- AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER MANUALS
- AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER MANUAL
- AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER PLUS
88% may seem high, but that means that there were 30 monsters in this book (about a tenth of the total) that I couldn't see anyone using in their game. That is because I left out monster variants that didn't have stat blocks (like the cave mantis shrimp), I evaluated dragons as a whole rather than by each age category (no separate score for the adult esoteric astral dragon and the ancient esoteric astral dragon), and I lumped monsters that were basically the same together (so air wysps, fire wysps, water wysps, and so on were all rated under 'wysp').Ĩ8% Utility: Ouch. How did Bestiary 5 do? Here are the results:įirst of all, you may notice that while Bestiary 5 boasts "More than 300 different monsters," I've only counted 264 here. However, I soon realized that I also needed to subtract Penalty points for bad design, baffling choices, or particularly dumb monsters. This would give an original monster an opportunity to earn three points even though it didn't have Precedent. But it's useful to know how many monsters in a bestiary have some sort of grounding in mythology or legacy and how many are made up on the spot.įinally, I decided to give out Bonus points to recognize particularly well-designed monsters or monsters that particularly grabbed me. On the flip-side, a monster scoring a Precedent point wasn't necessarily a good monster. A monster doesn't necessarily need to score a point here to be a good monster.
![agents of shield ghost rider agents of shield ghost rider](https://www.redgoblin.ro/53068-large_default/pathfinder-roleplaying-game-bestiary-4.jpg)
An ideal bestiary for me would have a perfect score in this category as well, but more likely it would fall somewhere around 75-80%, because every bestiary needs monsters that appeal to different styles of game and campaign setting.Ī monster earned a Precedent point if it derived from mythology, folklore, or literature (like the Celtic firbolg, or the Lovecraftian deep ones), was based on something in nature (like the giant assassin bug or the prehistoric Kaprosuchus), or it was an adaptation of a legacy monster from an earlier edition of D&D (like the thought eater or the mummy lord). Obviously, in a good bestiary, every monster should score a point here.Ī monster earned a Personal Preference point if I could see myself using it in a game. The results are below.Įach monster could earn a point in three main categories: Utility, Personal Preference, and Precedent.Ī monster earned a Utility point if I could picture a GM using it in his or her game.
![agents of shield ghost rider agents of shield ghost rider](https://www.waylandgames.co.uk/122875-thickbox_default/pathfinder-bestiary-4.jpg)
As I read on, I knew I had to create a metric that I could use to review each monster individually and compile them to get a sense of how useful the bestiary was overall.
AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER PLUS
But Bestiary 5 isn't all dwiergeths and aatheriexas, it is also packed with beasts from Greek, Egyptian, Mapuche, Inuit, and Slavic mythology (and many more), plus crazy sci-fi creatures and and odd occult horrors. That's a dwiergeth, and its name is just as much of a random jumble of consonants and vowels as its body is a random jumble of monster parts. I knew Bestiary 5 was in trouble when I opened to a random page and saw this: A monster can get away with being weird if it has been around for a long time, or if its underlying concept is really engaging.
![agents of shield ghost rider agents of shield ghost rider](https://cdn.imgbin.com/17/20/8/imgbin-dungeons-dragons-chinese-dragon-wyvern-illustration-painted-green-dragon-CShiNf1AqRrvm0XxuL84sYrKw.jpg)
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with weird monsters beholders and rust monsters are pretty darn weird, but they are also iconic, interesting, and truly threatening monsters that are easy for GMs and players alike to grasp.
![agents of shield ghost rider agents of shield ghost rider](https://www.simtasia.shop/webshop/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/36501127back_resize.jpg)
AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER MANUAL
It was Monster Manual IV, after all, that famously gave us the ice-skating dragon. I soon realized that, while there were some pretty weird creatures throughout all the books, it was the higher-numbered ones that were more likely to contain cheesy, dumb, or downright bizarre monsters destined never to be included in a random monster table or emblazoned on some knight's shield.
AGENTS OF SHIELD GHOST RIDER MANUALS
When I went over to my friend Marc's house in junior high school, I would flip through his monster manuals and marvel at the strange collection of beasts therein. This is something I learned before I ever started playing D&D. Bestiary 5 for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is out now! But should you buy it? As a general rule of thumb for Pathfinder Bestiaries or D&D Monster Manuals, the higher the number in the title, the less useful it is.