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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!

Available Formats

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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Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
James Jacobs wrote:
Regardless of what we do with that whole thing, it'd also be cool to create an interactive list of monsters on paizo.com that combines name, page number, climate/terrain, CR, type, and all that in one big spreadsheet that can be sorted easy. Of course, that's also something that any fan with a spreadsheet program and some free time can create anyway, so chances are good that there'll be SOMETHING out there to satisfy that need even if we can't get those tables into the book... but I'm gonna be trying real hard to get them in the book anyway.

The PathfinderWiki already has this set up for new monsters introduced in the Bestiary sections of Pathfinder and other Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting sourcebooks.

James Jacobs wrote:
Regardless of what we do with that whole thing, it'd also be cool to create an interactive list of monsters on paizo.com that combines name, page number, climate/terrain, CR, type, and all that in one big spreadsheet that can be sorted easy. Of course, that's also something that any fan with a spreadsheet program and some free time can create anyway, so chances are good that there'll be SOMETHING out there to satisfy that need even if we can't get those tables into the book... but I'm gonna be trying real hard to get them in the book anyway.

I had something similar that on my site that spat out encounter tables with these criteria. Easy to do again (when I find the time, of course).

Liberty's Edge

I don't know if this has been answered, but will you be putting monsters from the modules and APs in the Bestiary II? Or a Golarion-specific Bestiary? I hate digging around 17 different places to find monsters...
Paizo Employee Creative Director
houstonderek wrote:
I don't know if this has been answered, but will you be putting monsters from the modules and APs in the Bestiary II? Or a Golarion-specific Bestiary? I hate digging around 17 different places to find monsters...

There probably won't be a Golarion-specific Bestiary. I do suspect that a LOT of the monsters from the APs and modules will graduate to Bestiary II (or III, or IV, etc.). A few of them are probably going to graduate into the first Bestiary, in fact.

Anyway, when they do, they'll probably have about a page less of info; the AP will still be the place to go to get lots of cool flavor and stuff for new monsters, basically, while the Bestiaries will focus on stats and about half a page or 1/4 a page of flavor.

All in theory, of course. We haven't started laying out the first Bestiary yet so we're not 100% sure where we're going there yet...
Liberty's Edge

The fluff not being there is cool, I was more thinking about when you had to reference a stat block quickly and get the basics. I don't mind digging through the APs and modules if I'm prepping the night before, it's at the table things get hairy, I don't own a laptop *oh noes!*, and we play at the FLGS these days, so what fits in the backpack is the ballgame, pretty much.

SO, good news to me, thanks :)
houstonderek wrote:

The fluff not being there is cool, I was more thinking about when you had to reference a stat block quickly and get the basics. I don't mind digging through the APs and modules if I'm prepping the night before, it's at the table things get hairy, I don't own a laptop *oh noes!*, and we play at the FLGS these days, so what fits in the backpack is the ballgame, pretty much.

SO, good news to me, thanks :)

If the creatures from Pathfinder AP are in the bestiary, they must have the fluff, or people who do not have the original will feel cheated. Pathfinder RPG is not just for the collectors of the AP, but shoudl be complete in itself. Imagine the nerdrage otherwise.

Liberty's Edge
Taliesin Hoyle wrote:
houstonderek wrote:

The fluff not being there is cool, I was more thinking about when you had to reference a stat block quickly and get the basics. I don't mind digging through the APs and modules if I'm prepping the night before, it's at the table things get hairy, I don't own a laptop *oh noes!*, and we play at the FLGS these days, so what fits in the backpack is the ballgame, pretty much.

SO, good news to me, thanks :)

If the creatures from Pathfinder AP are in the bestiary, they must have the fluff, or people who do not have the original will feel cheated. Pathfinder RPG is not just for the collectors of the AP, but shoudl be complete in itself. Imagine the nerdrage otherwise.

The only problem is quite a bit of the fluff is Golarion related. The Bestiary is going to be a "setting neutral" book, so the fluff needs to be more generic.

Dark Archive

Just curious, and sorry if this has been addressed before, but.. being that this is a largely a PFRPG version of the OGL SRD monsters, has the discrepancies for the monsters been fixed (stats not accounted for or incorrect, etc.)?
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Jason Beardsley wrote:
Just curious, and sorry if this has been addressed before, but.. being that this is a largely a PFRPG version of the OGL SRD monsters, has the discrepancies for the monsters been fixed (stats not accounted for or incorrect, etc.)?

The ones that are actual errors (such as monsters with +0 BAB getting weapon finesse, etc.) will be fixed. Some that aren't technically errors will be changed as well. Is there an "error" in particular you're concerned about?

Paizo Employee Creative Director
houstonderek wrote:
Taliesin Hoyle wrote:
houstonderek wrote:

The fluff not being there is cool, I was more thinking about when you had to reference a stat block quickly and get the basics. I don't mind digging through the APs and modules if I'm prepping the night before, it's at the table things get hairy, I don't own a laptop *oh noes!*, and we play at the FLGS these days, so what fits in the backpack is the ballgame, pretty much.

SO, good news to me, thanks :)

If the creatures from Pathfinder AP are in the bestiary, they must have the fluff, or people who do not have the original will feel cheated. Pathfinder RPG is not just for the collectors of the AP, but shoudl be complete in itself. Imagine the nerdrage otherwise.
The only problem is quite a bit of the fluff is Golarion related. The Bestiary is going to be a "setting neutral" book, so the fluff needs to be more generic.

Correct; the Bestiary products are not where we want to overload monsters with flavor; that's the Pathfinder AP's job. Any monsters that are picked up from the APs or modules for inclusion in Bestiaries will almost always be reworked to be one-page monsters with some flavor... but not as much as in their original incarnations. This is to keep the monsters "world neutral" as much as it is to fit more monsters into each Bestiary.

James Jacobs wrote:
Jason Beardsley wrote:
Just curious, and sorry if this has been addressed before, but.. being that this is a largely a PFRPG version of the OGL SRD monsters, has the discrepancies for the monsters been fixed (stats not accounted for or incorrect, etc.)?
The ones that are actual errors (such as monsters with +0 BAB getting weapon finesse, etc.) will be fixed. Some that aren't technically errors will be changed as well. Is there an "error" in particular you're concerned about?

Like salamanders not getting 8 skill points per HD, for instance.

Dark Archive
James Jacobs wrote:
Jason Beardsley wrote:
Just curious, and sorry if this has been addressed before, but.. being that this is a largely a PFRPG version of the OGL SRD monsters, has the discrepancies for the monsters been fixed (stats not accounted for or incorrect, etc.)?
The ones that are actual errors (such as monsters with +0 BAB getting weapon finesse, etc.) will be fixed. Some that aren't technically errors will be changed as well. Is there an "error" in particular you're concerned about?

Miscalculated skills, missing skill points.. i'm sure there are others, i just cant think of them at the moment

Jon Brazer Enterprises

As far as cutting a 2 page monster description down to 1 page, I'm all for that. That's what 3PP products like Mongoose's slayers guides are for. If you want to read 64 pages on gnolls, 3rd party products are ideal for this.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Jason Beardsley wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Jason Beardsley wrote:
Just curious, and sorry if this has been addressed before, but.. being that this is a largely a PFRPG version of the OGL SRD monsters, has the discrepancies for the monsters been fixed (stats not accounted for or incorrect, etc.)?
The ones that are actual errors (such as monsters with +0 BAB getting weapon finesse, etc.) will be fixed. Some that aren't technically errors will be changed as well. Is there an "error" in particular you're concerned about?
Miscalculated skills, missing skill points.. i'm sure there are others, i just cant think of them at the moment

Well... We'll be rebuilding every monster in the book from the ground up, so chances of carrying over those kind of errors are minimal.

James Jacobs wrote:

Well... We'll be rebuilding every monster in the book from the ground up, so chances of carrying over those kind of errors are minimal.*

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*This is not a guarantee. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
hogarth wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:

Well... We'll be rebuilding every monster in the book from the ground up, so chances of carrying over those kind of errors are minimal.*

.

.
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.
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*This is not a guarantee. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited.

There WILL be errors in the book. There are errors in pretty much every book... especially first editions, and especially in RPG books (which have brutal schedules). But we'll be doing our best to make sure those errors are as minimal as possible.

Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

At least you won't make mistakes in Use Rope due to skill synergy ;)
The Exchange

This book will have to be the most art intensive work to date. Good Luck!
Scarab Sages

I'm not sure if anyone has asked yet (and if I already have then...oops), but is there going to be anything on Shades? I've always liked the idea of this particular monster, and enjoyed when they updated it for 3.5, so I was hoping that PF would show the shade some love.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Aberzombie wrote:
I'm not sure if anyone has asked yet (and if I already have then...oops), but is there going to be anything on Shades? I've always liked the idea of this particular monster, and enjoyed when they updated it for 3.5, so I was hoping that PF would show the shade some love.

While the concept of a monster called a "shade" is public domain (there are shades in mythology), the concept of a shade being a human who infuses himself with shadow and becomes a tough guy is not. That concept is Wizards of the Coast's intellectual property, and therefore we won't be going down that route with them in Pathfinder.

Of course, the 3.5 version of them should be pretty compatible with PFRPG anyway.
Scarab Sages
James Jacobs wrote:

While the concept of a monster called a "shade" is public domain (there are shades in mythology), the concept of a shade being a human who infuses himself with shadow and becomes a tough guy is not. That concept is Wizards of the Coast's intellectual property, and therefore we won't be going down that route with them in Pathfinder.

Of course, the 3.5 version of them should be pretty compatible with PFRPG anyway.

Bummer. I'd love to have seen what the Paizo folks came up with as a "revisit" for the typical D&D shade. I'm sure it would have been kick-ass.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to satisfy myself with all the other PF goodness.....

Any hints as to what PF monsters make it into the book?

The Rune giant seems like a good addition, and can work without thassilon, I find them far more compelling than storm and cloud giants.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
vagrant-poet wrote:

Any hints as to what PF monsters make it into the book?

The Rune giant seems like a good addition, and can work without thassilon, I find them far more compelling than storm and cloud giants.

Very few. The goal of the Bestiary was to collect as many of the SRD monsters as possible and to augment them here and there with notable missing monster niches. There's maybe only a couple of monsters from the Adventure Paths and modules in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary as a result.

In any event, when we DO transition an Adventure Path or Module new monster into the PF Bestiary, the Golarion content will be stripped out. If we did rune giants, for example, there'd be no mention of Thassilon, and they'd be presented in a world-neutral format so that you can use them easilly in any game setting. This also lets us fit more monsters into the book (since they take up one page instead of two as a general rule) and doesn't "poach" from the Adventure Paths or the Modules by completely reprinting material.
Liberty's Edge

Hey guys, the Paizo people are limited by the SRD and their own creations for the Bestiary and any supplemental tomes that may be released. That doesn't mean that we, as home DMs cannot still convert anything we want from the nearly 40 years of RPGs that came before PfRPG.

If you want mind flayers, shades, displacer beasts, etc, in your home game, no worries, just "Pathfinderize" them. I'm sure there will be some "how to create a monster" advice somewhere in either the Bestiary or the core book, so applying that to old, non-SRD monsters shouldn't be too hard.

You just can't use those monsters for adventure submissions to Paizo, or, if I understand the fan license correctly, any "official" Pathfinder fan sites.

Just my 2 c.p.
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
houstonderek wrote:

Hey guys, the Paizo people are limited by the SRD and their own creations for the Bestiary and any supplemental tomes that may be released. That doesn't mean that we, as home DMs cannot still convert anything we want from the nearly 40 years of RPGs that came before PfRPG.

Just out of curiosity, how do you convert THAC0 (or other) to 3rd ed? I know this is out there somewhere, but I can't find it.

Charles Scholz wrote:


Just out of curiosity, how do you convert THAC0 (or other) to 3rd ed? I know this is out there somewhere, but I can't find it.

I would think it would go off type and HD not Thaco really. As HD and type determine BAB in 3.5

Edit: If you wanted to go off Thaco it's just BAB in reverse, Thaco 20=BAB1 Thaco 1= BAB+20

should be noted by that only a warrior got full BAB while priests would get +12 BAB, Rogues +9 ans wizard about +8 at 20th level
Liberty's Edge
Charles Scholz wrote:
houstonderek wrote:

Hey guys, the Paizo people are limited by the SRD and their own creations for the Bestiary and any supplemental tomes that may be released. That doesn't mean that we, as home DMs cannot still convert anything we want from the nearly 40 years of RPGs that came before PfRPG.

Just out of curiosity, how do you convert THAC0 (or other) to 3rd ed? I know this is out there somewhere, but I can't find it.

Just change the "0" to a "20". Adjust the to hit number by AC accordingly. And, most 2e monsters have been converted in one place or another, either in the splats, the Tome of Horrors series, the various campaign specific works, by third parties, etc. Can't help you with Giff and Giant Space Hamsters, but most other monsters have a 3x "upgrade" somewhere.

Any class that has a +1 BAB at first level follows the same progression as fighters, rangers and paladins in 2e. I'm pretty sure the rest of the classes do as well, but I skipped 2e, so I may not be right.

Thaco to bab for my amusment

Spoiler:

Warroir as PHB fighter

Priest
1=+1
2=+1
3=+1
4=+3
5=+3
6=+3
7=+5
8=+5
9=+5
10=+7
11=+7
12=+7
13=+9
14=+9
15=+9
16=+11
17=+11
18=+11
19=+13
20=+13

Rogue
1=+1
2=+1
3=+2
4=+2
5=+3
6=+3
7=+4
8=+4
9=+5
10=+5
11=+6
12=+6
13=+7
14=+7
15=+8
16=+8
17=+9
18=+9
19=+10
20=+10

Wizard
1=+1
2=+1
3=+1
4=+2
5=+2
6=+2
7=+3
8=+3
9=+3
10=+4
11=+4
12=+4
13=+5
14=+5
15=+5
16=+6
17=+6
18=+6
19=+7
20=+7
Dark Archive

As others have said, just flip it around: THAC0 20 = BAB +0, THAC0 0 = BAB +20. It's more or less in reverse how THAC0 worked in AD&D (I can't recall if it's 100% comparable -- I have the books, though, and I can dig them out, if you want it confirmed).
Liberty's Edge
Asgetrion wrote:

As others have said, just flip it around: THAC0 20 = BAB +0, THAC0 0 = BAB +20. It's more or less in reverse how THAC0 worked in AD&D (I can't recall if it's 100% comparable -- I have the books, though, and I can dig them out, if you want it confirmed).

I have the 1e DMG in my lap right now, I'm just too lazy to look it up ;)

The chart's on page 75 if you're interested, though :)

Thaco is 1 for 1 however only the warriors matched the 3.5 one, every other class had much worse bab, although the priests was just 2 points lower then in 3.5
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Subscriber

Wow. That is an amazing cover. It's probably one of the most iconic pieces that Wayne Reynolds has ever done. I think that I just melted my pants!
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

The cover has been updated!
Dark Archive

Shuweet !

sweetness. That will look good on my shelf
Dark Archive

I've already said it, and I say it again: it's AWESOME! =)

It's not just that Wayne has clearly went the extra mile for the Pathfinder books -- Paizo products have also consistently had so professional art direction that it's head-and-shoulders above the rest of the RPG publishers! :)

Cover = good.

I am awaiting subscription information. :)
James Jacobs wrote:
Benoist Poiré wrote:
Kevida wrote:
So with the "Non-SRD" monsters being not included, will there be equivalent critters with different names (Illithids called another name, et cetera)?
"Re-inventing" the mindflayers the way goblins were re-invented for Pathfinder #1 would be potentially very cool, especially if it goes deeper into the Lovecraft references. What do you think?
There's no need to reinvent mind flayers. The intellect devourer is open content, and it fills pretty much the same niche as a mind flayer (dwells underground, has psionic powers, eats brains, has slaves, has been part of the game from practically the start, has a name that basically = "feeds on thought and brains").

Plus they are an awesome excuse to hand out enchanted crowbars.

Silver Crusade
Zombieneighbours wrote:


Plus they are an awesome excuse to hand out enchanted crowbars.

Aw damn it. Now I'm not going to be able to get that image out of my head.

Mikaze wrote:
Zombieneighbours wrote:


Plus they are an awesome excuse to hand out enchanted crowbars.

Aw damn it. Now I'm not going to be able to get that image out of my head.

I aim to disturb in a pleasing manner.

After all....'we don't go to ravensburg anymore.'
Silver Crusade
Zombieneighbours wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Zombieneighbours wrote:


Plus they are an awesome excuse to hand out enchanted crowbars.

Aw damn it. Now I'm not going to be able to get that image out of my head.

I aim to disturb in a pleasing manner.

After all....'we don't go to ravensburg anymore.'

I cleared that village out with telekinesis only. I want my damn achievement feat.

Mikaze wrote:
Zombieneighbours wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Zombieneighbours wrote:


Plus they are an awesome excuse to hand out enchanted crowbars.

Aw damn it. Now I'm not going to be able to get that image out of my head.

I aim to disturb in a pleasing manner.

After all....'we don't go to ravensburg anymore.'

I cleared that village out with telekinesis only. I want my damn achievement feat.

Sweet... i think i might have a go at that now.

Sovereign Court

Thank You !! a thousand times thank you!!
Dark Archive

So, will this only include the SRD creatures or will we see some original monsters as well?
Paizo Employee Creative Director
David Fryer wrote:
So, will this only include the SRD creatures or will we see some original monsters as well?

Mostly SRD monsters, a few picked up from open d20 sources, a few picked up from Pathfinder's APs and modules, and a few new ones.

Dark Archive

Excellent, glad I pre-ordered it. Now if my employer doesn't have any more surprises in store, we should be good.

James Jacobs, I had some questions about this product but a quick skim of your posts in this topic gave me the answers-- just wanted to say thanks for the info. I'm totally into Golarion but not into the PFRPG rules and while I'm disappointed that this book isn't chocked full of Golarion specific stuff, I'm glad to know that now and not after I asked my local store to get this for me. To the Pathfinder Chronicles section!
Dark Archive

I can't wait for the previews to come up (or, should there be none, to have a look at the RPGDay freebie). I'm mightily curious about what stat block format Paizo has chosen for the bestiary. I seriously liked how they used (something like) the DMG II stat block format for presenting spells in the Beta rulebook, and now I'm curious to see whether they've made any improvement on monster stat presentation too.

Any chance of having this question answered sooner?

And, final question, will the page layout and font selection mirror exactly that of the PFRPG rulebook (which we saw on Twitter the other day)?
Contributor

We're pretty satisfied with our monster stat block; all that really changed for the Pathfinder RPG is stuff directly related to rules changes: references to Listen/Spot are now Perception, the section for Grapple now has CMB and CMD, and so on. No sense reinventing the wheel and forcing us and you to relearn where everything goes.
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
We're pretty satisfied with our monster stat block; all that really changed for the Pathfinder RPG is stuff directly related to rules changes: references to Listen/Spot are now Perception, the section for Grapple now has CMB and CMD, and so on.

Oho! The first spoiler comes out! (CMD probably means "maneuver defense", I reckon.)

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