Announcing Bestiary 4!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Get ready for even more monsters—Bestiary 4 is coming this Fall!

We've searched through dozens of real-world bestiaries, countless online sources, reports of strangeness from all over the world, our favorite films and fiction, and right here on our own message boards to compile another collection of creatures even more diabolical than those that have come before. Like the first three, Bestiary 4 has more than 300 pages and features hundreds of monsters of a terrifying variety appropriate for every Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign.

This time there's more than just strange stories and bizarre powers amping up the threats, though. With the godlike powers soon to be unleashed in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Mythic Adventures, there's about to be a whole new caliber of heroes in need of threats to overcome, and Bestiary 4 provides. Just as characters of any level might have mythic powers, the same is true of monsters. Infused with mythic power, legends like the immortal guardian dragon, faith-fueled juggernauts, and vampiric leanen sidhe rise to rampage across your campaign. But shattering all past power levels are truly world-ending terrors like demon lords, Great Old Ones, elohim, kaiju, and more! Simply put, no Bestiary has ever been as deadly as this.

But even though mythic creatures function exactly as normal Pathfinder RPG monsters and are useable even in non-mythic games, they comprise but a small percentage of this collection's total terror. Inside, you'll find beasties of every Challenge Rating, of all your favorite creature types, and appropriate for adventures of every level. So what should you expect?

  • Favorites from past bestiaries, like new clockwork creatures, drakes, and gremlins!
  • The return of nearly forgotten foes like formians, nosferatu, and even the terrifying almiraj!
  • Nightmares from both the real world—like argus, einherjar, and pickled punks—and the world of Golarion—like fleshwarps, gallowdead, and psychopomps!
  • Terrors from your favorite fiction and film, like bodysnatchers, Grendel, and nightgaunts!
  • The newest generations of Bestiary regulars, like slag giants, blood golems, and the enigmatic outer dragons!
  • Entirely new terrors, like karkinoi, necrocrafts, owbs, and soulbound shells!
  • New templates like divine guardian, mummified, and shadow, to multiply your current creature collection!
  • New player-friendly races, familiars, and constructs offering characters a host of new options!
  • Mythic threats!
  • And much, much more!

Beyond giving gamers the creatures they've been begging for and expanding every GM's monstrous arsenal, each Pathfinder Bestiary has a very general theme. With Bestiary 4... well, just take a look at Wayne Reynolds's newest cover and take your best guess at the sorts of stories that influenced our selections.

We'll have plenty more to say about and show off from Bestiary 4 in the months leading up to its Fall release, but for now, check out that awesome cover and start dropping menacing hints to your players—because terrible things are on the way.

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

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Tags: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
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Shadow Lodge

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Juggernaut should be an aquired template, gained when you possess the artifact Crimson Gem of Cyttorak.


Yes, to become a human juggernaut but I doubt this juggernaut is human.

Liberty's Edge

Kain Darkwind wrote:

Tooth faeries are from Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, I'm betting.

In which case, they'll be friggin' terrifying.

Great flick!


Mr. James Jacobs already said that think Hellboy II when you thinking this version of the tooth fairies.


http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?


Axial wrote:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?

That is a converted (read unnofficial) version. There isn't an official version yet, therefore it's In Bestiary 4.


Icyshadow wrote:
Hell yeah, more exotic skulls to add to the Hall of Fame.

One of my player's dwarf fighter has the heads of monsters they kill mounted to be put on his house's walls. He now has a hydra, black dragon, and khartua (homebrew daemon bear) head up there. In looking forward to giving him more trophies :D

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Mr. James Jacobs already said that think Hellboy II when you thinking this version of the tooth fairies.

Actually, I believe I said something more along the lines of, "If you think tooth fairies are silly and cute, check out Hellboy 2." I didn't say "We're making our tooth fairies look like the ones in Hellboy 2."

The fact that there's multiple points of inspiration for tiny little critters that take teeth is the point. One of the creepiest ones I've seen was one that showed up in a Cthulhu by Gaslight adventure, where they crept into an investigator's room at night, stitched his pajamas to the mattress, and then hammered out his teeth with tiny little hammers and pliers that took a long time to get the job done.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32

Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Axial wrote:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?

That is a converted (read unnofficial) version. There isn't an official version yet, therefore it's In Bestiary 4.

If I'm remembering correctly, the official nosferatu already appears in Pathfinder Player's Companion: Blood of the Night.


Oh my mistake James, I guess I misunderstood what you meant or maybe just a little too hopeful.

Silver Crusade

Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
I'm not one of those, I just thought nobody talked about other monsters.
Well they are literally the big thing about this volume. But I'm itching to see everything. I wonder if the Nosferatu template will be similar to the normal vampire. I want to apply it to a Succubus, for kicks.

...on the one hand, the nosferatu lady from that old Lenny Kravitz video was freaky-attractive. And there is that female Nosferatu way back in the background on the Bestiary 4 cover.

On the other hand, those teeth...

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Also, necrocrafts are very hard not to imagine as Eoxian creations. That's probably too setting-specific for a Bestiary though.


Yes, that is the first thing I thought when saw the name necrocrafts, I was like, that couldn't be an Eoxian spaceship, but at same time it would be a good name for one.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Epic Meepo wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Axial wrote:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?

That is a converted (read unnofficial) version. There isn't an official version yet, therefore it's In Bestiary 4.
If I'm remembering correctly, the official nosferatu already appears in Pathfinder Player's Companion: Blood of the Night.

Regardless of where it's appeared... it's never appeared in a hardcover. Which is the point of putting it in a hardcover.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I for one, really appreciate all these delightful foes eventually being rolled up in to a few hard bound books. It helps make searches quicker.


James Jacobs wrote:
Epic Meepo wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Axial wrote:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?

That is a converted (read unnofficial) version. There isn't an official version yet, therefore it's In Bestiary 4.
If I'm remembering correctly, the official nosferatu already appears in Pathfinder Player's Companion: Blood of the Night.
Regardless of where it's appeared... it's never appeared in a hardcover. Which is the point of putting it in a hardcover.

Precisely.


Hope there is an aberration PC race of a sort. Working on one at this time with the race builder.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Are Elohim related in any way to Nephilim from B3? I have to admit, I already had a solid idea in mind for this critter name that I suspect is very unorthodox, but I am hoping this will allow me to keep the name in use in the same way. There are so many different ways this concept could have gone, it's difficult to guess anything about it, save that it might have celestial ties (35% probable, I say).

I am excited about the mummified template, since it will help open the door to more details about Walkena, the mummified child-god in the Mwangi Expanse. Supporting Mythic is a good move, and very exciting to see how it all works/lays out in practice.


I'd like to know if the new races briefly introduced in the Advanced Races Guide (the ones added in the Race Builder section) will get a proper stat block and description in this book.

I'm talking about the Gathlain, Kasatha, Trox, Wyrwood and Wyvaran.


James Jacobs wrote:
Epic Meepo wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Axial wrote:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/nosferatu

Don't we already have Nosferatu?

That is a converted (read unnofficial) version. There isn't an official version yet, therefore it's In Bestiary 4.
If I'm remembering correctly, the official nosferatu already appears in Pathfinder Player's Companion: Blood of the Night.
Regardless of where it's appeared... it's never appeared in a hardcover. Which is the point of putting it in a hardcover.

The template only appeared as a 3.5e version in the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path. There hasn't been a Pathfinderized version of the template published by Paizo. Blood of the Night has the nosferatu-variant dhampir, the Ancient-born, but no nosferatu template. Carrion Crown has stats for a nosferatu but doesn't contain the template itself.

Carrion Crown and Curse of the Crimson Throne spoilers:
The nosferatu statted in Ashes at Dawn (from Carrion Crown) is the same one as appears in Curse of the Crimson Throne. I think his class may have been changed from wizard to alchemist though. It's Ramoska Arkminos, or however it's spelled.

I've been waiting for a Pathfinderized nosferatu template. When I statted Viscount Oilic Galdyce (a nosferatu mentioned in Rule of Fear), I had to work with the 3.5e template and compare it to the nosferatu statted in Carrion Crown. I'll probably rebuild him once I get Bestiary 4. I doubt my party will be close to fighting him yet. At his current version he's CR14, I think. The party is level 3 right now. :-)

I want Reaper to make a Ramoska Arkminos miniature now.

Editor-in-Chief

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Wolf Munroe wrote:
I've been waiting for a Pathfinderized nosferatu template. When I statted Viscount Oilic Galdyce (a nosferatu mentioned in Rule of Fear), I had to work with the 3.5e template and compare it to the nosferatu statted in Carrion Crown. I'll probably rebuild him once I get Bestiary 4. I doubt my party will be close to fighting him yet. At his current version he's CR14, I think. The party is level 3 right now. :-)

Whaaaa!? Prove it! Post it in a new thread and/or link to it or it's not real! ;)


Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
...Yog-Sothoth dragons, Shub-Niggurath dragons, Nyarlathotep dragons, and Azathoth dragons?

I wasn't thinking of anything quite that derivative/literal for Outer Dragons, but just the notion that these might be the Dark Tapestry equivalent of "normal" dragons.

And it also reminded me of the Draedens, of Frank Mentzer's Gold Box Immortals set for D&D, which were said to be related to dragons.


I have to say that despite some of my complaints about some creatures getting in a hardcover bestiaries I still think Paizo does a great job. In fact that after 3 hardcover bestiaries I would only dislike less then 20 creatures out of 250+ in each book, is a very good ratio in my mind.


Okay, two questions.

Cthulhu is referred to as "Invincible" in the description. Does that just mean that he's really badass, or that he literally can't be killed?

Also...

I was curious to know how many monsters have been written up by Paizo between all the Bestiaries, Player Companions, Adventure Paths, Modules, Setting Books, et cetera...if each of the Bestiaries have 250 monsters, that would be 750.

How many are there total?? :D


Cthulhudrew wrote:
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
...Yog-Sothoth dragons, Shub-Niggurath dragons, Nyarlathotep dragons, and Azathoth dragons?

I wasn't thinking of anything quite that derivative/literal for Outer Dragons, but just the notion that these might be the Dark Tapestry equivalent of "normal" dragons.

And it also reminded me of the Draedens, of Frank Mentzer's Gold Box Immortals set for D&D, which were said to be related to dragons.

That's what it reminded me too, or the dragons from Immortal's Handbook Bestiary (3rd party product).

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Axial wrote:

Okay, two questions.

Cthulhu is referred to as "Invincible" in the description. Does that just mean that he's really badass, or that he literally can't be killed?

Also...

I was curious to know how many monsters have been written up by Paizo between all the Bestiaries, Player Companions, Adventure Paths, Modules, Setting Books, et cetera...if each of the Bestiaries have 250 monsters, that would be 750.

How many are there total?? :D

More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

As for how many monsters... that's a good question. Each bestiary has more like 300 or so monsters though... and we do a minimum of four and usually 5 or 6 a month in Pathinder. The number is certainly over a thousand.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

...but... but there's no known way to kill the tarrasque...

*whimper*


I'm hoping to see some of the devils from Council of Thieves reprinted. The cabal devil is pretty awesome.


6 people marked this as a favorite.
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

...but... but there's no known way to kill the tarrasque...

*whimper*

Clearly Aeons are the key to destroying both. "That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die."


Well hopefully we will get some new Aeons, maybe even a mythic one.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

...but... but there's no known way to kill the tarrasque...

*whimper*

Exactly. Still easier to kill than a Great Old One.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So, my question.

Is Mercury Dragons going to make the cut?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

thaX wrote:

So, my question.

Is Mercury Dragons going to make the cut?

We'll be revealing the monster list eventually... but not for several months. Until then... patience is the key!


Hmmm...Outer Dragons...Outer...like Outer Planes? So, Dragons like the Nirvana Dragon? If so then I'm all for a Infernal or Brimstone Dragon.


Isn't the Mercury Dragon like 100% from D&D? I mean if Purple Dragon and Yellow Dragon are copyrighted by them, why not the Mercury Dragon? I hope i'm wrong cuz Mercury Dragons are the only metallic dragons I really like.

Liberty's Edge

I hope the formorians aren't the ant things but giants.

Is there a peanut butter and chocolate golem?

Mike


Lol, the FOmorians and FORmians are something very different Qstor, they aren't the same. In this book won't be Fomorians but there will be the ant-like Formians from D&D.

I believe the fomorian giants wont be in Pathfinder at all unless many people wish for it in the bestiary 5 wish thread, something to do with D&D.


I take it the kaiju are going to get a huge bonus to their carrying capacity compared to other monsters?

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

...but... but there's no known way to kill the tarrasque...

*whimper*

Clearly Aeons are the key to destroying both. "That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die."

Pleoromas to the rescue! :D

Or, we could just call in Old Man Henderson.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.

Sorry, I mean even more so than the x16/x24 for normal colossal creatures.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Sauce987654321 wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.
Sorry, I mean even more so than the x16/x24 for normal colossal creatures.

That, combined with their super-high Str scores, should be enough for them to lift whatever they want, I would hope!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Axial wrote:
Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
More details to come in a half year or so... but let's just say that Cthulhu is harder to kill than the tarrasque, I guess.

...but... but there's no known way to kill the tarrasque...

*whimper*

Clearly Aeons are the key to destroying both. "That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die."

Pleoromas to the rescue! :D

Or, we could just call in Old Man Henderson.

My brain broke after looking that up.

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Sauce987654321 wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.
Sorry, I mean even more so than the x16/x24 for normal colossal creatures.

Honestly, I'd rather not start creating new size categories—whether fully statted or just hinted at—beyond Colossal, then beyond beyond Colossal, then 3x beyond Colossal, and so on.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Sauce987654321 wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.
Sorry, I mean even more so than the x16/x24 for normal colossal creatures.
Honestly, I'd rather not start creating new size categories—whether fully statted or just hinted at—beyond Colossal, then beyond beyond Colossal, then 3x beyond Colossal, and so on.

I think that Colossal plus some special qualities and accompanying rules would be cool.

The Havero was an okay start, but honestly... the grid rules don't do a very good job with dynamic combat and massive creatures.

I use a house-rule for cling style grapples to fill this void. All my friends are fans of Shadow of the Colossus. Most of the giants in that game are bigger than what PF allows on the grid.


+1 To cling rules!


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
Sauce987654321 wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
The Additional Rules chapter already covers increasing carrying capacity for larger-than-Medium creatures.
Sorry, I mean even more so than the x16/x24 for normal colossal creatures.
Honestly, I'd rather not start creating new size categories—whether fully statted or just hinted at—beyond Colossal, then beyond beyond Colossal, then 3x beyond Colossal, and so on.

Well it wasn't so much that I wanted new size categories, but a unique special ability/quality for the kaiju to carry more and to at least carry its own weight.

Like an ability that you would find noted in a creature subtype. Not that if kaiju is a subtype or not.

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Is the carrying capacity of a Colossal creature an issue often enough that it needs a special exception to the carrying capacity rules in the Core Rulebook?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but there's only so much space in a book, and I'd rather devote 100 words to describing what the kaiju can DO instead of 100 words on how much the kaiju can CARRY.


Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Is the carrying capacity of a Colossal creature an issue often enough that it needs a special exception to the carrying capacity rules in the Core Rulebook?

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but there's only so much space in a book, and I'd rather devote 100 words to describing what the kaiju can DO instead of 100 words on how much the kaiju can CARRY.

Well, in my opinion, you can only do so much with monster abilities before you run up against the fact that PF grid combat just doesn't do certain things well.

At some size differential (I think it's 2 levels) it just FEELS wrong. I wouldn't mind some non-bestiary pages that made those battles feel more dynamic and logical. Clinging to a dragon in flight is something that just isn't quite working in the RAW.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

11 people marked this as a favorite.

Or the corollary: I'd rather spend 100 words about a kaiju's history and personality and flavor than 100 words on what it can carry. Flavor text is the most precious commodity in an Bestiary.

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