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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary (OGL)
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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!

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The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary is available as:

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60125-183-1

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Last Updated - 9/12/2011

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

Hero Lab Online
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Without Opponents, Combat Sure Wouldn't Be Much Fun!

5/5 —

Bestiaries are Pathfinder's version of the D&D Monster Manuals: reference books containing descriptions and stat-blocks for hundreds of new creatures for PCs to battle, bother, or befriend. They're not designed to be read cover to cover, but that's exactly what I did for this review. The Bestiary weighs in at 327 pages and contains (according to the back-cover) over 350 different monsters arranged in alphabetical order.

The book starts with a two-page Introduction, and it's actually worth reading because it explains what the (28!) different categories of information in a creature's stat block mean. It also introduces the the "Monster Icons" scheme, wherein each monster receives three different icons to visually denote its creature type, terrain, and climate. I like the idea of the icons, but I find them too small and similar to be useful, and I'm not interested in flipping back to page 5 too figure out what they mean. I'm happy just reading the corresponding entries in the stat block.

For monsters, we start with Aasimar on page 7 and run through until Zombie on page 289. This is what the book is all about, but it's a challenging thing to review as my notes are full of bits of scattered remarks about dozens of different monsters. As I can't figure out a coherent way to synthesize them, I'm going to take the unusual tack of just including them as a sort of impressionistic picture of what's in the book. Skim to the bottom for more of the review.

"A"

--aboleths are a lot tougher than CR might indicate!

--Not officially Golarion, but flavour in entries generally compatible

--backdoor cosmology with angels stuff

--really good write-up of Solar Angels

--Army Ant Swarms are pretty nasty!

--like archons--I've never really seen them used outside of summoning, when no RP is involved

--azatas: CG celestials

Bs

--cool how barghests become greater!

--bebiliths: wow, awesome art for an awesome creature!

--bugbear artwork is weird, but fascinating bit on "The Nature of Goblinoid Evil"

Cs

--creepy Choker

--good mixture of animals and various types of monsters

--a lot of classic ones, but some new ones (like chuul) as well

--like history of cyclops and flash of insight power

Ds

--dark folk and dark stalkers?!?! humanoid subtype with language--never heard of them...

--demons! Good, engaging, clear explanation

--don't argue with a balor demon!

--great stories for demons--quasit familiars taking master's souls!

--devils! emphasis on hierarchy

--a good variety of tough foes, with lots of HP and resistances

--great writeup of lemure devils

--fantastic artwork all the way through!

--Devourers are pretty nasty for their CR!

--too many dinosaurs!

--dragons! stat blocks are so long, there's very little description

--driders and drow: underused

E

--elementals

F

--familiar (no idea that was here!)

--froghemoth--really?

G

--gelatinous cubes are really dangerous!

--genies

--love Shaitan genie art

--ghosts: emphasis on story-based customization, 2 page spread

--Giants!

--fun gibbering mouthers artwork

--goblins

--golems

Hs

--half- templates

--occasionally the titles aren't the most intuitive: "Herd animal, bison" for example

--need full stats for combat-trained horses

Is

--intellect devourer--WTF!

Ks

--kytons are cool/creepy

Ls

--lamia artwork is regrettable

--lich: gotta have 'em!

--linnorms are nasty, especially curses and poison!

--lycanthrope template

Ms

--medusas, minotaurs, mimics--all the classics!

--mummy rot sure is nasty!

Ns

-- nagas look dumb

--neothelids are intriguing! need more

--nymphs have cool boons

Os

--Oni need better explanation

Ps

--good amount of player detail for pegasi

Rs

--rakhasa: a lot of potential in the right campaign

--retrievers are scary

--rust monsters!

Ss

--sea hag artwork is great! (and evil eye comatose ability!)

--shadows can be quite more lethal than CR

--touch ACs are so low because of artificial natural armor bonuses, making Alchemists and Gunslingers especially powerful

--shoggoths arent very scary for CR19

--skum have surprisingly interesting write-up

--giant slugs too goofy

Ts

--tarrasque: bad pic, underwhelming

--troglodyte pic is great!

Us

Vs

--vampires: elaborate template

--vargouille's kiss is nasty

Ws

Xs

--xills are awesome!

Zs

--zombie pic is hilarious

Hm, that was embarrassing. Sorry!

After the monster entries are a series of appendices, and these definitely add value to the book.

Appendix 1 is Monster Creation, and it offers a very thorough and clear guide to monster creation. There are a *lot* of moving parts to creating balanced monsters in Pathfinder, so this will take some time until you get the hang of it. Appendix 2 is Monster Advancement, and this is another important part of the book because it shows GMs how to adjust creatures in the book to make them more or less powerful by adding simple templates (like "Giant" or "Young") and by adding racial hit dice or class levels. Appendix 3 is the section of the book I use more than any other, and it's indispensable: Universal Monster Rules. In order to save space and avoid repetition in stat blocks, common monster abilities are fleshed out here: everything from Darkvision to Damage Reduction to Incorporeal and more. Only very, very experienced GMs should try to run creatures just from the stat blocks without remembering to double-check what their monster abilities do, precisely, in the Universal Monster Rules. The same appendix also contains creature Types and Subtypes, which are like packages of basic information that all creatures of a particular category, such as demons or animals, share. Again, this is to save space in stat blocks. Appendix 4 is very short, and provides some advice on Monsters as PCs. I've never used it. Appendix 5 is Monster Feats, though some PCs may actually legitimately use some of them like Craft Construct. If you notice that a monster has a feat you can't find in the Core Rulebook, that's probably because it's listed here. Appendices 6 and 7 list Monster Cohorts (for the Leadership feat) and Animal Companions (for druids and rangers), respectively. Appendices 8-12 are indexes that help a GM who is looking for monsters of a particular type, CR, terrain, etc. Really useful information that most people who just use online databases probably never realized was available. Finally, Appendix 14 contains Encounter Tables broken up by terrain. These include average CRs for an each table, but I still think it'd be foolish to actually roll on them: in a Hill/Mountain, region, for example, your PCs could run into CR 3 orcs or CR 12 fire giants. A party that is challenged by the former would be curb-stomped by the latter. Good random encounter table design needs to have a narrow range of CRs before they become feasible.

I'm not a huge monster guy like some people, but I definitely enjoyed reading the Bestiary and I learned a lot about the core monsters of the setting. I know there are five later books that expand the selection far more, but much of what I see in APs and PFS still draws from this book. Along with the Core Rulebook, it's safe to say that the Bestiary was one of the releases that helped to solidify Paizo's reputation as a company that publishes the highest calibre of RPG books in terms of writing quality, artwork, design, and layout. It's not indispensable since there are multiple websites that present the same information, but for ease of use (and the joy of skimming), the Bestiary is one of those books that every GM should have.

It all starts here babee

5/5 —

One only two books you require to jump in and play Pathfinder, it is the essential meat in the gaming stew. As important and the core rulebook is, it is nothing with out this work.

Expanded and tweaked off the OGL 3.x material, its cleaner, better organized and tweaked for the Pathfinder rules. Every hero needs a foe, every damsel in distress needs a captor, and every GM needs a source of badies to keep the group on their toes. You will find it all here, between these pages is years of destruction and mayhem.

No matter if you playing Pathfinders own setting, one of your own design and creation, or another publishers material, this is the must have companion to your CRB.

They need more monsters

5/5 —

not as useful as the advanced raced guide for the monsters you could play as it does have a lot. i own this and well do my best to keep it hidden from my players. they keep trying to make them fight dragons... they are lvl 5

great reference book

5/5 —

This book has all the monsters you would need on a starting campaine

The standard by which all monster products will be judged by.

5/5 —

By now, there are several Bestiaries out in print, but when this book first came out you arguably needed to own it to play the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Was it worth the purchase? Decide for yourself!

Crunch
When we talk about a book's crunch, we're looking at its game rules, mechanics, and similar stats. As a monster book, the Bestiary is 99% crunch, and for Paizo's first real Bestiary, it is absolutely fantastic. There isn't a whole lot you can really say about monster stat blocks; they work perfectly and there aren't any monsters that feel ridiculous for their challenge rating (CR). The book also includes several new races that are appropriate for player characters; in this book, we have aasimars, the tieflings, and drow, as well as the applicable but seldom appropriate deurgar, drow noble, and svirfneblin. The book stays true to the rules of its predecessors; when you look at a drow, you recognize it as a drow from previous games. Because of the significant power up that the core races received these classically "OP" races aren't very far out of line with your traditional player characrers, and as a result we don't see the Level Adjustment system in Pathfinder. If you're unfamiliar with the term, in older editions of Dungeons and Dragons, some races were deemed so powerful that you had to actually forgo class levels in order to be a member of the race. For example, if you wanted to play a drow, you had a LA of +1, meaning that your race counted as 1 class level when determining your party's level. This either meant you were more powerful than your friends or (and more commonly) your GM had you start at a lower level to compensate. And believe me, it is not fun to be a sorcerer of an LA race because of how far behind your party is! The racial benefits seldom made up for the loss of character levels and it was a pretty terrible mechanic all around, so good riddance.

Although the book's theme is classic monsters, Paizo manages to add its own spin on fantasy games by including weird and amazing monsters. A perfect example is the froghemoth, which is basically a giant aberrant frog-monster. As a huge Lovecraft fan, I was ecstatic to see monsters like the shoggoth creep up in Pathfinder as well. For a first Bestiary, the spread of monsters is well-chosen and you could definitely run a game with only this book if you really wanted to.

What probably amounts to the best change of all, in my opinion, is the changes to the rules for building your own monsters. These rules are difficult to comprehend and enact in other games, but the Paizo team does an excellent job of laying out step-by-step every detail in crafting your own monsters by including handy charts and tables. For a game that knew it wasn't launching with much material and that it wanted to be backwards-compatible with older products, it was a very wise choice to streamline monster-making as much as they did and its probably the best reason to keep a copy of Bestiary I in your library alongside future monster tomes. 5 /5 Stars.

Flavor
When we talk about a product's flavor, we're talking about its fiction content, its style, and its overall feel. This section is always very opinionated, because even though I whole-heartily enjoy Lovecraft and his works, there are those who don't like their minds thrust into insanity and the mere sight of a shoggoth or whatnot. When you read the Bestiary, the one thing that becomes very clear is that there simply is not much room for flavor. Most monsters get a paragraph and a half of descriptive text and a beautiful picture, but that's about it. Honestly, however, that's all this product needs. The monsters that are detailed are classic monsters, so the information provided about them tends to be enough that classic gamers can recognize the creature for what it is and new players can get a sense of wonder and learn enough about the monster to be on the same page with the veterans. The art is fabulous in this book and supplements the descriptions perfectly, even when the monster concept is weird text-wise a beautiful illustration helps to sell it to you personally.

The elephant in the room is that Pathfinder wants to have its own identity as much as it wants to follow in the footsteps of its predecessors. This means that every so often the Paizo team completely re-imagines and redefines the traits of a specific monster. Usually this happens to a relatively unknown or under used monster (we'll talk more about this in Bestiary III), but there is one monster in particular that is relatively well-known and got the Paizo makeover in a big way. That monster, which has become Paizo's mascot of sorts, is the goblin. To give a little bit of background, traditionally goblins have admittedly lacked character; they were little more than evil halflings in most settings. Paizo's very first adventure path, Rise of the Runelords, shook this up by drastically changing the image of the goblin; they were now psychotic savages who were obsessed with fire and scared of dogs and horses. They sang Children of the Corn style songs about death and murder and often filled a role as comic relief in many of the adventures they have been featured in while simultaneously managing to inspire fear and terror in many a party. In my experience, you either love or you hate the new look of goblins. Many classic gamers that I've played with deplore the "new" goblin if only for the art design; big heads, small bodies. Honestly, however, it doesn't bother me much; my gaming generation includes Warcraft's techno-suicidal goblins and Warhammer's hordes of insane, suicidal goblins; next to those, Paizo's take on the goblin fits in rather nicely.

For being limited to several paragraphs of text per monster, the Bestiary gives you everything you'd expect and more flavor-wised. Its a book of monsters that feel threatening and believable; there's nothing too dumb or too far out there unless you're a hard-core medieval traditionalist. 5 /5 Stars.

Texture
When we talk about a book's texture, we're talking about its grammar and layout, among other things. As someone who has actually sat down to try and write a bestiary, let's be clear that if there's one thing I get, its that stat blocks are HARD. They're hard to format, they're hard to standardize, they're even hard to spell check because of the sheer amount of text that a book like the Bestiary has. All of its complex jargon, half of it made of surreal naming conventions. With all this mind, if there's one place that the Bestiary is amazing, its the texture. There is almost no errors of any kind in this document. Perfect grammar. Perfect spelling conventions. Perfect formatting. Everything is perfect.

As you can see in the picture I included, the Bestiary breaks from traditional monster books in that it limits one monster page, with only a few exceptions (mostly animals and familiars). There is extreme attention to detail in the text placement, and its very impressive that the book manages to be as descriptive as it is with as little space as it has; almost every monster is illustrated, after all, so not only are you juggling stat blocks, but you're also juggling them with text descriptions and illustrations. This book is a marvel of editing and layout and nothing less. 5 /5 Stars.

Final Score & Thoughts
Crunch: 5 / 5
Flavor: 5 / 5
Texture: 5 / 5
Final Score: 5 / 5

This book does everything right. It is the shining star by which all monster-based products should be judged. For a first attempt, Paizo smashes their monster book out of the park, past all expectations. It makes me excited to start looking at the future Bestiary products.

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James Jacobs wrote:


Fair warning: I called dibs on the nymph and the succubus. I apologize in advance for any blindness my representations of these creatures might incur.

If your depiction of the nymph makes people go blind, something went horribly right.

Shadow Lodge
Vic Wertz wrote:

No... just a few posts above yours, I said: "We've moved up the retail release date to October 21." Which is also the date that the PDF will become available.

Oh, and also—you heard it here first—like the Core Rulebook, the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99. (*After* the Bestiary, though, PDF pricing on the Pathfinder RPG line will return to our usual discount of 30% off the print price.)

Nice! Thanks for the reply, I'll be purchasing the pdf as well. :)

Vic Wertz wrote:
Oh, and also - you heard it here first - like the Core Rulebook, the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99. (*After* the Bestiary, though, PDF pricing on the Pathfinder RPG line will return to our usual discount of 30% off the print price.)

Pretty frickin' cool!!

AJC

My question is, will this be worth buying if I already have the 3.5 Monster Manual?

I mean, I can see how having the CMB/CMD's of creatures will be useful, but it's not worth $40 to me if I can just continue to use the MM.

My question, then, is how many monsters are new? How many are updates to old ones? What is it about this book that would make my broke self want to spend $40 on this, as opposed to continuing to use the old monster books?

Thanks in advance.
that hobo wrote:

My question is, will this be worth buying if I already have the 3.5 Monster Manual?

I mean, I can see how having the CMB/CMD's of creatures will be useful, but it's not worth $40 to me if I can just continue to use the MM.

My question, then, is how many monsters are new? How many are updates to old ones? What is it about this book that would make my broke self want to spend $40 on this, as opposed to continuing to use the old monster books?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know how many new monsters there are, though I know there are several. One really really big thing though, the thing that got me genuinely looking forward to it, is that they are revamping all the old monsters to make the CR system actually matter.

Toning down overpowered monsters, buffing up underpowered ones, making them match the listed CR in a way that's, wait for it, actually meaningful.

Personally I'm stoked.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
kyrt-ryder wrote:
that hobo wrote:

My question is, will this be worth buying if I already have the 3.5 Monster Manual?

I mean, I can see how having the CMB/CMD's of creatures will be useful, but it's not worth $40 to me if I can just continue to use the MM.

My question, then, is how many monsters are new? How many are updates to old ones? What is it about this book that would make my broke self want to spend $40 on this, as opposed to continuing to use the old monster books?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know how many new monsters there are, though I know there are several. One really really big thing though, the thing that got me genuinely looking forward to it, is that they are revamping all the old monsters to make the CR system actually matter.

Toning down overpowered monsters, buffing up underpowered ones, making them match the listed CR in a way that's, wait for it, actually meaningful.

Personally I'm stoked.

And if you're not sure if you should buy the book, then maybe you should buy the PDF for $9.99 instead to supplement your 3.5 MM.

Lanx wrote:

And if you're not sure if you should buy the book, then maybe you should buy the PDF for $9.99 instead to supplement your 3.5 MM.

Last thing I heard, there won't be a Bestiary PDF for 10 bucks.

Dark Archive
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
KaeYoss wrote:
Lanx wrote:

And if you're not sure if you should buy the book, then maybe you should buy the PDF for $9.99 instead to supplement your 3.5 MM.

Last thing I heard, there won't be a Bestiary PDF for 10 bucks.

A few posts back Vic states that the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99

KaeYoss, Vic's post is 17 above yours where he states the PDF will be $9.99. However, he does say that this will be the last time that happens in the Core line.

Just my 2 cp.
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
that hobo wrote:

My question is, will this be worth buying if I already have the 3.5 Monster Manual?

I mean, I can see how having the CMB/CMD's of creatures will be useful, but it's not worth $40 to me if I can just continue to use the MM.

My question, then, is how many monsters are new? How many are updates to old ones? What is it about this book that would make my broke self want to spend $40 on this, as opposed to continuing to use the old monster books?

Thanks in advance.

You might want to check out the free Bestiary Preview and Bestiary Preview II. They'll give you an idea of both some of the new content you can find in the book, like crag linnorms and tengu, how older content has been updated, like the tiefling (which now balances better with the core races), revisions to creature types and subtypes, and variants of old classics like blood skeletons and fast zombies.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut
yoda8myhead wrote:
You might want to check out the free Bestiary Preview and Bestiary Preview II. They'll give you an idea of both some of the new content you can find in the book, like crag linnorms and tengu, how older content has been updated, like the tiefling (which now balances better with the core races), revisions to creature types and subtypes, and variants of old classics like blood skeletons and fast zombies.

The new method of advancing creatures with the "advanced" template is useful, too...as well as the way they've defined the celestial and fiendish overlays. To me, the information on designing your own monsters and the index of creatures by type, terrain, and CR are also very helpful. Not that I should happen to have a reason to be using those features at this exact moment... ;-)

All in all, the book is more solidly put together than the old Monster Manual. It has better production values. Updated content to Pathfinder RPG. And some really great new pieces of art. I fully expect it to replace the MM at my gaming table, except for the very rare occasion I need one of the beasties that didn't make Paizo's Bestiary. Of course, they're already planning on giving us many more of those in the Bestiary II down the road. So, I'm definitely finding myself moving away from the old 3.5 books and migrating to PFRPG in its entirety.

My two-cents,
--Neil
yoda8myhead wrote:
You might want to check out the free Bestiary Preview and Bestiary Preview II. They'll give you an idea of both some of the new content you can find in the book, like crag linnorms and tengu, how older content has been updated, like the tiefling (which now balances better with the core races), revisions to creature types and subtypes, and variants of old classics like blood skeletons and fast zombies.

You should also check out the free PDF of the Bonus Bestiary. It contains not only write ups for several monsters that did not make the cut in the regular Bestiary, but it also contains a complete listing of all the monsters covered in the big Bestiary book.

Paizo Employee CEO
James Jacobs wrote:
redcelt32 wrote:
Quick question for Vic or whoever else from Paizo may see it...since the Bestiary has no ship date officially yet, it does not show up in my subscriptions as a product with a timeline yet. Since I set them up to "ship monthly" and there is no Oct AP (and therefore my next monthly shipment reads Nov), does that mean the bestiary will become my October shipment, or roll over to Nov? I only ask here because I think its a unique situation with no Oct AP.
If you have your shipments set up to ship with your Adventure Path shipment, then yes; your Bestiary won't ship until Pathfinder AP volume #27 ships sometime in early November.

Actually James, I think you are wrong! :)

If you have your subscriptions set to monthly ship and there is no AP until November, then your October shipment will just be the Bestiary and it will go out next week.

-Lisa
silverhair2008 wrote:

KaeYoss, Vic's post is 17 above yours where he states the PDF will be $9.99. However, he does say that this will be the last time that happens in the Core line.

Just my 2 cp.

Course I see this right after I post heh. Awesome though. Go Paizo! I mean all this stuff online... it's brilliant! Save the trees!

Paizo Employee Creative Director
Lisa Stevens wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
redcelt32 wrote:
Quick question for Vic or whoever else from Paizo may see it...since the Bestiary has no ship date officially yet, it does not show up in my subscriptions as a product with a timeline yet. Since I set them up to "ship monthly" and there is no Oct AP (and therefore my next monthly shipment reads Nov), does that mean the bestiary will become my October shipment, or roll over to Nov? I only ask here because I think its a unique situation with no Oct AP.
If you have your shipments set up to ship with your Adventure Path shipment, then yes; your Bestiary won't ship until Pathfinder AP volume #27 ships sometime in early November.

Actually James, I think you are wrong! :)

If you have your subscriptions set to monthly ship and there is no AP until November, then your October shipment will just be the Bestiary and it will go out next week.

-Lisa

Heh... this is why I should try to not answer questions about the store or shipping, of course! :-) I don't understand what sort of magic and mystical processes go on in the rest of the building, really...

But ask me questions about what cyclopes eat or how boggards entertain themselves when they're bored or what the difference is between an en-dash and an em-dash and I can hook you up for sure! :-)

So when will it actually ship out?
Vic Wertz wrote:
Oh, and also—you heard it here first—like the Core Rulebook, the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99. (*After* the Bestiary, though, PDF pricing on the Pathfinder RPG line will return to our usual discount of 30% off the print price.)

w00t!!!

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
tasslehoff220 wrote:
So when will it actually ship out?

The shipping for subscribers will begin Tuesday.

How DO boggards entertain themselves?
James Jacobs wrote:


But ask me questions about what cyclopes eat or how boggards entertain themselves when they're bored or what the difference is between an en-dash and an em-dash and I can hook you up for sure! :-)

What do cyclopes eat? How do bored boggards busy their bodies? And what ARE en and em dash(es? ai? e?)

Hook me up!
Paizo Employee Creative Director

Cyclopes eat meat pretty much exclusively; the more civilized ones raise livestock (they particularly like the taste of sheep and goat). Alas, there's not many civilized ones left, and those who ARE left generally prefer the taste of HUMAN FLESH. mmmmmm

Boggards generally entertain themselves with bickering and fighting and tormenting prisoners. They DO have a lot of weird games, though... a favorite one is called "Lick Bug" in which case a bunch of boggards catch a dozen identical-looking cat-sized dragonflies. The Lick Boss secretly coats one dragonfly with a clear layer of scorchbulb (a potent and very spicy type of swampland pepper); this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all. The dozen dragonflies are released in a closed area like a cave or shack, and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them. The first boggard to get the painfully spicy scorchbulb-flavored dragonfly stuck on his tongue and in his mouth loses the game and spends hours in searing pain while his companions laugh at him.

An en-dash is a dash that's longer than a hyphen; it's used most commonly as a minus sign or to separate a range of numbers. It's called an "en dash" because it's about as wide as the letter N. An em-dash is used to set off a parenthetical thought in a sentence similarly to how a semi-colon is used. An em-dash is about as wide as the letter M.
James Jacobs wrote:

Cyclopes eat meat pretty much exclusively; the more civilized ones raise livestock (they particularly like the taste of sheep and goat). Alas, there's not many civilized ones left, and those who ARE left generally prefer the taste of HUMAN FLESH. mmmmmm

Boggards generally entertain themselves with bickering and fighting and tormenting prisoners. They DO have a lot of weird games, though... a favorite one is called "Lick Bug" in which case a bunch of boggards catch a dozen identical-looking cat-sized dragonflies. The Lick Boss secretly coats one dragonfly with a clear layer of scorchbulb (a potent and very spicy type of swampland pepper); this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all. The dozen dragonflies are released in a closed area like a cave or shack, and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them. The first boggard to get the painfully spicy scorchbulb-flavored dragonfly stuck on his tongue and in his mouth loses the game and spends hours in searing pain while his companions laugh at him.

An en-dash is a dash that's longer than a hyphen; it's used most commonly as a minus sign or to separate a range of numbers. It's called an "en dash" because it's about as wide as the letter N. An em-dash is used to set off a parenthetical thought in a sentence similarly to how a semi-colon is used. An em-dash is about as wide as the letter M.

Have you ever considered a career as a modern major general?

Mikhaila Burnett 313 wrote:


Have you ever considered a career as a modern major general?

Officially a lol comment.

Pirates of Penzance for cool.

Anyhow, thanks all for your input.
James Jacobs wrote:

Cyclopes eat meat pretty much exclusively; the more civilized ones raise livestock (they particularly like the taste of sheep and goat). Alas, there's not many civilized ones left, and those who ARE left generally prefer the taste of HUMAN FLESH. mmmmmm

Boggards generally entertain themselves with bickering and fighting and tormenting prisoners. They DO have a lot of weird games, though... a favorite one is called "Lick Bug" in which case a bunch of boggards catch a dozen identical-looking cat-sized dragonflies. The Lick Boss secretly coats one dragonfly with a clear layer of scorchbulb (a potent and very spicy type of swampland pepper); this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all. The dozen dragonflies are released in a closed area like a cave or shack, and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them. The first boggard to get the painfully spicy scorchbulb-flavored dragonfly stuck on his tongue and in his mouth loses the game and spends hours in searing pain while his companions laugh at him.

An en-dash is a dash that's longer than a hyphen; it's used most commonly as a minus sign or to separate a range of numbers. It's called an "en dash" because it's about as wide as the letter N. An em-dash is used to set off a parenthetical thought in a sentence similarly to how a semi-colon is used. An em-dash is about as wide as the letter M.

Awesome! Memo to self! Provoke James Jacobs more often!

Lantern Lodge
James Jacobs wrote:
this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all.

Awww, that's so nice, animal rights and ecosystem friendly and all :-)

James Jacobs wrote:
and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them.

Oh, wait ... !

Lantern Lodge
Lisa Stevens wrote:

If you have your subscriptions set to monthly ship and there is no AP until November, then your October shipment will just be the Bestiary and it will go out next week.

-Lisa

What is the estimated shipping from your warehouse date of the November AP?

Would it be wise to change subscriptions to ship Monthly now, and change them back to ship with Adventure Paths after the Bestiary has left the warehouse, to ensure the Bestiary arrives as soon as possible, and then resume normal shipping with Adventure Paths thereafter?

I probably wouldn't do this with any other product but the Bestiary as it's so highly anticipated (oh, and the Advanced Player's Guide next year ;-)
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8
James Jacobs wrote:


Boggards generally entertain themselves with bickering and fighting and tormenting prisoners. They DO have a lot of weird games, though... a favorite one is called "Lick Bug" in which case a bunch of boggards catch a dozen identical-looking cat-sized dragonflies. The Lick Boss secretly coats one dragonfly with a clear layer of scorchbulb (a potent and very spicy type of swampland pepper); this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all. The dozen dragonflies are released in a closed area like a cave or shack, and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them. The first boggard to get the painfully spicy scorchbulb-flavored dragonfly stuck on his tongue and in his mouth loses the game and spends hours in searing pain while his companions laugh at him.

Paizo keeps doing things that accidentally fit in really well with my Pathfinder canon. In my Rise of the Runelords game, one of the PCs was a Shoanti whose tribe had been relocated by the Cheliaxian colonists a hundred years ago to a tiny island. All they had on the island were spicy mud peppers and hungry boggards, and so the character was the last of his family, since the rest had been killed by boggards over the years. He still carried mud peppers with him where'er he went, and claimed that it was a Shoanti initiation ritual to cut them in half and rub them on the initiate's eyes. One should note that he only claimed this to people he didn't like. But then again, he didn't like much of anybody.

Off Topic:

Spoiler:
Does anyone remember what thread I put my Gilbert & Sullivan renditions in? I should have bookmarked them so I didn't lose them.
Paizo Employee Director of Narrative

I'm pretty sure there's a variation of the game that can be played between just two boggards where the dragonfly is tethered to a tree or pole with a 15 ft. length of twine, but the dragonfly isn't peppered and the first boggard to snag the critter and draw it in wins. (And gets a tasty meal in the process.)

Spoiler:
At least that's what my boggard friends tell me. They also claim that if you eat caterpillars who cocoon on certain plants, you get all crazy for the evening, but who knows with those guys?
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Off Topic:

** spoiler omitted **

It was in website feedback. Something about how awesome Gary was? Maybe blog related? I don't remember.

Grand Lodge
Vic Wertz wrote:

Oh, and also—you heard it here first—like the Core Rulebook, the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99. (*After* the Bestiary, though, PDF pricing on the Pathfinder RPG line will return to our usual discount of 30% off the print price.)

Thanks - this is absolutely great. This way I will buy a PDF and can be more relaxed about shipment of the book. I'm not yet a fan to get books directly (shipping costs from US to UK and hassles and additional costs with other companies due to customs so far let me avoid buying anything physical from the US whenever I can avoid it).

I hope the $9.99 for PDF will work for Paizo. I tried my part in buying 2 of these - one for myself ahead of the book which I got later and one for an unemployed gamer in my group (buying a book would be a little bit much - but a PDF I can afford to give away).

Thod
Vic Wertz wrote:
Oh, and also—you heard it here first—like the Core Rulebook, the Bestiary PDF will be $9.99. (*After* the Bestiary, though, PDF pricing on the Pathfinder RPG line will return to our usual discount of 30% off the print price.)

[Montgomery Burns] "Excellent!" [/Montgomery Burns]

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut
James Jacobs wrote:
Boggards generally entertain themselves with bickering and fighting and tormenting prisoners. They DO have a lot of weird games, though... a favorite one is called "Lick Bug" in which case a bunch of boggards catch a dozen identical-looking cat-sized dragonflies. The Lick Boss secretly coats one dragonfly with a clear layer of scorchbulb (a potent and very spicy type of swampland pepper); this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all. The dozen dragonflies are released in a closed area like a cave or shack, and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them. The first boggard to get the painfully spicy scorchbulb-flavored dragonfly stuck on his tongue and in his mouth loses the game and spends hours in searing pain while his companions laugh at him.

You realize I'm TOTALLY snagging this for my current assignment! :-D

--Neil
DarkWhite wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
this layer of scorchbulb resin doesn't hurt the dragonfly at all.

Awww, that's so nice, animal rights and ecosystem friendly and all :-)

James Jacobs wrote:
and then a bunch of boggards take turns lashing their sticky tongues at dragonflies and eating them.
Oh, wait ... !

Now hold on; the boggards are fully cognizant of the risks. They have chosen to possibly end up in agony; therefore, it is not actually cruelty. If someone is stupid enough to severely injure themselves through their own actions, it's not the Lickboss's fault

Paizo Employee CEO
DarkWhite wrote:
Lisa Stevens wrote:

If you have your subscriptions set to monthly ship and there is no AP until November, then your October shipment will just be the Bestiary and it will go out next week.

-Lisa

What is the estimated shipping from your warehouse date of the November AP?

Would it be wise to change subscriptions to ship Monthly now, and change them back to ship with Adventure Paths after the Bestiary has left the warehouse, to ensure the Bestiary arrives as soon as possible, and then resume normal shipping with Adventure Paths thereafter?

I probably wouldn't do this with any other product but the Bestiary as it's so highly anticipated (oh, and the Advanced Player's Guide next year ;-)

We are expecting Pathfinder #27 to arrive somewhere around the first week of November. Give or take a week. :)

-Lisa
Dark Archive

Today, right? It's coming out today? Right? Please say today!!!

:::does the excited dance:::

;)
Jason Sonia wrote:

Today, right? It's coming out today? Right? Please say today!!!

:::does the excited dance:::

;)

More like in 10 days.

Sczarni
Aamaxu wrote:
Jason Sonia wrote:

Today, right? It's coming out today? Right? Please say today!!!

:::does the excited dance:::

;)

More like in 10 days.

As Jason is a subscriber, and they get the PDF when their package starts shipping, and Vic said they would begin shipping these today and tomorrow, there is a good possibility that he may get access to it today (if he has hold for nothing or hold for monthly shipment as his preferred shipping option).

James Jacobs wrote:
HUMAN FLESH. mmmmmm

An acquired taste at best.

Unless it's babies, of course.

Oh, and the 10-bucks-bestiary thing is very classy!

If it is mailing today about what time should we expect notification?

...I'm trying to be patient... really... :)
Dark Archive
Illithar wrote:

If it is mailing today about what time should we expect notification?

...I'm trying to be patient... really... :)

Should we at least expect the pdf sometime today?

I have a ton of creatures to start converting over, namely the Beholder, Carrion crawler, Mind Flayer, etc.......just to make the transition official and complete.

Anyone have the PDF yet?

I don't, it is my understanding that subscribers get access to the PDF after their hard copy has shipped. Which is why I curious about the shipment of the books.
Illithar wrote:
I don't, it is my understanding that subscribers get access to the PDF after their hard copy has shipped. Which is why I curious about the shipment of the books.

That is a correct understanding.

I imagine that the warehouse crew is packaging the books right now. Once that's done they'll do a computer run and charge people's credit cards for those packages that got done today, and simultaneously unlock the downloads.

Friday they were printing up shipping labels and doing the pre-packaging.

EDIT: You have to consider that they might not be packaging one book, applying a shipping label, charging the card, and unlocking the download.. and then going on to the next customer. That might be be really inefficient. What I'm saying is that this is probably a batch process. The charging of credit cards and unlocking downloads just hasn't happened yet.
Watcher wrote:
Illithar wrote:
I don't, it is my understanding that subscribers get access to the PDF after their hard copy has shipped. Which is why I curious about the shipment of the books.

That is a correct understanding.

I imagine that the warehouse crew is packaging the books right now. Once that's done they'll do a computer run and charge people's credit cards for those packages that got done today, and simultaneously unlock the downloads.

Friday they were printing up printing labels and doing the pre-packaging.

EDIT: You have to consider that they might not be packaging one book, applying a shipping label, charging the card, and unlocking the download.. and then going on to the next customer. That might be be really inefficient. What I'm saying is that this is probably a batch process. The charging of credit cards and unlocking downloads just hasn't happened yet.

You're probably right, I didn't think about that.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

I've been doing the subscriber waiting game for several years now and I have found that, as hard as it is, it's generally best on the nerves to distract yourself with other things for the day or two that shipments go out. So many other elements can influence when your shipment is processed, like other items in your cart, how the list of subscribers is randomized, time zone differences, etc that refreshing your inbox every minute all day is a huge waste of time and just causes frustration. I tend to just set my auto-checker on a shorter refresh rate and turn the volume of the alert tone up and then do other things. When it comes, it'll come, whether that's today or tomorrow or Thursday.
Shadow Lodge

I'm pretty sure I did things in the wrong order, decided to buy this book and then after poking around a bit subscribed to the adventure path. Ah well, can't wait to get this and start using it on my players.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:
Elfgasm wrote:

WAIT wait wait wait wait wait!

....where's the pdf?

For this serious question, I have a serious answer...

There will be no PDF, instead we will be getting a Video of the Paizo Employees reading a dramatized version of the Bestiary word for word.

Don't worry the video will be bookmarked so you can skip to the relevant scenes.

Paizo at this time has not released who is playing which parts. I hope we hear soon!

Fair warning: I called dibs on the nymph and the succubus. I apologize in advance for any blindness my representations of these creatures might incur. You might want to have a cup of bleach and a wire-bristle brush handy to scrub the sight out of your eyes when you get to those creatures.

Sure you will do this, so what about the boys of paizo speedo calendar I keep asking for?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Lisa Stevens wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
redcelt32 wrote:
Quick question for Vic or whoever else from Paizo may see it...since the Bestiary has no ship date officially yet, it does not show up in my subscriptions as a product with a timeline yet. Since I set them up to "ship monthly" and there is no Oct AP (and therefore my next monthly shipment reads Nov), does that mean the bestiary will become my October shipment, or roll over to Nov? I only ask here because I think its a unique situation with no Oct AP.
If you have your shipments set up to ship with your Adventure Path shipment, then yes; your Bestiary won't ship until Pathfinder AP volume #27 ships sometime in early November.

Actually James, I think you are wrong! :)

If you have your subscriptions set to monthly ship and there is no AP until November, then your October shipment will just be the Bestiary and it will go out next week.

-Lisa

Well, technically, you're both *right*—James correctly explained what happens if you have selected "hold for Pathfinder Adventure Paths" on your combined subs, and Lisa correctly explained what happens if you chose "hold for monthly shipment."

Since the original question, though, was about "hold for monthly shipment," Lisa's is the only answer that addresses the question.
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