Mana Wastes Mutant

Finally, a monster that answers the question: Where do mongrelmen come from?  And: What happens if my game world goes all Gamma World?  And: Where can I get some really good acidic pustule action?

Mana Wastes mutants are found in spell-blasted lands, primal or (especially) dead magic zones, and places where magic has otherwise caused truly great devastation.  In Golarion, that’s the Mana Wastes (duh); in Eberron it would be the Mournland; in the Realms it would likely be in areas particularly badly hit by the Time of Troubles or the Spellplague.  The mutants are deformed but resilient creatures, permanently warped by the devastation they were born into but better able to survive because of their mutations. 

Whether you’re trying to do a fantasy version of Mad Max, your world’s version of a nuclear reactor just blew up, or you simply need a warped subterranean race where every member is a little different, Mana Wastes mutants are the bile-spewing horrors for the job.

It is an article of faith in Coravelle that the mutants of the Blasted Reach are mindless barbarians.  Moreover, sages say that none of them—not a one—have any magical talent.  So when a mage rises in the desert—a mystic theurge, no less—it sends Coravelle’s learned folk into a panic.  Meanwhile, out in the Blasted Reach mutants begin to flock to the theurge’s banner.

The pit fighter Groth Barnard’s body and mind were ruined when the Académie Luminaire boiled a quarter of the city in acid and magical fog.  Sickly and often vomiting acid, Groth takes out his anger at the world by smashing opponents (and anyone else who crosses him) with his elephantine arm.  He will also try to kill any mutated catfolk he sees on sight, as packs of the creatures tried to feed on him in the first days after the catastrophe.

When an elven aethership misjudged the jump out of the Astral and speared a duergar space citadel through its fission core, the results were a catastrophic.  Now only the first three levels of the citadel and the aethership’s botanics deck are uncorrupted.  The non-mutated survivors struggle to survive against waves of mutated survivors and particularly foul spriggans (whose presence in the radioactive nightmare no one can explain).

—Inner Sea Bestiary 28–29

The module Wardens of the Reborn Forge has even more Mana Wastes mutants if you’re looking for stat blocks to steal.

For what I presume are copyright reasons (the Mana Wastes being Golarion-specific IP), the OGC refers to this monster as a “Mana Wasted Mutant” (emphasis mine)—a name so 1994 I’m expecting Linkara’s ’90s Kid to come out shouting it while riding a snowboard.  “TO THE EXTREME!”

Also, if you’re looking for the mammoth flea, look here.

Apparently Paizo is on Tumblr now.  Welcome to the party!  Since you’re late, you have to play the cleric. 

(I’m pandering with that joke.  I actually like playing a cleric.)

My next few days could be problematic (for mostly good, fun reasons), so bear with me if entries are late/absent.

Finally: I AM HOLDING A CONTEST.  THE DETAILS ARE HERE.  I’ve already received two submissions, and they’re good, so you’ve got some competition.