Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)
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Beyond the veil!

Creatures strange beyond imagining and more terrifying than any nightmare lurk in the dark corners of the world and the weird realms beyond. Within this book, you'll find hundreds of monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Face off against devils and dragons, deep ones and brain moles, robots and gremlins, and myriad other menaces! Yet not every creature needs to be an enemy, as whimsical liminal sprites, helpful moon dogs, and regal seilenoi all stand ready to aid you on your quests—if you prove yourself worthy.

Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 is the fifth indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Pathfinder RPG 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 a new era.

Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 includes:

  • More than 300 different monsters.
  • New player-friendly races like caligni dark folk, deep one hybrids, plant-bodied ghorans, and simian orang-pendaks.
  • Psychic creatures both benevolent and terrifying, from the enigmatic anunnaki and faceless astomoi to the howling caller in darkness and insidious, alien grays.
  • New familiars, animal companions, and other allies, such as clockwork familiars, red pandas, and many-legged wollipeds.
  • 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: 978-1-60125-792-5

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

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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

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Average product rating:

4.20/5 (based on 14 ratings)

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My Favourite So Far

5/5

Don't have really anymore to add beyond that, love all the eldritch and occult flavor being pumped in ^w^


The weakest of the bunch

2/5

On the one hand, there are a good couple of gems and some very inspired entries throughout this book and, in truth, two stars is somewhat unfair, especially for the PDF. But, personally, I feel they're warranted, as this book seems to signal a shift in Pathfinder's direction, and one that I'm not happy about in the least.

First off, while Occult Adventures is readily available for consultation online in the SRD, I did not like to see a sizable number of monsters using rules from that book. It's one thing to have spells or feats from, say, Advanced Player's Guide or Mythic Adventures, as those are books that complement the game as a whole and present options for all classes, whereas Occult Adventures is a very specific niche that not all players will want to incorporate in their campaigns.

Secondly, I did not like the muddled product identity Paizo is showcasing here, with monsters such as the Android, Gray (Roswell), Reptoid (Reptilian) and Robot. Even the Annunaki seems more at home as the antagonist of, say, a Legion of Super-Heroes comic book. It's one thing to want to provide the tools for varied and diverse fantasy campaigns - in which constructs, space aberrations and even clockwork creatures can easily work without sticking out like sore thumbs - but quite another one to insert borderline hard-SF or contemporary conspiracy theorist creatures on a lark. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks this is not, and let's endeavor to keep it that way, please.

Thirdly, snake-bodied weasels with boar tusks? Serpentine bulls? Shark-headed sea serpents? Wolf-headed sea serpents? A chinchilla with a bat wing on the tip of its tail? An octopus with three shark heads? Really? Unless you have an absolutely amazing hook or a compelling campaign seed, why bother putting out this silly, uninspired dross? You can do much better than this, Paizo.


Monsters Galore

4/5

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

I like Bestiary 5 a great deal. On an initial look-through before reading it more thoroughly, there were numerous monsters that drew my attention, that made me want to know more about them, and screamed to be included in one of my games sometime down the road. There's a wide variety of monsters present, with every type represented and the spread between them being fairly even. Ooze is a monster type that is often under-represented, but there are quite a few new oozes in this book. Along with that there are lots of magical beasts, constructs, undead, vermin, fey, and so on. In addition, there are several mythic monsters, and Bestiary 5 is the first hardcover book to contain monsters using the occult rules from Occult Adventures. The monsters cover a wide variety of challenge ratings as well, from 1/6 to 24. The bulk of the creatures are in the low- to mid-CR range, but there are also a sizeable number of high-CR monsters as well.


Grim Reapers, Deep Ones, and Greys Oh My!

5/5

I have always loved Bestiaries and Paizo has yet to disappoint in department. Now with a 5th hardcover bestiary they continue with quality and variety. I will list the good and the bad of this fine product.
The Good
-Dragons, 5 great new true dragons, along with a variety of "lesser" dragons such as jungle drake, rope dragon, vishap, and awesome shen.
-Fey, a variety of ranging from low to high CR such as the house spirits and the glaistag.
-Giants, we finally get the Firbolg, been waiting to see this one for a long time.
-New 0HD races like the Astomi, Caligni, and Reptoid.
-Aliens such as greys and the Anunnaki.
-Elementals such as aether, the wysps and the awesome anemos.
-Interesting oozes such as animate hair, apallie, and living mirage.
-New clestials and aeons.
-Robots!
-Creatures from mythology.
-Old school monster such as moon dogs, muckdwellers, brain moles, and thought eaters.
-Some interesting undead like bone ship and death coach.

The Bad
-Some minor design issues.
-Some art issues.
-The Sahkil, another evil outsider group, could have used this space for Oni, Azura, or Rakshasa.
-Continued use of the mythic rules that to me should be a completely optional rule.


3 STARS?????

5/5

I can't agree with the below rating of 3 stars. (Read Below) This is on-par with any other bestiary piazo has produced. Although i cant speak of quality due to just buying a pdf, this bestiary has the best range of monster selection in my opinion. It adds some technology driven ideas, unique story driven monsters and my favorite: A BoneShip, literally the pcs can fight an undead ship!!!! The complaint of no new monster over CR25 is a lazy lie, using templates the Esoteric Dragons can be over CR25 with other CR20+ monsters utilizing templates provided can increase above CR25. This book contains ideas for familiars, companions, and constructs for many classes and pairs amazingly well with content from the Occult Adventures. I Love this book, and pathfinder in general due to the wealth of information it has for both a PC and a DM. Cant wait for more!!!


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Not official, but once in a PF homebrewing competition on gitp I made "Christmas Elves" as a race (fey that are forced to create weapons out of ice by their enslavers), and "Santa" as a monster (the enslavers, who store ice weapons in their humped backs and hunt down sleepers).

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
We could use stats for santa before we get krampus. Unless you want santa and krampus to be the same creature whose form and alignment are based on if the child/children have been good or bad.

I don't really mind either, though it could be quite terrifying/prospect either way. in any case, it should be functionally immortal(you can banish the beast to the blackest depth of the abyss, but will always come back in the future), be able to summon minions, and drag people to the krampus's home to face whatever fate may await them. The legend of the krampus is possibly quite widely known and feared, especially by those among the northern peoples that live in its dark shadow. Not always does the krampus come down(most 'krampus attacks' are the work of devils, demons, and other creatures seeking to profit of the reputation this creature has garnered), but when it does, there is little that can be done to prevent its passage. It is seasonal, eternal, and dangerous beyond reproach.

As for the Naughty and Nice thing, the Krampus is a creature not like most evil entities and outsiders, since it punishes wickedness with extreme violence, and rewards the virtuous. That does not make it a creature of good, since the Krampus will also target all that attempt to stand between its intended prey, or any of their family with vile tortures for even the simplest of small evils, before taking its victims away to its lair to face whatever hellish fate awaits them.

I wonder if there could be a lesser and greater Krampus templates (similar to the grim reaper having lesser reapers as an optional encounter(since the grim reaper is incredibly powerful)).

If Paizo does make a bestiary 6 then i wouldn't mind seeing the Krampus appear in its pages, or as part of another adventure.


I have always thought of Santa and Krampus as being fey.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
I have always thought of Santa and Krampus as being fey.

I imagine them being two of the Eldest.


Hmm... or maybe one Eldest with two aspects? A bipolar (no pun intended) Fey god representing both the joys and horrors of Winter?


Strange question, but is this Ahool inspired by the Gyaos from Gamera as well as the myth? Just noticed a few similarities in the fluff of the creatures.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Loved all the new humanoid and non-humanoid race options.

Love all the new beasties I have not seen in D&D monster manuals. I didn't feel like anything was a retread, mash-up or templated version of a creature from a previous Bestiary. Nice work on that front Paizo development team.

The only complaint I have about Bestiary 5 is the cover. Did no one on the production team put a printout of the cover on the wall or on the table side-by-side with the other four bestiaries and Pathfinder supplemental bestiaries? The cover of the Bestiary 5 isn't on par with all those other books. The cover is so pedestrian uninspired and lacking in action. Where is the menace and fear the other covers inspire? There are so many more interesting creature choices inside that you could have combined and used on the cover.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:
Strange question, but is this Ahool inspired by the Gyaos from Gamera as well as the myth? Just noticed a few similarities in the fluff of the creatures.

I don't know about any similarities to the Gyaos but it's based on a cryptid from the Indonesian Islands, specifically Java.


I love the cover of B5...might even be my fav!


kid america wrote:

Loved all the new humanoid and non-humanoid race options.

Love all the new beasties I have not seen in D&D monster manuals. I didn't feel like anything was a retread, mash-up or templated version of a creature from a previous Bestiary. Nice work on that front Paizo development team.

The only complaint I have about Bestiary 5 is the cover. Did no one on the production team put a printout of the cover on the wall or on the table side-by-side with the other four bestiaries and Pathfinder supplemental bestiaries? The cover of the Bestiary 5 isn't on par with all those other books. The cover is so pedestrian uninspired and lacking in action. Where is the menace and fear the other covers inspire? There are so many more interesting creature choices inside that you could have combined and used on the cover.

Well the Lovecraft critter could be replaced by something more interesting I agree, but the Grey and Grim Reaper are right where they belong.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I found this bestiary (B5) a lot more useful/ inspiring than the previous one (B4), TBH.

I base this on the number of monsters I use (directly or adapted) from each bestiary. And no, mythic rules has nothing to do with it: those monsters with mythic are among the more interesting monsters in Bestiary 4...

What I particularly liked from Bestiary 5 was how the seven demideity-level Manasaputra were mostly variant spellings of the Amesha Spentas of Zoroastrianism! :D

Nicely done! (^_')=b

Carry on!

--C.


Are the animal companions not open content? It seems none of the SRD websites have them yet.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Supperman wrote:
Are the animal companions not open content? It seems none of the SRD websites have them yet.

I think they're just low priority for the SRDs.


I thought it was the best Bestiary since 2, myself (despite the MR monsters...not a fan.). The Manas were actually a bit more interesting than I thought they might be (Not typically a fan of India's lore--though I love the story behind the Taj Mahal!).


MR monsters?


Mythic Ranks.

Liberty's Edge

I don't mind the mythic rank monsters as much. They still provide a suitable challenge to the more divine level characters. I personally love some of the variety more, with the stuffed animals and the horrifing plant monsters they have come up with. The plant that uses its psychic/hallucinatory spores to project visions into the minds of its victims until they are eventually broken down to feed the horror.


I'm very curious as to what the inspiration for the Rope Dragon was. Is it mythological? If it is I haven't come across it, and while I don't know every possible mythical creature and find new ones constantly, I do know the vast majority of the ones with a decent level of internet presence. Beyond that, it's a very strange concept, and I'd like to know where the inspiration came from.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Congrats on the Ennie nod!

-Ben.


terraleon wrote:

Congrats on the Ennie nod!

-Ben.

There's some mighty fine free stuff listed in that Thar' link. ;)

Liberty's Edge

Have any B5 creatures shown up anywhere since yet? Hell's Vengeance, Strange Aeons, modules...?


Wyrmwraith was in Hell's Rebels 6, I feel like the Balisse and/or Choral angels were probably in Hell's Vengeance.

Paizo Employee Developer

I used some B5 monsters in Strange Aeons, but I can't recall exactly what right now. (I'm at home and can't look it up.) Some will also appear in Ruins of Azlant (as well as a few B6 monsters, since the timing worked to my advantage).


Just found a Sakhil in the new Curse of the Crimson Throne.


Has anyone used the Shadow Collector? Love that one a lot!
I intend to use the Muse (hate the art, love the creature) as Inspiration (like the Nymph's ability of same name) for a Sound Striker Bard (with the Occult Bargain Drawback from Spymaster's Handbook Player Companion).
This is my favorite Bestiary since #2.

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