This book is excellent. It has a wide variety of creatures to suit all level campaigns and excellent artwork. The only criticism I have of this book is one that is common across all RPG's these days and that is the use of the generic ruling for types of creatures. For example, a creature listed as having Undead Traits FORCES you to look at a separate page for further rules on how to run the creature. To be a perfect creature catalogue you really need all the rules on the one page to save the time. I know this means repetitive printing and information and cost, but I would prefer it that way.

Otherwise, brilliant book :)

Much like my copy of the Core Rulebook, probably more so, I’m very glad that my 1st printing copy of the Bestiary was a gift, for I would’ve not purchased it. To sum up my thoughts as accurately as possible suffice it to say that I knew the book was not worth bothering with when my old roommate’s Yorkshire terrier decided it was a chew-toy while I was at work and I wasn’t upset when I found out about it.

My copy had the same poor physical quality and binding issues that my Core Rulebook had, meaning that it is already in multiple pieces after fairly light use. There is a long errata that seems to change just about every monster within which makes me honestly wonder if there was a proof-reading stage at all before this book was printed. It’s artwork was outstanding, but with the annoyingly bad physical and content quality that didn’t mean much.

Luckily the PRD houses the post-errata monsters sorted conveniently, so as long as I’m near a computer I never need to both with the book version of the Bestiary. And I suppose there are a few decent things to come out of this mess. The simple templates are useful and the chart of average monster statistics is handy since I generally like to build my own creatures anyways. These two things are the only reason this book warrants a second star.

Avoid it. It simply isn't a neccessary addition to the game and Paizo prints far better material to spend your hard earned cash on.

It's a big book of Monsters what more do you want (well more books of monsters of course)!

Read this book from cover to cover. It really brings the monsters to life, going well beyond just stat listings. Great monster choices. Fantastic art. Useful and interesting background material for adventures. Well indexed reference. It's got it all.

I love monsters, especially from mythology, in fact it was the secend edition monster manual that got me into D@D to begin with. So when I got this Beastiary, I was not disapointed, it was in many ways superior to the 3.5 monster manual wich is not an easy feat to do. While I do have some things to nit pick, like some monster choices or artwork, I am still very satisified with this product.

I received the pdF version for Christmas and I have been astounded by this book! The art's superb for the most part, the fact that it includes loads of tips for customizing the monsters, overall, it's great. As much as I like hardcover books (I'm a committed book collector), I love how the pdF is hyperlinked throughout. It makes navigating the book so easy. Great job, Paizo, on this pdF!

It began with the "Monster Manual." You expect there to be a book full of monster stat blocks. PFRPG has that, and this is it. What you get in addition are superbly drawn pictures of each monster, well designed (but not distracting) layout, plenty of use of the creature advancement and templating system, and some excellent use of pre-existing d20 OGL resources outside of the basic SRD monsters.

The only thing that I think is missing is a simple trade-off. I want more fluff, but this book is so full of creatures that there isn't enough room for it. Instead, Paizo is producing a line of fluff-heavy creature books such as Classic Horrors, Misfit Monsters, etc. which I'm eagerly gobbling up in order to add spice to my campaign world.

The Bestiary is the Monster Manual on steroids. Not only are the monsters deliniated in stats, but the flavor text sparks creative and fiendish ways to use them to abuse, erm, amuse your players. Check out my full review Pathfinder Bestiary

This is the most well-organized and beautifully illustrated "monster manual" I've ever bought. Everything about the book is amazing. The notes at the end for tips creating ones only monsters is also very useful to GMs wanting to create challenging, but fair monsters. The only complaint I have is that it stuck a bit too close to the 3.5 Monster Manual, so if you have that or like using the SRD, it may be considered a waste of money. Although the new stat blocks are a lot more useful than the poorly-organized 3.5 Monster Manual, so if that is worth $40 to you, go for it. I can't wait to see what Paizo has in store for the Bestiary 2.. maybe we'll see some original monsters in there (and some of the few Paizo left out).

Overall, well recommended for GMs!