Confront the creatures that go bump in the night! Bestiary 4 presents hundreds of new monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome of terrors you'll find pitiless psychopomps and blood-drinking nosferatu, insectile formians and faceless nightgaunts, and even unique mythological horrors like Spring- Heeled Jack and Grendel himself. Yet not every creature need be an enemy, as mighty empyreal lords, primeval outer dragons, and valorous swan maidens enlist you in their epic battles!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4 is the fourth indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a
companion to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game Bestiary. 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.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 includes:
More than 300 different monsters
Creatures from classic horror literature and monster films, including the colour out of space, elder things, and kaiju
New player-friendly races like changelings, kitsune, and nagaji
Entities of mythic might, from despotic demon lords and alien elohim to terrifying Great Old Ones—including Cthulhu!
New creatures you can construct, like clockworks and juggernauts
New familiars, animal companions, and other allies
New templates to help you get more life out of classic monsters
Appendices to help you find the right monster, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
Expanded universal monster rules to simplify combat
Challenges for every adventure and every level of play
... and much, much more!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-575-4
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
This edition of the Bestiary series brings all the worst nightmares, not found in a traditional fantasy setting alive! Despite the horror feel, they work in any genre you might be playing. By far my favorite of the Bestiary series! The sheer creativity of the Paizo team explodes in this awesome collection of crazy!
Herein is a fine and fascinating array of monsters, most with supernatural aspects and worthy of songs and legends... indeed it is suggested that to make the most of them you should be also using the Mythic Adventures rules. Fitting adversaries for those who fancy themselves as such legendary heroes, perhaps...
The Introduction is mainly explanation of how each monster entry is presented, complete with handy icons used to enable you to tell at a glance the creature type and the terrain and climate that it favours. These are supplemented by appendices that list them by CR, terrain and so on thus enabling you to populate a chosen area with ease. Other appendices deal with special abilities and other details, including a fascinating section on monster creation, another on monster advancement and one on monsters as player-characters.
The main bulk of the book is composed of an alphabetical listing of the monsters. Each comes with a colour illustration and stat block, with plenty of detail and description to enable you to work out suitable uses for it and how it will behave when encountered by the party.
Beginning with the abaia, an eel with a strong regard for the environment which acts as guardian to a body of water... and turns quite nasty if you do not respect the lake it inhabits (it doesn't mind people who take only what they need, it is those who abuse nature that upsets them), there follows a fascinating array of creatures.
The almiraj, for example, looks like a cross between a rabbit and a unicorn, but it's no fluffy bunny! If nothing else, anything slain by its horn is turned to stone so if the poor almiraj wants to eat whatever it has attacked (it's apparently a carnivore), it has to eat its prey alive.
One of the weirdest is the colour out of space. This is an eerie radient incorporeal ooze that leaches life out of its surroundings until it reaches maturity, at which time it departs into the interstellar depths from which it came. If that's not enough for you, the Great Old Ones are here, so if you wish to combat Cthulhu or Hastur or the like, now you can... if you dare. Most have cults associated with them, details of which are also given.
If it's monsters out of legend that you want, there are beings such as Grendel, if you prefer more mundane ones there are gremlins or even giraffes! Undead too, and an alchemist's error called a hungry flesh, a giant ooze. To cap it all, how about an immortal ichor, which is an intelligent mass of blood from a dead evil deity...
This is indeed a collection of monsters rich and strange, ones whose very being deserve a song or story, never mind those that will be written when heroes defeat them in battle!
Bestiary 4 contains over 300 new monsters. All the monster types are represented, although some more than others. There are many of the standards found in every Bestiary—new dinosaurs, devils, dragons—but also many unusual and bizarre creatures. It has provided me with lots of new options to throw at my players, and that’s always a good thing.
The Bestiary 4 for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game has been one of the more favorites of the Bestiary series for me and I'd like to take a moment to tell you why.
To start, the Bestiary 4 has added everything from new types of fey to additional golems as well as the more prominent and popular Kaiju, Great Old Ones, and Empyreal Lords. Paizo's inclusion of these creatures that've gone on to become pop culture legends in their own right is a direct result of the designer's dedication to getting their monsters right. The Bestiary 4 is an awesome sourcebook and stands right up there with the Bestiary 3 in terms of 'fantasy verisimilitude,' hardening gamers resolve against such villainous foes as Cthulhu himself.
Not every book is a perfect image of idolatry however and the Bestiary 4 is no exception. While it's true that this book is littered with new baddies for your players to chase and new races for their characters to face, it is also bogged down with what seems to be an over-saturation of multiple page monsters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does seem as if several of these creatures could've used a proverbial trimming before being posted.
If you don't mind a bit of length though and you want more vile beasts for your players to square off against then the Bestiary 4 is yet another wonderful book to add to your collection and one that comes Five-Star recommended by your Severed Ronin.
This is a good Bestiary. I'd personally put it up with Bestiary 3, with both having a good mix of classic, mythological, and completely new monsters.
There's a bit of a horror them and a bit of a mythic theme, but neither is overwhelming. If you're looking for a whole book of mythic monsters, this isn't it. If you're worried the whole book is mythic monsters, there aren't that many in practice.
For me, the evocative flavor on the high CR creatures pushes it over the top. The demon lords, empyreals, and great old ones really feel like epic creatures.
If you're sure you don't need any more monsters... don't buy this book. That said, I wasn't sure if I needed any more monsters and was definitely impressed by this.
Short Version: These are sweet monsters, but only you know whether you want more monsters.
I was never a huge Lovecraft buff, but to my knowledge, Cthulhu was portrayed in many different ways as the story demanded, but usually less than the Great Old Ones whom he desired to usher in and 'all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and...
Actually, as Lovecraft wrote it, the Great Old Ones were simply Cthulhu's race (ie, the Star Spawn). They didn't become the eclectic group of demigod level aliens until other authors started adding to the Mythos.
And in Lovecraft's writing, it's pretty clear that Cthulhu is only a mid-level power. They warred against the Elder Things, and only to a stalemate.
Thanks, Lovecraft is something I get mixed up on a lot.
Alexander Augunas wrote:
Quote:
Gah, Lovecraft still confuses me after all these years...
but, "in a world like Golarion..." I thought this wasn't suppose to be a Golarion-specific book. Was I mistaken? Is this book going to be another pile of Golarion-fluff I can't use? That would basically guarantee that I wouldn't get it.
//tired in a grumpy mood.
I'm having a hard time understanding your logic here. First, the posted said "in a world like Golarion, implying that this book was not Golarion, but similar to it. So no, you're not mistaken, but "Golarion-fluff that you can't use" has been in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game core rules line for years. Their gods are mentioned in the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, and in Ultimate Magic, easily one-fifth of the monsters found in every Bestiary prior to this one are reprinted from Golarion Adventure Paths, and almost all of the races found in the Uncommon section of the Advanced Race Guide had their start in Golarion-exclusive books.
I'm not going to judge how you spend your...
Woah, calm down! You seem to be having a very visceral reaction to something I wrote off very little sleep late at night.
First, I'll direct you to the very last thing in my post you quoted:
137ben wrote:
//tired in a grumpy mood.
So maybe you shouldn't react so strongly to it.
But just for the heck of it, let's pick things apart a bit further:
Quote:
First, the posted said "in a world like Golarion, implying that this book was not Golarion, but similar to it.
This does not follow. Golarion is a world like Golarion. Saying something is "a world like Golarion" does not in any way imply that it is not actually Golarion.
Quote:
So no, you're not mistaken, but "Golarion-fluff that you can't use" has been in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game core rules line for years.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this--
a majority of the CRB is nearly identical to stuff in the 3.0 Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, which pre-date Golarion, so it obviously isn't Golarion-specific. It does include a list of Golarion deities instead of the Greyhawk deities in the 3.0/3.5 PHB, yes...
but the minimalistic information they include there is extremely easy to adapt to other worlds, so I don't see how you could qualify it as "Golarion-fluff that you can't use".
Quote:
almost all of the races found in the Uncommon section of the Advanced Race Guide had their start in Golarion-exclusive books.
Huh? Most of the races in the ARG predate Golarion--they come primarily either from other, older, D&D settings, or from mythology centuries before Golarion was conceived.
And then of course the ARG contains the race-building system, which makes it a lot easier to develop species that wouldn't even fit in Golarion (or most other D&D settings for that matter).
In fact, I would say that, for me, the ARG has been more helpful in writing/developing new campaign settings than any other single book Paizo has put out.
Quote:
'm not going to judge how you spend your money, but if you are ignoring game crunch on the grounds that its part of a different product line than the Core Rules, you're seriously missing out.
Wh...huh?!?...WHAT!? I have never, never, said anything even remotely close to that, so I have no idea how you could possibly think I would be ignoring anything based on what 'product line' it is a part of. As it happens, a vast majority of the PF products I own are 3rd party.
Here's the deal: I don't run games in Golarion, and I only buy products that I find helpful. The helpfulness can either be direct (i.e., it has stuff I can take and use in a game), or indirect (something in it gives me inspiration or a framework for developing something else I can use). If you tell me that "20%" of a particular product is Golarion-specific, my first question is "how easy are those sections of the book to adapt to other settings?"
If the answer to my question is "quite easy", then that's great, and I couldn't care less whether it is supposedly meant to be used in Golarion. If the answer is "hard, you'll have to do a lot of work to use it in another setting", then I have to consider whether the other 80% of the content is good enough to be worth it by itself.
Every RPG book I own has at least a little bit of stuff I haven't used/don't like/doesn't fit my games. It would be utterly ridiculous to expect a large publisher to release a book that was perfectly tailored to my GM-ing style. However, if I can only use a portion of a particular product, then I have to assess whether the portion I can use is worth the cost of the whole book. In, say, mythic adventures, I decided that the stuff I liked was substantial enough to justify me purchasing the few portions of MA I didn't like, so I got it. On the other hand, when I flipped through Rise of the Runelords in the store, I saw very few things that would be helpful outside of a RotRL game, and those weren't enough for me to consider buying the entire thing.
I'm not going to make a decision on whether or not I will buy the Bestiary 4 until after it comes out. I've been vaguely paying attention to this thread because the discussion has been occasionally amusing, but ultimately I'm not deciding to buy (or not buy) anything until I know what it is I am buying (or not buying). If I had already decided with certainty that I wasn't getting this, then I wouldn't be posting in this thread.
I can say, though, that I tend to hold monster books to a higher standard than other 3.x/pf books, for a few reasons that are rather specific to how I GM...
why I'm less likely to buy bestiaries than other PF books:
1. Compared to other parts of the game, monster statistics are something I find relatively easy to write. I have a much harder time designing an adventure for my players than I do deciding what ability scores or spell-like abilities to give the monsters they fight during that adventure. The main reason people use established systems like pf is so that the GM can get help from professional designers rather than making everything from scratch. The better the GM and players are at making <X> themselves, the less reason there is for them to buy pre-made <X>.
I consider myself bad at making monster fluff, so I'm naturally inclined to want others to help me do it. On the flip side, I'm pretty comfortable giving a creature stats once the fluff is already written, so I'm less inclined to pay someone else to stat-out monsters for me.
2. When I do use published stats for monsters, I primarily reference them in-game, and find it easier to use the prd/pfsrd if the stats in question are OGL. That means that even if I wanted to use every single monster in the book exactly as written, I'd still only need to buy half the content, but I'd be paying full price anyways. Thus, the monster fluff needs to be good enough BY ITSELF to justify the cost of the entire book. That's not easy to do.
3. A lot of monster fluff is very similar to fluff of previously described creatures. For example, let's suppose that Paizo released a book full of stats for real-world mythological characters. That sounds awesome, because I love creatures from real-world mythology, and I love using them in my games!...
except most of the fluff would be available, likely in more detail, in sources about mythology. And a lot of it would already be freely available online or through libraries. As I explained in points (1) and (2), for OGL bestiaries, I am really only buying them for the fluff, so I wouldn't actually get anything I didn't already have from purchasing a bestiary of mythological creatures.
The same reasoning also applies to creatures that were described in older monster books, including monster books written for a different system like AD&D...which brings us to
4. There are a LOT of monster books out there! Most monsters written for 3.0/3.5 can be used with little or no modification in a PF game, and there are a huge quantity of monster books that have been published for d20 games in the last 13 years. I have a limited amount of funds to spend on PF books, and only a small portion of that goes to monster books, so any bestiary Paizo puts out has to compete for space in my wallet with the other 100+ monster books out there.
Getting back to stuff specific to B4:
Alexander Augunas wrote:
The Pathfinder Formians are basically giant, alien ant monsters. I can't remember which novel that they draw inspiration from, but I'm almost certain that they're either monstrous humanoids or magical beasts now. Leaning towards the former. James Jacobs commented on it a while ago.
Formians are a creature from real-world mythology. The formians described in a lot of 3.5 books, however, were very different from their mythological counterparts.
Most of the game mechanics for 3.5 formians are OGL, and can be found online.
Furthermore, the 3.5-style formians have already been updated to PF in Forgotten Foes, so copying the basic formians into the B4 would be rather redundant and wouldn't really add anything to the game.
Therefore, to avoid redundancy, Paizo had a choice to make on 'formians': they could either
a)Describe and stat-out 3.5-style formians other than the basic ones (workers/warriors/taskmasters/hive queens)
b)Make up a completely new type of monster, and name them 'formians'
c)Give game statistics to the mythological formians.
They chose option (c). Presumably, they will also put some effort into figuring out how the creatures originally described centuries ago fit into Golarion, which will be helpful for anyone who likes the mythological formians and plays games set in Golarion.
Of course, Forgotten Foes isn't going away any time soon, which unfortunately means we will have two completely unrelated groups of official monsters in the game with the same names! That might have the potential to get confusing...but I doubt it will be much of an issue, considering how many meanings of the word "level" we have in just the core rules:)
Furthermore, the 3.5-style formians have already been updated to PF in Forgotten Foes, so copying the basic formians into the B4 would be rather redundant and wouldn't really add anything to the game.
Of course, Forgotten Foes isn't going away any time soon, which unfortunately means we will have two completely unrelated groups of official monsters in the game with the same names!
Well, Forgotten Foes wasn't a Paizo product. And really, there have been a huge number of monsters that have had two (or more) different writups in various Paizo Bestiaries and 3PP books. Hell, you could probably fill half a Bestiary with just the monsters Paizo cribbed from the Tome of Horrors.
I don't necessarily think it's unfortunate, either. Who's to say that the formians found on Golarion aren't somewhat different than those found on Castrovel, which are also somewhat different than those found on [insert any campaign setting here] ?
Furthermore, the 3.5-style formians have already been updated to PF in Forgotten Foes, so copying the basic formians into the B4 would be rather redundant and wouldn't really add anything to the game.
Of course, Forgotten Foes isn't going away any time soon, which unfortunately means we will have two completely unrelated groups of official monsters in the game with the same names!
Well, Forgotten Foes wasn't a Paizo product. And really, there have been a huge number of monsters that have had two (or more) different writups in various Paizo Bestiaries and 3PP books. Hell, you could probably fill half a Bestiary with just the monsters Paizo cribbed from the Tome of Horrors.
I don't necessarily think it's unfortunate, either. Who's to say that the formians found on Golarion aren't somewhat different than those found on Castrovel, which are also somewhat different than those found on [insert any campaign setting here] ?
Whether it's "third party" or not (for whatever definition of "third party you want to use) doesn't really make a difference for monster books, since GMs don't have to seek approval to use monsters (as oppose to players, who need to ask someone if they can use something for their PCs), and monsters are primarily a GM thing.
As I said, though, I don't think it is a problem to have different creatures with the same name, since we already have a lot of conflicting terminology in just the core rules, it won't be a problem to have conflicting namings for different monsters in different books.
EDIT: There's also contradictory fluff in monster books, even if they are supposed to be talking about the same exact creature, and it hasn't caused any problems so far.
It doesn't make a difference for whether the DM wants to use it or not, but I think it's silly to think that Paizo is making decisions about what they will or won't include based off of third party material they may or may not have even read. I'm sure they do read at least some third party material, and they certainly reprint at least some of it that they want to make official material, but with the amount of it out there, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually remain familiar with all of it, much less people who have to produce their own material on a regular basis.
It doesn't make a difference for whether the DM wants to use it or not, but I think it's silly to think that Paizo is making decisions about what they will or won't include based off of third party material they may or may not have even read. I'm sure they do read at least some third party material, and they certainly reprint at least some of it that they want to make official material, but with the amount of it out there, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually remain familiar with all of it, much less people who have to produce their own material on a regular basis.
Paizo has used monsters published by other companies in their APs and books--(consider how many monsters in the bestiaries are copy-pasted from ToHC for starters...).
They've also used Dreamscarred Press' psionics in APs, and said they won't do similar psionics rules party because DSP did it so well. I obviously don't know what Jason Bulhman reads, but the developers' statements and publication history disagrees with you.
Moreover, Paizo is a business in an industry with lots of competitors. It would be rather absurd for them to not pay attention to what their competitors are doing.
It doesn't make a difference for whether the DM wants to use it or not, but I think it's silly to think that Paizo is making decisions about what they will or won't include based off of third party material they may or may not have even read. I'm sure they do read at least some third party material, and they certainly reprint at least some of it that they want to make official material, but with the amount of it out there, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually remain familiar with all of it, much less people who have to produce their own material on a regular basis.
Paizo has used monsters published by other companies in their APs and books--(consider how many monsters in the bestiaries are copy-pasted from ToHC for starters...).
They've also used Dreamscarred Press' psionics in APs, and said they won't do similar psionics rules party because DSP did it so well. I obviously don't know what Jason Bulhman reads, but the developers' statements and publication history disagrees with you.
Moreover, Paizo is a business in an industry with lots of competitors. It would be rather absurd for them to not pay attention to what their competitors are doing.
I already said in my initial statement that they do reprint some material (including monsters) that they want to make official, but there's a big difference between looking at 'some' third party material and looking at 'all' of it. Even if we're only talking about third party publishers specifically printing material for the Pathfinder system, there's quite a lot of third party material out there, ranging from good to dire, and given the fact that Paizo is busy putting out quite a lot of material of their own as well as arranging new things (such as playing card games, for example), I think it would be absurd for them to read through every single pdf a third party publisher put out on this website alone, much less ones that might only be on other sites.
It doesn't make a difference for whether the DM wants to use it or not, but I think it's silly to think that Paizo is making decisions about what they will or won't include based off of third party material they may or may not have even read. I'm sure they do read at least some third party material, and they certainly reprint at least some of it that they want to make official material, but with the amount of it out there, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually remain familiar with all of it, much less people who have to produce their own material on a regular basis.
Paizo has used monsters published by other companies in their APs and books--(consider how many monsters in the bestiaries are copy-pasted from ToHC for starters...).
They've also used Dreamscarred Press' psionics in APs, and said they won't do similar psionics rules party because DSP did it so well. I obviously don't know what Jason Bulhman reads, but the developers' statements and publication history disagrees with you.
Moreover, Paizo is a business in an industry with lots of competitors. It would be rather absurd for them to not pay attention to what their competitors are doing.
Except Paizo has never used Psionics in any of their APs, Dreamscarred Press or otherwise, and while DSP has done a great job that's not even close to the reason why they would do it differently. I have absolutely no possible idea where you're getting that information.
As to the whole third-party official/unofficial stance - you stirred up this same hornet's nest about 20 pages ago on this thread. I think it's safe to say you hold a view contrary to the standard demarcations for third-party officialism, which you're entitled to, and leave it at that. No need to clutter up this thread any more than it already is.
It doesn't make a difference for whether the DM wants to use it or not, but I think it's silly to think that Paizo is making decisions about what they will or won't include based off of third party material they may or may not have even read. I'm sure they do read at least some third party material, and they certainly reprint at least some of it that they want to make official material, but with the amount of it out there, I find it hard to believe that anyone can actually remain familiar with all of it, much less people who have to produce their own material on a regular basis.
Paizo has used monsters published by other companies in their APs and books--(consider how many monsters in the bestiaries are copy-pasted from ToHC for starters...).
They've also used Dreamscarred Press' psionics in APs, and said they won't do similar psionics rules party because DSP did it so well. I obviously don't know what Jason Bulhman reads, but the developers' statements and publication history disagrees with you.
Moreover, Paizo is a business in an industry with lots of competitors. It would be rather absurd for them to not pay attention to what their competitors are doing.
Except Paizo has never used Psionics in any of their APs, Dreamscarred Press or otherwise, and while DSP has done a great job that's not even close to the reason why they would do it differently. I have absolutely no possible idea where you're getting that information.
As to the whole third-party official/unofficial stance - you stirred up this same hornet's nest about 20 pages ago on this thread. I think it's safe to say you hold a view contrary to the standard demarcations for third-party officialism, which you're entitled to, and leave it at that. No need to clutter up this thread any more than it already is.
While not an AP, they did use and credit DSP's Psionics in the OGL listing of the Dragon's Demand.
Moreover, Paizo is a business in an industry with lots of competitors. It would be rather absurd for them to not pay attention to what their competitors are doing.
While I'm sure that Paizo tries to stay aware of what some 3PP are doing, it'd literally be impossible for them to keep track of what all of them were doing.
I have a feeling that tonight's the night. I can smell it.
I am so making Odraude the the name of the Demon Lord of False Hope in my campaign setting.
Man, that'd be so awesome. Make me CR 30 and you'll have yourself a deal!
And... we'd have to figure out how to pronounce my name...
Oh - drawd
Oh - drood
Ah - drid
Don't fall for it! The demon lord of false hope is trying to trick you! If you pronounce his name correctly, he will appear!
Or give you the hope that I'll appear ;)
I think I'm going to introduce Odraude as the demon lord rival/arch nemesis of Rysky, constantly warring for control over a segment of the abyss.
Unfortunately for Odraude and Rysky, their intra-planar war has left both of them weakened, leaving them vulnerable to an incursion by the archdevil Guang and the daemon-king Kthulhu!
Which brings us to the real question: how many more bestiaries do we have to go through before Odraude (or Rysky or Guang or Kthulhu) appear in one of them? Will Odraude appear in the Bestiary 5? The bestiary 6? Or is this just false hope perpetuated by the demon lord of false hope?!?
Formians are now aliens from Castrovel. I'm cool with that honestly.
Very nice. Would love to have a Castrovel sourcebook too.
You and me both. Or at least a 256-page expansion on Distant Worlds :D
I would rather a Castrovel and Akiton-focused AP. Which would probably work out at around 250-300 pages of stuff dealing with the Golarion solar system anyway.
Formians are now aliens from Castrovel. I'm cool with that honestly.
Very nice. Would love to have a Castrovel sourcebook too.
You and me both. Or at least a 256-page expansion on Distant Worlds :D
I would rather a Castrovel and Akiton-focused AP. Which would probably work out at around 250-300 pages of stuff dealing with the Golarion solar system anyway.
I would like to visit.
1)Castrovel
2)Akiton
3)Dykon(crystal moon of Bretheda)
4)Bretheda(and it's other moons)
5)Verces
6)Liavara(and it's moons)
7)The Diaspora
8)Aballon
9)Apostae
10)Aucturn
11)Eox
Since we already have had Triaxus I don't need to put that on the list.
Ok... 23 new replies, I thought maybe cool new facts and minor spoilers...
All posts about planets, why there shouldn't be bestiaries no more because one player thinks its easy to create your own monsters... and some roleplaying on how Odraude should be a demon lord...
Hope to see some more interesting stuff when I return tomorrow.
Ok... 23 new replies, I thought maybe cool new facts and minor spoilers...
All posts about planets, why there shouldn't be bestiaries no more because one player thinks its easy to create your own monsters... and some roleplaying on how Odraude should be a demon lord...
Then it looks like Odraude is taking to his new portfolio smashingly well!
Which brings us to the real question: how many more bestiaries do we have to go through before Odraude (or Rysky or Guang or Kthulhu) appear in one of them?
Well, for me...a few more days!
Although I must protest my CR being put at 30.
That's only because Paizo are fools. They they improperly labeled the stats for the least of my spawn as being those of the Dread Lord of R'lyeh. But this ignorance was merciful, for the mere sight of my true CR would rend your mind, cleaving your sanity in twain, leaving you gibbering blasphemies. My CR cannot be represented with the limited mathematics available to beings of merely three spacial and one temporal dimensions.
As for those "Star Spawn" stats in a previous AP volume? Bah! Overgrown mind flayers! Irrelevant!
She intrigues me - she's kind of a good reflection of the kyton race. Both sacrificed something (or someone's in the kyton's case) to attain what they are, one's just less self-serving.
Would anyone be kind enough to stick with the topic and throw a few crumbs of insight to the poor us who still have to wait to discover the crunchy bits?
She intrigues me - she's kind of a good reflection of the kyton race. Both sacrificed something (or someone's in the kyton's case) to attain what they are, one's just less self-serving.
That's kinda the impression I got from her in Chronicle of the Righteous - sort of a kyton-flavored angel. She's a really unnerving figure, I'll give her that. I wonder if the other Empyreal Lords find her disturbing?
Would anyone be kind enough to stick with the topic and throw a few crumbs of insight to the poor us who still have to wait to discover the crunchy bits?
So, any new LN outsiders?
I'd love to, but considering nobody has the PDF yet, I'm afraid I can't oblige. If I had the PDF, do you think I'd be talking to you peasants ;)
Since shipping doesn't usually start during the weekend, I'd imagine that people will start receiving their subscriber PDFs tomorrow.
That said, spoilers for Bestiaries are usually more vague than ones for crunch books. I can't speak for other subscribers, but I am far too busy (and lazy) to type up entire stat blocks in this thread. ;-)
Since shipping doesn't usually start during the weekend, I'd imagine that people will start receiving their subscriber PDFs tomorrow.
That said, spoilers for Bestiaries are usually more vague than ones for crunch books. I can't speak for other subscribers, but I am far too busy (and lazy) to type up entire stat blocks in this thread. ;-)
Forget stat blocks - a list of names of included creatures would be wonderful.
She intrigues me - she's kind of a good reflection of the kyton race. Both sacrificed something (or someone's in the kyton's case) to attain what they are, one's just less self-serving.
That's kinda the impression I got from her in Chronicle of the Righteous - sort of a kyton-flavored angel. She's a really unnerving figure, I'll give her that. I wonder if the other Empyreal Lords find her disturbing?
I love the idea of her being led by her guides through some heavenly city with younger angels turning away from her in horror while Empyreals and older, wiser angels watch her go in silent understanding, shedding a tear for the one who takes the weight of reality's suffering upon herself so that everyone else in paradise can actually live in it.
It's like a reverse Omelas. The sacrifice in this case is willing, and to spurn the joys of paradise would be to spit on everything she's done, and to offer her relief would be one of the worst things one could do to her.
Maybe.
wants to do a Vildeis/Lymnieris shortfic now
(bet she's a good patron fit for risen kytons though)
Edit-Seriously, never would have expected her to be the LG Empyreal representative in Bestiary 4. Awesome surprise. :)
I'd really like to get a look at Cernunnos, for my part. Not much is said about him in CotR. Or anywhere else in PF that I've looked, unless somebody has another source for something about him? Hopefully he won't steal Erastil's schtick as far as stags are concerned.
She intrigues me - she's kind of a good reflection of the kyton race. Both sacrificed something (or someone's in the kyton's case) to attain what they are, one's just less self-serving.
That's kinda the impression I got from her in Chronicle of the Righteous - sort of a kyton-flavored angel. She's a really unnerving figure, I'll give her that. I wonder if the other Empyreal Lords find her disturbing?
I love the idea of her being led by her guides through some heavenly city with younger angels turning away from her in horror while Empyreals and older, wiser angels watch her go in silent understanding, shedding a tear for the one who takes the weight of reality's suffering upon herself so that everyone else in paradise can actually live in it.
It's like a reverse Omelas. The sacrifice in this case is willing, and to spurn the joys of paradise would be to spit on everything she's done, and to offer her relief would be one of the worst things one could do to her.
Maybe.
wants to do a Vildeis/Lymnieris shortfic now
(bet she's a good patron fit for risen kytons though)
Edit-Seriously, never would have expected her to be the LG Empyreal representative in Bestiary 4. Awesome surprise. :)
I already said in my initial statement that they do reprint some material (including monsters) that they want to make official, but there's a big difference between looking at 'some' third party material and looking at 'all' of it.
It would be completely unfeasible to look at "all" RPG books published by all of their competitors. That is an extremely obvious statement. I don't think anyone would suggest otherwise.
If it isn't obvious enough, consider the fact that a few posts down, on this very page, it was demonstrated that people who follow threads about Paizo products on a Paizo forum aren't aware of everything Paizo has put out. Now try to imagine someone keeping track of everything Paizo has put out AND everything every other corporation has put out. Not so easy, is it?
Gancanagh wrote:
Ok... 23 new replies, I thought maybe cool new facts and minor spoilers...
There are! Odraude is being statted as a demon lord!
Quote:
All posts about planets,
Planets are important. I mean, other than sentient planets, what is my level 27 wizard suppose to fight:)?
Quote:
why there shouldn't be bestiaries no more because one player thinks its easy to create your own monsters...
I said no such thing, please at least make an effort to read over what I've said before making false accusations.
Quote:
and some roleplaying on how Odraude should be a demon lord...
Not roleplaying, there was a preview* that Odraude is going to be in the bestiary 5! There isn't a bestiary 5 thread, yet, so people are talking about it here.
*:
The preview in question was actually an illusion cast by the demon lord of false hope.
Kthulhu wrote:
137ben wrote:
Which brings us to the real question: how many more bestiaries do we have to go through before Odraude (or Rysky or Guang or Kthulhu) appear in one of them?
Well, for me...a few more days!
Although I must protest my CR being put at 30.
That's only because Paizo are fools. They they improperly labeled the stats for the least of my spawn as being those of the Dread Lord of R'lyeh. But this ignorance was merciful, for the mere sight of my true CR would rend your mind, cleaving your sanity in twain, leaving you gibbering blasphemies. My CR cannot be represented with the limited mathematics available to beings of merely three spacial and one temporal dimensions.
As for those "Star Spawn" stats in a previous AP volume? Bah! Overgrown mind flayers! Irrelevant!
Bah! They're only including some weak, pathetic "Cthulhu", they cannot comprehend the true power of Kthulhu!
She intrigues me - she's kind of a good reflection of the kyton race. Both sacrificed something (or someone's in the kyton's case) to attain what they are, one's just less self-serving.
In my opinion, despite similar aesthetics, Vildeis and the kytons are kind of opposites. While kytons are endlessly trying to perfect their forms (and those of others), Vildeis knows that no form will ever be perfect and willingly sacrifices from her imperfect form to further the cause of good.
I hadn't planned Vildeis to be in this book, but when our original LG empyreal choice didn't survive the process, I wrote a new entry for her. There's actually more about her here in Bestiary 4 then what Amber and I got into Chronicle of the Righteous, so if you liked her before, well... now you know where to look.
