Monster Menagerie: Troops by Jacob W. Michaels is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is part of the Monster Menagerie series of themed bestiaries.
This is a 22-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $4.95 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the Credits, Table of Contents and list of references and one page is the Open Game License.
The single page Introduction explains that the troop subtype is intended to allow GMs to run big battles for high level characters, without either having to side line most of the enemy or have them easily killed.
Troop Subtype recaps the troop subtype, which is handy. Next come the troops themselves.
The Centaur Warband can rain down hails of arrows and terrify enemies with their sound – all the troops have signature abilities.
The Goblin Raiding Party makes these creatures rather more dangerous, and they can rain down fire.
The Heavenly Host is the most powerful troop, a squad of angels that brings righteous fury to the battle.
Legion of the Damned is the only slightly less powerful lower plane variant, comprised of a mass of undead.
Mire Rumpus transforms a nuisance into a gnome and dwarf-hating menace.
Peasant Mob is the classic commoners armed with torches and pitchforks.
Sahuagin Frenzy provides an aquatic danger for those underwater adventures.
Secret Police Squad is the iron fist of dictatorships that aims to keep people alive. For questioning.
The Treant Grove should be familiar to anyone who knows what happened to Isengard.
The Toy Soldier Brigade is, naturally, a set of toy soldiers, but ones that work together, pretend to be toys and, despite not being evil, can be an erratic plaything. These are constructs, and therefore have their creation method included.
Warparty of the Fell Hunt is a fey raiding party.
Monster Menagerie: Troops in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with all the troops linked and the Table Contents is to a similar level of detail. Given the length, navigation is very good. The text maintains a two-column full colour layout and appeared to be free of errors. Each monster has its own, full colour, image, and the background is that of an open book. Presentation is excellent.
High level characters have frequently dealt with groups of monsters pretty easily in D&D and derived systems, even if more modern versions tend to lack the “kill a number of creatures equal to your level every round” mechanism seen in older versions for fighters going up against such as kobolds. High-level spells still lay waste to vast tracts of enemies. The troop subtype gets around that.
The troops included in this supplement are interesting. They all have good ranges of abilities, and they cover a range of combat levels. Despite their alignment, the Toy Soldier Troop is an excellent foe for horror adventures; lacking a child “master” they will seek out other creatures to obey. Monster Menagerie: Troops is a very good collection of creatures to cause problems for all levels of characters and it can be found by clicking here.
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