Underworld Races: Funglets
This supplement clocks in at 21 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 16 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
As with the other installments of the Underworld races-series, this one kicks off with a massive mythology of the subterranean races, a collective origin history that can be potentially transplanted from Aventyr into other settings, should one choose to do so. From there on, the funglets and their variants are described in evocative details that goes beyond the thankfully present age, height & weight tables before we delve into the racial traits of the funglets.
Funglets receive+2 Con and Int, Wis or Cha depending on the subtype and also -2 to Str and Dex. They are large plants with a base speed of 20 ft., have a reach of 10 ft, low-light vision, darkvision 90 ft and are dazzled in bright light, automatically also incurring a -2 penalty to all saves versus spells and effects with the light descriptor. They also receive a +1 natural armor bonus and a vulnerability to fire. Now I’ve mentioned subtypes – Audirefunglets receive +2 to Wis, Fantafunglets have a base speed of 30 feet, +2 natural armor bonus and +2 to Int and Maculasfunglets increase natural armor bonus to +2, +2 to Cha and are poisonous, weakening foes and damaging str.
Funglets also receive an extensive array of favored class options for just about all classes and we also receive information on fungal jungles. The material Boletann also deserves special mention – crafted from specially treated fungi, this material nets its wearers DR and acid resistance and makes for a cool, weird option to add to one’s arsenal. A total of 6 specific feats are also provided for funglets to expand their racial options: Vomiting forth poison or generating blooms of poisonous spores, burying one’s roots into the soil or duplicating tree shape and receiving improved capabilities regarding grappling and similar combat maneuvers via lianas or even handling small objects via these tendrils – a cool all killer, no filler array of stylish feats.
Now if that wasn’t cool enough, what about a great array of new fungoid symbiotic suits that you can wear? And then, there’s the mushroom domain – beyond fungal strides, this domain has one thoroughly iconic ability: Making caps of exploding shrooms that you can throw at your adversaries. No, I’m not kidding. Now if this is not enough – the respective exclusive spells the supplement offers is all killer…+1. Medicinal Mushrooms? Yep. What about melding your legs with a massive mushroom trunk and jump across the battlefield, ignoring (and not provoking) AoOs in one of the coolest modus-style-spells I’ve seen in any iteration of a d20-based system. It should also be noted that the offensive fungal spells, including carnivorous shrooms provide iconic imagery and that a massive mushroom apotheosis even comes with a cool little table of shroom-types generated. My one gripe here would be that the pdf does not provide the fungal alchemy and actual effects of these shrooms.
The pdf does conclude with the glorious CR 10 Fungal Golem as a brutal, deadly, cool adversary that includes all the information on construction et al.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no significant glitches, though a couple of bolding and similar minor glitches can be found herein. Layout adheres to a drop-dead-gorgeous two-column full-color standard with rocky borders and awesome graphic elements, making this a beautiful, if not very printer-friendly pdf. The plentiful original pieces of full color artwork throughout the pdf are nice. The pdf also comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.
Mike Myler and Julian Neale’s Funglets are AWESOME. That’s it. Get this. Now. Need it more detailed? All right. This may be a short pdf, but there is not ONE piece of lame or boring content herein. The feats do iconic things. The Funglets may be powerful, but still remain balanced choices that won’t break default racial power levels. Add to that the cool critter, the simply superb mushroom domain, and we have a great supplement that literally is all killer, no filler. Well worth 5 stars + seal of approval.
You can get these cool fungoid creatures here on OBS!
Endzeitgeist out.
