Game: The Slayer’s Guide to Sahuagin
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 21st, January 2002
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10 [ Good ]
Total Score: 7
Average Score: 7.00
In case Seas of Blood and then the subsequent release of the Ships of the Goblinoids and the Ships of the Elves have failed too push you into the deep end of an aquatic adventure, the Slayer’s Guide to Sahuagin is here to make taking the plunge even more tempting.
The Slayer’s Guides from Mongoose Publishing are designed to beef up the information on those races of creatures that the players are too busy hacking through to stop and study. I’m not sure that applies to the Sahuagin though, I think many adventures will be too busy fleeing from the Sea Devils to study them properly. The Guide certainly succeeds in presenting these underwater nasties as a foe to be concerned about.
There’s actually quite a bit about the Sahuagin in the Monster Manual, there is a range of special abilities and certain modifications to be considered for the underwater race. Mutations also mark the Sea Devils, some being born with four arms and others, the malenti, are born looking like aquatic elves. The Slayer’s Guide does not ignore what’s already been said nor does it make such a meal out of the abnormalities of the race so that they become the focus of the book. Readers are told how the Sahuagin react to the mutants and how they’re then put into the extremely ordered social hierarchy.
It’s the social rules and rituals of the Sahuagin that make up the bulk of the Slayer’s Guide. Social rules which equate nicely into a roleplaying game world. The book expands the theological aspect of the Sea Devils and uses that to help foster the concept that the Sahuagin absolutely hate the land dwellers. It works. Even in a high fantasy game I’m sure that the Sahuagin and their “eat or be eaten” rule of life will come across as an alien species.
There’s a strange feudal meritocracy that binds the Sea Devils together. Sahuagin Barons, Princes and Kings rule over increasingly large and impressive underwater villages, towns and cities. Progression through the ranks of the Sea Devil society is primal in nature, eat or be eaten taken to a literal truth. The King of a Sahuagin city was once a Prince who challenged and defeated the previous King in combat. The old king simply shared out as a meal, now considered to have returned to the Deity It That Is Eaten and quickly forgotten. Before the cannibal Sahuagin was a Prince he would have been a Baron who challenged and killed his Prince, before he was Baron he might have been a notable and powerful warrior. This survival and promotion of the strongest Sahuagin starts from the second they hatch from their eggs and devour their brothers and sisters for food. Sahuagin females, known as cows, are no less primal. In fact the Priestesses that watch over the hatcheries of eggs actively encourage such brutal pruning of the weaker stock. The preferred character class for the female Sahuagin is Cleric and there is similar hierarchy of Priestess positions that the cows challenge for all the way up to the Royal High Priestess and advisor to the King.
The Sea Devils have a strange affinity with sharks. Well, on the surface the connection with sharks would not appear to be strange at all; the two species appear to be very similar but on examination you discover that is not true. Additionally, all other intelligent sea life (from dolphins to merfolk) hate the Sahuagin. Slayer’s Guides typically start with a physiology section and this holds true with this one. Sharks, the author notes correctly, have calcified, cartilaginous bone structures whereas the Sahuagin have real bones. There are other notable differences in anatomy too, to do with bladders and the storage of air rather than the obvious ones with the Sea Devils clearly having arms and legs. There’s only speculation at the origin of the Sahuagin, this is what I like as it gives GMs the freedom to add mystery to their games. Given, though, this connection with the sharks I know I’ll be doing something with that.
Prestige classes and special Sahuagin feats, they’re there too. Why not? Just because the Sahuagin don’t really cut it as a suitable race for a player character doesn’t mean that their NPCs have to dull and lifeless. I thought some of the subtler points of the prestige classes worked as their greatest strength. Not in terms of munchkin strength but in terms of flavour. The Sea Devils, for example, are prone to terrible blood frenzies when they’re wounded in combat. The elite Royal Guard of the King are better able to control and resist the frenzy. High Priestesses are able to sing the Deep Song and project her voice great distances through the water. The bonuses, therefore, are suitable for the class and the environment of the Sea Devils and not just hacked around land-lubber style abilities.
Another thankfully common addition in the Slayer’s Guide series is the Scenario Hooks & Ideas section. I thought this section was especially important for this book as it might be hard to involve the Sea Devils in any sensible but not fatal way into your game. The ideas presented though are pretty good and range from making the Sahuagin the primary opponents to your players to briefer but no less gentle encounters with them. There’s even a sample Sahuagin village at the back of the book (sample villages have been seen before in the Slayer’s Guides, the Centaurs for example). I thought showing the sudden drop of a sea floor shelf made a lot more sense than a scribbling of huts with a note to remind the reader that this is all supposed to be under water.
In my last review of a Mongoose book, Ships of the Elves I commented that I was growing increasingly pleased with my handy reference of sample character stats near the back of the books. I hadn’t seen this Slayer’s Guide at the time. Phew. I’ve managed to avoid getting egg on my face since there’s a good collection of Sea Devil samples here too, including the rather excellently named Talking-talking-talk-to-gods.
