Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (OGL)
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Here there be monsters!

What is a hero without monsters to vanquish? This 328-page book presents hundreds of different creatures for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome you'll find fire-breathing dragons and blood-drinking vampires, vile demons and shapechanging werewolves, sadistic goblins and lumbering giants, and so much more! Yet not all the creatures in this book are enemies, for some can serve lucky heroes as allies or advisors, be they summoned angels or capricious nymphs. And it doesn't stop there—with full rules for advancing monsters, adapting monsters to different roles, and designing your own unique creations, you'll never be without a band of hideous minions again!

The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary is the must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary includes:

  • More than 350 different monsters
  • Dozens of monstrous variants to modify creatures and keep players on their toes
  • Numerous lists of monsters to aid in navigation, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
  • Extensive rules for creating effective and balanced monsters
  • Rules for advancing monsters by hit dice, template, or class level
  • Universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and qualities like breath weapons, damage reduction, and regeneration
  • More than a dozen feats tailored especially for monsters
  • Suggestions for monstrous cohorts
  • Two dozen additional animal companions
  • More than a dozen different wandering monster encounter tables
  • ... and much, much more!

Available Formats

The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary is available as:

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60125-183-1

Errata
Last Updated - 9/12/2011

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

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Without Opponents, Combat Sure Wouldn't Be Much Fun!

5/5

Bestiaries are Pathfinder's version of the D&D Monster Manuals: reference books containing descriptions and stat-blocks for hundreds of new creatures for PCs to battle, bother, or befriend. They're not designed to be read cover to cover, but that's exactly what I did for this review. The Bestiary weighs in at 327 pages and contains (according to the back-cover) over 350 different monsters arranged in alphabetical order.

The book starts with a two-page Introduction, and it's actually worth reading because it explains what the (28!) different categories of information in a creature's stat block mean. It also introduces the the "Monster Icons" scheme, wherein each monster receives three different icons to visually denote its creature type, terrain, and climate. I like the idea of the icons, but I find them too small and similar to be useful, and I'm not interested in flipping back to page 5 too figure out what they mean. I'm happy just reading the corresponding entries in the stat block.

For monsters, we start with Aasimar on page 7 and run through until Zombie on page 289. This is what the book is all about, but it's a challenging thing to review as my notes are full of bits of scattered remarks about dozens of different monsters. As I can't figure out a coherent way to synthesize them, I'm going to take the unusual tack of just including them as a sort of impressionistic picture of what's in the book. Skim to the bottom for more of the review.

"A"

--aboleths are a lot tougher than CR might indicate!

--Not officially Golarion, but flavour in entries generally compatible

--backdoor cosmology with angels stuff

--really good write-up of Solar Angels

--Army Ant Swarms are pretty nasty!

--like archons--I've never really seen them used outside of summoning, when no RP is involved

--azatas: CG celestials

Bs

--cool how barghests become greater!

--bebiliths: wow, awesome art for an awesome creature!

--bugbear artwork is weird, but fascinating bit on "The Nature of Goblinoid Evil"

Cs

--creepy Choker

--good mixture of animals and various types of monsters

--a lot of classic ones, but some new ones (like chuul) as well

--like history of cyclops and flash of insight power

Ds

--dark folk and dark stalkers?!?! humanoid subtype with language--never heard of them...

--demons! Good, engaging, clear explanation

--don't argue with a balor demon!

--great stories for demons--quasit familiars taking master's souls!

--devils! emphasis on hierarchy

--a good variety of tough foes, with lots of HP and resistances

--great writeup of lemure devils

--fantastic artwork all the way through!

--Devourers are pretty nasty for their CR!

--too many dinosaurs!

--dragons! stat blocks are so long, there's very little description

--driders and drow: underused

E

--elementals

F

--familiar (no idea that was here!)

--froghemoth--really?

G

--gelatinous cubes are really dangerous!

--genies

--love Shaitan genie art

--ghosts: emphasis on story-based customization, 2 page spread

--Giants!

--fun gibbering mouthers artwork

--goblins

--golems

Hs

--half- templates

--occasionally the titles aren't the most intuitive: "Herd animal, bison" for example

--need full stats for combat-trained horses

Is

--intellect devourer--WTF!

Ks

--kytons are cool/creepy

Ls

--lamia artwork is regrettable

--lich: gotta have 'em!

--linnorms are nasty, especially curses and poison!

--lycanthrope template

Ms

--medusas, minotaurs, mimics--all the classics!

--mummy rot sure is nasty!

Ns

-- nagas look dumb

--neothelids are intriguing! need more

--nymphs have cool boons

Os

--Oni need better explanation

Ps

--good amount of player detail for pegasi

Rs

--rakhasa: a lot of potential in the right campaign

--retrievers are scary

--rust monsters!

Ss

--sea hag artwork is great! (and evil eye comatose ability!)

--shadows can be quite more lethal than CR

--touch ACs are so low because of artificial natural armor bonuses, making Alchemists and Gunslingers especially powerful

--shoggoths arent very scary for CR19

--skum have surprisingly interesting write-up

--giant slugs too goofy

Ts

--tarrasque: bad pic, underwhelming

--troglodyte pic is great!

Us

Vs

--vampires: elaborate template

--vargouille's kiss is nasty

Ws

Xs

--xills are awesome!

Zs

--zombie pic is hilarious

Hm, that was embarrassing. Sorry!

After the monster entries are a series of appendices, and these definitely add value to the book.

Appendix 1 is Monster Creation, and it offers a very thorough and clear guide to monster creation. There are a *lot* of moving parts to creating balanced monsters in Pathfinder, so this will take some time until you get the hang of it. Appendix 2 is Monster Advancement, and this is another important part of the book because it shows GMs how to adjust creatures in the book to make them more or less powerful by adding simple templates (like "Giant" or "Young") and by adding racial hit dice or class levels. Appendix 3 is the section of the book I use more than any other, and it's indispensable: Universal Monster Rules. In order to save space and avoid repetition in stat blocks, common monster abilities are fleshed out here: everything from Darkvision to Damage Reduction to Incorporeal and more. Only very, very experienced GMs should try to run creatures just from the stat blocks without remembering to double-check what their monster abilities do, precisely, in the Universal Monster Rules. The same appendix also contains creature Types and Subtypes, which are like packages of basic information that all creatures of a particular category, such as demons or animals, share. Again, this is to save space in stat blocks. Appendix 4 is very short, and provides some advice on Monsters as PCs. I've never used it. Appendix 5 is Monster Feats, though some PCs may actually legitimately use some of them like Craft Construct. If you notice that a monster has a feat you can't find in the Core Rulebook, that's probably because it's listed here. Appendices 6 and 7 list Monster Cohorts (for the Leadership feat) and Animal Companions (for druids and rangers), respectively. Appendices 8-12 are indexes that help a GM who is looking for monsters of a particular type, CR, terrain, etc. Really useful information that most people who just use online databases probably never realized was available. Finally, Appendix 14 contains Encounter Tables broken up by terrain. These include average CRs for an each table, but I still think it'd be foolish to actually roll on them: in a Hill/Mountain, region, for example, your PCs could run into CR 3 orcs or CR 12 fire giants. A party that is challenged by the former would be curb-stomped by the latter. Good random encounter table design needs to have a narrow range of CRs before they become feasible.

I'm not a huge monster guy like some people, but I definitely enjoyed reading the Bestiary and I learned a lot about the core monsters of the setting. I know there are five later books that expand the selection far more, but much of what I see in APs and PFS still draws from this book. Along with the Core Rulebook, it's safe to say that the Bestiary was one of the releases that helped to solidify Paizo's reputation as a company that publishes the highest calibre of RPG books in terms of writing quality, artwork, design, and layout. It's not indispensable since there are multiple websites that present the same information, but for ease of use (and the joy of skimming), the Bestiary is one of those books that every GM should have.


It all starts here babee

5/5

One only two books you require to jump in and play Pathfinder, it is the essential meat in the gaming stew. As important and the core rulebook is, it is nothing with out this work.

Expanded and tweaked off the OGL 3.x material, its cleaner, better organized and tweaked for the Pathfinder rules. Every hero needs a foe, every damsel in distress needs a captor, and every GM needs a source of badies to keep the group on their toes. You will find it all here, between these pages is years of destruction and mayhem.

No matter if you playing Pathfinders own setting, one of your own design and creation, or another publishers material, this is the must have companion to your CRB.


They need more monsters

5/5

not as useful as the advanced raced guide for the monsters you could play as it does have a lot. i own this and well do my best to keep it hidden from my players. they keep trying to make them fight dragons... they are lvl 5


great reference book

5/5

This book has all the monsters you would need on a starting campaine


The standard by which all monster products will be judged by.

5/5

By now, there are several Bestiaries out in print, but when this book first came out you arguably needed to own it to play the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Was it worth the purchase? Decide for yourself!

Crunch
When we talk about a book's crunch, we're looking at its game rules, mechanics, and similar stats. As a monster book, the Bestiary is 99% crunch, and for Paizo's first real Bestiary, it is absolutely fantastic. There isn't a whole lot you can really say about monster stat blocks; they work perfectly and there aren't any monsters that feel ridiculous for their challenge rating (CR). The book also includes several new races that are appropriate for player characters; in this book, we have aasimars, the tieflings, and drow, as well as the applicable but seldom appropriate deurgar, drow noble, and svirfneblin. The book stays true to the rules of its predecessors; when you look at a drow, you recognize it as a drow from previous games. Because of the significant power up that the core races received these classically "OP" races aren't very far out of line with your traditional player characrers, and as a result we don't see the Level Adjustment system in Pathfinder. If you're unfamiliar with the term, in older editions of Dungeons and Dragons, some races were deemed so powerful that you had to actually forgo class levels in order to be a member of the race. For example, if you wanted to play a drow, you had a LA of +1, meaning that your race counted as 1 class level when determining your party's level. This either meant you were more powerful than your friends or (and more commonly) your GM had you start at a lower level to compensate. And believe me, it is not fun to be a sorcerer of an LA race because of how far behind your party is! The racial benefits seldom made up for the loss of character levels and it was a pretty terrible mechanic all around, so good riddance.

Although the book's theme is classic monsters, Paizo manages to add its own spin on fantasy games by including weird and amazing monsters. A perfect example is the froghemoth, which is basically a giant aberrant frog-monster. As a huge Lovecraft fan, I was ecstatic to see monsters like the shoggoth creep up in Pathfinder as well. For a first Bestiary, the spread of monsters is well-chosen and you could definitely run a game with only this book if you really wanted to.

What probably amounts to the best change of all, in my opinion, is the changes to the rules for building your own monsters. These rules are difficult to comprehend and enact in other games, but the Paizo team does an excellent job of laying out step-by-step every detail in crafting your own monsters by including handy charts and tables. For a game that knew it wasn't launching with much material and that it wanted to be backwards-compatible with older products, it was a very wise choice to streamline monster-making as much as they did and its probably the best reason to keep a copy of Bestiary I in your library alongside future monster tomes. 5 /5 Stars.

Flavor
When we talk about a product's flavor, we're talking about its fiction content, its style, and its overall feel. This section is always very opinionated, because even though I whole-heartily enjoy Lovecraft and his works, there are those who don't like their minds thrust into insanity and the mere sight of a shoggoth or whatnot. When you read the Bestiary, the one thing that becomes very clear is that there simply is not much room for flavor. Most monsters get a paragraph and a half of descriptive text and a beautiful picture, but that's about it. Honestly, however, that's all this product needs. The monsters that are detailed are classic monsters, so the information provided about them tends to be enough that classic gamers can recognize the creature for what it is and new players can get a sense of wonder and learn enough about the monster to be on the same page with the veterans. The art is fabulous in this book and supplements the descriptions perfectly, even when the monster concept is weird text-wise a beautiful illustration helps to sell it to you personally.

The elephant in the room is that Pathfinder wants to have its own identity as much as it wants to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors. This means that every so often the Paizo team completely re-imagines and redefines the traits of a specific monster. Usually this happens to a relatively unknown or under used monster (we'll talk more about this in Bestiary III), but there is one monster in particular that is relatively well-known and got the Paizo makeover in a big way. That monster, which has become Paizo's mascot of sorts, is the goblin. To give a little bit of background, traditionally goblins have admittedly lacked character; they were little more than evil halflings in most settings. Paizo's very first adventure path, Rise of the Runelords, shook this up by drastically changing the image of the goblin; they were now psychotic savages who were obsessed with fire and scared of dogs and horses. They sang Children of the Corn style songs about death and murder and often filled a role as comic relief in many of the adventures they have been featured in while simultaneously managing to inspire fear and terror in many a party. In my experience, you either love or you hate the new look of goblins. Many classic gamers that I've played with deplore the "new" goblin if only for the art design; big heads, small bodies. Honestly, however, it doesn't bother me much; my gaming generation includes Warcraft's techno-suicidal goblins and Warhammer's hordes of insane, suicidal goblins; next to those, Paizo's take on the goblin fits in rather nicely.

For being limited to several paragraphs of text per monster, the Bestiary gives you everything you'd expect and more flavor-wised. Its a book of monsters that feel threatening and believable; there's nothing too dumb or too far out there unless you're a hard-core medieval traditionalist. 5 /5 Stars.

Texture
When we talk about a book's texture, we're talking about its grammar and layout, among other things. As someone who has actually sat down to try and write a bestiary, let's be clear that if there's one thing I get, its that stat blocks are HARD. They're hard to format, they're hard to standardize, they're even hard to spell check because of the sheer amount of text that a book like the Bestiary has. All of its complex jargon, half of it made of surreal naming conventions. With all this mind, if there's one place that the Bestiary is amazing, its the texture. There is almost no errors of any kind in this document. Perfect grammar. Perfect spelling conventions. Perfect formatting. Everything is perfect.

As you can see in the picture I included, the Bestiary breaks from traditional monster books in that it limits one monster page, with only a few exceptions (mostly animals and familiars). There is extreme attention to detail in the text placement, and its very impressive that the book manages to be as descriptive as it is with as little space as it has; almost every monster is illustrated, after all, so not only are you juggling stat blocks, but you're also juggling them with text descriptions and illustrations. This book is a marvel of editing and layout and nothing less. 5 /5 Stars.

Final Score & Thoughts
Crunch: 5 / 5
Flavor: 5 / 5
Texture: 5 / 5
Final Score: 5 / 5

This book does everything right. It is the shining star by which all monster-based products should be judged. For a first attempt, Paizo smashes their monster book out of the park, past all expectations. It makes me excited to start looking at the future Bestiary products.


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Will buy it.

Liberty's Edge

I hope they add a PF Dungeon Masters Guide Equivalent also. I really do not want to buy the 3.5 DMG yet again.


memorax wrote:
I hope they add a PF Dungeon Masters Guide Equivalent also. I really do not want to buy the 3.5 DMG yet again.

It's my understanding that the PFRPG book released in August 2009 will combo the PHB and the DMG.

Liberty's Edge

I hope you are right about that Lilith. I like what I see with PF and while I enjoyed 3.5 I really don't want to invest in it again. Not unless I have too. Which kind of makes sense imo and explains why the book will be so large in size.


memorax wrote:
I hope you are right about that Lilith. I like what I see with PF and while I enjoyed 3.5 I really don't want to invest in it again. Not unless I have too. Which kind of makes sense imo and explains why the book will be so large in size.

Lilith is correct here; various Paizo people have said (somewhere) that the core book will replace both the PH and DMG, with a separate MM (this). The free Beta download already contains some DMG information, although I hope that there will be more in the final version.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

ehb1022 wrote:
Does this need to be ordered separately or is it part of one of the subscription series?

It is not currently part of any subscription... but we reserve the right to change that before the product is released!

The Exchange

Kill for a beta copy? Right Paizo? Fans playtest monsters? Just a thought.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Necessary Evil wrote:
Kill for a beta copy? Right Paizo? Fans playtest monsters? Just a thought.

The Bestiary won't have a public playtest. Once we have the Pathfinder RPG rules nailed down, making monsters compatible with those rules will be easy for our guys. Also, since this book is due out *before* the finished RPG, there's really no time for such a thing in the development cycle.


Very interesting, but I was wondering if, at some point in the future, we could see a sample stat block of a monster? I'm curious to know what exactly Paizo has improved on the stats, descriptions, and layout from the WotC manuals.

I would basically just like to know if this book is worth purchasing when I already have 4 monster manuals of 3rd edition sitting on my shelf.

Dark Archive

Ok I'll bite the bullet and ask the question that needs asking.

I already own MM1. Are the critters in here gonna be that different? Probably too early to tell I suppose.

Haha see the post above mine! I'm with ya on that one brotha. I got no problem buying fine paizo products but I'd feel sorta lame if it's too much the same...

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Aarontendo wrote:

Ok I'll bite the bullet and ask the question that needs asking.

I already own MM1. Are the critters in here gonna be that different? Probably too early to tell I suppose.

Haha see the post above mine! I'm with ya on that one brotha. I got no problem buying fine paizo products but I'd feel sorta lame if it's too much the same...

It's still a bit early to be definitive about such things, but you may want to skim this thread—especially posts from James Jacobs and Erik Mona—to learn a bit more about what we have in mind.

Scarab Sages

Pete Whalley wrote:

You know, only one thing could make this cooler. If every single gribblie were to be illustrated by WAR.

Of course, that's unpossible...but it'd be sooo cool.

A WAR cover containing all 250+ monsters...THAT would make it cooler

Liberty's Edge

Rah! Pathfinder forever-the new D&D!

The Exchange

Wow, I wonder if this will be the standard for making a gamers monster manual dream. May it please have built in tabs. May we please pay whatever price you want.

Two pages on a single monster? I will buy this book on that part alone.

Cheers,
Zuxius

Liberty's Edge

(this post has been purposely added to this messageboard because I want people to know about Anonycon... and I'm sure everyone is right now reading about the Bestiary...kinda like a public service announcement in the middle of your favorite TV show. Thanks for listening)

Thanks Anonycon! I had a great time in Stamford, CT this past weekend. One bad point at the convention was, sadly, the Pathfinder games I played. The Pathfinder scenarios I palyed at Anonycon just did not encourage roleplay. Judges didn't encourage players to roleplay AND players didn't encourage players to roleplay. Perhaps I just had games with players who did not care about character-to-character emotions, intrigue, conversation, and personality. The players themselves were very friendly though. I must applaude Anonycon for the NON-Pathfinder games: These "Anonycon Original" Scenarios that were written and judged by Anonycon Staff were far FAR superior to the Pathfinder Scenarios despite the excellent writing in the Pathfinder Modules. Anonycon Judges were excellent Roleplayers and Storytellers, intimately familiar with the adventures and world even when it was not there own game world. They filed in the blanks, improvised NPCs, made each combat not just tactical but as exciting as dramatic cinema, and got players to bust out of their shells and roleplay creatively with NPCs and PCs alike. Bravo Anonycon!!

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

keithbrough wrote:
The Pathfinder scenarios I palyed at Anonycon just did not encourage roleplay. Judges didn't encourage players to roleplay AND players didn't encourage players to roleplay.

To continue the off-topicness, since the post can't be moved, is this why you canceled on my game this weekend? In either case, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy PFS. At cons especially the nature of the 4 hour time slot sometimes pressures GMs into running what's written and only that for fear of running out of time. Hope you give it another shot.


Wish i had it already!

Liberty's Edge

I guess the pivotal question to be asked is whether it will be fully compatible with the Pathfinder Rules due out the following month.


I can't imagine that it wouldn't be

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Saurstalk wrote:
I guess the pivotal question to be asked is whether it will be fully compatible with the Pathfinder Rules due out the following month.

But of course!

Liberty's Edge

Figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask. Apparently, no one else did.


how many new monsters are included in this beauty ? as i play ad&d 1st ed. and convert back .... i have alot of the originals already. please tell me there is at least 50 percent new. PLEASE PLEASE

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

fineous99l wrote:
how many new monsters are included in this beauty ? as i play ad&d 1st ed. and convert back .... i have alot of the originals already. please tell me there is at least 50 percent new. PLEASE PLEASE

You may want to read this thread.

The Exchange

As my good school teachers taught me, July comes before August, which means this book will come before the official nonBeta release of Pathfinder mechanics/rule -which seems to imply that the mechanics of the Bestiary will not contain/incorporate said mechanics.

Is that true?

I, for one, hope not. I love the mechanics of Beta/Pathfinder and would love a Bestiary that incorporates all of those rules.


Samuel Peer wrote:

As my good school teachers taught me, July comes before August, which means this book will come before the official nonBeta release of Pathfinder mechanics/rule -which seems to imply that the mechanics of the Bestiary will not contain/incorporate said mechanics.

Is that true?

I, for one, hope not. I love the mechanics of Beta/Pathfinder and would love a Bestiary that incorporates all of those rules.

The Pathfinder Besiary WILL incorperate the rules from the Pathfinder RPG Rules that come out a month afterwards. It is just that making monsters is slightly easier than getting the rules all bundled up and together.

Dark Archive

why before the 3.75 out did the bestiary will not match 3.75 rpg hard cover release 1 mounth later if yes you start to do like wizard of the coast let go things out before real rules or maybe the bestiary is adapted to those rules 3.75

thnaks to answer my question


Well it has been said elsewhere i cant recall which thread, but The PFRPG is a much bigger book and it will be finished in house before the monster book goes to first...the rules will be solid and done. They will take more time on the layout of the core book as well as shipping times and making sure it has time to clear customs

As for why well cost mostly. They have a few books coming out in one month the AP and the core...thats a alot of upfront outgoing cash for one month. Adding a 3rd large book to the same outgoing cost that month could be bad. I would go as far to say that it could put them in a financial tight spot . So they need to brake up the cost of printing it all at once..How is easy the beastiary needs to be printed in another month, before or after....I think before is a good call.

Am sure some one else can tell you better but thats a gist of it I think.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Book description wrote:
The greatest monsters of fantasy gaming come alive in the very first hardcover release for Paizo’s new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!
dunrosh wrote:

why before the 3.75 out did the bestiary will not match 3.75 rpg hard cover release 1 mounth later if yes you start to do like wizard of the coast let go things out before real rules or maybe the bestiary is adapted to those rules 3.75

thnaks to answer my question

Paizo Employee CEO

seekerofshadowlight wrote:

As for why well cost mostly. They have a few books coming out in one month the AP and the core...thats a alot of upfront outgoing cash for one month. Adding a 3rd large book to the same outgoing cost that month could be bad. I would go as far to say that it could put them in a financial tight spot . So they need to brake up the cost of printing it all at once..How is easy the beastiary needs to be printed in another month, before or after....I think before is a good call.

What he said. :)

-Lisa


So is this going to be all the monsters from Pathfinder mag.?


steve68 wrote:
So is this going to be all the monsters from Pathfinder mag.?

No. This is basically the "Pathfinderization" of most of the monsters in the Monster Manual plus a few more added in.


Just one question: I've been thinking of getting a copy of the Tome of Horrors I. Just how much from ToHI will be showing up in this book?

If it's half or more, I might as well forget about ToH and just get this.


Off your question, but to consider: Eric, hopefully we're going to see a Pathfinder ToH from Necromancer in the future. Feelers have been sent out, pleas have been made, hints have been dropped...

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Eric Hinkle wrote:

Just one question: I've been thinking of getting a copy of the Tome of Horrors I. Just how much from ToHI will be showing up in this book?

If it's half or more, I might as well forget about ToH and just get this.

I'm pretty sure you can think of this as the SRD monsters (minus some flukes) with an occasional guest appearance from other sources, most notably the ToH.

So my advise is by them both and support the edition you love!


Flukes are being left out of the Pf Bestiary!?!?


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Flukes are being left out of the Pf Bestiary!?!?

Those poor, poor whales....

Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"


I really appreciate the artwork from Paizo's Pathfinder series and expect to be equally appreciative of the Bestiary artwork. I'd also be very appreciative of monster/creature counters that use that artwork on heavy cardstock akin to what is used for Flip-Mats.

Just in case you're wondering.


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Off your question, but to consider: Eric, hopefully we're going to see a Pathfinder ToH from Necromancer in the future. Feelers have been sent out, pleas have been made, hints have been dropped...

...torture devices have been pulled out, threats have been made, begging has continued,...

Liberty's Edge

So with the "Non-SRD" monsters being not included, will there be equivalent critters with different names (Illithids called another name, et cetera)?

Dark Archive

Kevida wrote:
So with the "Non-SRD" monsters being not included, will there be equivalent critters with different names (Illithids called another name, et cetera)?

"Re-inventing" the mindflayers the way goblins were re-invented for Pathfinder #1 would be potentially very cool, especially if it goes deeper into the Lovecraft references. What do you think?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Benoist Poiré wrote:
Kevida wrote:
So with the "Non-SRD" monsters being not included, will there be equivalent critters with different names (Illithids called another name, et cetera)?
"Re-inventing" the mindflayers the way goblins were re-invented for Pathfinder #1 would be potentially very cool, especially if it goes deeper into the Lovecraft references. What do you think?

There's no need to reinvent mind flayers. The intellect devourer is open content, and it fills pretty much the same niche as a mind flayer (dwells underground, has psionic powers, eats brains, has slaves, has been part of the game from practically the start, has a name that basically = "feeds on thought and brains").

Sovereign Court

Mindflayers were replaced by the neothelid and their seugathi servants (from Into the Darklands).

[edit]I stand corrected.. Intellect devourers are the stand in... [/edit]

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:


There's no need to reinvent mind flayers. The intellect devourer is open content, and it fills pretty much the same niche as a mind flayer (dwells underground, has psionic powers, eats brains, has slaves, has been part of the game from practically the start, has a name that basically = "feeds on thought and brains").

That's a good replacement yes. I sure can live with it in any case, especially after checking Into the Darklands.

They don't have exactly the same feel to me though. I didn't imagine devourers to have an actual society of their own like mind flayers do. I was seeing them more as "lone wolves" hunting preys in the dark (chaotic evil). Probably just me.

Hey, if we're reinventing goblins why not extrapolate with devourers, right? Like I said, I sure think they can fit the bill quite nicely (High Ilvarandin is beyond cool).

Liberty's Edge

James Jacobs wrote:
There's no need to reinvent mind flayers. The intellect devourer is open content, and it fills pretty much the same niche as a mind flayer (dwells underground, has psionic powers, eats brains, has slaves, has been part of the game from practically the start, has a name that basically = "feeds on thought and brains").

I respectfully disagree as Ustalagors (Intellect Devourers) are Chaotic and don't have an organized society the way the Illithids (Mind Flayers) do (or that was how it used to be). However that really wasn't my point. I was wondering if ANY Non-SRD critters will have an eqivalent here.

Now that Mr. Hawkshaw though has informed us that Into the Darklands has made Intellect Devourers as Mind Flayers' replacements I have a question. Are Intellect Devourers still quadraped brains or have they become the "octopus men" that the Mind Flayers were and are they a Lawful Society now? I don't own Into the Darklands.

Sovereign Court

Intellect Devourers

Spoiler:

Are still quadrupedal brains, they are CE and they control a city / area of the Darklands in the Orv layer.

Into the Darklands is a very good book. Well worth picking up when you have a chance.

Scarab Sages

Is this part of the superscriber subscriptions or does it need to be ordered?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

ehb1022 wrote:
Is this part of the superscriber subscriptions or does it need to be ordered?

It's not currently part of any subscription; if and when we offer a Pathfinder RPG subscription, it'll be part of that.


More than excited! Pathfinder has breathed new life into my roleplaying group. Love the beta test version and can't wait for the final product. . .Thank you Paizo.


Question!!

the pdf download for the pathfinder "phb" (beta).... do hardcopies exist? I can't find one to buy but the author hints at their existence when he says "Currently, you can download the Beta Playtest version of the entire rule set for free as a PDF or you can buy a full-color softcover edition of the rules to throw around the game table."
But where is that softcover?

Is the core rule book due in august 09 the actual evolution of the beta playtest phb... into the real phb?


The hardcopies of the beta playtest rules are sold out, only the pdf is available. (you might get one from some bookseller, but paizo has none left). The pathfinder rulebook due out in August will be the finalized version of these beta playtest rules. So, you will have to either a) print the pdf or b)try to get a used copy or c) wait until August to get the final rule version.

Stefan

EDIT: Sorry for continuing the threadjack, but I think the question needed to be answered right here.

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