Jon Brazer Enterprises

Earlier today, the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane picked up its FOURTH 5-STAR review. We figured we’d share a few of the wonderful things being said about the book and the monsters inside with you.

Thilo Graf (aka Endzeitgeist)
“prime example of stellar monster design”
“they feel wholly distinct from any regular creatures of the same CR. Kudos!”
“Grognards … get a nice blast from the past/homage”
“this book … contains a wealth of cool creatures and ideas.”
“I look forward to seeing more supplements for the plane of shadows”
“a final verdict of 5 stars and a definite recommendation for this excellent bestiary.”

Dark Mistress
“vast majority [of the monsters] very good to outstanding”
“I really can’t wait for [the Shadowsfall books].”
“You won’t regret it.”

The Alfred Effect:
“It is this attention to detail that really makes these creatures stand out in my mind and it will help any GM add them to a campaign.”
“Dale and Jon Brazer Enterprises put together an excellent product every time and this is no exception.”
“this is the book for you.”

KTFish7
“a fantastic collection of creatures.”
“raising the stakes for all creatures after it.”
“treasure trove of diabolical deliciousness.”
“solid 5 stars rating, and highly recommending it”

We would like to give an extra big thank you to everyone involved in the creation of this book. All these wonderful things being said about it would not be possible without you.

Pick up the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane today! Order it from your local game store or favorite gaming website or order it from JonBrazer.com

The first Riyal’s Research covered Traps. The second in the series discusses Haunts. These 24 new haunts ranging from CR 1 to 15 with a page of the great researcher’s notes on the subject will be released Tuesday, February 14th, but we’re giving you a special sneak peak today. We hope you enjoy these haunts.

Misty River CR 2
XP 600
CE persistent haunt (5 ft. by 10 ft. river between old pilings)
Caster Level 2nd
Notice Perception DC 20 (to hear wood breaking)
hp 9; Trigger touch; Reset 1 day
Effect Long ago, a wooden bridge that crossed this 10 ft. wide river broke and fell away drowning a family. A path still leads to both sides of the river. When a creature touches the water just beyond the path where the bridge once crossed, a mist forms over the water (20 ft. radius, centered on where the creature touched the water) as per the spell obscuring mist. The mist lasts for 2 minutes.
Destruction A new bridge must be built crossing the river.

Breathless Gasps CR 6
XP 2,400
NE haunt (10 ft. by 15 ft. pool of water)
Caster Level 6th
Notice Perception DC 25 (the sound of water splashing and someone gasping for air)
hp 14; Weakness susceptible to water; Trigger touch; Reset 1 minute
Effect Deep in a cave long ago, an elf and drow war came down to last pair of warriors. They struggled until the elf was tripped and landed in a small pool of water. Filled with rage, the drow strangled the elf face down in the water. Whenever a creature touches that same pool, the water rushes into creature’s lungs as if affected by a suffocation spell (see Section 5 of the Advanced Player’s Guide). Any spell with the water descriptor (other than control water) damages the haunt equal to twice the spell level. Control water neutralizes this haunt.
Destruction During a full moon, the water must be completely drained and replaced with holy water. During the following new moon, a bottle of air must be shattered below the surface of the holy water pool.

Words of Asmodeus CR 9
XP 6,400
LE persistent haunt (15 ft. by 15 ft. altar dedicated to Asmodeus)
Caster Level 9th
Notice Perception DC 35 (to hear the sound of chanting in Infernal)
hp 40; Weakness vulnerable to sonic; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 hour
Effect It is said that the spirit of Asmodeus’s priest protects the altar against thieves even though no one worships there any longer. Those that have encountered one of these haunted altars tell of the powerful chants. Any creature that approaches sees the haunt manifest as a spectral cleric. Its chanting words cut deep causing creatures within 20 ft. of the spectral cleric to take 4d8 points of damage and are staggered for 1 round. Worshipers of Asmodeus sustain 9d6 points of damage and are stunned for 1d4 rounds. Half of the damage is sonic; the other half is negative energy damage. A successful DC 16 Fortitude save halves the damage and negates the staggering/stunning effect. This is similar to a rebuke spell (see Section 5 of the Advanced Player’s Guide). The spectral cleric can move up to 60 ft. away from the altar.
Destruction When the moon turns as red as blood, a cleric of any god other than Asmodeus must cast consecrate or desecrate on the altar. Within one day, the altar must be pulverized into tiny rocks and powder. Praises to any deity other than Asmodeus need to be sung or chanted during both phases of this destruction.

Grab out Riyal’s Research: Trap today and watch for Riyal’s Research: Haunts next week. Get these and more Pathfinder PDFs at Paizo and DriveThruRPG/RPGNow.com

Personally, I feel there are not enough traps in the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. With parts of the game like monsters and archetypes getting stronger support, traps feel like they do not have enough “sex appeal” for a more prominent place in the game. So we at Jon Brazer Enterprises are here to help traps reclaim their mojo in your game. Below are three traps from our recent Riyal’s Research: Traps. We hope you enjoy them.

Kobold Razortooth Trap CR 1
Type mechanical; Perception DC 29; Disable Device DC 15
Effects
Trigger location; Reset automatic; Bypass small or smaller creatures do not set off this trap
Effect tooth tipped spears (Atk +0 melee, 1d4 spear plus poison [black adder venom])
A favorite among kobolds, a razor-sharp, tooth tipped spear extends from a small hole in the wall when this trap is triggered. In order to set it off, the creature must be a medium or larger creature. Small creatures do not weigh enough to set off this trap. Since the trigger requires a creature of so much weight for the trap to go off, the spear’s aim is not terribly great. Many creatures experience the rush of air as the spear extending out mere inches in front of them. Trap cost: 1,250 gp. Construction DC: Craft (traps) 25.

Acid Shower Trap CR 6
Type mechanical; Perception DC 25; Disable Device DC 20
Effects
Trigger location; Reset repair
Effect acid shower (save DC 29 Reflex negates, 2d10 acid damage, touched creature takes damage for 3 rounds)
Acid pours down from a hole in the ceiling and begins to burn the creature if it did not make the save. It is believed that the creator of this trap got the kobold’s acid dump trap and decided to make a more sophisticated version. This trap is most common in labyrinths or in 10 ft. wide hallways where all those normally there know to avoid the trigger. Trap cost: 7,500 gp. Construction DC: Craft (traps) 25.

Lightning Storm Trap CR 8
Type mechanical; Perception DC 25; Disable Device DC 15
Effects
Trigger sound; Duration 2 rounds; Reset repair; Bypass hidden lock (Perception DC 25 to locate, Disable Device
DC 30 disarm)
Effect alchemical device (5d6 electricity, save DC 25 Reflex half, creatures in metal armor take a -4 to this save); multiple targets (all targets in a 30-ft.-radius cone)
Used to protected treasure rooms, this trap sprays electricity from a suit of armor in the corner. Since it is triggered by noises as quiet as two coins clanging together, thieves fill up their bags with coins will set it off. However the trigger is disabled when the fingers of the suit of armor’s right fist are pointed out. Because the suit of armor is metal, failing the Disable Device check by 5 or more sets off the trap. Trap cost: 8,000 gp. Construction DC: Craft (traps) 25.

If you like these, be sure to check out Riyal’s Research: Traps today. Also watch out for Riyal’s Research: Haunts coming out next week. These deadly dangers will enhance your world and your game.

Fight the Dark Side

The Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane details the deadly and frightning monsters that go bump in the night. More than 50 brand new monsters for your Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, these monsters will frighten players and challenge their characters in new and exciting ways. This monster book is the latest in the award-winning Book of Beasts series and is the bestiary to the Shadowfall series, premiering in 2012.

The PDF is now available to DriveThruRPG/RPGNow as well as Paizo.com. The print book can be ordered at your local game store or your favorite gaming web retailer. Order the print book today and get the PDF for free.

This whole week we’ve been previewing the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the River Nations. Earlier we took a look at the unquiet giant, darkling, appendixes and the Monsters from the Bestiaries. As our final installment we’re showing you the Table of Contents. Click on the image to see the enlarged version of the page.

Look through and you will see a wide variety of CRs from low to high level monsters. We’ve got sub CR 1 monsters like the Dull Mite and the Monkeybat and we’ve got high level monsters like the Champion Helblar and the Starak. We wanted to make sure all levels of play were supported with this book, not just the early levels. We hope that this monster book will be invaluable to those that have been asking for high level support while still enhancing the low and mid level games.

One last thing we have been saving. We raised enough to print enough quantities of our Free RPG Day adventure to get 3 in every box! That’s right. So now there is more than just the one copy that goes to the store’s best Game Master. Now there is enough for others to that have been excited about this or those that have never heard of us to grab yourself a copy.

I hope you have been enjoying these previews as much as we have had sharing them with you. Tell your local game store today to preorder you a copy. Don’t forget our PDF Guarantee allowing you to get an electronic copy when the buy the print version.

PS: Oh and look what just arrived!

This whole week, we’re previewing the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane. Monday we started with the unquiet giant. Tuesday saw the darkling. Yesterday detailed the book’s appendixes. Today we’re looking at how the Book of Beasts helps to create a full environment for Shadowsfall. Click on the image to see the enlarged version of the page.

As you can see, we combed for all three of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiaries for you for all monsters that work best in the setting and listed them all for you. All the monsters listed on this page are monsters that we encourage you to use straight out of those monster books with no variation. But really, the Plane of Shadows has … well … just about everything the material plane has. As we described at the top, you can use any monster you want with the darkened template applied. We also wanted to make sure that we empowered GMs to use any monster they want to come up with their ideal story. To that end, we described how a normal monster that normally would not be on Shadowsfall could be found there. That last bit has more details in Shadowsfall: Shadow Plane Gazetteer, but we wanted to give you a start now.

Tomorrow is our last preview of the Book of Beasts. We’ll show you the table of contents so you can see exactly how many monsters there are in the whole book, their names and their CRs. Tell your local game store today to preorder you a copy. Don’t forget our PDF Guarantee allowing you to get an electronic copy when the buy the print version.

We’re doing previews all week of the upcoming Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane. Monday we previewed the unquiet giant and yesterday we previewed the darkling. Today we’re taking a look at the Appendixes in the Book of Beasts. Click on the image to the left to see an enlarged version of the image.

The three most common monsters on the Plane of Shadows are Shadows, Skeletons and Zombies. However, all these of these appear in Bestiary so they are not new monsters. Skeletons and Zombies are templates so you can make your own pretty easily. However, we wanted this to be a real resource for GMs playing a Shadowsfall game so we gave added a few appendixes to the book. Each of these appendixes fill a 2 page spread of pregenerated monsters. While we did a few low CR versions of these templated monsters, we gave them a little shake up. As you can see in the image, the cave fisher shadow has an incorporeal filament attack that can attach to a creature’s shadow, something a normal shadow does not possess, but still familiar to those that have fought a cave fisher before. Additionally, we also have high CR versions on the second page. Expect to see a CR 21 ancient dragon shadow, a CR 16 Fighter/Rogue Half-Elf Skeletal Champion, and a CR 17 sorcerer gnome juju zombie.

After these three appendixes, we have the darkened template. This template describes how most creatures that spend generations on the Shadowsfall end up being altered by the Plane. This is similar to a celestial/fiendish templated creature.

Up next we have the parts that turn this from a book of monsters to a true bestiary in its own right. The next few appendixes are the Universal Monster Rules, Feats, New Creature Subtypes and Creatures by CR. All the rules from the Pathfinder Role Playing Game Bestiary 1-3 that were used in this book are collected into one place so you do not need to reference another book if you need to reference a particular ability. Same with feats. All the feats used in this book that cannot be found in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook are collected here. So Flyby Attack comes right after Combat Patrol and Bloody Assault.

Tomorrow we’re releasing the Monsters from the Bestiaries page. This will help you in your game to make full use of your monster books and make a true environment setup for your game.

Incase you had not heard, the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane left the printer and is on its way to the warehouse. Soon it will be working its way through distribution. Be sure to tell your local game store today to preorder you a copy. Your game store can give you a PDF copy of the book when you do.

Yesterday, we previewed the unquiet giant. Today we’re taking a look at the Dread Gargoyle. Like yesterday click on the image to see a larger version.

The dread gargoyle emphasizes is one example of a themes we wanted in Shadowsfall: that monsters here are recognizable, but they’re twisted and far more dangerous. A number of monsters including the black worm, dull mite, onyx ooze, and spectre lord are all similar to the monsters that we all know and love, but have been changed either by having been on the Plane of Shadows for generations or by “living” in a place that is ideal for them. In the case of the dread gargoyle, there are lots of ruins around, allowing it ample living space. Spectre lords, by contrast, are not held powerless by the dim sun of the Shadow Plane.

These creatures are not merely the same as their material plane brethren with more hit dice and higher attack bonuses and DCs. Oh no, my friend. These creatures possess new and dangerous abilities that make them more than the creatures your players expect. May evil GMs everywhere rub their hands together in glee.

Tomorrow we take a look at the the most common creatures in Shadowsfall: shadows, skeletons and zombies. Pre-order this book today at your local game store or at your favorite gaming website and get the PDF for free when you do.

With the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane PDF going on sale next week, we’re spending this week showcasing the monsters in the book. First up is the Unquiet Giant. We’re starting with this one because it is one of our favorites. Click on the image to the left to see the full preview page. First thing you should notice is that this is a CR 13 monster. That’s big because 22 of the over 50 monsters in this book are CR 10 or higher, with the top being 21.

The next thing we want to draw your attention to is the Feats section of the stat block. We placed the relevant penalty/modifier next to Power Attack. I know when I am GMing a game, I have enough numbers flying around in my head that I don’t need to figure out what the appropriate penalty/modifier for the Power Attack is. Hero Lab is our inspiration for that addition. So I’d like to say a “Thanks guys,” to the crew at Lone Wolf Development for that. We did the same for Combat Expertise as well.

Lastly, I want to call your attention to the quote between the stat block and its descriptive text. As we mentioned in our last preview, the quote gives a bit of inworld perspective of the monster either from the monster itself or from others. The unquiet giant’s text in particular is a reference to Andre the Giant’s character in the Princess Bride. When I decided to put in game quotes into the monster book, that movie was one of the first references I thought of and wanted to make sure it went in there. I am glad it is a reference to one of my favorite scenes.

Follow along all week to get more insights and spoilers from new Book of Beasts. Pre-order this book today at your local game store or at your favorite gaming website and get the PDF for free when you do.

The great adventurer, abjurer and researcher, Riyal Starlight, has explored much of the world. Throughout his travels he documented many of the dangerous and unusual hazards he has lived to tell the tale. Now within these pages, he shares his findings with you.

Riyal’s Research: Traps brings you two dozen new traps for you to endanger your player characters’ very lives. These traps range in from CR 1 to 19 and include traps from the best kobold designers, traps from ancient temples, and traps in active castles and shops. These murderous menaces will enhance your world and your adventures.

Grab your copy today at Paizo.com or at DriveThruRPG.com