Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast (PFRPG)
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Embrace the Beast Within!

Anthropomorphic animal races have been a staple of fantasy gaming for decades, and Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast presents all the tools you need to play members of some the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game's most iconic bestial races. Packed full of character options for members of all classes, as well as some that members of other races can adopt, Blood of the Beast is sure to spice up any campaign!

Inside this book, you'll find:

  • New class archetypes including the tengu jinx witch, the catfolk serendipity shaman, the grippli war painter, and the vanaran fortune-finder.
  • Exciting new feats to accentuate beast-blooded races' inherent abilities, such as ratfolk's swarming ability and kitsune's shapechanging trickery.
  • Dozens of new spells, alternate racial traits, and favored class bonuses to customize characters of all stripes.

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-901-1

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

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

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Pretty Good (Needs More Lore, Less Filler)

4/5

When the Advanced Race Guide came out, the number of playable races in Pathfinder suddenly increased substantially. There’s an argument to be made that perhaps it was too much, too fast, with some of the new races competing (stats-wise) more than favourably with the classic Core Rulebook races. I frankly get tired of seeing nagaji bloodragers and kitsune swashbucklers, but I guess that’s neither here nor there. The value in Blood of the Beast is that it grounds these new races into the Golarion campaign setting, adding some information about where they come from and how they’re perceived. For GMs and players interested in a cohesive view of the setting, the promise is an important one. As with all of these Player Companions, of course, there’s plenty of crunchy new options for character building as well. The races covered here are catfolk, gripplis, kitsune, nagaji, ratfolk, tengus, and vanaras.

I really like the concept for the cover art, though the actual execution is a bit too cartoony for my tastes. The inside front cover is a zoomed-out map of the Inner Sea with coloured highlighting showing where the various races covered in the book originate. I think it’s too zoomed-out to be of a lot of real use though. The inside back cover is the cover art minus any text.

After a page for the table of contents, we then get a two-page introduction. There’s a new trait for each race covered in the book. Some of the traits are fine, but some are of the generic “+1 to a skill and it’s a class skill” type that are really just space-fillers and list-lengtheners.

Each of the seven races then get a four-page long entry with a brief overview, some favoured class options, an archetype or two, and often other options like new feats or spells. Although many of these new options are flavoured as tied to a particular race, most don’t actually have being a member of that race as a prerequisite to taking them. I’ll go through each of these entries briefly.

Catfolk get a few new archetypes, including the Prowler at World’s End for bloodragers (giving them medium spirits), the Ravenous Hunter for inquisitors (a specialist demon-fighter with an oracle revelation), and the Serendipity Shaman for shamans (gets some new hexes—one of them, Tweak the Odds, is really good!). There are some new, forgettable feats, and a new natural course for wildsoul vigilantes called “feline.” Of the new spells, bit of luck is really powerful since it can be used before or after the results of a die roll have been revealed (which is rather unusual).

The new favoured class bonuses for gripplis are interesting, and I really like a cool new archetype for mediums called the Fiend Keeper—it specializes in containing an evil spirit. The other archetypes are the Poison Darter for rangers and the odd War Painter for skalds. There are also some new feats and spells, but nothing that jumped out at me.

Kitsune get some alternate racial traits, new advanced versatile performances for bards and skalds, and a new archetype, the Nine-Tailed Heir for sorcerers (great artwork here!). There are some new feats for shapeshifters, a really clever new spell called contagious suggestion, and some new vigilante talents (I like the one called “obscurity”—-it’s basically the opposite of renown).

For Nagaji, there are new naga bloodlines for bloodragers and sorcerers. There’s a new cavalier archetype called First Mother’s Fang, which is a sort of governor/general concept; it’s pretty good in broadening the knowledge skills available to cavaliers, and who doesn’t want to ride around on a giant snake? There’s also some new mesmerist tricks and spells.

I love the new ratfolk archetypes, and might have to give one a try soon. There’s the Opportunist for fighters (a really cool, skills-focused alchemist mix), the Scavenger for investigators (a gadget type of alchemist with a great feel), and the Swarm Monger for druids (which is pretty much what it sounds like). There are several feats, all of which build off the Swarming special ability of ratfolk, and they’re quite good too. The only “meh” thing in the entry is a new psychic discipline, Warp.

Tengus receive several new feats (I like Lovable Scoundrel) and spells, as well as several new archetypes. Courser for swashbucklers makes for a super-mobile character, though they have to give up a lot. The Jinx Witch for witches provides for some interesting abilities to absorb and expend spells (and has some great art). The Red Tongue for skalds provides an odd mix of rogue talents. I think a lot of writers just don’t know what to do with skalds, but I can’t blame them—-I don’t know either.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for vanaras, since that’s the race of my favourite character (Goldcape) in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP I’ve been running for a couple of years now. The race here gets some new alternate racial traits, including size changing, as well as the usual favored class options. There are then several new Meditation feats, but none of them are worth it. Fighters may be interested in the new advanced weapon training options. There’s one new archetype, the Fortune-Finder for rangers—-it’s frankly just kind of bland. Unchained monks get some new style strikes and ki powers (with freedom of movement particularly great). Last, there’s a new eidolon subtype for unchained summoners called Ancestor, but it’s not particularly interesting.

Pretty much every book in the Player Companion line is going to contain its share of filler mixed with some real gems of creativity. I thought Blood of the Beast is better than many in the proportion of wheat to chaff. I would have like more than just a couple of paragraphs on how each of the races fit into Golarion—-remember, that’s the value-add of the books (along with the art), as all the new rules options will be immediately stripped out and placed on the Archives of Nethys. But all in all, this is a worthwhile book to buy.


Aside from the Fan Boy/Girl factor, . . .

1/5

I really don't understand why this book got such good reviews. I was very hesitant to buy this one from the start. Both because past experiences with cramming in far too many things into one book have led to, well predictable results and the very, very thin theme of the focus here.

This is probably the first product I outright want my monies back. But probably worst of all is that this book probably kills any possibility that the few races involved here I actually do want a Player's Guide for are likely to never get a good one now.

It's pretty much as I feared, far, far, far too little on anything I'm interested in, except I'm struggling to actually find a single thing I find interesting, good, or something I'd use. Just too forced, and the actual goal seems to be to make sure a few snowflake things get in the game rather than focusing on each of the races, and it shows which of the race options where favored and which got options because they had to get something.


A lot of fun ideas to build around

5/5

Blood of the Beast does just what a Player Companion should, in my opinion, do: it provides a large number of options that would be interesting to incorporate into a character or build a character around.


Such beauty in being the beast

5/5

A great book that offers nice alternative new options for the animal-like races and even some that can be used by other races too.

While most of the options are restricted to the exclusive races for PFS play, you could probably go wild with a homebrew setting.

The art in the book is beautiful as well, having at least 2 pictures of each race to represent how they look like.


Better than I anticipated

5/5

I was ready for this book to be average. I was wrong. SO MANY OPTIONS! Feats, Traits, Archetypes, Spells. This book really delivers on the mechanical side.

The artwork, layout, and flavor text are all great too, especially the in the Nagaji and Kitsune sections.


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Community & Digital Content Director

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Temporarily locking so we can address this thread once we're back in the office tomorrow morning.

Community & Digital Content Director

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Removed a long series of posts surrounding a different product from a different publisher. The intent of product discussion threads is to house information surrounding to the specific product the threads are attached to, and we ask participants to curb unrelated conversations and take it to another thread.

We also expect everyone who posts on paizo.com to adhere to our Community Guidelines. Creating accounts for the sole purpose of piling onto an issue is considered baiting, and creating additional accounts as aliases for yourself undermines our goal of fostering honest and meaningful discussion. Additionally, encouraging dog-piling behavior on an individual or company on our website goes against the spirit of the environment we strive for.

While the intent of this action may be to bring Paizo's attention to an issue, a "flame war" (IE: defaming commentary of other publishers or freelancers within our industry) isn't the appropriate method to do so. Paizo values our relationship with the third-party publishing community, and by extension, our relationship with other gaming industry publishers. The channel for handling third-party content (in addition to consignment product hosted on our website) and for addressing Pathfinder Compatibility License issues (including violations) is consignments@paizo.com.


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More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(
Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Looks like a missed a strange flame war when I went to bed last night.

Anyway back to the subject at hand.

What are the favored class bonuses for the kineticist?

What does the nagaji get?


I actually forgot what Grippli's get.

Also, i would like to know if there's any cool maps, that maybe show where these races typically hail from.

Most likely as soon as i walk into our FLGS this holiday season with the kids they'll get it just for the cover. :-)

Assuming the don't spend their whole wad on minis. :-)


Dragon78 wrote:


What are the favored class bonuses for the kineticist?

Oh shoot, did we get some new ones? I'd love to see.


Dragon78 wrote:
Looks like a missed a strange flame war when I went to bed last night.

I haven't seen that kind of stuff in a while either.

Anyway... ah, most of the Catfolk stuff has been answered.


Are the Shapechange feats usable by non-Kitsune who have the chapechanger subtype ? Or just specifically Kitsune ?

Grand Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Sirrano wrote:
Hey Skeld, any chance you could enlighten me as to some of the options for (best race) ratfolk?

Spoiler:

Favored Class Options - Arcanist, Bard, Hunter, Inquisitor, Investigator, Mesmerist, Occultist, Psychic, Spiritualist, Swashbuckler.
Archetypes - Opportunist (Fighter), Scavenger (Investigator), Swarm Monger (Druid).
Feats - Cooperative Swarmer, Rat Stack, Rending Swarm, Squirming Pile, Underfoot.
Psychic Discipline - Warp.

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Fourshadow wrote:

More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(

Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.

Spoiler:

You, quite literally, sweat poison and can apply it to a weapon.

-Skeld


Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(

Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

That seems redundant with their base/racial trait...they already could produce poison. I guess that is for those who swap out...?

Grand Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
What are the favored class bonuses for the kineticist?

Spoiler:

Vanara - 1/3 points of burn
Tengu - 1/6 Wild Talent

Dragon78 wrote:
What does the nagaji get?

Spoiler:

Favored Class options - Cavalier, Mesmerist, Oracle, Paladin, Ranger, Slayer, Socerer, Warpriest.
Bloodlines - Naga (Bloodrager), Naga (Sorcerer).
Feats - Entwining Stare, Venomous Stare.
Archetype - First Mother's Fang (Cavalier).
Mesmerist Tricks - Break Stupor, Enchanting Words, Life Reciew.
Spells - greater hypnotism (Bard 4, Mesmerist 4, Occultist 4, Psychic 4, Sor/wiz 4, Witch 4), metabolic molting (Cleric 6, Druid 6, Shaman 6, Witch 6), naga shape 1 (Alchemist 4, Bloodrager 4, Magus 4, Sor/wiz 4), naga shape 2 (Alchemist 5, Bloodrager 5, Magus 5, Sor/wiz 5), naga shape 3 (Alchemist 6, Bloodrager 6, Magus 6, Sor/wiz 6).

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
captain yesterday wrote:
Also, i would like to know if there's any cool maps, that maybe show where these races typically hail from.

There's an Inner Sea map inside front cover with regions for each race.

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
nighttree wrote:
Are the Shapechange feats usable by non-Kitsune who have the chapechanger subtype ? Or just specifically Kitsune ?

The feats require the ability to change shape, but don't specifically require the character to be Kitsune.

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Fourshadow wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(

Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

That seems redundant with their base/racial trait...they already could produce poison. I guess that is for those who swap out...?

I'm guessing the spell is inspired by the Grippli ability...

-Skeld

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Geez about character assasination thing going on before ._.;

Anyhoo, what are rest of the archetypes? Also interested in tengu material and if there is anything particularly interesting setting info


Cool, a naga bloodline for both sorcerers and bloodragers.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(

Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

That seems redundant with their base/racial trait...they already could produce poison. I guess that is for those who swap out...?

I'm guessing the spell is inspired by the Grippli ability...

-Skeld

the race trait is once a day

Grand Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
CorvusMask wrote:

Geez about character assasination thing going on before ._.;

Anyhoo, what are rest of the archetypes? Also interested in tengu material and if there is anything particularly interesting setting info

Spoiler:

Archetypes
Catfolk - Prowler At The World's End (Bloodrager), Ravener hunter (Inquisitor), Serendipity Shaman (Shman)
Grippli - Fiend Keeper (Medium), Poison Darter (Ranger), War painter (Skald)
Kitsune - Nine-Tailed Heir (Sorcerer)
Nagaji - First Mother's Fang (Cavalier)
Ratfolk - Opportunist (Fighter), Scavenger (Investigator), swarm Monger (Druid)
Tengu - Courser (Swashbuckler), Jinx Witch (Witch), Red Tongue (Skald)
Vanara - Fortune Finder (Ranger)

I haven't read it enough to comment on setting fluff. I've mostly been answering questions.

-Skeld


What is the gist of the Prowler at the World's End, if you don't mind my asking? And maybe the Naga bloodlines too, if you don't mind answering that.


To be honest, I'd love to know the gist of each archetype if possible. I''m assuming that they can only be taken by their respective races of course, but I'd love to know what they give up and what they gain in return (not looking for specifics. Just a general idea)

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Ventnor wrote:
What is the gist of the Prowler at the World's End, if you don't mind my asking? And maybe the Naga bloodlines too, if you don't mind answering that.

Spoiler:

Prowler At The World's End must take the Destined bloodline, gains spirit channeling (gives up some bloodline powers), some bloodline powers are delayed, can apply beast shape 4 when raging (at level 11), gains Natural Spell (basically).

The Naga Bloodrager Bloodline makes you more physically serpent-like.
The Naga Sorcerer Bloodline grants some diffeent abilities from the Bloorager Bloodline. They very distinct.

-Skeld

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Duskblade wrote:
To be honest, I'd love to know the gist of each archetype if possible. I''m assuming that they can only be taken by their respective races of course, but I'd love to know what they give up and what they gain in return (not looking for specifics. Just a general idea)

That's a tall order. There are 15 Archetypes. Some other people will have to help out on that one.

-Skeld


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Skeld wrote:
Ventnor wrote:
What is the gist of the Prowler at the World's End, if you don't mind my asking? And maybe the Naga bloodlines too, if you don't mind answering that.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

Thank you!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What's the Fiend Keeper like? Do they look like a viable medium archetype?


Whoa, Ratfolk get a Psychic discipline and four psychic class favored class bonuses?!

Can you tell me the Psychic favored class bonus and a vague overview of the Warp discipline?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Skeld wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
What are the favored class bonuses for the kineticist?

** spoiler omitted **

Dragon78 wrote:
What does the nagaji get?

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

OOH! That bloodrager option would've been neat for my Society nagaji.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Porridge wrote:
What's the Fiend Keeper like? Do they look like a viable medium archetype?

It's got some interesting flavor. I don't have a feel for how viable it is.

-Skeld


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Skeld wrote:
Porridge wrote:
What's the Fiend Keeper like? Do they look like a viable medium archetype?

It's got some interesting flavor. I don't have a feel for how viable it is.

-Skeld

Interesting... Thanks!

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Plausible Pseudonym wrote:

Whoa, Ratfolk get a Psychic discipline and four psychic class favored class bonuses?!

Can you tell me the Psychic favored class bonus and a vague overview of the Warp discipline?

Spoiler:

Favored Class Bonuses
Memerist - +1 bonus on Concentration to maintain hypnotic stare
Occultist - 1/6 focus power
Psychic - phrenic amplification
Spiritualist - 1/2 HP & 1/2 skill point to Phantom

Warp Discipline - It is Vudra/Casmaron flavored as ratfolk have a tradition of searching out tears in the fabric of reality that grant them some teleportation and defensive type abilities and bonus spells.

-Skeld

Liberty's Edge

What's the Serendipity Shaman like? Do they, as some have speculated, switch casting to Charisma?


So what are the other catflok archetypes(well other then the bloodrager one) like?

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Deadmanwalking wrote:
What's the Serendipity Shaman like? Do they, as some have speculated, switch casting to Charisma?

Spoiler:

It's heavily focused on luck. It gains access to the Luck domain and Luck Variant Channeling, among other things.

I don't see anything about switching casting to Charisma.

-Skeld

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