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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011125" data-attributes="member: 172">Mindscapes: Beasts of the IdHmm. Beasts of the Id. Interesting title. It takes me aback to the SF classic (and a personal favorite) Forbidden Planet, in which the intrepid crew of a spacecraft (including a young Leslie Nelson) venture onto a planet whose native race was destroyed by creatures conjured from their own subconscious. Scary stuff, eh?So does Beasts of the Id live up to this image? Or more importantly, to the bar set by its companion volume, Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide?Mindscapes: Beasts of the Id is a PDF product detailing a number of Psionic monsters for use in psionic-ready d20 fantasy campaigns. It is written by Bruce Cordell and published by Malhavoc press. It is also available in print combined with the companion volume, Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide.A First LookBeasts of the Id is a 34 page PDF (including cover and ad pages), currently available from RPGnow for $5.00 US. It is also available in print in a combined volume with Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide.The cover is illustrated by Alan Pollack, with an illustration of three bizarre looking creatures against a desert backdrop.The interior is black and white (except for the ad page). Alan Pollack is joined by Toren "MacBin" Atkinson. Each of the bizarre looking creatures herein gets an illustration.A Deeper LookThe book starts out by introducing a new power, Call Beast of the Id. The power is a clairsentience/psychoportation power, and allows the character to summon a variety of creatures in this book in the same vein as a summon monster spell. The power scales similar to the way "call weaponry" does; more powerful creatures require a larger PP expenditure.The list of creatures that can be summoned by this power is limited to creatures in this book. Given this, and the title of the book, I was sort of thinking that there was some linking commonality between the creatures that would explain why these particular monsters are summonable while psionic creatures from the core rules are not. But alas, there is no such reason provided. These are just psionic creatures with no special linkage between them other than they are psionic.Most of the remainder of the book is creatures, but as is the case with many Malhavoc products, there is a little extra material stuffed here and there, often in sidebars. A few of these are new items or powers relating to the creatures. One is a variant creature rule for psionic creatures: operant creatures.An operant creature is simply a creature that has power points and pays power point costs for its abilities instead of having a flat usage per day (or unrestricted use) of powers. Cordell originally incorporated the latter method to make it simpler to run creatures, but it had some aggravating side effects. I was sort of hoping, when I started reading this, that Cordell would have included a system for converting existing psionic creatures to this method. Alas, while there is a template that will add operant abilities to any creature (including psioncs), no conversion technique is provided.The creatures (of which there are 18) include three template creatures (with entries for the template and a sample creature) and two creature types with information for use as members of PC classes. A few of the creatures use the Dark Plea, an otherworldly entity expanded on in When the Sky Falls as a background element. Many of the creatures are very bizarre in appearance, almost like something that escaped a Lovecraft story.A sampling of the creatures include: -Idlock/Idbeast: The most direct reference to the title of the book, Idbeast is a template that represents a creature that has unleashed its baser, wild components. The creature becomes more urge-driven and animal like (including neutral alignment), and gains abilities somewhat like fiendish or celestial templates but psionic in nature. -Mournwraith: This is one of the dark plea related creatures. The mournwraith are actually created from unborn children who are touched by the entity known as the dark plea, and are drawn into the plans of the dark plea as they grow. Mournwraiths are always filled with grief. In addition to some items provided by the dark plea, mournwriaths have psionic abilities such as an emotion effect limited to despair or hate. -Orge Psychic: The ogre psychic is to some extent a psionic parallel of the ogre mage, though it is a bit tougher (12 HD). In addition to a buff selection of psionic powers, the ogre psychic features a "chakra drain" ability that siphons off power points or intelligence points. Given the approach of creating a psionic analog of an arcane-powered creature and the addition of Indian mysticism elements, it seems to me the Ogre Psychic would be right at home alongside creatures from Green Ronin's Monsters of the Mind. -Scapeworm: One of the most directly related to the Mindscapes psionics system presented in Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide, the scapeworm only comes into being where mindscapes are formed. As such, this creature is only likely to be useful if you use the companion volume; in and of itself it is not that special (a big worm with a few psionics and a swallow whole ability.) -Taenaid: One of the weirder entrants in this book, the taenaid are creatures that emerge from under the earth and are surrounded by silvery tendrils. If these tendrils brush the eyes of a character, it is drug underground and can only be retrieved with some difficulty. The oddest part of this is that the tendrils are handled using the gaze attack semantics. I don't quite get why touching one's eye is the necessary mechanic. ConclusionAs should be expected from Cordell, the creature statistics are fairly solid. As mentioned, many of these creatures are very bizarre (almost alien) in appearance, and lack any sort of unifying backstory. This initially made me doubt their general utility in the game, beyond as functionally similar creatures to drop in alongside other alien entities (like mind flayers). Though I don't think Cordell creates as interesting a feel for these creatures as he does for the character options in Mindscapes: A Psion's Guide, a deeper read reveals a few clever bits and interesting ideas.Though short, the PDF does weigh in at a $5.00. This is fairly cheap if your campaign if you find that the creatures fit. Mostly, this would include games like the above that cast psionic creatures as having a bizarre alien feel to them, using the mindscapes system, or using Green Ronin's Mindshadows setting.Overall Grade: C+ -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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