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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:

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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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Gorbacz wrote:

Beholders are intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast, and as such cannot be used by any third party. Your best bet is to get the number cranking and convert said beholder to PFRPG using the guidelines from the Bestiary and Conversion Guide.

For the very same reason, the following are missing:

- kuo toa
- mind flayer
- githzerai
- githyanki
- carrion crawler
- umber hulk
- displacer beast
- slaadi

Aww, bummer. Thank you though; that's exactly what I'll do. At least we still get mind flayers.

Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Unfortunately, Illithids - Mind Flayers are also closed content. Luckily, their PF replacement - the Intellect Devourers - are open :)
Gorbacz wrote:
Unfortunately, Illithids - Mind Flayers are also closed content. Luckily, their PF replacement - the Intellect Devourers - are open :)

Man, it's early. I meant aboleths.

Sorry. Brewing coffee now.
Dark Archive

It's so beautiful... apart from a few pictures that I didn't like, it's the most amazing monster manual I've seen to date -- and not just for D&D, but including all the RPG systems. :)

Brilliant work, guys!

This would fan-freakin-tastic if I hadn't ordered this like... three months ago, still don't have it, AND BOOKS-A-MILLION HAS IT NOW.

But other than what seems to be a HORRIBLE shipping system, it is a nice book.
Liberty's Edge
Ahzreal wrote:

This would fan-freakin-tastic if I hadn't ordered this like... three months ago, still don't have it, AND BOOKS-A-MILLION HAS IT NOW.

But other than what seems to be a HORRIBLE shipping system, it is a nice book.

Was it not just released last month. Or are you saying you pre-ordered it three months. IN fact I think the street date was the end of last month.

Where are you located? Overseas?

Plus if you went with the standard rate for in the US that can be 3 to 5 weeks standard delivery. That is what USPS dictates their delivery time is.

Sean
Lantern Lodge
Ahzreal wrote:

This would fan-freakin-tastic if I hadn't ordered this like... three months ago, still don't have it, AND BOOKS-A-MILLION HAS IT NOW.

But other than what seems to be a HORRIBLE shipping system, it is a nice book.

Ahzreal, I'm really sorry you haven't got your order yet. I took a quick peek at your account to see if there was something I could do, but it looks like you may have ordered it through a third-party (amazon maybe?).

If you did order it through paizo.com, send an email to our customer service customer.service@paizo.com and we'll see what we can figure out.

If you ordered it through a third party, you may want to try contacting their customer service department to see what's up.

Thanks,
Sara Marie
Paizo Customer Service

I just got this and came across this is the book for skeletons

Feats Improved InitiativeB <-- this B is super scripted

What does the little B mean. I search the complete book and still I found nothing the B refers to. Does anyone know? is this a special version of the feat?

Thanks
Game Jeff wrote:

I just got this and came across this is the book for skeletons

Feats Improved InitiativeB <-- this B is super scripted

What does the little B mean. I search the complete book and still I found nothing the B refers to. Does anyone know? is this a special version of the feat?

Thanks

Never mind I finally found this in the book

Feats: The creature’s feats are listed here. A bonus feat is
indicated with a superscript “B.”

Thanks

So I bought the Bestiary to use in our upcoming Shackled City campaign using Pathfinder rules. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't have to drag out Monster Manual I, II, or III...but some of the monsters aren't in the Beastiary so it looks like they're in.

Is anyone else running an older campaign arc in Pathfinder and having to mix/max Bestiary and MM? I like the way the Bestiary has given XP amounts for each monster, but if I'm going to have to drag out the MMs anyway is there really much point in using both? They really don't seem to have changed things that much (though it is nice not having to figure out a given monster CMB/CMD).
Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
Game Jeff wrote:

I just got this and came across this is the book for skeletons

Feats Improved InitiativeB <-- this B is super scripted

What does the little B mean. I search the complete book and still I found nothing the B refers to. Does anyone know? is this a special version of the feat?

Thanks

It means it's a bonus feat, above and beyond the number of feat usually assigned to a creature of that type.

Contributor
Blue Wizard wrote:

So I bought the Bestiary to use in our upcoming Shackled City campaign using Pathfinder rules. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't have to drag out Monster Manual I, II, or III...but some of the monsters aren't in the Beastiary so it looks like they're in.

Is anyone else running an older campaign arc in Pathfinder and having to mix/max Bestiary and MM? I like the way the Bestiary has given XP amounts for each monster, but if I'm going to have to drag out the MMs anyway is there really much point in using both? They really don't seem to have changed things that much (though it is nice not having to figure out a given monster CMB/CMD).

I'm currently running a new Shackled City campaign and using the Bestiary where I can and defaulting to the MM I+II when I need to. As to whether you need to, so far I haven't come across anything that seemed breaking either way.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Hank Woon wrote:
Blue Wizard wrote:

So I bought the Bestiary to use in our upcoming Shackled City campaign using Pathfinder rules. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't have to drag out Monster Manual I, II, or III...but some of the monsters aren't in the Beastiary so it looks like they're in.

Is anyone else running an older campaign arc in Pathfinder and having to mix/max Bestiary and MM? I like the way the Bestiary has given XP amounts for each monster, but if I'm going to have to drag out the MMs anyway is there really much point in using both? They really don't seem to have changed things that much (though it is nice not having to figure out a given monster CMB/CMD).

I'm currently running a new Shackled City campaign and using the Bestiary where I can and defaulting to the MM I+II when I need to. As to whether you need to, so far I haven't come across anything that seemed breaking either way.

Shouldn't anything from MMII or another non-core book be statted out in the adventure? My understanding that it was never assumed a GM had access to anything other than the PHB, DMG, and MM for Dungeon adventures. If this is the case, you can simply print the few monsters not in the Bestiary out from d20srd.org and take just those sheets along with your Bestiary to the game.

yoda8myhead wrote:
Hank Woon wrote:
Blue Wizard wrote:

So I bought the Bestiary to use in our upcoming Shackled City campaign using Pathfinder rules. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't have to drag out Monster Manual I, II, or III...but some of the monsters aren't in the Beastiary so it looks like they're in.

Is anyone else running an older campaign arc in Pathfinder and having to mix/max Bestiary and MM? I like the way the Bestiary has given XP amounts for each monster, but if I'm going to have to drag out the MMs anyway is there really much point in using both? They really don't seem to have changed things that much (though it is nice not having to figure out a given monster CMB/CMD).

I'm currently running a new Shackled City campaign and using the Bestiary where I can and defaulting to the MM I+II when I need to. As to whether you need to, so far I haven't come across anything that seemed breaking either way.
Shouldn't anything from MMII or another non-core book be statted out in the adventure? My understanding that it was never assumed a GM had access to anything other than the PHB, DMG, and MM for Dungeon adventures. If this is the case, you can simply print the few monsters not in the Bestiary out from d20srd.org and take just those sheets along with your Bestiary to the game.

Mainly I was thinking of the differences in the way 3.5 and Pathfinder track experience. I was wondering how much (if any) effect it would have to possible have to use both systems in the same session. I've noticed that the "fast experience" pretty much meshes with the 3.5 scale, so we'll be using that. But it seems to me that in Pathfinder everything is worth a set amount without regard to level. Then you have 3.5 in which your 2nd level rogue is getting a lot more XP than your party's 4th level wizard. So it's looking like using the Pathfinder XP scheme would leave your lower level party members without much of a chance of catching up.

I guess I just like 3.5 more than the rest of my group does, but it's Pathfinder they want, so Pathfinder they'll get.

Someone please help me! If my question / comment has been made before, could someone please direct me to that place? I'm afraid I don't have time to scan through 1114 posts.

My question is this: Where are the animals?!?

I don't mind so much that the Bestiary doesn't list badgers, manta rays, baleen whales, etc. I can live without those.

But what about camels, donkeys, and mules?!?

With most missing monsters, I would think that they might appear in some future bestiary, or some other book like that. But real, ordinary, mundane animals?!? Would Paizo really say "Get the Bestiary II, and use mules in your campaign!" or "Get the Pathfinder 'Denizens of the Desert' sourcebook, and you can finally ride a camel!"

Surely, lots of people in Pathfinder campaigns would want to use camels, donkeys, and mules for riding or as pack animals. In fact, I only noticed this because someone brought up the possibility of using a pack mule in an adventure.

Of course, I could just use the 3.5 monster manual / SRD. But if Paizo is trying to replace the 3.5 manuals eventually, this would be a major obstacle!

Someone please tell me that I'm being stupid, or that I'm missing something obvious somewhere.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Use horse stats for camels, and young template horses for donkeys and mules ? The combat impact of those animals is so insignificant that I really don't mind them missing.

Badgers, on the other hand ...
Gorbacz wrote:
The combat impact of those animals is so insignificant that I really don't mind them missing.

If you're using an animal for riding or as a pack animal, then that animal's movement speed and carrying capacity are VERY significant. Potentially campaign-altering, in fact. The "young" template won't give you an accurate speed.

And has it never happened in any adventure you've played that someone was riding an animal that got attacked?!?

There are skeletal stats for camels under Animal Companions in the core rulebook. And I once had a player running a paladin who had to ride a mule off of a Robe of Useful Items until he gained a level after his mount was killed by a bullette. That was fun. The mount was named Pelor's Pride, so he named the mule Pelor's Humility.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Aaron Bitman wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
The combat impact of those animals is so insignificant that I really don't mind them missing.

If you're using an animal for riding or as a pack animal, then that animal's movement speed and carrying capacity are VERY significant. Potentially campaign-altering, in fact. The "young" template won't give you an accurate speed.

And has it never happened in any adventure you've played that someone was riding an animal that got attacked?!?

Camel = horse. The 3.5 stats for both are almost exactly the same, and they have both the same CR.

Mule/donkey = pony. Slightly better carrying capacity for mules, slightly less for donkeys.

There, fixed.
Joana wrote:
There are skeletal stats for camels under Animal Companions in the core rulebook.

Good point! I was hoping I had missed something like that.

Gorbacz wrote:
Mule/donkey = pony. Slightly better carrying capacity for mules, slightly less for donkeys.

Good answer. It's not QUITE the same thing as having official stats, but it might do, in a pinch.

Thank you both.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
3 people marked this as FAQ candidate. 6 people marked this as a favorite.

One of my biggest pet peeves about the 3.5 Monster Manual is the way they handled animals. First of all, they lumped them all in a boring appendix with no art; we fixed that in the Bestiary by alphabetizing the animals along with everything else and giving them art.

But another gripe I had was the fact that they spent so much room on what's essentially reprinted stats. I'm talking about the horse, here, and all its incarnations. Light horse, heavy horse, light warhorse, heavy warhorse, pony, donkey, mule, camel, warpony... that's a LOT of space taken up by what is essentially just two creatures: a Medium horse and a Large horse.

Our solution was to do just that; provide stats for a Horse (the Large version) and a Pony (the Medium version), so that Small and Medium creatures would have these classic animals around for mounts or pack animals.

We probably should have been more obvious about this in the writeups for the horse and pony in the Bestiary, I guess.

Light horse = horse
Heavy horse = advanced horse
Light warhorse = horse with combat training
Heavy warhorse = advanced horse with combat training
Pony = pony
Warpony = pony with combat training
Donkey = pony
Mule = advanced pony
Camel = horse

The camel's sort of a special case, since it DOES have some different characteristics from the horse. And as a result, I'm relatively sure that camels will be showing up in the Bestairy 2. But until then, just using horse stats should work fine.

In the end, when I had to make the call on "Four pages of repeated horse stats" verses "one page of horse stats and 3 pages of actual monsters" the choice seemed easy.
James Jacobs wrote:
Mule = advanced pony

Interesting! And here I was planning to use the 3.5 stats! Now I can get a mule with a speed of 40' instead of 30'. And I can quote James Jacobs on it!

Thank you!

I just got my copy of the Bestiary yesterday, and like the Core Rulebook I'm quite pleased with the quality of the binding, art, etc. However, and I feel I must preface this by saying I'm personally ignorant of the publishing process, there are a ridiculous number of typographical errors in the first printing (of both books really). I'm sure proofreading can be a demanding job, and the typos don't really impact game-play--for me at least--but it's a shame that such silly mistakes (loose instead of lose) mar an otherwise solid product.

Please don't take this as a troll/flame/whatever as I don't intend it as such. I'd just like to add my voice to those who may be requesting that Paizo proofread their first runs more thoroughly. Heck, send me the pre-print pdfs and I'll help out! :)

Zo
James Jacobs wrote:

One of my biggest pet peeves about the 3.5 Monster Manual is the way they handled animals. First of all, they lumped them all in a boring appendix with no art; we fixed that in the Bestiary by alphabetizing the animals along with everything else and giving them art.

But another gripe I had was the fact that they spent so much room on what's essentially reprinted stats. I'm talking about the horse, here, and all its incarnations. Light horse, heavy horse, light warhorse, heavy warhorse, pony, donkey, mule, camel, warpony... that's a LOT of space taken up by what is essentially just two creatures: a Medium horse and a Large horse.

Our solution was to do just that; provide stats for a Horse (the Large version) and a Pony (the Medium version), so that Small and Medium creatures would have these classic animals around for mounts or pack animals.

We probably should have been more obvious about this in the write ups for the horse and pony in the Bestiary, I guess.

Light horse = horse
Heavy horse = advanced horse
Light warhorse = horse with combat training
Heavy warhorse = advanced horse with combat training
Pony = pony
Warpony = pony with combat training
Donkey = pony
Mule = advanced pony
Camel = horse

The camel's sort of a special case, since it DOES have some different characteristics from the horse. And as a result, I'm relatively sure that camels will be showing up in the Bestairy 2. But until then, just using horse stats should work fine.

In the end, when I had to make the call on "Four pages of repeated horse stats" verses "one page of horse stats and 3 pages of actual monsters" the choice seemed easy.

Just an idea, but I think something like that but ultra condensed for all the animals and some variant monsters seems super useful. Maybe put it into an appendix?

Example:

Horse = Camel, Light Horse, Heavy Horse^, Light Warhorse*, Heavy Warhorse*^
Pony = Donkey, Mule^, Pony, Warmule*^, Warpony*

* = Combat Training, ^ = Advanced Template

*Repectfully* With a few keystrokes the animlas that don't necessarily need 4 pages of stats are added into the book, people can look at the appendix and find that rarer animal varient that adds that much more flavor to their character. Add a couple more templates that make minor adjusts (adaptations to climate?), like a cold variant or such.

I loved the bloody skeleton and fast zombie. It's the templates and variants that really sold it for me, although for others YMMV. I even bought the book after already owning the .pdf (supporting a local hobby store).

This is just an idea, but I'd love to know what you think...

<bump>

I have a couple more questions about the Bestiary... and again, these may have been asked elsewhere, for all I know.

I've downloaded the errata for the core rulebook, but where can I find the errata for the Bestiary?

And on that note... what's with the Janni's land speed? It's 30 feet in chainmail, but 20 feet without?!? I'm virtually certain it was supposed to be the other way around. And I see it written the same way in the PRD.

Hi,
I did some spot checking on the 23 pages of discussion and I didn't see anyone mention this. I was looking at various and sundry animals last night while preparing an adventure, and I don't see anything designated as a secondary attack on any of them. The leopard, for instance, is bite +6 (I believe that's the bonus for that attack) and 2 claws +6. Shouldn't it have a -5 to the claw attacks, since it doesn't have multi-attack? All the animals have the same attack bonus for all of their claws, bites, slams, gores or whatever is appropriate for that animal.
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Bite, Claw, Gore, Slam, Sting and Talons are all primary attacks now.

Hoof, Tentacle, Wing, Pincer, Tail Slap and Anything Else are secondary attacks.

See Universal Monster Rules, section on Natural Attacks.

This change is one of the biggest changes in PF Bestiary (bite/claw/claw is now full/full/full instead of full/-5/5).
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
wspatterson wrote:

Hi,

I did some spot checking on the 23 pages of discussion and I didn't see anyone mention this. I was looking at various and sundry animals last night while preparing an adventure, and I don't see anything designated as a secondary attack on any of them. The leopard, for instance, is bite +6 (I believe that's the bonus for that attack) and 2 claws +6. Shouldn't it have a -5 to the claw attacks, since it doesn't have multi-attack? All the animals have the same attack bonus for all of their claws, bites, slams, gores or whatever is appropriate for that animal.

They've changed how secondary attacks work. Claws and bites are always primary attacks (full BAB). Things like wing strikes, tail slaps and thel ike are secondary attacks (at -5).

This is under the Universal Monster Rules section on Natural attacks (p300-301) in the Bestiary or here on the PRD.

EDIT: Ninjaed.
Gorbacz wrote:

Bite, Claw, Gore, Slam, Sting and Talons are all primary attacks now.

Hoof, Tentacle, Wing, Pincer, Tail Slap and Anything Else are secondary attacks.

See Universal Monster Rules, section on Natural Attacks.

This change is one of the biggest changes in PF Bestiary (bite/claw/claw is now full/full/full instead of full/-5/5).

Well, that's nifty.

How much overlap does this product have with the Classic Monsters Revisited?
Dark Archive

Other than the fact that stat blocks for the monsters featured in Classic Monsters Revisited are presented in the Bestiary in a Pathfinder RPG format, there really isn't any overlap as such. Two entirely different products with different focuses.
Kaladhan wrote:
How much overlap does this product have with the Classic Monsters Revisited?

To add to what Ravenmantle said, Classic Monsters has pages of background material for each creature, including their origins and role in the Golaron campaign setting.

The Bestiary, as fine as it is, provides a stat block and a few short paragraphs of description applicable to any campaign setting.

You'll get this for the background material, not the stat block.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Is there any official errata for the Bestiary? I've been looking around and can't seem find it.

My question is about troglodytes and their lack of a stench ability. I was wondering if it was and oversight or intentional.
The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

I don't think a true "errata" document has been published yet. I wish it had, that was one part I thought Paizo would excel compared to WotC. I hope they do more than they have so far.

One thing they do that WotC never did, they do release new books with changes (errata) when making new printings. I bought copies of the Core rules when the second printing came out (gave away my copies of the original 1st printing.) I'm waiting for the second printing of the Bestiary to do the same. As far as I know, it hasn't been printed yet.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
James Risner wrote:

I don't think a true "errata" document has been published yet. I wish it had, that was one part I thought Paizo would excel compared to WotC. I hope they do more than they have so far.

One thing they do that WotC never did, they do release new books with changes (errata) when making new printings. I bought copies of the Core rules when the second printing came out (gave away my copies of the original 1st printing.) I'm waiting for the second printing of the Bestiary to do the same. As far as I know, it hasn't been printed yet.

Certainly for the Corebook they've said that they're doing an errata when they are preparing for the next printing, so when they run low on bestiaries they'll get it out.

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

I have some questions regarding the "Horse" entry. Acc'd to Bestiary p177 a light horse gets two hoof attacks w/penalty if not combat trained and damage d4. All well and good. A heavy horse, gains a bite attack at d4 & hoof damage is increased to d6 (this is whether or not it is combat trained, I presume, and is due to increased muscle mass not increased training). The "heavy" also gains the "advanced simple" template which will increase all scores by four. Is that a typo, by the way? Should a draft horse truly have an intelligence of 6? Should it really be able to retain the vocabulary of the average undead shadow? Should its charisma really be on par with the average human?

Now, on Core p.54, under the listing for a Horse animal companion, the horse is listed as having a bite attack & 2 hooves. Does this mean that an animal companion horse is always a "heavy" horse or does this mean that animal companions are inherently special? Also, there is no mention of the "docile" quality that penalizes the horses' hoof (but not bite) attacks.

To clarify my questions and make them easier to answer, I'll number them:

1) Should a heavy horse get an Int6 & Cha11?
2) Should a horse companion of a Lv1 Druid have a bite attack in addition to it's hoof attacks?
3) Does the horse companion retain the "docile" quality until it receives the "war trained" bonus training at Lv4 or are animal companions always considered non-docile?
4) Does the docile quality only apply to hooves or does it also apply to the bite attack of a non-war-trained heavy horse?
5) Is an animal companion horse always a heavy horse?

I hope these questions aren't overly nit-picky. I'm trying to build a druid and I just want to do it right.
Dextro Highland wrote:

Is there any official errata for the Bestiary? I've been looking around and can't seem find it.

My question is about troglodytes and their lack of a stench ability. I was wondering if it was and oversight or intentional.

Stench is in the Troglodyte aura section, and is defined in the universal monster rules. Its still there, its just a universal rule that refers to stench now so that other "stenchy" monsters use the same mechanic.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

eris,

You'll want to pose your questions in the Rules Questions forum.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:

eris,

You'll want to pose your questions in the Rules Questions forum.

Thanks, Vic. Will do...

I can't find the errata thread so I will post it here. The spirit naga has cure minor wounds, a spell that no longer exist in Pathfinder.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Is it a typo or am I unaware of a rules issue but certain monsters in the Bestiary have the feat dodge, but it seems to not be in their AC in the stat block. Two examples being "Azata, Ghaele" on pg 25 & "Demon, Nabasu" on pg 64. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thank you.
Liberty's Edge

So, I just noticed that under Sphinx, the text says:

"Although there are many different species of sphinx, the one certain scholars refer to as the “gynosphinx” (a name many sphinxes find insulting) is a wise and majestic creature that is nevertheless terrifying when angered. Less moralistic than their male counterparts (the “androsphinx”—a different creature entirely than the sphinx presented here)" ....

So, where is the androsphinx?!?!?! Might this be in the second Bestiary? I'm VERY interested to know just how different a androsphinx is from a gynosphinx.
Liberty's Edge

Completely different question:

Will there be any new rules in this second volume? Additional templates for example?
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Marc Radle 81 wrote:

Completely different question:

Will there be any new rules in this second volume? Additional templates for example?

There will indeed be more templates; both the classic kind and of the simple kind.

Marc Radle 81 wrote:

So, I just noticed that under Sphinx, the text says:

"Although there are many different species of sphinx, the one certain scholars refer to as the “gynosphinx” (a name many sphinxes find insulting) is a wise and majestic creature that is nevertheless terrifying when angered. Less moralistic than their male counterparts (the “androsphinx”—a different creature entirely than the sphinx presented here)" ....

So, where is the androsphinx?!?!?! Might this be in the second Bestiary? I'm VERY interested to know just how different a androsphinx is from a gynosphinx.

The androsphinx is from the 3.5 SRD.

They were a bit tougher than the gynosphinx and instead of the spell-like abilities, they has a fear inspiring roar and were able to cast spells like a cleric. Not sure if they will show up in the Bestiary 2; might know more in the months immediately prior to the book's release when they start releasing more information about it.
Liberty's Edge
James Jacobs wrote:
Marc Radle 81 wrote:

Completely different question:

Will there be any new rules in this second volume? Additional templates for example?

There will indeed be more templates; both the classic kind and of the simple kind.

Very cool! Thanks James!!!

Any chance you could give any hints as to what some of them will be? I won't tell, I promise ;)
Sovereign Court

Been doing some detailed reading of the Pathfinder Bestiary and wanted to express something including gratitude.

I absolutely love the descriptions that have been included in this tome. The background to some of the monsters have been amazing. Unfortunately a lot of monster tomes of the past have been very rule based. In the Pathfinder Bestiary you get (space permitting) a background to how a creature came to be and sage advice about origins or creation. This really helps the GM to intelligently think through a lot of information on why a monster should be included in a campaign, and it helps as a springboard for PCs consulting sages as to a monsters origins.

Sometimes we throw in a monster because it seems cool at the time, but doesn't always make sense in the grand scheme of things. Monster background information should not be underestimated.

Thanks Paizo for you're hard work here and if you ever bring out a tome on detailed monster background, count me in.

Mark
Marcus Aurelius wrote:
Thanks Paizo for you're hard work here and if you ever bring out a tome on detailed monster background, count me in.

You mean like these?

Stupid question - in the 3.5 MM it was easy to tell between attack and full attack. With the Bestiary I'm mystified. When is it a full attack, when it is merely an attack (as a standard action), and when is it simply a several available attack options. Example: the Vrock reads this in its stat block (Bestiary p. 69):

Melee 2 claws +13(2d6+5), bite +13 (1d8+5), 2 talons +13 (1d6+5)

Are these options for its standard attack, or is this its full attack?

In MM 3.5 (p 48),this would have been its full attack.

Can anyone shed light on this question?

Thanks
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