetype feats), Gossip Lore (amber dragons only, trained in Gossip Lore that lets one Recall Knowledge on any topic but a failed result grants a mixture of true and false information), and Draconic Metamagician (20th level, can use single actions as free actions if they’re metamagic or from a Dragon Mage feat, provided that their next action is to use their breath weapon).

Similar to the system changes, several feats with the same name work slightly differently by system. The 5e Majestic Spell feat changes the visuals of a spell as a bonus action to impose the Frightened condition on those who see the spell once per long rest, while in Pathfinder it’s a one-action ability that imposes penalties to Recall Knowledge for onlookers to identify the spell and grants a bonus on Intimidation checks made by the Dragon Mage. Similarly, Breath Magic, which is the class feature in D&D that lets one spend spell slots to increase breath weapon damage, allows a Pathfinder Dragon Mage to change the AoE one of their archetype spells to be that of their breath weapon, albeit they then lose their ability to use their breath weapon for a limited number of rounds much like a real breath weapon.

Thoughts: I am not as experienced with Pathfinder, but its take on the Ravager and Mage both look to be faithful translations. The choice to make some of the Gifts from D&D restricted to the archetypes is a bit of an odd choice, but not a major complaint.

Further covering the Pathfinder-exclusive content, the Draconic Diehard represents aeternal dragons who still hew to conservative outlooks on how a dragon should act. Namely, they are against the adoption of weapons, armor, and similar manufactured items to the extent that they swear an oath to never use such items. This archetype can be taken with any class, and they gain the Draconic Ravager Dedication feat for free at 1st level. As they sacrifice their training in such items, they gain increased effects and bonus feats based on how much they’re trading off: such as increasing the damage dice of their bite if they’d ordinarily be trained in martial weapons, and Empower Scales/Sturdy Scales if they’d be trained in light or medium armor, respectively. They also cannot make use of shields and similar held items like a magus’ tome, although they can still use consumables such as potions and material components. If they end up breaking their oath by using forbidden equipment, they lose the benefits of Draconic Ravager feats for 24 hours.

The other Pathfinder-exclusive content is the Draconic Scion Versatile Heritage, representing creatures with some connection to dragons that manifests in physical and magical ways. This can range from growing patches of scales on their skin to snouts, horns, tails, and similar body parts. Beyond dragons siring children with non-dragons, other means of creating scions include gifted disciples of draconic secrets learning ways to adopt the traits of their studied species, undergoing magical transformations that change the foundation of their soul, a dragon’s life force being embedded in them, a dragon reincarnated as another species, and other A Wizard Did It types of backstories. Draconic Scions are rare and few in number, so they almost always live in settlements mainly composed of their non-dragon heritage, with the extremely rare settlements made up of scions almost always being ones part of the same extended family. Dragonkind runs the gamut of acceptance towards draconic scions, although aeternal dragons are more accepting on average, as they often find each other more relatable than traditionalist dragons.

Draconic Scions gain access to a limited number of dragon-only Ancestry Feats in this book, plus 4 new feats specific to them. All of them are available at 1st level, with the exception of Dragon’s Lungs which requires being at least 5th level. Dragon’s Claws and Dragon’s Jaws grant appropriate unarmed attacks, Dragon’s Eyes grants darkvision provided that they already have low-light vision, and Dragon’s Lungs can only be taken by those with draconic heritage of an amphibious nature. This last feat grants a swim speed, along with being able to breathe both air and water.

Thoughts: While being able to wield tools and have opposable thumbs is a smart decision for a playable species and I appreciate this being the default option for dragons, a lot of people’s mental image of the creature does not involving wielding sword and shield or relying on armor for protection. The 5e Dragon Class helps with this a bit via the Evolution options and Draconic Ravager subclass, but as the former doesn’t exist in Pathfinder I do like the idea of granting bonus feats in line with what the PC would have to sacrifice in committing to the role. The Draconic Scion is also cool, and can actually be a good way of “converting” Dragonborn to Pathfinder IMO.

Thoughts So Far: I really like how this book expands on the “build your own dragon” by committing to class options, as solely limiting all the iconic abilities to a race/ancestry would make it very bloated.

One thing I will say is that the two system’s approaches to class-based stuff can result in rather different-feeling dragon PCs, but also surprisingly similar in a few ways. As the D&D version has a Dragon as a class, a player who wants more class-specific features, like a Bard's Bardic Inspiration or Cleric’s Channel Divinity, will need to multiclass. This forces them to balance how much they want their iconic dragon abilities to scale in power vs their iconic class abilities. As for Pathfinder, the dragons must be one of the existing classes, so a 1st-level Dragon Paladin is easily attainable. But with how Archetype Dedication feats work, a character is swapping out such a feat for a class-specific feat they’d ordinarily take, which results in a similar case of “how much do you want to be a Dragon or [X Class]” choice that comes from multi-classing in D&D. As for the Free Archetype house rule, the book does have a sidebar about Varying Power Levels, as the major balance factor is that iconic draconic abilities are locked behind archetypes so that mixed dragon/non-dragon parties can be viable. I will say that from my initial estimation, several of the Ravager/Mage feats can feel like no-brainer choices if they’re granted for free, particularly the ones that increase the dragon’s size and reach for martial builds, so campaigns using that house rule might want to exercise some degree of caution when it comes to PC advancement.

Join us next time as we cover D&D’s Draconic Gifts and Pathfinder’s dragon-exclusive Feats!

 

[Libertad]

By far the meatiest and lengthiest part of the character creation options, Draconic Gifts for D&D and Feats for Pathfinder allow one to fine-tune one's dragon PC with just a little bit of everything. As can be expected, a lot of the traits that would be part of the Dragon class (and some subspecies) in D&D are repurposed as feats in Pathfinder. Most of the latter are Ancestry Feats, with a few further restricted by being locked into the Ravager or Mage archetype feat trees. Both the Draconic Gifts and Ancestry feats have the same tiers of progression: starting out with simple 1st level Gifts/Feats, some more substantial ones at 5th level, even more powerful ones at 9th level, and the 13th and 17th level ones representing mighty abilities associated with adult and ancient dragons. D&D goes one step farther and has 19th level Gifts, which in Pathfinder are 18th and 20th level dedication feats. But even Gifts/feats with the same name don't always map to the same level, for there's quite a bit of shift level-wise between the two systems, particularly for Pathfinder where some identical feats are higher-level than D&D Gifts.

The low-level options include nice little abilities that can be useful but aren't too powerful, such as Animal Shape (Bliss or Havoc Dragon, can change into a Tiny animal indefinitely and back again as an action, is 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder), Animal Speaker (Bliss or Havoc Dragon, can cast Speak with Animals once per long rest in D&D and speak to all animals and +1 bonus to Make an Impression Pathfinder, is 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder), Change Shape (can take the form of a Small or Medium humanoid, 1st level),* Collective Aid (bliss or toadstool dragons, can use Help as a bonus action in D&D or +4 to Aid in Pathfinder, 1st level in both), Draconic Advance (Draconic Ravager, can make a free melee attack against a target after Dashing/Striding twice as either a bonus action or 2-action ability depending on system, is 4th level in Pathfinder), Draconic Cantrip (learn a cantrip, 1st level), Draconic Resistance (Pathfinder only, you gain resistance equal to half your level against your associated damage type, 1st level),** Dragon Breath (Pathfinder only, gives you an AoE breath weapon that can be used once every 10 minutes or 1d4 rounds 3rd level onwards, deals 2d4 damage plus 1d4 every 2 levels thereafter, 1st level), Exaggerate Strength (Vermillion Dragon, can reroll a failed Wisdom save in D&D and once per long rest, treated as two levels higher against an incapacitation effect in Pathfinder once per day, 1st level), Ghostbane Breath (Crypt and Umbral Dragons, creatures damaged by breath weapon cannot benefit from incorporeal movement in D&D, while in Pathfinder the damage type is changed to positive/force instead of negative damage and undead take one additional damage die, 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder), Hellfire (Infernal Dragon, can opt to turn your fire damage breath weapon into dealing half fire and half necrotic/evil damage, is 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder), Hoard Hauler (gain proficiency/training in Athletics, as well as doubled carrying capacity in D&D or the Hefty Hauler feat in Pathfinder, 1st level), and Read the Threads (Time Dragon, use Perception checks or Dimension of Time Lore as your initiative; in D&D you cannot be surprised while conscious and in Pathfinder the initiative substitution can be used only once per hour, 1st level).

*There's a sidebar suggesting granting this Gift/feat for free in campaigns where dragons are mythical, in hiding, or otherwise have a good reason to keep their presence unknown.

**Quite a bit of dragon heritages get this feat for free. They'd be the ones who gain resistance as part of their ancestry in D&D.

We also get some nifty situational utility options for low-level dragons, such as Far Traveler (Cerulean Dragon, is automatically part of that subspecies in D&D, gain increased movement speed for overland travel, 1st level), Forest Shape (Forest Dragon, can take the form of an immobile tree, is 1st level in D&D and 5th In Pathfinder), and Weren't You At That Party? (Indigo Dragon, can arrange a meeting with a contact you met in the past after spending 8 hours/1 day of downtime in a settlement, is 1st level in D&D and 5th level in Pathfinder).

The mid-level (5th and 9th level) options start granting more significant powers. They include Aeternal Stride (can move twice your speed once per short or long rest in D&D or once per day in Pathfinder, can automatically avoid reactions that would ordinarily be triggered by movement, is 5th level in D&D and 9th level in Pathfinder), Antipodal Duality (gain limited features of the subclass/archetype dedication you didn't pick, 5th level in D&D and 9th in Pathfinder), Astral Eyes (Astral Dragon, can see invisibility creatures for a limited duration whose length depends on its refresh rate of rest/hour/day, 9th level in both), Channel Wings (Pathfinder only, once per day gain a fly speed equal to your speed for 10 minutes, 9th level), Deep Breath ( can "supercharge" your breath weapon to have a doubled AoE and range [and double damage in Pathfinder] in exchange for a longer refresh rate, 5th level in D&D and 9th level in Pathfinder), Draconic Haste (can cast Haste on self once per long rest/day), Dragon's Instincts (can roll initiative twice and take higher result once per long rest/day, is 5th level in D&D and 9th level in Pathfinder), Earthbound (can force a flying target to descend to the ground on a failed saving throw once per long rest, is 5th level in D&D and 9th level in Pathfinder), Gouging Claws (Rift Dragon, 9th level in both, critical hit with claws deal persistent damage due to bleeding wound until healed), Ground Slam (can create a shockwave that deals damage and can knock foes prone in an AoE effect, 9th level in D&D and 10th level Draconic Ravager feat in Pathfinder), and Lingering Breath (after-effects of breath weapon continue to exist in affected area for 1d4 rounds while dealing less damage, 9th level in D&D and 12th level Draconic Ravager feat in Pathfinder).

The 9th and 10th levels are also where we see the bulk of new uses for breath weapons coming into play, such as a Rift Dragon's Dissolving Breath that can remove/lower resistance against acid and physical damage types to affected targets, a Harlequin Dragon's Laughing Gas Breath that can debuff targets as they collapse with laughter, or an Apocalypse Dragon's Slime Breath that becomes a long-term infesting disease.

At 8th to 14th levels, we see a lot of great options, with many being good enough in scope and utility of use for many builds. They include Draconic Reflexes (gain an additional reaction every round that must be used to make a natural weapon attack, 13th in D&D and 14th in Pathfinder), Draining Bite (gain temporary hit points after making a bite attack against a target, 13th in D&D, 9th in Pathfinder), Magic Resistance (grants advantage on saves against spells and magical effects in D&D and +1 on saves vs the same stuff in Pathfinder, is 9th level in D&D and 13th level in Pathfinder), Miasma (Green Dragon, emanates a concealing cloud dealing poison damage around body after using their breath weapon, is 13th level in D&D 14th level in Pathfinder), Overwhelming Spice (Vermillion Dragon, infuses breath with burning spice that can stun targets who crit fail/fail save by 5 or more against the breath weapon, is 13th in D&D and 12th in Pathfinder), and Reflect Spell (9th level in D&D and 12th level Dragon Mage feat in Pathfinder, is pretty much what it sounds like).

The 13th to 19th level Gifts and feats represent the harnessing of aeternal power, the cumulation of a dragon's journey of rapid self-improvement where they become more like the elder wyrms of their traditionalist brethren. They include Adamantine Claws (Underworld Dragon and Draconic Ravager, claws are treated as adamantine and can thus deal more damage to objects along with getting past certain creature resistances, 19th level in D&D and 18th in Pathfinder), Cloud Form (Cloud Dragon, can transform into a gaseous form for a limited time, 13th level in D&D and 17th in Pathfinder), Expanded Resistance (gain resistance to one more damage type in D&D or resistance 5 to a bunch of non-physical damage types in Pathfinder, is 13th level in D&D and 17th in Pathfinder), Golden Luck (Gold Dragon, turn a failed save into a successful one once per long rest in D&D or reroll a failed save in Pathfinder and can't use it again for 1d4 rounds, is 19th level in D&D and 18th level Draconic Ravager exclusive in Pathfinder), Hyperfocus Speed (magically increase their speed for 10 minutes once per long rest or day, doubling in D&D or +120 foot fly speed in Pathfinder, is 13th in D&D and 17th in Pathfinder), Inspire Envoy (Sovereign Dragon, can bless a mortal gain various stat buffs, and in D&D takes on a Geas from you, is 19th level and Dragon Mage restricted in D&D and 20th level Draconic Ravager feat in Pathfinder), Living Breath (Dragon Mage, can turn your breath into a movable 10 foot square form of a dragon like yourself, deals damage to those in it and requires concentration to have it persist for up to 1 minute, 19th level in D&D and 18th level in Pathfinder), Redemption (Paradise Dragon and Dragon Mage, can speak to a dead creature's soul and offer it a chance of redemption, if accepts grants a free casting of Raise Dead and creature moves one step closer to good on alignment or lawful if already good, 13th level in D&D and 17th in Pathfinder), Tidal Wave (Sea Dragon and Draconic Ravager, while in a sufficiently large body of water can slam into it to create a damaging AoE wave that also can knock prone and carry off targets), and Transforming Breath (Tumult Dragon, can polymorph one creature affected by breath weapon once per long rest/day, 13th level in D&D and 17th level in Pathfinder).

Thoughts: While it might look like there's an awful lot of Gifts/Feats, the fact that many are specific to particular subspecies means that the choices aren't actually that overwhelming. The subspecies-specific options tend to be more specialized, particularly in regards to roles, such as the Amber and Indigo dragons getting good social-based gifts/feats, or the healing-focused options being mostly consigned to the Bliss Dragons. I would like to note that the Time Dragon gets redeemed a bit with some rather strong options to make up for its otherwise lackluster base features.

Thoughts So Far: Much like the dragon subspecies, the Gifts and feats run the gamut from "good for anyone" to "useful only in particular campaigns." For instance, being able to take the form of an immobile tree isn't going to be as appealing as using Help as a bonus action/+4 to Aid attempts. And while the Draconic Diehard is meant to cover for this, the fact that certain Pathfinder feats are strongly associated with dragons as a whole (like Breath Weapon and the size increase ones) means that a lot of players will be going for those ones first and foremost. This isn't as much of a problem in 5th Edition, where such feats are Evolutions instead. I do appreciate that there's a lot of Gifts/feats that have out-of-combat uses, which helps draconic PCs be more than just scaled brutes, even if many of those are subspecies-specific.

Join us next time as we wrap up this review with some fluff and worldbuilding in Dragons and the Lux Aeterna Ritual and the Hoards of Power optional subsystem!