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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9622322" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/VdlEHsV.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 532px" />It's a common mistake to think that the demon lord Baphomet is the creator of all minotaurs, and the demon lord does his part in promoting this falsehood along with the idea that the monsters are wicked and unintelligent brutes. But minotaurs have existed before him and live free of his worship, something the jealous tyrant seeks to keep secret. Such minotaurs want nothing to do with the demon lord, although they still face prejudice and distrust from people who don't know this. Minotaurs of all kinds have a fondness for puzzles, particularly mazes, and often view life as a series of trials and conundrums to be solved. Their stories and folklore reflect this, with tales focusing on mysteries and ones open to interpretation being favorites. Additionally, minotaur settlements are arranged in ways that make outsiders easy to get lost in as an additional defensive measure, for the monsters have the innate ability to more easily or innately recall already-traveled paths depending on the system. Minotaurs find maze-like patterns soothing, so they incorporate it into their artwork and entertainment. They build mazes for recreational purposes that they explore when feeling stressed, or just need some time away from a difficult task. When it comes to alignment, minotaurs who serve Baphomet are usually chaotic evil, but others have a wider variety of alignments. Those who rejected Baphomet veer towards lawful and good alignments.Minotaur philosophies are known as hedges, and their societies and cultures can either contain a mixed number of hedges or be made up predominantly or exclusively of one. The book has seven hedges, three of which have backgrounds in D&D. Those three are horizon turners (seek to travel the world as a means of finding personal meaning in life), knot slashers (seek simple and direct approaches along with outside-the-box thinking), and mind delvers (seek to explore and unlock the secrets of the mind and consciousness). The backgroundless hedges are paranormal threaders (believe that life and all of existence has a single greater purpose), problem solvers (utilitarians who identify the greatest problem facing a society and devote themselves to fixing it), riddlers (love puzzles, mysteries, and riddles of all sorts and seek to continually test their mind in solving them), and tapestry weavers (they believe that everyone is connected in some fashion to others, and overcoming differences by encouraging mutual cooperation helps everyone). All of the hedges use maze and puzzle metaphors for their ideologies: for example, horizon turners liken the world as a giant maze full of countless paths, while paranormal threaders liken all events to being part of a tangled web of interconnecting paths.Thoughts: I like how Baphomet is still acknowledged as a major factor in minotaur culture, but provides greater freedom for those of other alignments and cultures by having the demon lord not as a true creator but rather a popular figure. I'm not feeling the hedges, as they feel a bit too overly broad and vague vs fleshed-out moral systems and cultures.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/yM3yuqh.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 317px" />The base minotaur ancestry gains a bonus to Strength and one other ability of choice, is either Medium or Large depending on subspecies/heritage, has an average walking speed, and can use their horns as a natural unarmed attack. In D&D they are also immune to the Maze spell and can perfectly recall any path they previously traveled; and in Pathfinder they gain a +1 bonus on Survival checks, and treat degrees of success as one step better when using Survival to Sense Direction or avoid getting lost.Minotaurs have six subspecies, half of which are Medium size and half of which are Large. They include dusk minotaur (Medium, gain low-light vision or darkvision and Perception proficiency depending on system), great horned minotaur ( Large, stronger horn attack), hulking minotaur (Large, can more easily shove and resist attempts at forced movement), maze stalker minotaur (Medium, proficiency in Stealth, can more easily sneak and hide in rocky terrain), spirit skin minotaur (Medium, resistance against necrotic/negative energy damage, gains a bonus on death saving throws or death effects depending on system), and swift charger (Large, gains +10 movement speed when using the Dash or Strides twice, depending on system).Both systems give us a new weapon known as the Minotaur Mazeaxe. This weapon is basically a more expensive greataxe with slightly different abilities depending on the system. In D&D, critical hits made with it can knock a target prone if they fail a Dexterity save, provide advantage on Charisma checks against minotaurs when wielding the weapon in a visible manner, and characters can only gain proficiency with it via the Minotaur Combat Training feat. In Pathfinder, it is a melee weapon in the uncommon and advanced categories and has the sweep and trip traits.Thoughts: The minotaur ancestry is very optimized for melee combat, although its ability to either lessen or outright avoid getting lost makes them very good options for wilderness exploration and dungeon-crawling adventures. While some of the subspecies can be good for more roguish builds like the dusk and maze stalker minotaurs, I can see most players opting for one of the Large options for obvious reasons. And of those, I see hulking and swift charger being more appealing than great horned minotaur, as said horns are out-damaged by big two-handed weapons which most Large-sized PCs are going to pick. As for the mazeaxe, it is a weak choice in D&D on account that it costs a precious feat slot to gain proficiency, and its prone effect triggering only on a critical hit makes it rarely occur.As there are existing PC ancestries for minotaurs in both D&D and Pathfinder's latest editions, comparisons between them and their Battlezoo counterparts are inevitable. When it comes to D&D, the official minotaur race is highly similar in having horns as a natural attack and better navigation abilities, although the bulk of its features heavily encourage it to make use of their horn natural weapons. In this sense, the Battlezoo Minotaur is an improvement, where it provides a wider array of build options via subspecies and feats.As for Pathfinder's minotaur ancestry, that one has darkvision and a more damaging set of horns by default (1d8 vs Battlezoo's 1d6). The official minotaur also has a wider array of heritages and feats for supernatural and caster types. There's also some feats that replicate the same or similar effects, but at lower levels or with more generous trigger conditions. For instance, Goring Charge is a 9th level ancestry feat for the official minotaur that deals persistent bleed damage when making a horn attack after charging, vs Shredding Strikes that triggers on a critical hit instead. Or Stretching Reach, a 5th level feat that grants a reach of 10 feet to non-reach weapons, vs Hulking Reach which has a flat +5 foot reach but is attained at 13th level instead.It's for these reasons that the official Pathfinder minotaur feels an improvement over Battlezoo's. But I should note that the official book, Howl of the Wild, was published several years later, so minotaurs didn't exist as a playable option when Battlezoo was first created.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/reUmaTx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 296px" />Minotaurs have 23 feats in D&D and 25 in Pathfinder. The 1st level feats are overall weak and situational, and include Bully (grants proficiency in Intimidation and the Intimidating Glare skill feat in Pathfinder, and a converted version of the latter in D&D), Cunning Twist (reroll a failed ability check once per long rest/day), Labyrinth Sight (Pathfinder-exclusive, gain low-light vision or darkvision if already have low-light), Minotaur Combat Training/Minotaur Weapon Familiarity (grant proficiency in a variety of axe weapons and the mazeaxe in D&D), Smasher (deal extra damage/ignore hardness when damaging objects), and Tapestry Teller (proficiency in Diplomacy/Persuasion, gain Group Impression skill feat or advantage on Persuasion checks to influence multiple people at once).The 4th/5th level feats are more overtly offensive, including Bullheaded (more easily resist mental effects), Bull Over (can make a damaging shove against a target and move into the squares they used to be in), Cunning Strike ( once per day/long rest can reroll a failed attack roll in D&D or roll twice and take the better attack roll in Pathfinder), Powerful Charge (charge in a straight line and make a horn attack against a target, is at-will and can knock them prone in D&D or deal additional damage and use once per minute in Pathfinder), and Shockwave Stomp (stamp the ground to generate an AoE cone that can knock prone targets, deals thunder damage in D&D).The 8th/9th level feats are more supernatural. They include Hunted Fear (multi-target frightening/demoralizing effect, targets also get lost more easily), Navigate Life (cast Augury once per long rest/day but with a much faster casting time), Shredding Strikes (cause a persistent bleeding wound when getting a critical with horns or a slashing/piercing weapon), and Swarm Spit (target's saliva turns into insects as an AoE damaging cone that sickens/poisons targets who fail a save depending on system).The 12th/13th level feats play into the minotaur's supernatural connection to mazes. They include All the World's a Maze (when traveling out of combat to a destination, minotaur and companions ignore difficult terrain and movement penalties in D&D or increased speed and ignore the first instance of exhaustion in Pathfinder), Hulking Reach (must be Large size, gain +5 foot reach on melee attacks), Labyrinthine Geometry (cast Strange Geometry once per day in Pathfinder, has a similar unique effect in D&D once per long rest where spatial illusions hinder movement), and Maze Call (cast Wall of Stone once per day/long rest).The 16th/17th level feats represent the minotaur reaching the apex ideal of their species. They include Megataur Transformation (for a limited time become Huge size along with increased melee damage and reach), Minotaur's Maze (casts the Maze spell in D&D and replicates a similar ability in Pathfinder once per day/long rest), Minotaur's Visage (transforms into a horrifying visage for 1 minute that can impose the frightened condition on targets who take a hostile action against the minotaur), and Omega Charge (a multi-target charge attack that knocks prone and deals damage to targets whose spaces the minotaur moves through). The Pathfinder-exclusive feat in this category is Traverse the Labyrinth, a once per day ability where for 1 hour the minotaur and their companions ignore circumstance penalties to speed and difficult terrain from the environment, including magical environments.Thoughts: The 1st-level feats are overall not worth it in D&D, save for Bully given that its frighten effect can be triggered as a bonus action. While Cunning Twist can spend a reroll after a failure is declared, the core Lucky feat still has 3 uses per long rest which makes it more appealing for most situations. As for the 4th level feats, Bull-Headed looks the most overall useful in both systems in that they're always constant and apply to a wide variety of effects. There's also the fact that the D&D equivalents have more generous refresh rates than Pathfinder's, which helps make them more appealing given the scarcity of feat slots in the former system.For the 8th level feats, Navigate Life is rather situational in granting a low-level divination spell, Shredding Strikes is more useful in Pathfinder than D&D, and Hunted Fear is mostly useful for gaming groups fighting on "home terrain" or against foes outside of an environment they know well. Which in Hunted Fear's case isn't going to apply for most traditional dungeon crawls. Swarm Spit is overall the most useful in this tier, given it imposes a good debuff and damage on multiple targets.When it comes to the 12th level and higher feats, gaining increased reach and size is practically a no-brainer for most melee builds, which I can see most minotaur PCs gravitating towards. This makes the more supernatural feats, like Labyrinthine Geometry and Minotaur's Maze, the kinds of feats one might choose for those specializing in other builds or if the party is overall lacking potent battlefield control options. They're still good options, but won't be as appealing IMO.Thoughts So Far: The minotaur is highly optimized for brutish melee builds with a side helping of maze-themed exploration and hunting abilities. It's much easier to start out at Large size with this ancestry in comparison to others in this book, and I do like how there's some feats and options that encourage a minotaur's mentally resilient/canny nature as a wanderer of mazes. As discussed before, I consider this minotaur an improvement over the official one in D&D, but not so much the one for Pathfinder.Join us next time as we gaze upon another monster from Greek mythology, the nymph!</blockquote>

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