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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8271237" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 55: Sep/Oct 1990part 3/5Another trio of new monsters follows to fill out your games. Chakchak are a specially bred caste of hobgoblin berserkers with axes instead of hands, intended to be an ultimate weapon in their endless battles against everyone else. Unfortunately, it turns out that the amount of time and effort expended to create them is not commensurate with their effectiveness against intelligent opponents who use magic and tactics, so they're not actually that common these days. The ability to open doors and dress yourself far outweighs a few extra points to hit and damage in the long run, even if it's not reflected in the XP total you get for defeating them. Oortlings are a variant of Grey alien, small and feeble-bodied, but with huge brains bulging out of their heads. Unfortunately, these large brains made them an illithid delicacy, and so they've been enslaved and bred for docility over the centuries, making them not much help to anyone trying to take down the mind flayer empire. Which is a shame, as their ability to live in space and survive off comet ice (hence their name) is pretty handy. Can you free them and help them rebuild a civilisation of their own?MagiStars are another even stranger spelljammer creature, intelligent stars attached to the edge of a crystal sphere. There are normally 8 of them per solar system, each embodying one of the schools of magic, and able to use any spell from that school at will. This immense but idiosyncratically limited power could be turned to all sorts of ends if you could negotiate with them and offer them something they want in return, plus all of them can serve as gates into the phlogiston for spelljammers. Since they're enormous, immobile and pretty much unkillable, they're definitely intended more as a plot device than a monster to fight. If the regular sages on your world are stumped by a big problem, there are worse options than seeking their immortal wisdom.The New Rogues Gallery: The new characters this issue are the Iron Maidens, an obvious pop culture reference that's a good excuse for an all female adventuring party. Unfortunately, they're down from the original 7 to only three members at the moment, due to treachery from the Mr Johnson of a recent mission. Many groups would retire after a setback that severe, but I guess the ladies are not for turning. There's Kiera, the relatively sensible fighter founder of the party, Lyrissa, the troublemaking thief/fighter who's constantly overspending, overdrinking & engaging in petty theft to make up for her financial incompetence, and has managed to make a personal enemy of Fzoul Chembryl due to one of her heists, and Tiralia, a flirtatious wizard who's wound up stuck at 8' 2" tall due to a magical glitch. (but hey, there are enough guys into that kind of thing that it doesn't hinder her love life.) They'd better pick up a new cleric soon if they want to last much longer as a group. They're quirky and unstable enough that they could work both as antagonists/rivals despite their overall good alignments, or join up with your party for a big adventure, which makes this considerably more useful than the parties where all the characters are generically good, the team is well-balanced and everyone gets on with each other. If they're going to be doing mostly good adventuring parties here, this is one of the better examples of how to make something that can actually get used by other groups.</blockquote>

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