Lobbith â This crustacean species from the planet Lob-Dott is known for a peculiar sexual dimorphism. Females are usually several times larger than males, reaching heights of about 3 meters. Their societies are matriarchal, typically consisting of three to five Warrior-queens who protect and administer colonies of several hundred male workers. They sometimes engage in fights with leaders of other colonies, smashing together the hammer-like structures on their heads. This behavior gives rise to the name "Hammerhead Beetle of Revvus" (Revvus being the term outsiders use to refer to Lob-Dott).
Alleodeck â This species is supposedly derived from Earthlings who colonized the low-gravity environments of the planet Sabir. Reaching heights of eight to ten meters, these bipeds suffer various health complications due to prolonged exposure to low gravity. Originally existing as nomadic pastoralists, these giants were exiled from their home world, forced to cling to the surface or live in zero-gravity environments. With their reproductive cells incapable of developing in low-gravity conditions, this species faces a slow extinction.
Bolotop â These semi-aquatic reptilo-mammalians hail from the marshes of the swamp-moon Yugg IV. To protect themselves from the dangerous fauna of their homeworld, they developed a hard-shelled armor covered in sharp curves and spikes. Their long noses are useful for hiding in murky waters, as they resemble Yuggian coastal flora and do not arouse suspicion. Bolotops live in small villages concealed by vegetation, barely noticeable to the untrained eye. Their houses are always half-flooded, allowing for comfortable nesting of their eggs, which require constant moisture, and for catching small fish and mollusks without leaving the safety of home to venture into the perilous bogs outside.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Why yes, I already reviewed this, but I wasnât happy with the review. Iâve thought about it, and Iâve concluded why: no one buys monster books for the BOOK. They buy them for the MONSTERS.
So, hereâs a different take: Iâm going to be rating the monsters based on how theyâre presented in the book, on a few different measurements:
Presentation: The image and description of the monster, to make sure everyone knows what it actually IS. You laugh, but weâve had trouble with that before.
Mechanics: Less intended to be a measure of how balanced the numbers are, more intended to be a measure of how the monsterâs abilities will affect an encounter.
Lore: Lore is a measure of the writing about the monster. Note that this is limited to the writing in this particular work! If this book doesnât really present a monster compellingly, thatâs a problem. Especially if the monster is more intriguing in other works!
Roleplay: If you want something more complex than a good fight, something where the players need to talk their way through the situation, this is where youâre going to look. This is going to be related to Lore and Mechanics, but can be more complex depending on the monsterâs precise nature. This is also the least impactful one if it gets a low grade: not every monster should be able to disassemble you philosophically before it disassembles you physically. Sure, mindless undead will all score Fs here, but this isnât what mindless undead are used for. This is counting not only direct interactions with players, but possible impact on campaigns just from the raw mechanics and fluff presented.
This is inspired by Esper the Bardâs Monster Ranking videos for 5e, credit where itâs due. This kind of analysis is a really good way to measure the basic usefulness of monsters, specifically as theyâre presented in specific material.
A few notes before I continue:
1. I donât give points for historical significance, good intentions, or supplementary material. This is a rating of these monsters as presented in this book, nothing more, nothing less. Some of these monsters date back to olden D&D, some of them have been done wonderfully other places. Iâm not rating those; Iâm rating these monsters as they are here, in this book.
2. Anyone can make something interesting if theyâre creative enough. This is less a full measure of the potential of the monsters, and more a measure of the potential of the monsters as theyâre presented. A clever enough DM can make anything compelling, but for less lateral thinkers out there, the writing in the books are what they have to work with.
And since there so darn many aliens in this book, for now weâll just do A.
Aballonian
Ohhh... this is not a good start...
Presentation: The description and image are both pretty generic. A copper robot with multiple legs? Okay. Nothing to imply their special abilities or stand out at all. Grade F
Mechanics: Okay! Thereâs a lot of special abilities here! A weakness... a limiter on the weakness... communication ability with a very minor upside... a special attack that doesnât have any damage or effect listed? Defensive ability that has potential but doesnât clarify the wording... and one variable effect. This is just a mess, I get that itâs supposed to be flexible (including the ability to change abilities with a full-round action) but this set of mechanics doesnât really suggest any kind of interaction or particular play style. GRADE F
Lore: Thereâs no lore listed!
Which is dumb, because I know the lore! These are supposed to be the native life form to Albion in the Pathfinder setting! Why didnât they at least TRY to explain it? GRADE! F!
Roleplay: IT HAS NO LORE LISTED, HOW ARE PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW TO ROLEPLAY IT? GRADE F F F F F this is making me seriously reconsider my analysis of this bookâs capabilities!
Aboleth
Presentation: While the Description is fine, the picture is lackluster. Grade C
Mechanics: Using a mix of manipulative spell-like abilities and surprisingly powerful attacks an Aboleth has potential to be a fairly tough encounter. Charm monster can make it an ally, followed by doing solid damage with normal attacks and the occasional spell level 2 mind thrust. However! I had to calculate that mind thrust is cast as a second-level spell, itâs not stated. The main limiter is that with univeral environment suits, the threats of aboleths forcing you to breathe water or gooping your skin is far less immediate. Still, might have potential if thereâs some way to break that armor! Grade B-
Lore: A description of Aboleths scouting, conquering, and then leaving planets to rot? Itâs the grimdark realization of the quiet horror that we always knew Aboleths could be! Grade A-!
Roleplay: With a spell list made for interaction (at will detect lies, for instance!), good mental stats, and the lore touching on their psychology, society, and motivations, there isnât much more you could ask for in Roleplaying opportunities. Grade A.
Aboleth, Veiled Master
Itâs a CR 14 Aboleth. GET IN.
Presentation: Has no dedicated picture, and the text description really doesnât sell me on what kind of emotions seeing it is supposed to illicit. Grade D+.
Mehcanics: Yes, itâs an upscaled Aboleth, but itâs upscaled in a creative way. Suggestion, illusion spells, dominate person bolstered by a special ability, 3rd-leve mind thrust at will and a bite attack that lets it READ MINDS. This thing wants an entourage, to mind control the party heavy, and then blow peopleâs heads apart with mind thrust, with support from illusions and some suggestion to keep things interesting. Also, it shapeshifts. Grade B+
Lore: Itâs an Aboleth that disguises itself as a person to manipulate events in the world. Repeat, itâs a CR 14 Aboleth whose entire job is to manipulate a society without said society ever knowing it. It even touches on their place in Aboleth society. Grade A.
Roleplay: Itâs an aboleth, with +25 bluff, sense motive +30, and the ability to shapeshift into any small or medium form. If that doesnât immediately make the players among you shudder in fear and the DMs among you cackle internally, I donât know what will. Grade A+. Excellent big bad potential, just like Aboleths were always meant to be.
Achaierai
Presentation: The Achaierai has a really bad case of presentation separation. The pictures look derpy, the description tries to be intimidating, and both massively undersell the fact that the thing is constantly oozing acidic smoke. Grade C.
Mechanics: The Achaierai is a fairly straightforward fighter, with solid melee attacks, a passable ranged attack, a breath weapon with some unique rules and an aura of black smoke. The breath weapon not only damages but confuses the target, with a DC 13 save to end that could in theory last indefinitely. The aura itself is a basic damage aura, tied to the low save of DC 13. While it has solid ideas, Iâm not sure its powers stand out all that well: DC 13 is in line with the proper DC for a CR 5 monster using abilities that need saves, but all the same a DC13 save is pretty negligible and even rolling every round the penalty for failure isnât all that high. The breath weapon is a 40 foot cone, but anyone making the DC 13 ref save takes no damage. It doesnât have enough to be an interesting encounter in and of itself, and even as part of a greater encounter if the dice donât favor it its unique aspects might be entirely ignored. Grade C.
Lore: The Achaieraiâs lore confuses me. Sure, the core idea is cool: A four legged bird monster thing that emits acid smoke. The thing that gets me? Itâs an outsider. A native to hell. Why? It would work fine as a magical beast. As a native to hell, itâs immediately near the bottom of the respect pole as a monster that does acid damage in a place where a lot of creatures are resistant to acid damage. I guess I should be happy that itâs more than just another strange magical beast monster but⌠Iâm not. I really feel it would have made more sense as a magical beast. Grade C.
Roleplay: Itâs got Wis +2, Cha +3, and speaks infernal. With that said, the lore doesnât at all list anything that it might want to talk about, or any kind of social structure other than that it has packs. Grade D.
Adamantine Wasp Swarm
Presentation: Wasps made of metal? Cool. The problem is that while itâs a swarm of fine creatures, the flavor text says that each wasp is 1 foot long several times. I assume this is a misprint, and itâs supposed to be one inch long. Other than that, nothing all that incredible. Grade D.
Mechanics: Not all that much. Itâs mainly just swarm immunity plus construct immunity plus a special venom on its attacks. The venom is interesting, it turns the target into ice, but that in and of itself isnât explained in the lore nor condusive of an entertaining, interactive fight scene. They donât even have DR like would be typical of things made of Adamantine. Grade C-.
Lore: The lore uses a lot to not say a lot. It mentions that theyâre made to guard areas, like all constructs, and then goes on at length about how theyâre wasps. Grade D.
Roleplaying: To no oneâs surprise, thereâs no reason to try and talk to the wasps. No, not every monster needs to provide good roleplay opportunities, but all the same itâs worth noting when theyâre not present. However, mindless monsters⌠thereâs no reason to expect them to have roleplay opportunities. So for those Iâll waive the grade.
Adherer
Whatâs up with adherers? Seriously? Why? I feel like back when there was one monster book they would have been a good old skool joke enemy. You know, the kind of thing where the joke punishes predictable adventuring habits and is immediately lethal. But why are they treated as a classic enemy? Flumphs have more lore and mechanics than adherers do!
Presentation: Eh? The picture is nice, but adherers always look stupid. Always. Grade D.
Mechanics: Itâs a basic grapple brute. You know the type, attack, free grapple, beat the tar out of the grappled enemy. Adherers have the perk of being able to grapple on the enemyâs turn, but itâs not really going to cause a more complex series of interactions. Ranged attacks with beat them. Magic will beat them. Even melee combat can beat them if they take enough fire damage on a consistent basis! Grade D. Adherers are literally a joke. Making a memorable combat encounter using adherers is indicative of amazing GM skill, not anything innate to the monsterâs mechanics.
Lore: Grade F. Itâs the kind of token lore that raises more questions than answers.
Roleplaying: Grade D-. It has an int of -3, somehow speaks Aklo, and has no complex motivations nor society to speak of.
Aetherwarped
Presentation: An interesting picture and the visual elements of the templates description are effective enough. Grade B.
Mechanics: As a template, it must be kept in mind that these mechanics are in addition to other things. As thus, a blindsense variant, a strange mobility power, and a basic ranged attack arenât all that solid of a foundation. Theyâre interesting by all means, but it doesnât give the altered creature a new or definite spin on their combat style. Grade C.
Lore: Itâs fine. Exposure to aether radition over time, a reliance on it, appreciation for music, itâs a bit token but not objectionable. Grade C.
Roleplaying: As a template⌠it doesnât really add any roleplaying potential. The reliance on radiation might, but it also take a fair amount away. Grade D.
Akata
Itâs not as good as the variant in the Alien Archive 2.
Presentation: Fine? Eh. Grade B.
Mechanics: A basic brute with a minor disease, it lacks the depth of mechanics that the official version has. Has an Alpha Akata thatâs just a CR2 version. Grade D.
Lore: The most predictable variation of the parent trope, theyâre alien animals that want to reproduce parasitically and make zombies as an in-between step. The problem is that they donât have the cunning of the original alien, and at CR 1 theyâre not really the most dangerous creatures. The lore says that outbreaks of Akatas can become big problems, but CR 1 or 2 monsters that reproduce through a special ability with a fort save of 10? Seriously, the local law enforcement or monster hunters need to be weak and incompetent to not take these things on. If they were CR 5, that would be one thing. But here, theyâre CR 1. Grade C-.
Roleplaying: Theyâre dumb animals. As in, literally, theyâre at int -4 putting them at animalistic intelligence, but they also donât have any kind of social structure and no sense of self-preservation. So, not only are they animals, theyâre particularly stupid ones. Grade F.
Akata Host
It has the same grades as the Akata. Itâs just the zombie stage between the infection and the chest-bursting. They can do some strength damage, and on a CR ½ monster that is worth note. Just not enough to make a difference. Seriously, chryssalids are scary. These things? Theyâre just weak.
Alchemical Ooze Swarm
Hereâs a CR 1 monster worth remembering!
Presentation: Though the image is a bit confusing, the description of a riotous mass of bubblelike oozes is very well done. It even has a consistent description of the size of the component parts. Grade B.
Mechanics: Making good use of the swarm type, the Viscous and Chemical Slime abilities add both mechanics and flavor to the swarm. Enemies hit by the swarmâs attacks can be entagled, and then start to suffer additional effects based on the chemical compounds in the oozes. Itâs a very interesting idea, and though I feel the DC is way too low at 10 or 11 it has potential to be a memorable dungeon hazard or a part of a greater encounter. In addition, what secondary effect the swarm has also affects the swarmâs weaknesses and resistances. This means that the monster can be used multiple times without being too easy for the players to cheese, while still following an internal logic that the players might be able to learn and use. If anything, I feel itâs a shame this is wasted on a CR 1 monster! Iâm definitely going to upscale this at some point. Grade A+!
Lore: Itâs a basic ecological aesop, but the idea itself is worth some respect. The explanation to why thereâs four different variants works well enough, and it gives the entire thing a feeling of slightly comical menace. If you play even a little loose with the lore, thereâs lots of ways this swarm can be used in stories. Grade B.
Roleplay: Mindless.
Allip
Presentation: My response to the picture and description is a deadpan âok.â Itâs not really the most evocative of description in any case, but it works. C-.
Mechanics: Babble plus touch of madness isnât a bad setup. Definitely more made to seriously inconvenience the party than actually be a solid threat, could be better as part of a larger encounter or as rescource-stucking filler. Certainly unique, and the Madness ability is a nice fluffy addition. B.
Lore: Coming back from the dead for vengeance isnât really a compelling story in D&D/Pathfinder/Starfinder. Half the undead want vengeance, and Allips are no exception. This is honestly just âexistsâ lore: It opens no awkward questions, but it also doesnât answer any interesting questions. C-.
Roleplay: It has Int +1 and Cha +4, but its entire thing is that its crazy. Itâs not technically a mindless undead, but in some ways it might as well be. D-.
Amalgamite Swarm
Itâs like grey goo, but big enough to punch.
Presentation: Pretty solid. Nothing to really send home about, but hey. B.
Mechanics: Interesting. A little ranged attack, a stealth ability, and a common combat feat adapted to work for a swarm. Thereâs clearly thought put in here, and it should all result in a very interesting back-and-forth. A.
Lore: Eh, itâs not quite generic. A little bit of extra thought put in. Nothing amazing, but I appreciate the effort. B.
Roleplay: Mindless.
Amerta
This is another monster I think is an original, made to go with the specific Aetheria setting.
Presentation: Neat. Gives an idea of the thingâs scale and has fair detail even if the design itself is a little simplistic. B.
Mechanics: Itâs a Colossal CR 18 monster with a mix of melee damage, a breath weapon, and some utility-focused spell like abilities. Thereâs some creativity here, but nothing that really makes me jump. B.
Lore: It mentions details specific to the setting, but the basic idea isnât hard to get. I will say that I think it leans on historical significance more than current-day significance, which can make it difficult to integrate into campaigns in interesting ways. B.
Roleplay: It has telepathy and can talk to plants, and thereâs a seed of it in the Lore, but nothing that really grabs me. C+.
Amoeba
This entry is the giant amoeba and the amoeba swarm, but Iâll rate them together to save us all time.
Presentation: Eh? Not much to see, not much to say. Not ugly. C-.
Mechanics: These two creatures are basically two versions of the same one, oneâs a generic swarm and the other is a generic small ooze. Literally, I canât find anything special about them. Also, the giant amoeba references the âconstrictâ universal rule, but at the time of this writing (before Alien Archive 3 comes out) there is no such rule! F.
Lore: None of note. Seriously, Iâm impressed how little is communicated here. F.
Roleplay: Itâs a mindless ooze.
Animated Object
I feel like this entry is unfitting as either the original idea of the animated object, a Starfinder implementation for the animated object, or the implementation for the enemies actually presented in the book.
Presentation: The description is meh, and the image is amazing up until you realize itâs out of scale with the sizes in the state blocks. And one of the things has no image or personalized description at all. D+
Mechanics: Presented here in the Animated Object blurb is not generic stat blocks usable for various animated objects, but instead two specific animated objects that could have worked perfectly well as robots. And theyâre both boring. One has con damage attached to its grappling, the other has trample. D-.
Lore: No fluff text. F.
Roleplay: Mindless.
Ankheg
Presentation: The description is a little generic, and the image is derpy-looking. D.
Mechanics: The idea is that itâs a bite nâ grab monster, with a bite attack that also does acid damage. However, it has an area attack that disables the bite attackâs acid damage when used. Sound interesting enough? Yeah, it doesnât work as written. The damage is listed as âP & A,â so even parts piercing and acid. The deactivation clause in the Spit Acid ability says that it loses out on the âadditional acid damageâ, which leaves it unclear how much the damage is reduced. Is it halved after rolling? This could work, but itâs not made clear in the text: when I read that I expected to see something like â+1d8 Aâ, clearly differentiating the additional damage. Also, the bite attack has the burn critical effect, which reflects things bursting into flames. Even if you replace that with the corrode effect, the rules text doesnât say to remove it with the acid spit. The monster simply does not operate as intended and needs another pass. F.
Lore: The lore text is effective enough, but has some mechanical notes in it that donât fit in the fluff text well. They really should either be included in the stat block somewhere or left vague, how they make their tunnels doesnât matter as long as it happens off-camera, right? C-.
Roleplaying: Normally, as a non-social monster, Iâd just flub it. However! Itâs specifically mentioned that it could be used as a mount, and its temperament as a mount, meaning it could indirectly affect another role play encounter in an interesting manner. C-.
Aoandon
Presentation: The description and picture are interesting. Thereâs enough flourishes and detail to intrigue, with a little bit of artistic flair. Hm! A.
Mechanics: Itâs got touch of madness, a suite of nasty spell-like abilities, constant true seeing, and itâs incorporeal. Intriguing, no? Not the most outstanding of mechanics, but could still pose a reasonable threat. C+.
Lore: So, it looks like a hologram, it has a touch of madness, and it casts spell like abilities. Just what is⌠the Aoandon? Iâm gonna read it!
âAn aoandon is an incorporeal outsider formed from the spirit of a woman who died pursuing some ill-fated relationship.â
...what?
Dead people donât form outsiders! They form undead! Why isnât it undead? Native outsiders are a wonky bunch in any case, but this is literally an undead blurb! It doesnât discuss her combat style at all, itâs literally just the undead hatred against those who wronged her! F!
Roleplaying: I donât care that it speaks 5 languages and it has Int and Cha +4. Itâs just another undead that hates stuff. D-.
Asquenti
Presentation: The description is good enough, but the image really doesnât sell the âTauric crustaceanâ idea. To the point that I donât think the artist knew what it meant. C-.
Mechanics: Seem effective enough. The ability descriptions could have used another pass to better clarify the abilities and fit to the standard style of monster entries. A skilled editor was really needed here. C-.
Lore: Eh, nothing amazing, nothing bad. Just enough to keep it from feeling hollow, but nothing really that stands out. C.
Roleplaying: Thereâs certainly potential here, but we donât get into their culture enough to really spark the imagination. C.
Assassin Vine
Presentation: The picture doesnât mesh with the description at all. D.
Mechanics: Nothing too startling, though Iâm not sure how the entangling plants aura is supposed to work. Iâm also unsure if keeping the resistances from the original was a good idea; in Starfinder, itâs possible that a party could have no physical damage at all (if unlikely) making energy resistance/immunity more powerful. C-.
Lore: Eh? Itâs fine. C.
Roleplaying: Mindless.
Asteroid Worm
Presentation: A full splash page illustration and a description that causes me to feel actual emotions. A+.
Mechanics: The wormâs gimmick is effectively that itâs a larger than colossal enemy, and whoever wrote this entry sells it really well. The abilities are straightforward enough and still do what they set out to do, while giving the DM amazing chances for description. Iâm unsure how well this monster would work as a straight fight, but it would make a wonderful set piece. A+.
Lore: Itâs got it. Itâs effective enough, if not really riveting. C+.
Roleplaying: Mindless. Thereâs a lot of these in this book, huh?
Atoth
Presentation: Both description and image are sufficiently spectacular. A+.
Mechanics: Well⌠this is very interesting. The idea is that when someone uses teleportation or the like, this monster shunts the target into a pocket dimension where it uses a mix of melee attacks with Con drain and some basic spell-like abilities to murder them. Itâs the kind of thing that a good chunk of a campaign can be based around, especially since the range is one million miles. How far is that? Easily enough to cover one planet and its moons, but not enough to cover multiple planets (I checked). The fight looks interesting, and part of me wishes it was slightly lower CR so I might be able to run it sometime. A.
Lore: Hm, some points docked for the hungry undead trope, but it has a unique enough situation that connects to a different monster in the book. Itâs pretty okay, but I would have liked to see more about how it operates. B.
Roleplaying: The primary appeal here is not as roleplay with it, but instead to roleplay around it. Imagine a world terrified to use teleportation because then the Atoth will get you. I definitely think thereâs potential there! C+.
Aurumvorax
Presentation: Good picture, and the description isnât bad. B+.
Mechanics: Very durable, and the setup is one I recognize from Pathfinder monsters: Natural attack with Grab, into Rake. The problem is that Starfinder doesnât have Rake as a universal monster rule, and instead of adding it in manually the creator didnât give them anything. This neuters the entire setup, the Aurumvorax can still do more bites to keep the grapple but it doesnât get that sweet bonus Rake damage. C.
Lore: Itâs the same as usual. An angry, heavy, badger-like thing that chews gold and fools. A few interesting notes. A-.
Roleplaying: A nice little mention that they can be trained if theyâre picked up young, giving them a little bit of potential. D+.
Azaka
Another group that Iâm going to all lump together, but this one is new. To me, at least.
Presentation: Thereâs a definite shared theme, good art, fair descriptions. A-.
Mechanics: The Hive Mind is an interesting take on the mechanic of the hive mind, and the mechanics of the creatures themselves seem effective enough. The Thoughtseeker is a caster, and the Warrior is a combatant, and both have fitting abilities. A-.
Lore: Hm, interesting enough, but very connected to the specific setting theyâre made for. No real context on why and when they interact with the rest of the universe. B.
Roleplay: The hive mind is smart, but theyâre just angry zerg-like creatures that want to enslave others and eat radioactive rocks. Not a lot to really RP with. D-.
Final Thoughts
This has been a trip. Some great examples, some absolute failures, a few great endgame monsters, a great CR1 monster, and this is only the first letter of the alphabet. Hit and miss, by all means, and an unusual amount of mindless creatures, but not really a super good claim toward or away from buying the book. This is a mixed bag, and for some people the good will be enough to make it worth it.
For anyone looking for more Starfinder beasties (and who isnât?), check out this Kickstarter. Itâs from the same people doing Legendary Planet, so itâs another way to get our monsters from there along with all the other creatures you need for Starfinder.
Ochrian - Originating in the savannahs and badlands of the planet Ochria-Prime, this Humanoid species have distributed far outside the reaches of its home system. However while living among the stars, ochrians tend to preserve their traditional tribal culture. Life of an individual in it is closely tied to their clan and a larger tribal structure, inside of which weddings, and so-called blood exchanges are happening. Three times a year, all the clans that consist a tribe are gathering for the festival of blood exchange, during which males are compete in wrestling hitting each others heads together, and the clan leaders, choose which of them will come to live with their clan for next several months, to help women and elders with hunting and farming and to procreate, if the new children are needed to be born. However on some planets with the smaller Ochrian populations, the members of this sprcies are usually tend to copying more permanent family structures of the cultural majority.
Raksolisk - those monstrous creatures were believed to be created as a sort of a biological weapon through interbreeding between humans and amphibian animals of the planet Yagneda. Even though raksolisks are possessive of animalistic characteristics raksolisks are self aware and even capable of complicated speech. What seems to be to pairs of eyes on their heads are in fact glands containing powerful and highly acidic neurotoxin, which they can exhale from their mouths, which leads to a corroded, and damaged look of their teeth. Raksolisks also possess incredible ability for regeneration, being capable of regrowing lost limbs, certain organs, and even parts of their brains. They however are incapable of procreation lacking any kind of genitals, and as for today there are only ten thousands raksolisks left in the galaxy. Most of them have found employment as a mercenaries and bounty hunters, or followed the lives of hermitage, in some of the darkest corners of their home planet.
Ătou - are the semi-colonial organisms from the warm oceans of the planet Hoimaa. The term semi-colonial signifies that they are capable of existence both as individual beings, and as conglomeration of multiple organisms, that while connected through special organs act as one. The second form called Ătouli can reach up to a kilometre in diameter, and three kilometres in length. It is also the form in which Ătou are known to be capable of procreation, usually giving birth to about fifty millions eggs at a time. From this amount only about a thousand will survive with the rest being eaten by predators. Newborns tend to migrate for thousand miles, feeding and growing, to eventually join each other In equatorial waters and create new Ătouliâs, that will travel to the temperate areas of the planet, to lay eggs, and start the cycle again.
Emoolâ - there is not much known about emoolâs. The only thing that is certain is that they tend to live in the cave-lakes of the planet Garuda-4. It isnât known for sure if they possess any kind of culture, or if they are just a mere animals. They are believed to possess a primitive speech consisted of high pitched Cheerps and Clicks. Colonists that work in the mines of Garuda-4 believe that hearing the voices of this creatures is a bad sign. And that seeing one out of the water, or even worse, being noticed by one of them, is an omen of a mass death, due to an underground water stream, or a gas explosion, making a cave collapse on the heads of unsuspecting miners.
Blook - Inhabitants of the small farming communities of the planet Yeda, they are known for the folds on their bodies , which when ambushed by predators allow a blook to move inside of his skin, getting an unexpected advantage in a fight. What is falsely believed by many to be a pair of gigantic eyes, and a nose, are in fact, the reproductive organs. The actual eyes of the blooks are located in the folds on the sides of their mouths. Those mouths are actually not only used for consumption of food and speech, but also, to throw up a pile of larvae in a three months period after copulation. Before that, larvae leaves inside the aforementioned eye-like organ feeding on its contents. With the most of the head being used to contain blooks genitals, its brain is actually located inside of its stomach, protected by the layers of hardened skinâŚ
Welcome to Reviews at Random, today weâre not doing a video game. Today, instead, weâre doing a third party product for a tabletop role-playing game. Iâll try my best to make this friendly for people who donât know about Starfinder, but whatever.
The Alien Bestiary product is published by Legendary Games, made for the Starfinder system (a space fantasy system made by Paizo, the Pathfinder people) and fueled by Kickstarter (including me, full admission). It came out between the Alien Archive (the first official monster book) and Alien Archive 2 (the second official monster book). This makes it... interesting in how it relates to the official products.
Near as I can tell, the intent behind this product is twofold: One, to port some of the more obscure Pathfinder monsters over to Starfinder, and Two, to serve as a dedicated monster book for Legendary Gamesâ Aetheria setting. Thatâs not a bad thing, setting-specific monster books can be lots of fun as long as theyâre not too tied up in the lore of the original setting, keeping people from understanding the lore of the monsters, and they donât make you read a different book to use the monsters in your game.
But! Weâll come to that later. For now...
Presentation
The art and design of the Alien Bestiary are fine, the art is from a few different artists and one or two didnât get the message that the art is for a Sci-Fi product, but itâs overall nothing too jarring or ugly. At least, not artistically ugly; abominations are all suitably hideous. Apart from that, thereâs a few typos around (last I checked) and while theyâre rare and mostly harmless they can be annoying on the occasion you find one.
Final Presentation Score: B-
Itâs not really a super pretty book, but whatever it works and works well.
Mechanics
RPG books have less âgameplayâ per se, and more Mechanics. In this case, the mechanics of the monsters in question. And for the most part the mechanics seem fine... except that they relate to the official Paizo Products oddly.
Alien Bestiary came out after the Alien Archive, but was set in stone before Alien Archive 2 came out. Alien Archive 2 brought with it a lot of cool space-like creatures from Pathfinder that were really neat. See where this is going?
While Alien Bestiary neatly avoids overlap with Alien Archive, thereâs some things in 2 where the overlap is notable, and for the most parts Alien Archive 2 wins out. You might say to yourself, âBut if the two stat blocks are different, they can be used for different things!â and you would be right but theyâre mostly NOT. Since both companies went off of the Pathfinder version as a cheat sheet, theyâre strikingly similar save for some stat changes.Â
Now, I havenât side-by-sided many of the overlapping monsters, but my bias is to default to the Paizo stats, because at this point Starfinder is still young enough that Paizo has the best handle on their own system. And if you are the sort to side-by-side them, you still need to put forth that effort and decide which is better.
Otherwise, things like wild animals, dinosaurs, and dragons give Paizo an edge because Paizo doesnât just give dozens of Dragon stat blocks at various ages and colors, but instead a system that lets you plug-and-play dragons fast. Will that result in samey dragons? Maybe, but if youâre worried about dragons feeling unique youâre likely putting some effort in tweaking them anyway. Same with dinosaurs, herd animals, predators... with the creation system in the Paizo products, you can just MAKE custom dinosaurs using the super easy monster creation system from the FIRST Alien Archive. If you have an obscure dinosaur youâre super fond of, the Paizo system will let you use it without trouble!
Though the Alien Bestiary has dedicated stats for a dunklesteosis, which is free brownie points from me.
...That and the soulbound shell, which is like a sorcerâs spirit encased in a robot, and thatâs pretty darn neat!
See, when you get into third-party books, especially monster books, thereâs going to be overlap. Whether you buy a given book is more about whether thereâs enough from that book that you care about.
So, what does the Alien Bestiary have, specifically?
Traditional abberations like intellect devourers, aboleths, cloakers, chokers, and flumphs!
Meteor Dragon!
Allips and a host of other undead who died in exceedingly evil ways!
Phycomid!
Moon Flowers and Moon Beasts!
Various Giants!
Kytons!
More Kytons!
SERIOUSLY this book has 11 different Kytons in it!
The Alien Archive 2 has one Kyton, under a different name, but none of these Kytons overlap with it.
Thereâs even rules for tweaking other Kytons fit the rules for the Aetheria Setting Kytons!
Who needs this many Kytons?!
Golems.
DOWNSIDE: Still using the whole âgolems are immune to spellsâ thing.
Fairly creative monsters specific to the Aetheria Campaign Setting.
New robots!
WHAT IS IT OH CRIPES GET ME OUT OF HERE
Clockwork Constructs!
Daemons?
John Carpenterâs The Thing
Obligatory Great Old Ones
Starship stat block for Cthulhu!
Trappers and Mimics!
Mobster leeches!
I TAKE IT BACK THIS ONE IS WORSE GIVE ME THE FREAKY HEAD BACK
A TON of other classic and original (or at least obscure) monsters!
So, yeah, even with the overlap this book has a LOT to offer.
However! Be aware that this is a dedicated monster book, and NOT the Alien Archive. There isnât really any bonus material like items or PC options with a very few exceptions. This is standard for Monster books, yes, but I thought it worth bringing up in case you got used to Alien Archive.
(Though I hope that they give PC-usable rules for the poisonous squid people in a different product sometime.)
Final Mechanics Score: B+ C-
Though I canât vouch for the balance of the book, for all I know itâs a mess, I didnât see anything immediately alarming and the selection of monsters is very wide. Itâs possible that the makers were more using Pathfinder design philosophy than Starfinder, but the two are close enough that shouldnât be really damaging.
HEY THERE! Future Kobold here! I was going over the thing for session planning/another post on it, and was looking closely at the stat blocks. Turns out that the mechanics are split about 50/50 on whether theyâre a complete mess or not. Even the ones that arenât messes tend to have presentation problems that might be confusing for new GMs. A lot of entries are missing space/reach, too. This is really disappointing, and Iâve amended the grade to account for it.
(Who needs 11 different Kytons? Iâm not sure if the original Pathfinder Bestiary had 11 different Demons, sakes alive...)
Writing
So, for some of you, it will be enough for me to say âit has a Bullette in itâ and you will go buy it. Other people will wonder if the monsters are usable in their stories, mainly that they have solid descriptions so the GM knows how to present and run them. And... yes, they do. Some more than others, and thereâs one or two that are so out there that I have no idea how to put them in other than as an extra random encounter.
Other than that, while this book WAS made as a monster book for a specific setting, nothing really shackles it to that setting. The few monsters with setting-specific mechanics have those mechanics detailed in the indices of the book, and the mentions of in-universe organizations arenât really too complex. With a little bit of creativity and replacement, you can pretty well swap things out without too much strain.
Overall, I do wish a few of those odd monsters were better explained, but itâs no real lost traction.
Final Writing Score: B
Overall
While it lacks the polish of Paizoâs first party products, the people involved knew what they were doing. Everything is fine. Nothing is really amazing, but something doesnât need to be amazing to be good. It has some fun ideas, and it does cover a lot of bases the official products donât while both pandering to the classics and showing some originality itself.
(Or at least knowing obscure enough classics that they count as in-jokes, whichever)
Presentation: B-
Mechanics: B+ C-
Writing: B
FINAL GRADE: B C+
Release some old terrors on your players. And then some new ones, just to keep them guessing.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
