Review – Remarkable Races: the Anumus

Remarkable Races: the Anumus (Player Character Race) – Pathway to Adventure Edition is an 18-page PDF (16 after cover and OGL) for Pathfinder written by J. Matthew Kubisz and published by Alluria Publishing.  This is part of Alluria’s Remarkable Races line which they have been adapting to the Pathfinder system.

The layout is a clear two-column design, though there are a few sections where the text is greyed by it closeness to the illustration, this does not overly affect readability but is noticeable.  There are six pieces of art, all of which is quite nice, very thematic and in full-color.

The Anumus are a semi-anthropomorphic race (human bodies with animal heads and traits).  Well, actually a set of races, created by magic from common animals (and new Anumus are created only by magic, as the race itself is sterile).  The background for them makes them surprisingly easy to incorporate into most campaigns, if possibly away from the beaten path, and opens an interesting set of adventure hooks. The Anumus have a basic set of abilities common to all of them and a second set of abilities based on what animal they are created from (Cat Anumus are charming yet impulsive while Reptiles are strong of focus but slow of thought, for example) from a choice of eleven.  A simple yet effective way to model the differences between the various sub-races of the Anumus.

Seven new feats are provided to customize the Anumus further, some of which are tied to various abilities possessed only by a few of the sub-races.  A new prestige class, the Pharaoh, which is tied into the history of the Anumus is presented.  It seems balanced and possesses good roleplaying and adventure related hooks.

Six new animal related magic items are presented.  As are eleven statistic blocks, one for each of the Anumus subtypes at 1st level.  The product concludes with a short discussion of the how to use Anumi (the plural of Anumus apparently) in a campaign.

An interesting and intriguing work, though some of the individual sub-races may need minor tweaks depending on the campaign.  But if you have a place for such an unusual race in your campaign world, the Anumus is well worth a look.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher.