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:

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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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Dragon78, yes, but I'll get back to you later.
Mark, thanks for the reply.


I hope there will improved familiars for aberration, ooze, and plant and some more dragon and fey based ones.


I hope we're getting at least some demigod and/or quasigod creatures.

I think we're getting at least a few CR 26+ critters, but I might be mistaken.


I am sure we will get a couple CR26+ creatures, now what they might be, who knows.

Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
I am sure we will get a couple CR26+ creatures, now what they might be, who knows.

One other thing I've been doing in development when I have space in the turnover is adding powerful variant abilities for stronger versions, like with balor lords and pit fiend infernal dukes. Some of the abilities for more powerful versions of a creature that is already normally mythic CR 24 are just terrifying!


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I'd like more male versions of the Succubus trope. Peronally I'd really like to see an Imp, Incuvan (you know, he's like an Incubus, only smaller ;) )


I hope that the CR26+ creatures in this are not all fiends.


I wonder if the templates will all be all new, or some will be older ones like the Broken Soul template.


It could be a mixture of both;)


I wish for wings that work :-)

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Piasa, Piasa, Piasa, Piasa, Piasa.

Piasa.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
The blog from Tuesday showed them, they are aliens.

Found it. Ok, well in that case, WOOOOOOT!


A Piasa would be interesting.


I've wanted a Piasa for a long time. Been using a Half Dragon Advanced Peryton as a substitute, but I want a real one.

Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
ericthecleric wrote:

Dragon78, yes, but I'll get back to you later.

Mark, thanks for the reply.

Eric sent out a well-researched, polite, and extremely well-thought-out PM to me about those B4 monsters. I thought I'd share my answer (assume it was preceded with math showing that there's a problem with creatures that have iterative attacks, one of my own personal issues with B2-B4, and then also the irminsul). My reply to him starts on the next line:

So actually, you have identified the opposite problem to the one you thought you identified (but you're still totally right, and this is actually one thing I brought up at my interview and Jason told me I was right; B4 had been out for a while before I came on, and B2 and B3 aren't immune, although B1 oddly mostly is because it was written before the chart). Except for the irminsul, which I'm not sure what the heck is up with it, a lot of those other ones suffer because someone used the chart blindly. I'll clarify: Your math is excellent, but the chart damage is for all attacks hitting, and the chart is blind to how likely that is. This led to my working with Logan during the Unchained monster section to figure out a simple rule of thumb to approximate the math you were doing there with iteratives, since clearly monsters with iteratives that are less likely to hit need to do more damage per hit than monsters that all make natural attacks at their full bonus. B5's use of expected damage taking iteratives' lack of accuracy into account should be a good boost for creatures like fey that often used manufactured weapons.

So it's actually by going against the chart in a smart way, like I described in my follow-up post, that we can avoid these definite issues with monsters (except the irminsul because seriously), rather than by following it more closely. Also, I think I developed most if not all of the high-CR fey, and they are going to pack quite a punch; their creature type is troublesome due to 1/2 BAB (so a good attack bonus either requires a truly mammoth Strength or ridiculously many HD).


What I do for warrior fey is to give them an ability to attack better. Could be a swift action ability that energizes their weapon, giving it bonuses to hit. Or use dexterity as the to hit stat. Or, one time I made a fey warrior that lowered enemy stats near her, making them easier to hit. There are a lot of good ways to work around them. Good luck :)

Also you should totally put the hupia from my Arcadia thread in the bestiary :)

Designer

Odraude wrote:

What I do for warrior fey is to give them an ability to attack better. Could be a swift action ability that energizes their weapon, giving it bonuses to hit. Or use dexterity as the to hit stat. Or, one time I made a fey warrior that lowered enemy stats near her, making them easier to hit. There are a lot of good ways to work around them. Good luck :)

Also you should totally put the hupia from my Arcadia thread in the bestiary :)

Indeed. Between some awesome ideas from freelancers and designers alike, the highest-CR fey have some mighty abilities at their command. Some of the more mid-CR or less fighty ones, like the fastachee previewed at the banquet, sometimes have other advantages (for instance, it is very unlikely that a party will be able to have a straight, simple face to face combat encounter with a fastachee, and if they make one an enemy, it can launch some significant harassment on them as support for other encounters, without even coming into the party's crosshairs).


Because it gives them magic corn?


Dragon78 wrote:
Because it gives them magic corn?

Hopefully a party that pisses one off will learn the ear of their ways :D

Designer

Dragon78 wrote:
Because it gives them magic corn?

Nope, you'll have to find out! Granted, fastachees are usually pretty friendly, so a party that made an enemy of one is probably full of big meanies.

Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Odraude wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Because it gives them magic corn?
Hopefully a party that pisses one off will learn the ear of their ways :D

Well, as Jason mentioned at the banquet, a fastachee literally does have the ability to use the corn as ears from a great distance... :D


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lol that's awesome.

Also, i forgot my shameless bestiary plugging in my last post. NOOO!!


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Maybe (A) we (E) need (O) to (N) change... our tactics;)


I wonder if there will be any more creatures from 3rd Ed monster manual or the Tome of Horrors.

I would love to see different kinds of sprites like water, moon, wood, winter, etc. Also some good aligned cold based fey would be nice and a summer/fire template for fey that makes them good aligned.


What is the specific issue with the irminsul?

Designer

Alex Smith 908 wrote:
What is the specific issue with the irminsul?

Really low attack bonus mostly.


Huh. The Irminsul have really low hit dice for a CR 17 mob (who's gargantuan on top of that). (And that planar portal is apparently eating up all seven ranks worth of mythic abilities? Another ouch, there.)

I'm guessing the Erlking with his various built-in, always-on self-buffs is a hint to what other damage-oriented fey will be looking like in the future?


Great rideable winged cats?


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So today I learned about Nordic Aliens. Doing some research, but these guys seem like a good fit for the greys and annanuaki present in the game.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I heard of them as well, though I find it funny that while Wikipedia says they are mostly male, most of the shows I see mention them say female.

I would like winged cats with sizes range from house cat to tiger.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Odraude wrote:
So today I learned about Nordic Aliens. Doing some research, but these guys seem like a good fit for the greys and annanuaki present in the game.

So, I have been researching the UFO and ET/Abduction phenomena since I was a little kid, going on over 20 years of unending curiosity to understand what the heck was going on, and why some people are "crazy" and others are "not crazy." Of course, there is no validity in this fact - there is a real phenomenon, and the people who control our highest levels of military, intelligence, government, and private-sector contractors just lie, and make the situation harder for the rest of us to cope with it. Okay, so enough with the generalizations.

I find this site to be incredibly helpful: UFO Implications Radio Show Archive. Best show with the best researcher in the field (Dr. David Jacobs - August 2, 2011), talking about ET abduction regressions performed on people: here.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

I heard of them as well, though I find it funny that while Wikipedia says they are mostly male, most of the shows I see mention them say female.

I would like winged cats with sizes range from house cat to tiger.

It would be cool to have something like this.


THAT. I definitely WANT THAT.
That and a little fuzzy angel-cat to pet as a familiar.


Mark Seifter wrote:
Odraude wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Because it gives them magic corn?
Hopefully a party that pisses one off will learn the ear of their ways :D
Well, as Jason mentioned at the banquet, a fastachee literally does have the ability to use the corn as ears from a great distance... :D

Can they backstab sneak attack meanies with an ear of corn for not eating their veggies?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well it also be cool to get some of the other aliens from modern day encounter stories such as the reptile and insect like ones.


Will there be more info about this book during Gen Con?

Silver Crusade Contributor

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Bardess wrote:

THAT. I definitely WANT THAT.

That and a little fuzzy angel-cat to pet as a familiar.

I want the Forgotten Realms tressym-cat back. ^_^


I wouldn't mind getting the Glaistig or Boggart to add to they fey side. More clockworks would be appreciated, especially since you can convert them into robots pretty easily if need be.

All in all I am beyond excited for this book. Even when I can't actively play Pathfinder with my friends I love to worldbuild and having more monsters to build a world with is always appreciated


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would like something like the Tressym.

Glaistig and Boggart would be nice as well.


If some 26± challenge rating monster, i hope some dragons and angels or whatefer good alignment monster.


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I'd like to see the new gliding dinosaur, Yi Qi, as a familiar. Microraptor too.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:
I'd like to see the new gliding dinosaur, Yi Qi, as a familiar. Microraptor too.

Would they really need their own stats since we already have stats for Rhamphoryncus and Archeopteryx?

And I just want to see more Qlippoth and Psychopomps.


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It would be nice to see a CR 26+ dragon.

I wonder if any of the fey in the book are bigger then huge size.

I would like to see a CR 26+ that is small size.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
I would like to see a CR 26+ that is small size.

The Legendary Black Beast of Caerbannog?

No, but seriously, this. We need massive threats in miniature size, just to throw players off sometime.


I would fine if it was "The Legendary Black Beast of Caerbannog" at least it would still be tiny to small size.


I can't wait to see the final cover art for this, I am really curious wich creatures were lucky to get picked.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Maybe (A) we (E) need (O) to (N) change... our tactics;)

My thoughts exactly.

We are aware demons and devils and celestials sell well and everyone enjoys more but seriously.

We have WAY more than enough by Paizo and beyond. Exactly when does Paizo plan to draw the line and say,"Ok enough of fiends and celestials. Let's finally start racking up on Lawful (Inevitables), Chaotic (Protean), and Neutral (Aeon) outsiders."

Instead they keep throwing scraps here and there. One inevitable this year, one protean that year, still no new aeons...

Be daring. Do something new and fresh already. How many more fiends and celestials do we need, that 3PP hasn't already also made a ton of, do we really need?

Silver Crusade

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More Psychopomps?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I actually have been seeing more Psychopomps springing up than I do see Inevitables, Proteans and Aeons combined.


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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Let's see.

Aeons: Akhana (Bestiary 2), Bythos (Bestiary 2), Paracletus (Bestiary 2), Pleroma (Bestiary 2), Theletos (Bestiary 2)
Inevitables: Arbiter (Bestiary 2), Kolyarut (Bestiary 2), Lhaksharut (Bestiary 2), Marut (Bestiary 2), Yarahkut (AP #90), Zelekhut (Bestiary 2)
Proteans: Imentesh (Bestiary 2), Keketar (Bestiary 2), Naunet (Bestiary 2), Ourdivar (AP#92), Voidworm (Bestiary 2)

Total: 16

Psychopomps: Ahmuuth (Inner Sea Gods), Catrina (Bestiary 4), Esobok (AP #80), Kere (AP #64), Memitim (Inner Sea Bestiary), Morrigna (Bestiary 4), Nosoi (Bestiary 4), Shoki (Inner Sea Bestiary), Vanth (Bestiary 4), Viduus (Inner Sea Bestiary), Yamaraj (Bestiary 4)

Total: 11

Not quite, but close.

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