Hey there, a few clarifications on some of your comments. Thanks for the review, glad you liked the book! ALL of the monsters were submitted into the RPG Superstar contest and then voted on by the professional judges and public. Hence, the number of constructs and fey was what was submitted into the contest! :) After each monster won the contest, each was reviewed by Patrick Renie and updated to Pazio standards. The Grand Prize and Platinum winners actually submitted ONE monster. After they won, Patrick Renie reached out to each winner to work with them on expanding those monsters into a "family" of monsters. Fun story, I myself was reading the monsters that won the contest and said to myself "two rope monsters?!? I guess people like rope monsters!"
Hello! I'm the author of the Salt Stalkers! I originally submitted one monster, and as part of my prize, I was eligible to write a second. I pitched a few different Salt Stalker variants & they liked so many of them they ended up letting me write four instead! Gotta say - Roll for Combat was a ton of fun to work with during the whole process! If people are interested, I actually have a one shot on my channel where I ran some RUclips Content Creators through an adventure featuring the Salt Stalkers (& higher level variants). Glad you guys enjoyed them!
@@KnightsofLastCall Thank you very much! FYI - You weren't too far off on the inspiration for these creatures! While I didn't pull from Starship Troopers, they were originally designed for one of my Starfinder games & inspired heavily by the Xenomorphs from Alien. So, there is a very Sci-Fi vibe to them!
So glad you guys are covering this. Haven't watched yet, but loved this book since I kickstarted it. The platinum winners and grand prize submitted only 1 monster (husk, salt stalker) but were invited to expand these creatures into a family.
WoTC's opinion on 3pp and Homebrew: Fuck you for trying to fix our shit system Paizo's Opinion on 3PP and Homebrew: lmao, awesome, if it's cool enough, we'll even give you a spotlight
BTW fun to see lot of the other authors here in comment section :D I think the discord for rpg superstar is fairly active with people who have taken part in competition both years so that is probably where everyone is coming from. (just fun trivia: 2020 competition was "first round is judges, second round is public vote" while 2021 was "first round is public vote, second round is judges" ;D Will be interesting to see if that will affect the composition of next bestiary)
Awesome review, I was definitely interested in their product line when it was announced Mark was joining, but also in a stream where Steven stated that their design philosophy and their covers are bright, reds yellows and purples, because we already have enough grimdark saturation in the industry. That alone made my interest jump 100%. By the sound of it and your ratings, they didn't take that purely to mean goofy silly monsters (leshies and poppets and whatever else Derek hates) but somehow preserved a mix of "actual monster-ness" and "not just edgy horror porn" material.
I think the nature of the competition helped give it the positive aspects you enjoyed. 1. Everyone is trying to win and will try to make the most interesting monsters possible. I think everyone tried to make their own monster stand out and be special in some way. Paizo bestiaries I guess need some less involved monsters to satisfy those who want something easier to run or be more manageable in large numbers? 2. Lots of level
I really like seeing unbiased reviews of products I'll use. I hope y'all review the Dragon Ancestries and AP books that RFC is making. They're also going to publish a Battlezoo Bestiary or other type of book for every RPG Superstar they run and hope y'all give honest reviews of all that too.
This was on sale today on DriveThruRPG and I followed the link to your video review. You guys did a great review, so this was an instant purchase for me. I also subscribed to your channel since I appreciate your approach for both PF2 and 5E. Thanks for draining my wallet!
Possibly dumb question- how does one get the Battlezoo Bestiary if you didn't kickstart it? Is it going to be available at retail stores, or is the backer kit still open?
Kyle of DnD, "As long as the monsters are not white, we approve. We cannot get rid of everything white in DnD 5e enough!....,players, monsters, characters etc
I know it's been over a year since you guys talked about this book, but are you going to be taking a look at the "Strange and Unusual" bestiary that they put out this year?
I'd love to see you guys review Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for PF2e. It's only out for pdf right now but I believe it's being released in a hardcover version in March.
Can you elaborate a little on how “50% of the monsters in a Bestiary are unplayable”…cuz while I think there are always a frustratingly high number of unlikely to be used monsters in just about every book I’ve seen…unplayable seems like a stretch.
Yeah I think that’s hyperbole. Unless you are one of those players that literally never gets above levels 10 or 9, then yeah high level monsters are in a sense “literally unplayable” for your table. I’d also like to know how Derek defines “literally unplayable”
I actually backed the KS because the project page made it look like it was a Monster Hunter source book and it was beingwrittenby pf2e writers. I wasn't aware it used to be a monster contest until after. I wouldn't say the book is bad, but it did fall way short of what I was expecting.
I don't agree with all of your opinions(not liking silly monsters in bestiaries? Monsters should inspire stories or adventures, they don't need to be always serious ones ;D), but I do think you are expressing your opinions fairly even if it can be pretty harsh once a while. (I also really agree on not liking 5e monster manual monsters. I haven't seen 5e version of battlezoo so I'm actually curious of how they adapted the monsters)
Too many creatures have attack of opportunity? I must disagree. My table has a house rule that any PC and PC or monster that is expert in their attacks has attack of opportunity. Our players move around the battlefield quite a bit, the only difference is that sometimes one of their actions is a step, an action that I don't think it's used very often. Nothing happens with game balance, and my players had to actually think more strategically about movement, and although they didn't think they would like the rule, they found that it really didn't affect their movement nearly as much as they thought. Sometimes the step was used as that third action everyone's looking for. Although it may have been part of piezo's original design, adding attacks of opportunity really doesn't affect moving around the battlefield, it affects the players attitude about it more :-)
Interesting - what was your motivation and or goal with this house rule? What were you hoping to alter or achieve in the game experience that made you incorporate the rule?
We actually ran a test with that monster, and it WRECKED the players. It's not great as a monster by itself, but being used as a support monster for larger groups of monsters will quickly make things get out of control if the PCs don't deal with it fast. Its ability to continuously help and heal the monsters, and take a beating on its own, makes it a fantastic support monster and will make the PCs hate this monster oh so fast. Try it in your game, you'll see just how powerful, and memorable, this monster can be in a larger fight1 :)
This book should've been for PF1e also. Kinda bullshit that Kobold Press stopped supporting PF1e. It's still as popular, if not still more popular and better, than PF2e.
![Chlöe - Shake (Feat. Jeremih) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aDs_1ufpfv8/mqdefault.jpg)
Hey there, a few clarifications on some of your comments. Thanks for the review, glad you liked the book!
ALL of the monsters were submitted into the RPG Superstar contest and then voted on by the professional judges and public. Hence, the number of constructs and fey was what was submitted into the contest! :)
After each monster won the contest, each was reviewed by Patrick Renie and updated to Pazio standards.
The Grand Prize and Platinum winners actually submitted ONE monster. After they won, Patrick Renie reached out to each winner to work with them on expanding those monsters into a "family" of monsters.
Fun story, I myself was reading the monsters that won the contest and said to myself "two rope monsters?!? I guess people like rope monsters!"
I was hoping to see you make a comment on this Stephen.
Hello! I'm the author of the Salt Stalkers! I originally submitted one monster, and as part of my prize, I was eligible to write a second. I pitched a few different Salt Stalker variants & they liked so many of them they ended up letting me write four instead!
Gotta say - Roll for Combat was a ton of fun to work with during the whole process!
If people are interested, I actually have a one shot on my channel where I ran some RUclips Content Creators through an adventure featuring the Salt Stalkers (& higher level variants).
Glad you guys enjoyed them!
Well done Sir
@@LordCyler Thank you!
Awesome! Nice work - I enjoyed all four variants! some of my absolute favorites from the whole book!
@@KnightsofLastCall Thank you very much! FYI - You weren't too far off on the inspiration for these creatures! While I didn't pull from Starship Troopers, they were originally designed for one of my Starfinder games & inspired heavily by the Xenomorphs from Alien. So, there is a very Sci-Fi vibe to them!
I was just coming on to mention that The Local Disaster Tourguide created the Salt creatures! Glad he came into the comments.
So glad you guys are covering this. Haven't watched yet, but loved this book since I kickstarted it.
The platinum winners and grand prize submitted only 1 monster (husk, salt stalker) but were invited to expand these creatures into a family.
Interesting - well it's a fantastic idea and that's just how they should always do it!
@@KnightsofLastCall You should check out the Swarm from Starfinder.
5e DM here. Thanks for the introduction to this - it was an instant purchase. I love my PF2e brothers!
I got a "Cool" from Derek - the best prize of them all...
WoTC's opinion on 3pp and Homebrew: Fuck you for trying to fix our shit system
Paizo's Opinion on 3PP and Homebrew: lmao, awesome, if it's cool enough, we'll even give you a spotlight
BTW fun to see lot of the other authors here in comment section :D I think the discord for rpg superstar is fairly active with people who have taken part in competition both years so that is probably where everyone is coming from.
(just fun trivia: 2020 competition was "first round is judges, second round is public vote" while 2021 was "first round is public vote, second round is judges" ;D Will be interesting to see if that will affect the composition of next bestiary)
Awesome review, I was definitely interested in their product line when it was announced Mark was joining, but also in a stream where Steven stated that their design philosophy and their covers are bright, reds yellows and purples, because we already have enough grimdark saturation in the industry. That alone made my interest jump 100%. By the sound of it and your ratings, they didn't take that purely to mean goofy silly monsters (leshies and poppets and whatever else Derek hates) but somehow preserved a mix of "actual monster-ness" and "not just edgy horror porn" material.
In other RFC media they do explain they want family friendly material to get kids in the game. Not bad but leans towards goofiness in some ways.
I think the nature of the competition helped give it the positive aspects you enjoyed.
1. Everyone is trying to win and will try to make the most interesting monsters possible. I think everyone tried to make their own monster stand out and be special in some way. Paizo bestiaries I guess need some less involved monsters to satisfy those who want something easier to run or be more manageable in large numbers?
2. Lots of level
I really like seeing unbiased reviews of products I'll use. I hope y'all review the Dragon Ancestries and AP books that RFC is making. They're also going to publish a Battlezoo Bestiary or other type of book for every RPG Superstar they run and hope y'all give honest reviews of all that too.
This was on sale today on DriveThruRPG and I followed the link to your video review. You guys did a great review, so this was an instant purchase for me. I also subscribed to your channel since I appreciate your approach for both PF2 and 5E. Thanks for draining my wallet!
One of the judges plays on the RFC podcast. Their character has rope lore.
I bet that's why we got two rope monsters.
Looks like a great book, well done to the authors
Possibly dumb question- how does one get the Battlezoo Bestiary if you didn't kickstart it? Is it going to be available at retail stores, or is the backer kit still open?
I like the idea of rolling 1d4 to the creature reaction totally gonna do that in curtain situations now
great review gents!
Kyle of DnD, "As long as the monsters are not white, we approve. We cannot get rid of everything white in DnD 5e enough!....,players, monsters, characters etc
I know it's been over a year since you guys talked about this book, but are you going to be taking a look at the "Strange and Unusual" bestiary that they put out this year?
I'd love to see you guys review Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for PF2e. It's only out for pdf right now but I believe it's being released in a hardcover version in March.
Good stuff guys, thanks for the review
This book is amazing
Can you elaborate a little on how “50% of the monsters in a Bestiary are unplayable”…cuz while I think there are always a frustratingly high number of unlikely to be used monsters in just about every book I’ve seen…unplayable seems like a stretch.
Yeah I think that’s hyperbole. Unless you are one of those players that literally never gets above levels 10 or 9, then yeah high level monsters are in a sense “literally unplayable” for your table.
I’d also like to know how Derek defines “literally unplayable”
the quote in question suggested that he typically thinks a bestiary is only 50% playable but that this book was 90% playable. 30:48
I actually backed the KS because the project page made it look like it was a Monster Hunter source book and it was beingwrittenby pf2e writers.
I wasn't aware it used to be a monster contest until after.
I wouldn't say the book is bad, but it did fall way short of what I was expecting.
I don't agree with all of your opinions(not liking silly monsters in bestiaries? Monsters should inspire stories or adventures, they don't need to be always serious ones ;D), but I do think you are expressing your opinions fairly even if it can be pretty harsh once a while.
(I also really agree on not liking 5e monster manual monsters. I haven't seen 5e version of battlezoo so I'm actually curious of how they adapted the monsters)
If I recall correctly Starfinder does have the "stereotype" in their bestiarys. Brute, Ranged, Specialist / Caster
Nice
Too many creatures have attack of opportunity? I must disagree. My table has a house rule that any PC and PC or monster that is expert in their attacks has attack of opportunity. Our players move around the battlefield quite a bit, the only difference is that sometimes one of their actions is a step, an action that I don't think it's used very often. Nothing happens with game balance, and my players had to actually think more strategically about movement, and although they didn't think they would like the rule, they found that it really didn't affect their movement nearly as much as they thought. Sometimes the step was used as that third action everyone's looking for. Although it may have been part of piezo's original design, adding attacks of opportunity really doesn't affect moving around the battlefield, it affects the players attitude about it more :-)
Interesting - what was your motivation and or goal with this house rule? What were you hoping to alter or achieve in the game experience that made you incorporate the rule?
Gotta know which Platinum monster was ranked as terrible lol
The mechanical matre'd!
@@KnightsofLastCall What, that is one of my favorites! D:
(though to be honest most of my favorite monsters were bronze or copper x'D )
We actually ran a test with that monster, and it WRECKED the players. It's not great as a monster by itself, but being used as a support monster for larger groups of monsters will quickly make things get out of control if the PCs don't deal with it fast. Its ability to continuously help and heal the monsters, and take a beating on its own, makes it a fantastic support monster and will make the PCs hate this monster oh so fast. Try it in your game, you'll see just how powerful, and memorable, this monster can be in a larger fight1 :)
@@RollForCombat Exactly :D Its fantastic support monster
This book should've been for PF1e also. Kinda bullshit that Kobold Press stopped supporting PF1e. It's still as popular, if not still more popular and better, than PF2e.
The best monster manuals are Tome of Beasts 1, Tome of Beasts 2 and the Creature Codex from Kobold Press for 5e. Beats everything thing else by miles.