You Only Die Twice!

Thursday, November 12th, 2015

This is it folks—the final matchup round for our Bestiary 5 previews, and your final chance to get in your votes and a chance to win a copy of Bestiary 5!

Illustrations by Ben Wootten and Jose Parodi

Wyrmwraith CR ??

This ghostly, skeletal creature appears to once have been a dragon, but it is now something far less noble.

CE Gargantuan undead (incorporeal)

Init +16; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense; Perception +38

Aura unnatural aura

Defense

Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, incorporeal, positive energy transference; Immune undead traits

Weaknesses sunlight powerlessness

Offense

Special Attacks breath weapon (60-ft. cone, ?d? negative energy and 1 negative level), create spawn, ectoplasmic shift, energy drain (? levels, DC ??)

Statistics

SQ phase lurch

Ecology

Ecology any

Organization solitary or cadre (1 plus 2–4 dread wraiths)

Treasure double

Special Abilities

Create Spawn (Su) Any humanoids slain by a wyrmwraith become dread wraiths (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 281) in 1d4 rounds. Spawn are under the command of the wyrmwraith that created them and remain enslaved until its death, at which point they become free-willed dread wraiths. They don’t possess any of the abilities they had in life.

Divine Dispelling (Su) When a wyrmwraith strikes a creature with one of its claws, that creature is also affected by a targeted greater dispel magic (CL ??th) that can dispel only divine spells.

Ectoplasmic Shift (Su) A wyrmwraith can push through the ectoplasmic veil to temporarily assume a physical form made of ectoplasm. As a swift action, the wyrmwraith can become corporeal for ?d? rounds. It can return to its incorporeal form as a free action. Once its ectoplasmic form’s duration ends, the wyrmwraith can’t assume that form again for ?d? rounds. While in ectoplasmic form, the wyrmwraith loses the incorporeal ability (including its deflection bonus to AC) and gains a +?? natural armor bonus to AC, DR ??/—, a Strength score equal to its Dexterity score, and the phase lurch ability. The AC for a typical wyrmwraith in ectoplasmic form is ??. When in ectoplasmic form, its attacks are Melee bite +?? (?d?+?? plus energy drain), 2 claws +?? (?d?+?? plus divine dispelling), 2 wings +?? (?d?+?), tail slap +?? (?d?+??).

Phase Lurch (Su) A wyrmwraith in ectoplasmic form can pass through walls or material obstacles. It must begin and end its turn outside whatever wall or obstacle it’s moving through. It can’t move through corporeal creatures with this ability, and its movement speed is halved while moving through a wall or obstacle. Any surface it moves through is coated with a thin, silvery mucus that lingers for 1 minute.

Positive Energy Transference (Su) Whenever a wyrmwraith succeeds at a saving throw to resist positive energy damage but still suffers damage, the wyrmwraith can immediately transfer that damage to any dread wraith spawn of its choice with ?? feet that it controls. The wyrmwraith takes any excess damage beyond the spawn’s hit points. Even if the wyrmwraith has no spawn under its control, when it succeeds at its save against a positive energy effect that normally deals half damage on a successful save, it instead takes one quarter damage.

The Wyrmwraith tore through the Deep Merfolk like me at a sushi bar, crushing it by a 2-to-1 margin to win. With a veritable host of abilities at its disposal, not to mention the ability to phase through solid objects, the Wyrmwraith is a mighty opponent, and not one to trifle with.

Pakalchi Sahkil CR ??

Thorny vines with tiny red flowers grow from this emaciated woman and flow like a train behind her.

NE Medium outsider (evil, extraplanar, sahkil)

Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, true seeing; Perception +13

Defense

DR 10/good; Immune death effects, disease, fear effects, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10, sonic 10; SR 20

Offense

Special Attacks bleed (?d?), entangling train, look of fear (?? ft., DC ??), spirit touch, sudden strike, thorns

Statistics

SQ easy to call, emotional focus, skip between

Ecology

Ecology any (Ethereal Plane)

Organization solitary, pair, or plot (3–7)

Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Easy to Call (Ex) Sahkils count as having 4 fewer Hit Dice (minimum 2) for purposes of spells or effects that call outsiders, such as planar binding. However, they receive a racial bonus equal to 1/2 their Hit Dice on Charisma checks to break free of planar binding spells and similar effects, and their spell resistance counts as if it were 5 higher for the purpose of breaking free of planar binding spells and similar effects.

Emotional Focus (Ex) Whenever a sahkil casts a spell or uses a spell-like ability or effect with the emotion^UM or fear descriptors that allows a saving throw, the DC is increased by 2.

Entangling Train (Su) Creatures adjacent to a pakalchi must succeed at a DC ?? Reflex save or become entangled in its vines for ? rounds, and count as tethered. Entangled creatures take vine damage automatically each round they’re entangled. Creatures are no longer entangled if the pakalchi moves away. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Look of Fear (Su) A creature affected by a pakalchi’s gaze is panicked for ? rounds and shaken for ?d? rounds thereafter. A creature that successfully saves against this effect is only shaken for ? rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Poison (Ex) Thorns—injury; save Fort DC ??; frequency ?/round for ? rounds; effect ?d? Wis damage; cure 3 consecutive saves. A creature with Wisdom damage from a pakalchi’s poison hears paranoid whispers warning of betrayal. It can’t treat any other creature as an ally or be a willing target for a spell or effect. This is an emotion^UM effect.

Skip Between (Su) Many sahkils can shift between the Ethereal Plane and the Material Plane as a move action. This ability is otherwise identical to ethereal jaunt (CL ??th).

Spirit Touch (Ex) A sahkil’s natural weapons, as well as any weapon it wields, are treated as though they had the ghost touch weapon special ability.

Sudden Strike (Ex) Once per round, a pakalchi can extend the reach of one claw or thorned vine by ? feet as part of a single attack. It can use this ability to threaten additional squares to cause an enemy to provoke an attack of opportunity.

Thorns (Ex) A pakalchi can fling a volley of poisonous thorns as a standard action (make an attack roll for each thorn). This attack has a range of ??? feet with no range increment.

The power of cute was not strong enough to save the Lotus Leshy, and the Pakalchi Sahkil crushed it with the power of its floral arrangement. Against the Wyrmwraith, the Pakalchi's spirit touch will be a great aid against the incorporeal Wyrmwraith—but will it be enough?

Customer Service Representative Diego Valdez: "No contest, the Wyrmwraith wins. The Pakalchi may not be afraid of the undead, incorporeal, dragon because it is immune to fear, but it should be. It should be. A bit of damage resistance barely slows down a dragons jaws."

Designer Mark Seifter: "The pakalchi might have barely knocked off the lotus leshy, but she’s bitten off more than she can chew with the wyrmwraith. As she unloads her attacks against her foe, she finds that it’s basically immune to her entire repertoire, from fear, to mind control, to poison. Bet she wishes she hadn’t given up on that whole psychopomp thing now; she might once have been a morrigna, and then she would have stood a better chance against undead. The best thing she can do here is step between to run away and forfeit the match. Meanwhile, the wyrmwraith’s first breath attack has left her enervated and badly hurt. There’s no chance she’ll survive the wyrmwraith's full attack!"

Now that you've seen the entrants for the Final Round, head on over to the Voting Booth to place your bets! If you vote on a winning creature, you'll increase your chances to win a signed copy of Bestiary 5, or be one of four winners of a digital version! The third round of voting closes at 12:00 PM Pacific time on November 18th, 2015, and remember, each round will give you more chances to win!

Vote Now!

After a late night of journeying in the Wastelands, I'm gonna need a quad-shot, so here's a quad-shot of monster previews!

Illustrations by Wayne England, Jim Nelson, and Dave Allsop

Until we meet again,

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Ultimate Campaign: WAR! What is it Good For?

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Sometime in the next week or so, Ultimate Campaign will be shipping out to a game store or mailbox near you. In anticipation of the release of this 256-page hardcover, we are taking a look at what you can expect to find inside. In the past three weeks, we have looked at character backgrounds, the downtime system, and rules for the GM to add to their campaign. This week, we are looking at the final chapter of the book, Kingdoms and War!

Built from the popular rules found in the Kingmaker Adventure Path, this chapter takes those rules to the next level, giving you new options to allow your PCs to conquer any part of the world (or at the very least, declare war on the parts they cannot conquer). First up are rules for building and expanding a kingdom. These rules are a refined version from those in Kingmaker, but if you used those rules, these will be very familiar to you. The big thing we added here was a variety of new rules and options for your kingdom. We expanded just about everything from rulership types to buildings that you can construct in your cities. Here are just a few examples.

Bank 28 BP, 1 Lot
Kingdom Economy +4
Special Base value +2,000 gp
A secure building for storing valuables and granting loans.

Palace 108 BP, 4 Lots
Kingdom Economy +2, Loyalty +6, Stability +2; Fame +1
Discount Mansion, Mint, Noble Villa
Special Base value +1,000 gp; you may make two special edicts per turn (see page 229), but take a -2 penalty on kingdom checks associated with each special edict
Settlement Law +2
A grand edifice and walled grounds demonstrating one's wealth, power, and authority to the world.

What good is a kingdom if you can't declare war on your neighbors? To that end, we added the war rules from Kingmaker and expanded upon them. This system is not a tactical war simulation, but it works perfectly in a narrative game, with quick and simple resolution with meaningful results. We greatly expanded the sample units and armies in this section of the book as well. Take a look at a few of these stat blocks!

Illustration by Jim Nelson

Drow Army XP 400
CE Medium army of drow (warrior 3)
hp 3; ACR 1
DV 11; OM +3, ranged
Tactics dirty fighters, false retreat, sniper support, spellbreaker
Special darkvision, light sensitivity, poison, spell resistance
Speed 2; Consumption 1
Note +2 OM due to spell-like abilities

Tarrasque XP 102,400
N Fine army of one tarrasque
hp 93; ACR 17
DV 27; OM +21, ranged
Tactics defensive wall, relentless brutality, siegebreaker, spellbreaker, withdraw
Special cannibalize; fear; grab; immune to ability damage, bleed, disease, energy drain, fear, paralysis, petrification, and poison; low-light vision; regeneration 40; scent; significant defense; spell resistance
Speed 2; Consumption 8
Note +4 OM due to feats and monster special abilities

Well, that about wraps up our look at Ultimate Campaign. You should be able to find this book in stores very soon. Pick it up and expand your campaign!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Ultimate Campaign Art Preview!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The release of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign is getting ever closer. Whether it's kingdom-building or leading an army, starting a business or crafting magic items, Ultimate Campaign is for all of the adventures that take place outside of the dungeon. The pages of the newest Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardcover provide all kinds of useful information for your campaign, but many fantastic illustrations are contained within! Check some of them out!

Being a ruler has many responsibilities, but also many rewards.

Eidolons and other companion creatures are more fun when treated as a separate character rather than an obedient stat block.

Retraining rules allow you to replace a feat, change an ability score increase, or improve your hit points.

The quest to find a missing family member is a driving force for many heroes.

The section on marriage talks about how a spouse (or any relationship) can be an ally or an adversary.

Illustrations by Sam Burley, Eric Belisle, Lydia Schuchmann, and Maichol Quinto

Kingdom-building rules allow PCs to control their own country—or be the power behind the throne.

Followers, apprentices, and similar companions can be positive or negative plot hooks for a PC.

A character's lineage is a chain of characters linking a PC to the history of the campaign setting.

Illustrations by Denman Rooke, Jim Nelson, and Grafit Studio

Ultimate Campaign releases this May, preorder your copy today!

Sarah Robinson
Senior Art Director

Enter the Dragon!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Unless you’ve been trapped in jotund troll’s lair for the past few months, you’ve probably noticed that here at Paizo we’ve been exploring a number of Asian themes for the Pathfinder RPG. From the release of the ninja and samurai alternate classes in Ultimate Combat to the Jade Regent Adventure Path, we’ve definitely had the myths and monstrous challenges of the East on our minds.

To kick off our preview of the soon-to-be-released Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3, we are going to continue on with that theme and unleash one of the great challenges of the Dragon Empires—the forest dragon! Just one of a suite of new imperial dragons—serpentine agents of ancient lands and cosmic balance—these fickle and malevolent creatures wind their way through the forest mists. And while they are capable of the wingless flight common to dragons of their ilk, they prefer to hunt on the forest floor, waylaying those foolish enough to trespass upon their emerald domain.

Illustration by Jim Nelson

Young Forest Dragon CR 10

XP 9,600
CE Large dragon (earth)
Init +5; Senses dragon senses, tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +15

Defense

AC 22, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, –1 size)
hp 126 (11d12+55)
Fort +11, Ref +8, Will +8 Immune paralysis, poison, sleep

Offense

Speed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 200 ft. (poor)
Melee bite +17 (2d6+9), 2 claws +16 (1d8+6), gore +16 (1d8+9), tail slap +14 (1d8+9)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with bite and gore)
Special Attacks breath weapon (40-ft. cone, 6d6 piercing damage, DC 19)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 11th; concentration +12)
  At will—pass without trace
Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +12)
  1st (4/day)—obscuring mist, shield
  0 (at-will)—ghost sound, read magic, resistance, touch of fatigue

Statistics

Str 23, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12 Base Atk +11; CMB +18; CMD 29 (33 vs. trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Stealth), Toughness, Weapon Focus (bite)
Skills Acrobatics +10 (+14 when jumping), Bluff +15, Climb +28, Fly –3, Intimidate +15, Knowledge (arcana, nature) +9, Perception +15, Stealth +17, Survival +10
Languages Common, Draconic
SQ sound imitation, woodland stride

Bestiary 3 features adult and ancient versions of this dragon and three versions of the other imperial dragons—sea dragons, sky dragons, sovereign dragons, and underworld dragons—as well as rules for you to make your own imperial dragon menace. This monstrous supplement also features a host of other, similarly themed monsters. From a template for the noble guardian foo creatures, to the treacherous spidery jorogumos, to the ancient and otherworldly kami, and a host of new deadly oni, Bestiary 3 has enough monsters to stock an entire Dragon Empires campaign!

Not planning on adventuring in that part of Golarion for a while? Don’t fret. Next week we will be looking at a host of other monsters in Bestiary 3 that we’re sure can find a place in any one of your upcoming adventures. Until then, beware the twisting trail and cunning tactics of the forest dragon!

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Golarion Day: Oni

Thursday, July 14, 2011

When we updated the ogre mage for the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, we did a bit more than just bring his statistics in line with what he should be for a CR 8 foe. We made him into an oni. Alas, we didn’t have room to give oni as a full-on race of evil outsiders proper justice in that book, beyond mentioning that, yes, there were more oni out there.

This Gen Con, with the release of the first installment of the Jade Regent Adventure Path, we’ll be fixing that. Pathfinder #49 features an article about the oni, and for the duration of this Adventure Path, new oni will appear in the Bestiary. (And chances are better than good that you’ll be seeing even more oni near the end of the year!) Pictured here are four of those new oni—the fire yai, ice yai, water yai, and wind yai—oni closely associated with actual giants.

James Jacobs
Creative Director

Cheliax, Empire of Devils

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Available mid-August, Cheliax, Empire of Devils is a Pathfinder Companion sourcebook written by a star cast of authors led by Amber Scott (contributor to Dragon magazine, the "Ecology of the Varisians" article for Pathfinder, and Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh) and Colin McComb (TSR veteran and a designer for Fallout II and Planescape: Torment). Developed hand-in-hand with the Council of Thieves Adventure Path, Cheliax serves up a big spicy dish of diabolical bureaucracy with its hands around the throat of the common people.

In a land ruled by devil-worshipers, nothing is quite... normal. Basement arenas in slums host cockatrice fights. The elite military forces train against devils to overcome fear. Priests of Asmodeus interpret laws. At the top of the hierarchy, lovely young Queen Abrogail issues orders to the royal scribes, redacting events of the past and issuing new official histories so that eventually all will believe that Cheliax has always been in league with Hell.

As the Pathfinder Companion line is designed to be player-friendly, inside you'll find articles on Westcrown (an excellent source of info for players about to start the Council of Thieves Adventure Path) and the capital city of Egorian, magic items and spells of Cheliax, religion in Cheliax (including how non-Asmodean religions are allowed to exist there), new traits, new combat feats to emulate devil fighting styles, and four fully statted NPCs suitable for contacts, hirelings, or cohorts.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer, Pathfinder Companion