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!
Available Formats
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary is available as:
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Where do we disclose errata? I was trying to advance a kobold (for the D0 module) and found that the base creature's Stealth should be +9 (Dex +1, Small +4, Rank +1, Class +3), not +6.
Just got the "its shipped to you" email today, woot!
It might even get here before the first session of my new Council of Thieves campaign (next week friday night). Very much looking forward to this one. :)
I am not sure if anybody already mentioned this, but one of the great points of this book is its binding.
When you open it for the first time, it seems light and very easy to flip through, and to keep open flat without forcing on the pages or the binding.
That's actually very important.
Great job.
Very cool rw religion "Tree of Life" reference also..
"On yet another, a solar with a flaming sword stands watch over the original mortal paradise so that no creature may enter."
(Genesis verses 3:25-27)
25. And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming sword which was given unto thee?
26. And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget my own head next.
27. And the Lord did not ask him again.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
My email/pdf came on Tuesday, but I decided to check the flgs near me and they had 2 copies sitting, ready to sell. So I picked one up (we use 2 Monster Manuals at our table, one for me & one for summons) and cancelled my amazon shipment, supposedly shipping out in November some time.
One design feature/decision I'd like to thank you guys for was the artist identification for each illustration. That's really cool.
Overall, this is pound for pound the most "beautiful" rpg book I have ever owned.
I'd like to make it clear that the e-mail scranford is talking about was directed only to people who had their subscriptions set to ship *separately*, and were—contrary to their stated preference—having their shipment held up by the unexpected last-minute delay on Seekers.
People who had set their combined subs to ship out *monthly* were processed exactly as specified. "Hold for monthly" means that we hold anything that comes in early in the month until *everything* due that month has arrived, and then we ship it all at once to decrease shipping fees. Which is exactly what we did. Everything we're expecting this month has now arrived, and the "hold for monthly" shipments are now going out.
Really? Because I have my shipping preference set to separately, but my order has not yet been processed.
Orders waiting for Seekers of Secrets—for either of the above reasons—started to go out yesterday; many more went today, and the rest should go out tomorrow.
I bought my copy yesterday. I have to say it's one of the best books for the worlds most popular role-playing game I've ever bought. It's my favorite monster manual… along with the 1st edition monster manual (the 1st one I ever owned). Overall big fan of the artwork. I really like the layout of the stat blocks. It seems very intuitive, easy to read, and it packs a lot of info without looking confusing. My only caveat would be… I wish it were bigger.
Also, I like the "breathing room" put into many of the monster entries for GM's. Tales of variants from the stats given for several monsters are always welcome, encouraging personalizing the monsters instead of relying on the stats-as-written, and help provide some back-up for the GM when a player flatly states "hey, that monster can't do that!"
Is it just me reading it wrong, or are the "Monsters as PCs" rules completely broken in the case of monsters with CR < HD?
To summarize it as I understand it: There is no more ECL or LA, just CR. CR is equivalent to class level. So for example, by the rules, you could play a 1st Level Xill Fighter (with the 9 Outsider HD and all) alongside a 7th level Human Fighter.
And then there is a recommended rule that allows the Xill to close the 6 level gap as the party levels.
Hmm...
Other interesting ones: Couatl at CR 10 that cast as Sorcerer 9 (with access to both Wizard and Cleric spell lists) And Couatls arent exactly lacking in other features to make up for that ONE CL loss.
Barghest is pretty crazy for 4 CR. Efreeti PC could grant 3 wishes a day (when everyone is level 8.)
I must be looking at this wrong.
I realize that it says "GMs should carefully consider any monster PCs in their groups. Some creatures are simply not suitable for play as PCs, due to their powers or role in the game. As monster characters progress, GMs should closely monitor whether such characters are disruptive or abusive to the rules and modify them as needed to improve play."
Why doesn't it just say: "These rules don't really work, make something up on your own or use the old 3.5 (ECL = LA + HD) system."
Okay, I have a bit of quandary. I have a deposition today for the car accident I got into in February. However, my copy of the Pathfinder Beastiary is waiting for me at the post office! Should I rush to the post office and read my copy on the way to my deposition or should I do the *snort* responsible thing and pick it up afterwards?
Why doesn't it just say: "These rules don't really work, make something up on your own or use the old 3.5 (ECL = LA + HD) system."
Because the rules do work. The intent is, as with any game, that the GM is supposed to moderate the rules. Any GM with an iota of sense should realize this. The rules are just the rules. The game is what the GM makes of it.
Okay, I have a bit of quandary. I have a deposition today for the car accident I got into in February. However, my copy of the Pathfinder Beastiary is waiting for me at the post office! Should I rush to the post office and read my copy on the way to my deposition or should I do the *snort* responsible thing and pick it up afterwards?
If it's taken eight months to get you to your deposition, they might not be happy if you're late - say there was a huge queue at the post office. Normally I'd say choose what makes you happiest, but this time I'd say choose the course of action which has the least chance of serious repercussions.
Just downloaded the Bestiary PDF and there seem to be missing text everywhere. The abbreviation for feet, ft., is blank, the double ff in "effect" seems to be missing throughout, and the CR numbers are missing from the header bars. What's the deal?
EDIT: I see it does read correctly with Acrobat Reader. Apparently "Preview" on my mac doesn't like it...
Why doesn't it just say: "These rules don't really work, make something up on your own or use the old 3.5 (ECL = LA + HD) system."
Because the rules do work. The intent is, as with any game, that the GM is supposed to moderate the rules. Any GM with an iota of sense should realize this. The rules are just the rules. The game is what the GM makes of it.
I realize not everything can be perfectly balanced (in a any system), and that it's up to the GM to provide a fun game. But for a product that claims to have improved the 3.5 system, this seems to be a case of Paizo thinking that improvement and change are synonymous. It seems it was changed just for the sake of change, which looks to me like it actually resulted in a less balanced system than ECL.
I think the part that says, "Some creatures are simply not suitable for play as PCs, due to their powers or role in the game" deals with your concerns.
The book is about monsters. Monsters that your PCs can fight. It is not intended as a sourcebook for things for your PCs to be. But we put the "Monsters as PCs" quick rules as a guideline for people who want to have that sort of thing in their game. But if you use those quick rules to create a monster PC and the monster is WAY too good, then you shouldn't be using that monster as a PC, and in general you shouldn't be expecting a half-page of quick rules in a monster book to be all you need to turn over 350 monsters into balanced, playable PC races.
I am not sure if anybody already mentioned this, but one of the great points of this book is its binding.
When you open it for the first time, it seems light and very easy to flip through, and to keep open flat without forcing on the pages or the binding.
That's actually very important.
Great job.
Agreed. One of the best bound books ever. Very, very friendly! What a terrific job!
Also, I like the "breathing room" put into many of the monster entries for GM's. Tales of variants from the stats given for several monsters are always welcome, encouraging personalizing the monsters instead of relying on the stats-as-written, and help provide some back-up for the GM when a player flatly states "hey, that monster can't do that!"
Agreed. This has a very "make it yours" classic monster book attitude. Its like the perfect shipment of building materials and empowerment coaching for seasoned and new GMs alike. Very well done, and this comment about "breathing room" is very astute!
I just received the Bestiary yesterday, and I am very impressed. You all continue to excel in everything you do. Thanks for the effort and commitment to this game that we all love so much.
I think the part that says, "Some creatures are simply not suitable for play as PCs, due to their powers or role in the game" deals with your concerns.
The book is about monsters. Monsters that your PCs can fight. It is not intended as a sourcebook for things for your PCs to be. But we put the "Monsters as PCs" quick rules as a guideline for people who want to have that sort of thing in their game. But if you use those quick rules to create a monster PC and the monster is WAY too good, then you shouldn't be using that monster as a PC, and in general you shouldn't be expecting a half-page of quick rules in a monster book to be all you need to turn over 350 monsters into balanced, playable PC races.
Orders waiting for Seekers of Secrets—for either of the above reasons—started to go out yesterday; many more went today, and the rest should go out tomorrow.
Ok, thanks for the update. Maybe I'll have the PDF version by tonights game...
Impatience? Nah... although I *did* send Vic, Erik and Sean an email containing pictures of horrified Pit Fiends... next I'm going to send them pictures of my 'Chelaxian Naked Dwarven Beard Dance'-ritual (which is the reason why those Pit Fiends looked horrified, and are still hiding in the cellar) unless my Bestiary ships by friday!
Fantastic. Overall great job. Artwork is spectacular, especially the dryad, devils, demons (vrock and succubus especially!) and vampires. I really get the feel of 1rst Edition AD&D artwork. Same kind of vibe. My only disappointments were the troll and the ogre. They just remind me of something from anime.
The stat blocks are nicely organized and flow really well. Everything is organized and very easy to eyeball just at a glance. I especially like how experience for each monster is listed in the stats. No more flpping through the DMG to find the experience points by CR chart. (yeah!)
My only nitpick with the product is that I wish they would have strayed from 3E orthodoxy on some of the monsters defenses. For example I think that devils DR should be a choice between silver & good or silver & chaotic. Likewise demons should be cold iron & good or cold iron & axiomatic. Therefore demons and devils could do harm to each other in the great Blood Wars as intended!
But nitpicking aside it is an awesome product. 5 out of 5 stars! Great job PAIZO!!!
Chief Technical Officer
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
