#monster codex

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Monster Codex - Bugbear Surprise by Roberto Akeiron

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Roleplaying Races 12: Sahuagin

 (art by joeshawcross on DeviantArt)

 We’ve touched on more benevolent fish-man races before on the blog, such as the locathah, but now it is time to cover one of their more vicious counterparts.

To be clear, vaguely Deep One-esque fishmen, many inspired by the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon, are a dime a dozen in fantasy rpgs. Hell, D&D had locathah, kuo-toa, skum, and today’s subject, the sahuagin, to name just a few, each one having a different flavor of fishman, ranging from sympathetic in the former case, directly Lovecraftian ripoffs with the kuo-toa and skum, and fierce predators in the latter case.

As it stands, the Pathfinder sahuagin are said to be a swift and warlike race that view all other oceanic life as either predator or prey, with the exception of sharks, which they share a deep kinship with. With that though in mind, one might assume that sahuagin are shark-men, but most art of them draws inspiration from other predatory fish outside of the clade selachimorpha.

Sahuagin as a figure in rpgs have writer Steve Marsh, who created them before joining TSR, to thank for their existence, citing an episode of The Justice League cartoon in the 70’s and Aztec architecture and clothing designs to from their aesthetic.

In any case, not much has changed about sahuagin since those days, as they are a classic brutish and violent “monster” race, albeit one suitable for aquatic and seafaring campaigns. That being said, I would love to see what a writer could do with fleshing out the culture of these so-called devilfish. Might they not be more than just a one-note species of baddies?

Another key trait of sahuagin-kind is that they are heavily prone to mutation, ranging from four arms to spines to being sightless predators to being large and powerful. The strangest mutation of all are the malenti, which are sahuagin that look exactly like aquatic elves save for their predatory sharp teeth, making them lethal infiltrators of their elven rivals.

Aside from their mutations, sahuagin appear to be tall, green-scaled aquatic humanoids with finned hands and feet, as well as powerful tails. Most art depicts them as somewhat hunched with forward-set necks and heads. Their heads themselves resemble predatory fish, particularly barracuda, though some are depicted as having catfish-like barbels near their mouths.

As mentioned above, sahuagin tend to view others as either predator or prey, (usually the latter unless they utterly outclass the sahuagin in question). This is likely born out of a harsh environment, suggesting an origin in a region of the sea with fierce and deadly predators both mundane and supernatural. Perhaps they were created as warriors for the aboleths, or they had a kraken living on their doorstep, or they have been at war with iku-tursos and the like. It’s abundantly clear that they value strength first and foremost. However, that does not mean that their society cannot have variance or change, as made clear by the settlement of Outsea, an artificial saltwater body found in the River Kingdoms, where a group of sahuagin invaders and the merfolk that came to stop them became stranded, and banded together, their communalism softening the bloodthirsty edge from what it once was.

 Sahuagin are strong and cunning, but they care little for social niceties.

In addition to their night vision, they possess the same electrosensors as a shark, letting them sense prey even if they cannot see them. However, their night-eyes are sensitive to bright light.

Their scales are also quite thick, making them quite durable.

While they can match most terrestrial beings on land, their real speed comes in the water.

They also sport powerful biting jaws and slashing claws, making them always armed.

What’s more, pain causes them to fly into a frenzy, becoming even more vicious.

Finally, they have the supernatural ability to speak with sharks, communicating simple telepathic directives to them.

 Of course, not all sahuagin are the same. Outsea sahuagin in particular might instead channel their fervor into defense, rather than attack, and even have picked up on their merfolk neighbor’s talent for song. Also, consider working with your GM to create homebrew alternate racial traits to represent various common sahuagin mutations.

 With their strength and wisdom, sahuagin tend to favor martial and divine classes, making barbarian, fighter, cleric, oracle, ranger, and shaman natural fits for them. Those seeking an even stronger bond with an animal companion (usually a shark) might go for hunter as well. Unusual as it is to think of, their lawful nature also makes monk a surprisingly good choice for them, as their aquatic subtype lets them use their claws and unarmed strikes in the water with no penalties. Alchemist and transmuter wizard are also good for those seeking to emulate a character seeking to perfect and utilize various common mutations. Charisma classes are not anyone’s first pick, but bloodragers and sorcerers with thematic water and aquatic bloodlines might be appealing regardless.

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Roleplaying Races 7: Gnoll

 When it’s not orcs or goblins, one of the classic fantasy baddies that you’re likely to run into is the classic “beast-man”, creatures that walk like a man, but wear their savagery in their literal flesh, walking metaphors for humanity and nature at its most selfish and brutal. Few such beings are more classic than today’s entry, the hyena-folk known as gnolls.

Classically, gnolls are demon-worshipping beasts that are at once cunning hunters, but also profoundly lazy when it comes to doing pretty much anything involving keeping what society they have together, hence their proclivity for taking slaves. However, this is often undermined by their hungers, for not even fallen gnolls are necessarily safe from ending up on the dinner table.

Ironically, even though gnolls in the Golarion setting often worship Lamashtu as their great mother, their society defies both this fact and the social structure of actual hyenas by being patriarchal and misogynistic. Perhaps this is due to the nature of their dark goddess which instills in them a hatred and fear of women?

However, this need not be the case for your setting, which might show gnolls with a matriarchal clan structure, or even being non-evil. In such cases, the best amongst their cultures might be territorial but reasonable hunter-gatherers, or they might build established societies of their own.

 As one might expect, gnolls are hulking and brutish humanoids that look outright like a hyena reshaped for walking on two legs, though many often revert to all fours when the situation calls for speed. Fur coloration and markings run the same sort of gamut as hyenas, and while gnolls are able to distinguish each other by scent, those that interact with human tribes often find their own ways to distinguish themselves visually.

 This might sound strange after hearing that spiel about “beastmen” before, but in gnoll culture, the tribe is everything. Certainly they have their individual differences and even attempts at power grabs, but no gnoll would willingly choose isolation from the pack, with exile, rather than death, being the greatest shame they can imagine. If we assume that their violence and slaver mentality is something learned from a culture devoted to cruel gods, then perhaps we can hope that gnolls of goodly tribes would favor that sense of community in their behavior over other aspects associated with them, though obviously their more violent kin makes it hard for other races to trust them.

 Gnolls are impressively strong and tough, but don’t have many strengths or weaknesses beyond that.

Additionally, gnolls have thick fur which helps protect them from oncoming blows.

As descendants of nocturnal predators, they naturally have very good night vision as well.

 The racial stats for gnolls are rather simplistic, as they were created as a demonstration of how the Race Builder rules work, as such there are no alternate racial traits made for them.

 The gnoll race lends itself quite well to rangers, barbarians, and of course various spellcasters, their lack of any racial attribute penalties means that while they have the advantage physically, there are really no career options closed off to them. They even have their own race-inspired archetypes like the unfortunately-conceived bouda witch, and the pack rager.

If you’re playing a goodly or morally-ambiguous gnoll, you might be an exile of an evil clan, rejected for your perceived betrayal of their ways. Alternatively, you might be from a gnoll culture that has closer ties to wider civilization, perhaps being on friendly terms, even. On the other hand, evil gnolls have any one of many inspirations to go off of.

That does it for today, but we’re only halfway done with this special!

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That last post reminds me now that I’ve been meaning to comment for a while about reading some of the entries from the Monster Codex. Despite all the ‘prefers the taste of sentient flesh’ and the ‘finds sentient prey most fun to kill’ tacked on to most of the races, I couldn’t help but feel a measure of sympathy for most of these so-called monsters that are otherwise slaughtered or restricted to living in harsh environments just on the frontier of the lands dominated by the more ‘civilized’ races.

So much of the justification behind half of these races being ‘usually chaotic evil’ and such seems to be either a cartoonishly villainous quirk--like eating people or a hatred of all other races--or else something that you’d reasonably expect to rise out of a consistently marginalized people forced to live in a harsh environment.

This is one of the reasons learning the ins and outs of Kaer Maga in Varisia over the last two weeks have quickly skyrocketed the Hex to one of my favourite cities on Golarion. Things like troll augurs wandering the markets side-by-side with centaurs and mindless undead (don’t even get me started on mindless undead) altogether with more mainstream races like the standard humans and halflings really appeals to me. The vague impression I keep getting which somehow appeals to my cyberpunk aesthetic doesn’t hurt, either.

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I like how Pathfinder includes almost as many female monsters as male, and most of them aren’t prettied up.

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Monster Codex is so much Better than I Thought it Would be.

The Pathfinder RPG Monster Codex is amazing. I expected a hashed together collection of monster NPCs, similar to the NPC Codex but instead I got a treasure trove of fleshed out content and adventure hooks as well as new rules and new monsters. It includes tons of ecology and rules systems for each monsters, a new stat block related to each commonly used monster. IT basically has enough stuff to make whole campaign around one monster. Want to battle orcs till level 20? Done. Want to have ogres show up over and over again? Done.

I Love this book from the perspective of a writer and as a GM. I can use things I never used before. Time to start writing a complex adventure involving lizardfolk and socio-political conflict. Goal is to complete a treaty and work with the lizardfolk against a greater evil. I love this book.

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex: Online, Free, 100% Legal

You know Paizo releases ALL of the rules in our major Pathfinder RPG releases for free online, right? Our game uses the Open Gaming License, so not only do we want to spread the love, we have to!

Here’s links to all the rules in the Monster Codex.

Boggards

Bugbears

Drow

Duergar

Fire Giants

Frost Giants

Ghouls

Gnolls

Goblins

Hobgoblins

Kobolds

Lizardfolk

Ogres

Orcs

Ratfolk

Sahuagin

Serpentfolk

Troglodytes

Trolls

Vampires

Modifying Monsters

RPGs aren’t about spending tons of cash, they’re about getting together and sharing amazing stories. So don’t let a light wallet stop you from having fantastic adventures with your friends!

You can check out the rest of Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG hardcover rules right now—again, for free!—over at the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document (PRD).

Enjoy!

~W

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Thoughts on the Monster Codex thus far

I'm totally in love with this book so far and having just finished the Orcs chapter I have to say I don't think it's going to be dying down anytime soon. The hardest encounter they have written for them has you facing off with no less than 24 separate orcs which is so on point for what I wanted in an orc encounter it kind of hurts. Also the giant bison/lion/rhino beast of doom they get is both awesome and terrifying in all the right ways.

That being said I really wish the orc warlord had some better formatting in his entry. Right now I can't really tell if he is in rage or not or whether his stats include the buffs from his bulls strength potion like many other stat blocks have done before him and I am not happy to have to go in and double check the numbers to see if they work. Also I have no clue why he has Quick draw but not Power Attack.

Beyond that though the book is a spectacular look inside some of the most classic and iconic human like monsters in the game and is definitely worth a read through.