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:
The artwork is top notch for most of the book, with a few exceptions. It seems that in a few of the entries Paizo was cramped for space. I know it would have been pricier but it would've been nice if they devoted some more pages for some of the creatures. I still wish they had more stats for monster PCs as they did in the old 3.5 Monster Manual.
Regardless, the Bestiary is a great addition to the Pathfinder RPG. I was pleased with the final product.
What strikes me after flipping through the Beastiary...
1) I was hoping to see a few of the "monster races" portrayed in a playable format, without the extra racial Hit Dice and Paizo delivered! Want to play a ______ without the extra +1 ECL? You can. Paizo definitely balanced things, expanding options and playability in a unique and constructive way.
2) The art is, for the most part, top notch. Only a few monsters (Ankheg, Troll) left me wanting more. The majority of them were brilliantly drawn and colored. The Angels, Devils, and Genies really stood out!
3) The entire format is easy to use, with the pdf linked so that I can reference things quickly, at the table, when I need to. It's clear they aimed to simplify game play.
Wow, wow! I was speechless when I saw it, I was speechless as I was reading it.
The quality is great, the monsters are great, the writing is great. The appendixes organize monsters in with different types of characterizations. Best Bestiary ever. Wow!
Well worth the wait, the Pathfinder Bestiary is an incredible tome which scratches all of my deep-seated creature based needs. The illustrations are superlative. The proofreading rocks! (What can I say, I'm a pedant) And best of all, it's 100% PFRPG compatible.
With this, most of my favorite creatures are brought into this Brave New World of gaming. From the humble, yet deadly Goblin to the championing Solar every creature contained herein is given its due.
Just ahead of the hardcover core PF RPG. Makes sense. They need to make sure the two are synched. That's two definite purchases for me. Not a bad price either considering it's the equivalent to the typical three core book D&D release.
So this comes out before the Rulebook. Interesting. How very first edition :)
Noticed that too. I remember happily torturing my PCs original D&D characters with the updated / upgraded monsters from the MM. Boy did they whine. Heh. No problem like that with PF, given the beta. Damn it.
Every time I prep an adventure I find it much more convenient to have all the adventure's stat blocks in a single printed document that I can flip through.
To that end, will there be an associated PDF for this product, so that I can cut/paste the stat blocks into another document? That, or a PDF with only the stat blocks would make a nice PF-SRD reference!
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Pygon wrote:
Every time I prep an adventure I find it much more convenient to have all the adventure's stat blocks in a single printed document that I can flip through.
To that end, will there be an associated PDF for this product, so that I can cut/paste the stat blocks into another document? That, or a PDF with only the stat blocks would make a nice PF-SRD reference!
I second that, and I generally strongly prefer hard copies of books, but for the bestiary, I would love to have it available as a PDF too!
Is the "Expected January 2009" a typo?
This would mean it will have Pathfinder RPG game related material in it 8 months before the actual rules are released.
Just curious.
Mmmm.....yes, clarification on that please. If it is January 2009 then it will have a "final" take on the beasties. But then again, how much effect could that have on the final rules? It is supposed to be compatible with 3.5. Its just a few mechanics to be worked out. I cant see why we cant have the Beastiary now. Gotts go folks....getting creit card and pre-ordering....
While I don't currently plan to ever play the PRPG rules themselves, I still must say that a new take on the core monsters, much like the "Revisited" book(s) would be awesome. I love new fluff and art that will make my players do a double take to figure out what exactly they are dealing with.
While I don't currently plan to ever play the PRPG rules themselves, I still must say that a new take on the core monsters, much like the "Revisited" book(s) would be awesome. I love new fluff and art that will make my players do a double take to figure out what exactly they are dealing with.
I don't believe they'll have room in this book for complete CMR-style reimaginings of all the creatures. While James and Erik have both said that there will be more flavor in this book than there is in the 3.5 MM, it will still be limited to 1-2 pages per monster. They are continuing the Revisited series, however, with Dragons Revisited and Dungeon Denizens Revisited next spring.
I assume that the little nuances that are required since a few rule changes will be in this bestiary right? Things like what critters can be sneak-attacked by rogues and already figured up CMB's right? I am all in baby, just kind of was hoping now that it could be January. July makes more sense however. You need to get rules all finalized and so-forth.
A PDF will be available. There will probably be a way that certain people will be able to get that PDf for free along with their print edition, but specifics on that won't be determined for a while yet.
A PDF will be available. There will probably be a way that certain people will be able to get that PDf for free along with their print edition, but specifics on that won't be determined for a while yet.
Would that mean "select few" or "pre-ordered" or "subscribed to something or other"?
I am aware that I might be a bit pushy here, but I need to get this done quick before I drool all over the keyboard ;)
A PDF will be available. There will probably be a way that certain people will be able to get that PDf for free along with their print edition, but specifics on that won't be determined for a while yet.
Would that mean "select few" or "pre-ordered" or "subscribed to something or other"?
I am aware that I might be a bit pushy here, but I need to get this done quick before I drool all over the keyboard ;)
Probably one of those three... as I said, specifics on that won't be determined for a while yet. Probably a few months.