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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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

Yeah those 450+ word stat blocks (using the tarrasque as an example) don't really leave much room for the groovy flavor text! [Assuming each kaiju gets one Bestiary page.]


Tom Phillips wrote:
Yeah those 450+ word stat blocks (using the tarrasque as an example) don't really leave much room for the groovy flavor text! [Assuming each kaiju gets one Bestiary page.]

MY guess is that they receive an intro (the group Kaiju) and each of them probably gets 2 pages because they are special and extreme fan favorites..


Axial wrote:
Or, we could just call in Old Man Henderson.

Do it.


Sincubus wrote:
Tom Phillips wrote:
Yeah those 450+ word stat blocks (using the tarrasque as an example) don't really leave much room for the groovy flavor text! [Assuming each kaiju gets one Bestiary page.]
MY guess is that they receive an intro (the group Kaiju) and each of them probably gets 2 pages because they are special and extreme fan favorites..

Hmmm... Kaiju as a subtype? That could work :)


Much like the intro pages of Devils, Behemoths, Divs, Azata, Demons, Aeons and all those other groups that got an intro page.


I suspect each Kaiju will need two pages because, just like most of the really powerful creatures, their stat block is so long it's nearly impossible to do them in one page

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 4

MMCJawa wrote:
I suspect each Kaiju will need two pages because, just like most of the really powerful creatures, their stat block is so long it's nearly impossible to do them in one page

To add to your point, you have to allow for artwork. A writer can't just fill a page up with text.


I wonder, would the creature from The Host (The Korean monster flick not the alien sparkle movie by Stephanie Meyer) be considered a kaiju?


I don't think it is big enough...I think it would just be a giant aberration. For that matter, based on what I remember, it didn't strike me even as that high of a CR creature.


Actually The Host is a good novel almost enough to redeem her for Twilight. But I agree with your assessment of the Korean movie.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Yah; the monster from "The Host" (one of the best monster movies ever made, by the way!) is far too small to be a kaiju. I'd stat it up, most likely, as an aberration. MAYBE a magical beast.


Creatures from movies, I like to see the baby-eating tree from the Guardian (1990) somewhere, and the beast from the Relic. (they call it chimera but it doesn't look that way)

Some cool version of the predator maybe, and an evil leprechaun (maybe clurichaun).

All the creatures from Avatar of course, and Cujo and Razorback and Cruella De Vil from the 101 Dalmatians. (joking)


Wait are we talking Kaiju(Generic Monsters e.g. Oni) or Daikaiju(Giant Monster E.G.: Godzilla)?


Probably meaning the term daikaiju. Just in the states, kaiju is the common term.


Cruella De Vil would more then likely be in the NPC Codex 2;)

I would also like the creature from the relic.

Kaiju as a subtype makes sense to me.


Give kaiju a two page spread with mammoth artwork. Make them BIG! :D

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

I would be giddy as hell if Shadow of the Colossus-style encounter support was worked into the Kaiju line of creatures. Or in an appendix!

Did You Know: In the Marvel Universe circa the late 70's/early 80's, books on kaiju included Godzilla, Fin Fang Foom, and the Hulk?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Zmar wrote:
Give kaiju a two page spread with mammoth artwork. Make them BIG! :D

Yes, But what would the kaiju be doing with the mammoth? ;)


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
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! ;)

My PC is down so I don't have access to the Word Doc on my hard drive, but I started retyping it from my print-out.

It's not much to look at though, it's just a templated Guild Master NPC (rogue 11) from Paizo's GameMastery Guide (page 267). I took away two rogue levels and added 3 aristocrat levels to reach aristocrat 3/rogue 9 for the Viscount. (He's CR 13, not CR 14 like I said before.) His Skills may be incorrect because of the change from rogue 11 to aristocrat 3/rogue 9.

But anyway, I'm retyping him and will post him soon, flaws and all.

Edit: Posted here: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pqu2?My-version-of-Viscount-Oilic-Galdyce#1


I'm very curious what dinosaurs and megafauna made it in, my hopes go up for Therizinosaurus, Tanystropheus, Dunkleosteus and Procoptodon the giant kangaroo.


atheral wrote:
Zmar wrote:
Give kaiju a two page spread with mammoth artwork. Make them BIG! :D
Yes, But what would the kaiju be doing with the mammoth? ;)

Scratch them off their skin like fleas? BIG I say! :-)

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6, Contributor

4 people marked this as a favorite.
atheral wrote:
Zmar wrote:
Give kaiju a two page spread with mammoth artwork. Make them BIG! :D
Yes, But what would the kaiju be doing with the mammoth? ;)

He would hug it. And squeeze it. And name it George.

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

James Jacobs wrote:
the monster from "The Host" (one of the best monster movies ever made, by the way!)

Total agreement. The vomited beer can was awesome.


Sincubus wrote:
Tom Phillips wrote:
MY guess is that they receive an intro (the group Kaiju) and each of them probably gets 2 pages because they are special and extreme fan favorites..

Well then Cthulhu will need 11 pages..... What? You were expecting an even number?


Will all the high CR mosnter be large or larger?


Will pawns be made available for all of the Kaiju? :-)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Nicos wrote:
Will all the high CR mosnter be large or larger?

Nope.


Legendarius wrote:
Will pawns be made available for all of the Kaiju? :-)

That would be awesome. You wouldn't even need to make pop-out sheets for them. Each sheet just is one Kaiju pawn.


I could see the Kaiju as more of Living Maps...

Shadow of the Colossus Style.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Quote:
I would be giddy as hell if Shadow of the Colossus-style encounter support was worked into the Kaiju line of creatures. Or in an appendix!
Quote:

I could see the Kaiju as more of Living Maps...

Shadow of the Colossus Style.

These AREN'T the Colossi from that video game (Kaiju DON'T LET mortals climb on them and poke them in their orifices with a tiny pointy stick and they CERTAINLY don't have weak points). They are titanic living engines of destruction capable of LEVELING cities and if a adventurer tries climbing onto one that Kaiju is going to get very Very VERY ANNOYED.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Copyright, for a Mercury Dragon? Really?

I know that it was in a separate book from the standard metal dragons, but the little guy should get an entry at some point even if it is called something a bit different, maybe a pewter dragon?


thaX wrote:

Copyright, for a Mercury Dragon? Really?

I know that it was in a separate book from the standard metal dragons, but the little guy should get an entry at some point even if it is called something a bit different, maybe a pewter dragon?

Or quicksilver.


Berselius wrote:
Quote:
I would be giddy as hell if Shadow of the Colossus-style encounter support was worked into the Kaiju line of creatures. Or in an appendix!
Quote:

I could see the Kaiju as more of Living Maps...

Shadow of the Colossus Style.

These AREN'T the Colossi from that video game (Kaiju DON'T LET mortals climb on them and poke them in their orifices with a tiny pointy stick and they CERTAINLY don't have weak points). They are titanic living engines of destruction capable of LEVELING cities and if a adventurer tries climbing onto one that Kaiju is going to get very Very VERY ANNOYED.

You really haven't seen much on Kaiju have you?

Many Kaiju, outside of the Godzilla Franchise, were defeated by a man getting onto them and planting a bomb on them. Some or the Lesser ones were killed by a guy shooting them with a Machine Gun.

Heck, America has its share of "Kaiju" Films as well. Most of which involve that. Eight Legged Freaks for instance alongside a lot of Sy-Fy's Movies.


Berselius wrote:
Quote:
I would be giddy as hell if Shadow of the Colossus-style encounter support was worked into the Kaiju line of creatures. Or in an appendix!
Quote:

I could see the Kaiju as more of Living Maps...

Shadow of the Colossus Style.

These AREN'T the Colossi from that video game (Kaiju DON'T LET mortals climb on them and poke them in their orifices with a tiny pointy stick and they CERTAINLY don't have weak points). They are titanic living engines of destruction capable of LEVELING cities and if a adventurer tries climbing onto one that Kaiju is going to get very Very VERY ANNOYED.

You are presuming a creature that large has the tactile sensitivity to feel a creature at least 4 size categories smaller than it. That would be like a person getting crawled on by a housefly. Now that's easy for a human to feel, but we don't have natural armor. So a Kaiju may be able to notice that you're climbing up its backside, but then again it's not unlikely that it would be totally oblivious.


Or even more Categories Smaller. We don't know how big the Kaiju will be.

What of something like Godzilla's Spikes on his back? Grappling Hooks and such, Flying Magic, etc.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Legendarius wrote:
Will pawns be made available for all of the Kaiju? :-)

Very unlikely. We've not done any Gargantuan or Colossal pawns yet, becuase the logistics of creating the larger sized bases RAPIDLY delves into the realm of diminishing returns on cost of goods and blah blah blah.

AKA: It's too inefficient and expensive to do pawns of creatures larger than Huge.


Azaelas Fayth wrote:

Or even more Categories Smaller. We don't know how big the Kaiju will be.

What of something like Godzilla's Spikes on his back? Grappling Hooks and such, Flying Magic, etc.

Actually it was stated they are no larger than Colossal.


I know. I horribly messed up that... What I meant is that some PCs are smaller than Medium.


Smaller than small actually - reduce person, polymorph, wild shape etc.

Heh wildshaped druid cultists of Rovagug could be roaming the beasts hide to pop upon the unsuspecting heroes... or just mischievous mephists and homicidal quasits reveling in resulting chaos from Kaiju passing.


Azaelas Fayth wrote:
I know. I horribly messed up that... What I meant is that some PCs are smaller than Medium.

I see what you mean. I took that into consideration, but there aren't that many small races. Additionally the human/fly comparison worked so well.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:
Legendarius wrote:
Will pawns be made available for all of the Kaiju? :-)

Very unlikely. We've not done any Gargantuan or Colossal pawns yet, becuase the logistics of creating the larger sized bases RAPIDLY delves into the realm of diminishing returns on cost of goods and blah blah blah.

AKA: It's too inefficient and expensive to do pawns of creatures larger than Huge.

Hmmmm....

!

I see an opportunity for 3PP's here...


Steven "Troll" O'Neal wrote:
Azaelas Fayth wrote:

Or even more Categories Smaller. We don't know how big the Kaiju will be.

What of something like Godzilla's Spikes on his back? Grappling Hooks and such, Flying Magic, etc.

Actually it was stated they are no larger than Colossal.

Neither do they need to be, it would seem. In one of the Council of Thieves AP bestiaries there is a monster that in the fluff is normally over 500 feet long and in the game mechanics it takes a space of 150 feet, but it's still "only" colossal.


I was looking around in the books and I have noticed some kaiju sized monsters that already exist. Such as the aspidochelone, sea bonze, CR 18 sea serpent, oma (to a lesser extent), and maybe Xotani the Firebleeder (40 by 40 space, but there is no mention on how big it actually is)


Those maybe big creatures but they are not Kaiju in pathfinder, plus we do not know what rules or traits the kaiju will have.

So what monsters from past APs and other books do you guys hope to see in this book?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I hope fore more Aberrations.

Some Animals would be nice.

I wouldn't mind a couple of new Constructs.

Dragons are always welcome.

Fey, we need more fey.

A humanoid or two won't hurt.

Magical Beasts, rawr!

Monstrous Humanoids, bring them on.

Oozes? Oozi? Whateva, we need more.

Outsiders, there's a whole infinite staircase of those waiting.

We could use some Plants.

It's a horror bestiary, so Undead are should feature prominently.

Finally, I'd kindly wish for some chilly Vermin.

Apart from the above, there's nothing I'd particularly want in there.


*slow clap*


Dragon78 wrote:

Those maybe big creatures but they are not Kaiju in pathfinder, plus we do not know what rules or traits the kaiju will have.

So what monsters from past APs and other books do you guys hope to see in this book?

I said kaiju sized, not as in a subtype.


I am quit sure that every creature type and many subtypes will be in this book.

What do you mean by "chilly vermin"?

Any kind of constucts in mind like golems, robots, other?


Bah, if colosal is not enough, then treat colosal base as single leg of Kaiju ;-)


I built Colossi/"Kaiju"(Daikaiju) for my Shattered World Campaign. They are literally Living Maps much larger than any Colossal Creature.

Isn't there a lot of examples of "Daikaiju"-Esque Creatures who have entire ecosystems on their back? I know a Mythical Reference is one of the Behemoth legends where the Behemoth was described as a Massive tortoise that carried an entire Fortress of a City larger than Jerusalem on its back. It had Lakes, Forests, and entire Mountains on its back.

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