Pathfinder Creature Feature: Classic Monsters

[@josephheliotrope4556]

Excellent content. Comment for the algorithm.

[@jacksonhamman1138]

I always love seeing art that I know put in a new context and framing. Where the wild things are as bugbear both makes me smile and would be a fun idea for a campaign.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Where the Wild Things are is definitely a story about friendly bugbears ;-)

[@fumarc4501]

I’d love to learn about more monsters like this. Preferably Insects and Darkland inhabitants.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I do have a video coming up in the not too distant future called Darklands Denizens which should be a lot of fun.

[@fumarc4501]

@@TheMythkeeper I’m looking forward to it.

[@JaxWylds]

Binge-watching your stuff. You have been such an inspiration for my imagination recently. Thanks for sharing your talents!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks JS!

[@NSG0079]

I never could wrap my head around how bugbears fit into the greater ecology of D&D. After watching this video, I can now understand how terrifying these creatures could be 😨

[@scottlette]

We all know both Ogres and Bugbears love the 1973 Burt Reynolds classic; Deliverance. Great videos as always.

[@TheMythkeeper]

This is true. Dueling banjos is also the ogre national anthem - pretty sure that's canon...

[@RiotKurhein]

In my own setting history, the goblinoids are species borne of interbreeding with orcs. Goblins were once Gnomes, and in in my setting there are no Gnomes because of it. Hobgoblins are from Elves, explaining their particular hatred toward the feybloods. Finally, Bugbears take more after their orcish heritage save that they are particularly hairy compared to their cousins.

[@RicardoPM777]

Awesome!!!

[@ahmeeklegend7393]

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Ive recently started DMing a Pathfinder 2e campaign in the Golarian setting. This channel has been a huge help in learning about the setting. Thank You MythKeeper!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Comments like this make my day! Thank you so much for watching and supporting the channel.

[@Ofley_Adventures]

Lets go! This looks so fun! Have an amazing day everyone! Thanks for the vid.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks for the support as always!

[@lkriticos7619]

Damn the idea of a monster that can sense fear and gets high off it is brilliant. I like gnolls a lot, based solely on really liking hyenas. So I've tended to re-do the lore for them in different games. They are VERY enthusastic librarians (don't ask where they get the books) in one of my current games. I've never been able to play one though! And I love the idea of being able to.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Well they're an optional PC race in 2E and the Mwangi Expanse book really does a great job of making them more complex creatures than just villains. You'll never get a better time to play one than now. 🙂

[@RicardoPM777]

Another great video 👏👏👏

[@randallbaumgardt3424]

Since D&D 1e I have always found bugbears kinds boring but your delve into their mythos has given me a new found appreciation for this classic beastie. Thank you.

[@TheMythkeeper]

You're welcome!

[@israelmorales4249]

then again you surprise me with your knowdldge, the hobgoblin sounds like a terrifying monster for low levels now! THANKS!

[@EricVanWinkle]

Your combination of real and game-world research is excellent. Already following several lore channels, this is the first I've followed for Pathfinder, but I'm hooked!

[@TheMythkeeper]

🎉🥳🎉

[@redfaux74]

Same

[@ishmiel21]

I discovered your channel a few days ago and I have been binging your episodes ever since. I think this is my new favorite Pathfinder channel. You do such amazing, in-depth work and I absolutely love it. Thank you so much!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Welcome to the channel! Thank you so much for the kind words

[@mrredoak1008]

Great stuff as always super excited to see all the growth for you after your shout out on how it's played

[@TheMythkeeper]

I wasn't even aware of this! Thanks for the heads up!

[@Grevnor]

Arguably the best reimagining Paizo ever did was the Oni. Instead of just "eastern ogres" or "another name for ogre mages", they went back to Shinto to tie the Oni back into their spiritual origin, AND AT THE SAME TIME tied Oni to physical beings, most specifically giants, and sonehow made it all work. The Oni are what drove me to actually read my first AP, Jade Regent, and I've been in love with Paizo's Oni ever since.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I hope I do them justice when I get around to my Oni & Kami religion video!

[@byronkooper]

I've seen your content before and made a mental note to watch it later but I forgot. Glad I found this video. You have an absolutely awesome presentation of the material. I really like the dark and gritty elements of Golarion but you present it in such a factual and non-biased perspective which is amazing. I also like how you include the "uncommon" societies that break the norms and gives an explanation for player character ancestries.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks for the praise Byron, I really appreciate it.

[@Lcirex]

And just as I was wondering if you would mention Oni. There it was right on que. Weirdly never had a player want to be a half giant. But I did have one want to be half Oni as they show up in Japanese mythology.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Half-Oni is great! In Pathfinder that's called a Hunger-spawn Tiefling ;-)

[@kintire]

I always think its interesting to trace the folkloric connections that make modern monsters. The Old English word that Ettin comes from, Eoten, appears only once in the surviving literature, referring to Grendel whose strength and invulnerability are a likely inspiration for trolls. And whose name is the origin of Grindylow... a bit of a comedown from the Beowulf version!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Haha! I'll keep that fact in my backpocket should I ever make a Grindylow creature feature.

[@AmericanAurochs]

This is an interesting collection of monsters. I like it.

[@RainbowLizardOne]

I'm wondering if you'll cover some of the changes that are going to be made to the lore with the release of the PF2e Remaster series and the abandoning of OGL DnD material? There's definitely some large changes, and I'd be curious about the scope of them.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I will, but I'm going to wait until the new books come out to comment. I suspect a lot of the changes will be superficial name changes that they've already started to do previously to distinguish their own IP. For example the Aboleths in Pathfinder are technically called the Algollthus, and the Kytons in Pathfinder are called Velstracs. I've heard that drow are going away for example, but I'm sure we'll get some version of dark elf all the same.

[@redfaux74]

Another excellent video. ❤ I'm old 2E school. This is where DnD should've gone.

[@tomkerruish2982]

I hope you do misfit monsters at some point. I like that roughly half of them originate in the first edition Fiend Folio.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Haha! Yeah I will defintely try to work those in.

[@ColinGrym]

Thank you once again for the work you clearly put into these deep dives! I like to leave a comment on videos I enjoy for the algorithm, and while hearing you talk about trolls I could not help but think about the planarian flatworm that actually exists. Real-world biology is obviously off-topic for this channel, but the regenerative powers of these worms sounds like something out from Pathfinder/DnD (albeit while working at a slower pace than, say, a troll's regeneration) and I figured, "hey, why not point out an interesting similarity?" If a planarian is cut into pieces each section will regenerate into a new, complete worm and remarkably each new worm will carry forward things the original learned. The record that I know of is a single worm cut into 279 sections, each which grew into a whole new planarian. What's more, each piece keeps it's orientation in regards to the rest of the new body - a head section becomes the same section of head, tails become tails, etc. Their regenerative powers are so comprehensive that they have a type of immortality - if not eaten or destroyed by environmental conditions they do not die of old age and there said to be no such thing as an "old" planarian. These planarians reproduce by tearing themselves in half, and the creatures in labs today are in physical continuity with single undying worms tearing themselves apart into progeny for literally hundreds of millions of years (as opposed to going through generations of "bottlenecks" of single reproductive cells like humans, etc.) If anyone wants to know more, like medical research being done on planarian regeneration, I'd highly recommend the KZbin interview Lex Fridman had with Michael Levin in October 2022 and finding the timestamp about planaria. The hope is to eventually give human's the regrowth powers of a troll, if hopefully not the aesthetics :)

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks for the comment. I have seen that interview and its fascinating. The work being done on bio-electric systems using the Planarians as test subjects is absolutely wild.

[@lkriticos7619]

Lindsay Nikole has some videos on hammerhead worms you might like, if you haven't seen them already.

[@ColinGrym]

@@lkriticos7619 Thanks! I'll check it out. I never suspected worms with superpowers lol

[@frederickgleicher1385]

Was fun watch and listen too ! Now I have some inspiration for the next adventure, maybe an Ogre or two ? Hmmm...

[@TheMythkeeper]

Ogres always make great villains :-)

[@rub-al-khali4265]

Great video 👏

[@beardyben7848]

Your videos feed this wonder that led me to love myths and legends when I was a kid, and which ultimately led me to role playing games. I will also say that I have fallen in love with a setting of Golarian because of your videos.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks Beardy, comments like this keep me working hard on the vids. 😀

[@irvenman]

This just makes me want an official playable bug bear ancestry.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Honestly it shouldn't be that hard to do homebrew-wise. A repentent bugbear is a pretty cool character concept. Putting his stealth and cunning to work on the side of the angels.

[@jamesadamsfl]

Oh, I have so much to say! First, great video. I especially love the way Gnolls and Ettins have developed much like Orcs to have more bending tribes. Secondly, I love the idea of Half-Giants as Ogre ancestors and their connection to the Dragon Empires. It fits within the established lore and offers intriguing possibilities. I like that you draw a connection between Bugbears and the Fae, though I personally suspect a more Fiendish influence. Either way, it makes sense to me why these creatures are so innately evil as well as innately magical. Lastly, since you love discussing the real world origins of these creatures, I have to say that I feel any discussions of Trolls is incomplete without mentioning Poul Anderson’s novel, “Three Hearts and Three Lions,” which I think is the source of the idea of Trolls having high-speed regenerative powers and being vulnerable to fire comes from.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hey! Thank you so much for the Poul Anderson detail. One of the things I've enjoyed so much about having this channel is when I get to learn cool new things from my subscribers!

[@jamesadamsfl]

Honestly, this book doesn’t get enough credit for the influence it had on Gaygax and the earliest DND adventures. Also, the book is kind of fun. A couple of it’s ideas are overly simplified (My pet peeve is associating the Nazis with the forces of Chaos. This makes no sense. They were authoritarians; authoritarians are all about using the mechanisms of law and order to seize power. Heck one of the characters even says America sounds likely should be associated with Chaos because of how democracy works!), but overall, it’s an imaginative, thoughtful, and entertaining story of adventure, growth and self-discovery, and fish-out-of-Water shenanigans.

[@Christopher_Pug]

Mmmm, monsters for breakfast! 😋

[@TheMythkeeper]

Haha! You're very welcome 🙂

[@xomox5316]

Knolls are my favorite probably because they are not a retelling, and their social/tribal behavior make sense. Its not just random traits being tossed in. also Minotaurs are just dumb

[@Уробо́рос-м1й]

мне понравилось ! лайк и комментарий , для алгоритмов ютуба =)

[@DaDunge]

I always wondered where the idea that trolls regenerate come from, it's nowhere in the nordic myths. Then again I remember no stories where they are turned to stone by sunlight either. Usually it's the sound of church bells that hurt them or turn them to stone not sunlight

[@koboldlord]

@DaDunge. It comes from the book "Three Swords and Three Lions," by Poul Anderson. That book was on Gary Gygax's appendix N, inspiration for DnD. :) Because Gary did it, we still do it later.

[@DaDunge]

@@koboldlordtrolls really are all over the place. I will never get how we got from John Bauer to say the warcraft trolls.

[@dylanstober8959]

Big fan! Keep it up

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thank you sir!

[@skyfatherproductions4929]

Had an idea for your regional maps videos, be cool if we can send our maps to you. Doesn't have to be a comp only for fun. Food for thought✌️

[@TheMythkeeper]

Sure I'm happy to feature your maps if they make sense for the video. Send me a DM over instagram (you can find my insta on the channel details). You can reach me directly that way.

[@MyCampaignRules]

I love all your videos. Working on an adventure and would love to know more about the koblaks.... what books can I get with koblaks?

[@TheMythkeeper]

I’m not sure which APs might feature them but the book linked in the description includes there abilities. You can also find them on d20pfsrd and related resources

[@nicholascerillo4000]

So much cool information here! But I can’t seem to find the source for all of the stuff discussed. For example, where is it written in the sources that Bugbears can literally smell fear?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Check the link in the description. ;-)

[@redfaux74]

I like the idea of Bugbears being Orcs with Werewolf blood in their lineage somewhere. That gives it logic to smell fear and their extra hair. This would make the "Sasquatch mythology" very scary in the game. Sneaky....

[@Jo-Heike]

I have some suggestions for future Creature Features. Dragons, animals (mundane, unique, beastly, giant/dire, intelligent), elemental and also something including Xulgaths (mostly got these suggesting from the Pathfinder Beginner Box which uses some of this classics, starting with Giant Rats in the basements).

[@TheMythkeeper]

I can promise you Dragons is definitely coming. That one is much requested. Elementals is a great idea too. I'll see what i can do about those pesky xulgaths!

[@joshwills5202]

Great video as always was wondering if you have plans to fo a regenal vieo on vudra

[@TheMythkeeper]

Vudra and Iblydos and a few other regions not covered in the Inner Sea or Tian-Xia world guides will come out eventually, but I'm going to prioritize those regions where more games are likely to take place first. Stay tuned though, I'll get there eventually.

[@lorenburnham821]

Icarus covers half my arm

[@warmonger5950]

More monster please

[@TheMythkeeper]

🤣

[@scottlette]

That’s a Wizard’s job. Union rules.

[@dragon200ism]

On the subject of half- giants the advanced bestiary does have a template for them with this description. Most true giants view their ability to procreate with other races and other kinds of giants as a curse upon their kind. A few kinds of giants, however, view the ability to breed with other races as a gift. No matter how an individual giant feels about mating with other races, the fact remains that they are physically capable of procreating with nearly any creature of naturally humanoid form. Such a union produces a child with most of the traits of its non-giant parent, or of the mother if both parents are giants. Giant parentage often results in increased size and strength, and it bestows the giants‘ famous knack for throwing boulders. The giant size of a giantblood dilutes in just one generation, however; the children of non-giant/giantblood pairs display no trace of giant heritage except perhaps strangely colored hair, skin, or eyes. Similarly, the children of a giant and a half-giant show few signs of the non-giant grandparent’s blood. In addition to their strength and size, a giantblood often exhibits other physical traces of their giant parent’s heritage. There is also the disturbing ogre-kin.

[@SonicSanctuary]

Ah see I wondered what trolls do when they meet ogres

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah they don't get along at all.

[@dragon200ism]

I know with the current news its more than a bit late. But have you considered doing an episode on PFs Drow. Maybe as i kinda send off to everyones favorites evil elves.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I'm going to wait and see... because just because the drow are gone doesn't necessarily mean we won't get some form of dark elves.

[@dragon200ism]

@@TheMythkeeper that's true. I hope we do, the drow have always been a personal favorite for me. So I was super sad to hear there gone. So hopefully we get Deep elves or something.

[@valvadis2360]

@@dragon200ism I read there will be a kind of darklands/cave-dwelling elf still, there's even a new name for the ethnicity, but they will no longer be an Evil Empire that expands across the Darklands, that honor is being given to the Sekmin/Serpentfolk. But the Cave Elfs will still be there.

[@hansleveknecht7981]

I think Gnolls should be slightly reworked in Pathfinder because of the biology of Hyenas. Female Hyenas are bigger than males and are leaders of their pack. For a long time many explorers thought there are only male Hyenas, because of their special reproductive organs that look in both cases nearly identical for both male and female.

[@TheMythkeeper]

That's the case in the game too. Female gnolls are the larger and more aggressive gender in gnoll culture.

[@hansleveknecht7981]

Thank you. I thought I only you only said Something about their female leadership.

[@wolfmunroe]

I just watched this video start-to-finish. I was familiar with a lot of the stuff already, as I'm a lore junky, but I was not familiar with the regional information for regions of gnolls and harpies, and the various variants of ogres. I like to own the source books I draw from, so I'd like to know, what source is used for the geographical regions of the monsters?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its mainly from the Classic Fantasy Monsters sourcebook I refer to in the video description, though obviously that doesn't cover all the creature types. I have a digital copy of pretty much all the books, so I bounce around to collect the data. I don't always have an exhaustive list, but I'm trying to get better at citing sources.

[@wolfmunroe]

@@TheMythkeeper I have Classic Monsters Revisited (the book shown in the video). The geographical information definitely isn't from that one. I'm guessing it's probably from a Pathfinder 2e book I don't own, but it's also possible it's in a book I've overlooked. I don't own any 2e books but if there are some good monster ecology books for 2e, I'm interested in that.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@wolfmunroe Check Page 14, Gnolls in Golarion, you'll find an example of the content I used. In addition to that I supplemented with content from the 2E Mwangi Expanse sourcebook, which is excellent and I recommend even if you are still playing 1E.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Harpies have a similar section in the book "Mythical Monsters Revisited". All I'm doing really is taking old info, repackaging it, and creating maps to help people visualize where the locations are. As for the exact boundaries of the regions, I'm just using guesswork and heuristics.

[@wolfmunroe]

@@TheMythkeeper OK, that's what I wanted to know! You're generating the maps based on the information, not pulling the maps from somewhere. I was asking the source for the maps specifically. I thought you were drawing them from somewhere and I was like "I've never ran across any of those!"

[@orliag218]

well, it's lokks like looks like section about minotaurs is requir some updates now....

[@SeanSpeer]

No, you're the classic!

[@franklinrichards8851]

What to take the time to thank you for saying Hobgoblin and not Obgoblin. :)

[@TheMythkeeper]

Haha! Thanks

[@redfaux74]

I might dissent there... I like the sound of Obgob. 😅

[@Stealth0978]

You forgot final fantasy for sahagen

[@TheMythkeeper]

Very true!

[@alexsolomon7991]

Knows maybe marginally more civilized than the other monsters depicted in this particular movie but they are in fact quite evil they figured out a long time ago that for instance that they didn't have to invent metalworking when they can simply practice institutionalized slavery and trade people of other races or other tribes for that matter for whatever resources they need. There's some of lamashtu's favorites although goblins might try and argue the point. I should also point out that unlike goblins they have not received a politically correct makeover to make them poor misunderstood comedic relief... I've seen modules in Pathfinder involving good aligned .... Or at least non-evil ...tribes of goblins. I have not seen any such effort among the gnolls. Then again I haven't read as much second edition material having a general distaste for it so it wouldn't terribly surprise me to find they've gotten a facelift as well.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Check the Mwangi expanse book. There are some more neutral aligned Gnolls. I touch on this in the video here as well actually.