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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (OGL) Hardcover
Paizo Publishing, LLC
Here there be monsters!
What is a hero without monsters to vanquish? This 328-page book presents hundreds of different
creatures for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome you’ll find
fire-breathing dragons and blood-drinking vampires, vile demons and shapechanging
werewolves, sadistic goblins and lumbering giants, and so much
more! Yet not all the creatures in this book are enemies, for some
can serve lucky heroes as allies or advisors, be they summoned
angels or capricious nymphs. And it doesn’t stop there—with
full rules for advancing monsters, adapting monsters to different
roles, and designing your own unique creations, you’ll never be
without a band of hideous minions again!
The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary is the must-have companion volume
to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop
game builds upon more than 10 years of system development
and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to
create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time
best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary includes:
- More than 350 different monsters
- Dozens of monstrous variants to modify creatures and keep
players on their toes
- Numerous lists of monsters to aid in navigation, including lists
by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
- Extensive rules for creating effective and balanced monsters
- Rules for advancing monsters by hit dice, template, or class level
- Universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and
qualities like breath weapons, damage reduction, and regeneration
- More than a dozen feats tailored especially for monsters
- Suggestions for monstrous cohorts
- Two dozen additional animal companions
- More than a dozen different wandering monster encounter tables
- AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
Share your thoughts on the Pathfinder RPG messageboards!
ISBN 978-1-60125-183-1
Note: This product is part of the
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Subscription.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
webmaster@paizo.com.
Product Reviews
Average product rating:
 
(4.5)
based on
19
reviews
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review.
Dragons and were-tigers and owlbears, oh my!!!
Reviewer:
xorial
Wed, Mar 17, 2010, 02:28 PM
I received this book with my regular subscription, but hadn't realized that I forgot to review it earlier than now. First off, in response to the review that this is not a revolutionary book, it was not meant to be. This simply updating monsters to the new PFRPG. For that, it is an excellent resource.
My only complaint is that the dragons were a little skimped on, here that is. They received their own book which I have not purchased yet. I know that is an OGL product, but I imagine they got more info in that manual. Basically, thought, there could have been more crunch on dragons in this book. I have to wonder if the original progression charts in the SRD still apply.
The PFRPG Bestiary is a useful, well-organized and attractively illustrated book. I have no regrets about purchasing it, and would recommend it to anyone trying to make up their minds as to whether or not they should buy it. Having said that, there are some areas where it disappoints, and I do hope that the Paizo staff keeps them in mind for future releases.
As other reviewers have mentioned, several of the iconic D&D monsters did not make the transition into the Bestiary. This isn't particularly distressing to me, but I do wish that there were some Pathfinder-specific monsters to fill in the gaps. When one mentions the mind flayer or the beholder, any canny roleplayer will know that the subject is D&D. Given the creativity of the Paizo staff and the worthiness of the Pathfinder setting, I would have expected the Bestiary to contain a number of monsters capable of calling Pathfinder immediately to the minds of gamers.
Unfortunately, the Bestiary seems short on creatures designed to "brand" for Pathfinder.
My only other disappointment was the lack of any information regarding the role that each monster plays on Golarion. The Pathfinder setting is wonderful, but the Campaign Guide was focused mostly on the ways in which the PC races have influenced the world; I had hoped that the Bestiary would have shown some of the ways in which Golarion was influenced by the presence of the monsters contained within.
In summary, the Bestiary is a "workhorse" of a book. Definitely useful and certainly well-constructed and beautiful, but it doesn't exactly bring anything especially new to the table.
On the good side: one monster-per-page (or two), well-organized stat blocks and descriptions, the ability to advance critters easily and effectively, the background story on the beasties (more fluff is better!), the overall layout of the book and its sturdiness
On the bad side: missing some of our favorites (But that must be a licensing issue, right? How can I live without Beholders?? LOL ), and the manga-ish-ness of some of the artwork is a bit distracting to a certain level of realism enjoyed in the game, though overall the artwork is good
Overall, a good purchase. I do not regret dropping the cash. :)
The Bestiary is amazing. I love the format! I was discouraged early on in the book by one piece of art but quickly recovered. The Dire Bear looks like a surprised grizzly with rocks on its back. That being said, the remainder of the art is exceptional.
In my experience, I have found D&D OGL Bestiaries fairly well done. This book continues that tradition and then builds on it. It takes the basic stat blocks and then give a million and one options to customise/develop monsters.
The layout is perfect. Front the monsters with templates followed by monster creation/advancement and then useful, summative and well organised appendices... ones that I know I can be used.
This book is not targetted at beginning GMs who use stats to rush monsters at players for hack and slash. This book is written by experts for expert DMs or to develop GMs to run monsters in creative and challenging ways. A must for the PFRPG GM.
I just downloaded the Pathfinder Bestiary and I am just awestruck at the great job Paizo has done. Everything in the book is so well organized and interlinked so there is no problems whatsoever finding things. I have been playing/DMing D&D for 30+ years and though still a huge fan of D&D I am ready to make a complete switch to Pathfinder. Wizards should have consulted with Paizo instead of slinging together their current miasma of 4th edition. This is how D&D should be!
The Bestiary is a very attractive looking monster book, filled with lots of great art and interesting fluff, and some fun new monsters. However, as far as the monster stats go, there are very few changes to the actual monsters themselves. They are essentially just reprints of the monsters from the 3.5 MM. The 3.5 monster manual has been around for a long time now, and there has been plenty of time to figure out which monsters work well and which one's need some changes/improvements, so am I not noticing many? As a quick example- the pit fiend, while it does have neat new power called devil shaping (which is useless during combat as it takes 1 minute to use), still doesn't have enough hp to keep it standing for more than a couple of rounds against the average 20th level party, and it's regeneration is only 5. If you are going to create a new game, why not change a few things to make it better than its predecessor?
I bought the PDF version of this and what a deal. It is formated so that when I need a monster I simply print that page. I have not ran into a monster that takes up more then 1 page. It is so well formated. It saves my ink and paper and Im ready to go with just one page. I write all over it with notes for that game and toss it when Im done. Great job!!!!!!
This book, like the core rulebook, is gorgeous. Not only that, but it has most of the OGL creatures in it, updated to the Pathfinder rules as well as some interesting and logical tweaks.
The only real gripe I have is that, while I understand why it was done, I didn't like that some classic creatures were turned into templated versions of the core version of the monster (I don't know you you need to have separate stats for heavy war horses, but it just doesn't sit right, to me, to have them be "advanced" horses, for example).
All of that having been said, call this one a 4.75, but I'm just too much of a pain to give up a five star review.
When this arrived at my door I couldn't wait to tear it open and as I read it all I could think about was great enemies to use to kill my friends. There is only one problem.... Where's the Bodak? J/K never use him anyway.
Product Discussion
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yes, oh glorious gods yes!
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Fangasm!
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DAUMN!!! ~spoken in a thick Southern drawl~
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YES!!! I hoping for this book since I saw the mock up for the World Book. Keep up the good stuff Paizo!!!
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...July?
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PZO1112
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seekerofshadowlight,
Lazaro
(Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber),
Shisumo
(Pathfinder Chronicles Superscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber),
