Customer Reviews

Pathfinder Chronicles: Dungeon Denizens Revisited (Pathfinder Chronicles Supplement)

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Pathfinder's Monsters Revisited series exists as a sort of sub-series in Paizo's line. Built as part of the Pathfinder Chronicles line that fleshes out the world of Golarion, Classic Monsters Revisited hit upon major success and was followed up with Dragons Revisited, which was also a huge success. Now we're on the third part of the series, Dungeon Denizens Revisited, which fleshes out some of the more bizarre creatures in the Dungeons & Dragons/Pathfinder line of role-playing games. The book is, as expected, excellent, taking old creatures and making them seem new. It is a valuable asset regardless of what system you use, and can even be enjoyed by non-gamers, since there is relatively little in terms of rules here.

Dungeon Denizens Revisited gives an overview of ten bizarre monsters: the bulette, the cloaker, the gelatinous cube, the mimic, the otyugh, the owlbear, the purple worm, the roper, the rust monster, and the shambling mound. The common thread in all of these monsters is that they've likely been used as punchlines almost as often as they've been serious monsters. A creature that disguises itself as a cloak and attacks the wearer? A cross between an owl and a bear? An armadillo with a propeller tail? But under the care of the Pathfinder line, each creature is represented as something intriguing with a lot of potential. The cloaker becomes part of an insane paranoid race of genetically engineered spies. The owlbear becomes a tortured creature that still bears scars from its magical creation. The rust monster becomes an insatiable creature that uses its strange tail as a way of venting the heat it builds up from devouring iron. These books are at their best when they're breathing new life into obscure or forgotten creatures, and this entry is a treasure trove of such information.

Like the rest of the Pathfinder Chronicles line, the book uses the Pathfinder world of Golarion as its default setting. However, it can easily be used for any campaign - the amount of Golarion-specific information breaks down to less than half a page per monster, leaving the information here usable for any fantasy role-playing game, be it D&D, Pathfinder, or something else entirely. If you've ever wondered how to make an owlbear menacing or why shambling mounds have an Intelligence score, this book is for you.

This was an excellent book. I gained a lot of insight to different ideas and for the classic dungeon crawl. Highly recomend this. Highly.