This article originally appeared in d20 Weekly
The Slayer's Guide to Medusas
Published by Mongoose Publishing
Written by Ian Sturrock
Cover by Anthea Dilly
Illustrated by David Griffith, Marcio Fiorito, and Matt Morrow
32-page b&w softcover; $9.95
That familiarity breeds contempt is as true for the flora and fauna of the d20 System as it is for anything else. Never more so than for the medusa, the snake-haired reptilian female with the gaze that turns flesh to stone, originally taken from Greek myth and legend. To those who heard the tales originally, the medusa represented a fearsome beast . . . but to a party of average adventurers, it is a very different matter. One sight of a few exceedingly lifelike and detailed statues and they are rummaging in their packs for that handy mirror with which to reflect her petrifying stare, all the while keeping their own gaze resolutely averted. Thus it is rare for the DM to employ such a creature in the average campaign, and it is this waste of a potential threat and reduction of a challenge that Mongoose Publishing aims to rectify with The Slayer's Guide to Medusas. This series, which reaches its twelfth entry with this title, takes monsters from the standard d20 System and makes them into something more than mere cannon fodder or an exercise in XP accumulation. By exploring each species in depth their aim is breath new life into an otherwise moribund entry in the MM and extend their usefulness.
The first thing that this book does is to rip the race out of . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: January 8, 2003
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