Confront the creatures that go bump in the night! Bestiary 4 presents hundreds of new monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome of terrors you'll find pitiless psychopomps and blood-drinking nosferatu, insectile formians and faceless nightgaunts, and even unique mythological horrors like Spring- Heeled Jack and Grendel himself. Yet not every creature need be an enemy, as mighty empyreal lords, primeval outer dragons, and valorous swan maidens enlist you in their epic battles!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4 is the fourth indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a
companion to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game Bestiary. 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.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 includes:
More than 300 different monsters
Creatures from classic horror literature and monster films, including the colour out of space, elder things, and kaiju
New player-friendly races like changelings, kitsune, and nagaji
Entities of mythic might, from despotic demon lords and alien elohim to terrifying Great Old Ones—including Cthulhu!
New creatures you can construct, like clockworks and juggernauts
New familiars, animal companions, and other allies
New templates to help you get more life out of classic monsters
Appendices to help you find the right monster, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
Expanded universal monster rules to simplify combat
Challenges for every adventure and every level of play
... and much, much more!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-575-4
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
This edition of the Bestiary series brings all the worst nightmares, not found in a traditional fantasy setting alive! Despite the horror feel, they work in any genre you might be playing. By far my favorite of the Bestiary series! The sheer creativity of the Paizo team explodes in this awesome collection of crazy!
Herein is a fine and fascinating array of monsters, most with supernatural aspects and worthy of songs and legends... indeed it is suggested that to make the most of them you should be also using the Mythic Adventures rules. Fitting adversaries for those who fancy themselves as such legendary heroes, perhaps...
The Introduction is mainly explanation of how each monster entry is presented, complete with handy icons used to enable you to tell at a glance the creature type and the terrain and climate that it favours. These are supplemented by appendices that list them by CR, terrain and so on thus enabling you to populate a chosen area with ease. Other appendices deal with special abilities and other details, including a fascinating section on monster creation, another on monster advancement and one on monsters as player-characters.
The main bulk of the book is composed of an alphabetical listing of the monsters. Each comes with a colour illustration and stat block, with plenty of detail and description to enable you to work out suitable uses for it and how it will behave when encountered by the party.
Beginning with the abaia, an eel with a strong regard for the environment which acts as guardian to a body of water... and turns quite nasty if you do not respect the lake it inhabits (it doesn't mind people who take only what they need, it is those who abuse nature that upsets them), there follows a fascinating array of creatures.
The almiraj, for example, looks like a cross between a rabbit and a unicorn, but it's no fluffy bunny! If nothing else, anything slain by its horn is turned to stone so if the poor almiraj wants to eat whatever it has attacked (it's apparently a carnivore), it has to eat its prey alive.
One of the weirdest is the colour out of space. This is an eerie radient incorporeal ooze that leaches life out of its surroundings until it reaches maturity, at which time it departs into the interstellar depths from which it came. If that's not enough for you, the Great Old Ones are here, so if you wish to combat Cthulhu or Hastur or the like, now you can... if you dare. Most have cults associated with them, details of which are also given.
If it's monsters out of legend that you want, there are beings such as Grendel, if you prefer more mundane ones there are gremlins or even giraffes! Undead too, and an alchemist's error called a hungry flesh, a giant ooze. To cap it all, how about an immortal ichor, which is an intelligent mass of blood from a dead evil deity...
This is indeed a collection of monsters rich and strange, ones whose very being deserve a song or story, never mind those that will be written when heroes defeat them in battle!
Bestiary 4 contains over 300 new monsters. All the monster types are represented, although some more than others. There are many of the standards found in every Bestiary—new dinosaurs, devils, dragons—but also many unusual and bizarre creatures. It has provided me with lots of new options to throw at my players, and that’s always a good thing.
The Bestiary 4 for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game has been one of the more favorites of the Bestiary series for me and I'd like to take a moment to tell you why.
To start, the Bestiary 4 has added everything from new types of fey to additional golems as well as the more prominent and popular Kaiju, Great Old Ones, and Empyreal Lords. Paizo's inclusion of these creatures that've gone on to become pop culture legends in their own right is a direct result of the designer's dedication to getting their monsters right. The Bestiary 4 is an awesome sourcebook and stands right up there with the Bestiary 3 in terms of 'fantasy verisimilitude,' hardening gamers resolve against such villainous foes as Cthulhu himself.
Not every book is a perfect image of idolatry however and the Bestiary 4 is no exception. While it's true that this book is littered with new baddies for your players to chase and new races for their characters to face, it is also bogged down with what seems to be an over-saturation of multiple page monsters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does seem as if several of these creatures could've used a proverbial trimming before being posted.
If you don't mind a bit of length though and you want more vile beasts for your players to square off against then the Bestiary 4 is yet another wonderful book to add to your collection and one that comes Five-Star recommended by your Severed Ronin.
This is a good Bestiary. I'd personally put it up with Bestiary 3, with both having a good mix of classic, mythological, and completely new monsters.
There's a bit of a horror them and a bit of a mythic theme, but neither is overwhelming. If you're looking for a whole book of mythic monsters, this isn't it. If you're worried the whole book is mythic monsters, there aren't that many in practice.
For me, the evocative flavor on the high CR creatures pushes it over the top. The demon lords, empyreals, and great old ones really feel like epic creatures.
If you're sure you don't need any more monsters... don't buy this book. That said, I wasn't sure if I needed any more monsters and was definitely impressed by this.
Short Version: These are sweet monsters, but only you know whether you want more monsters.
Feros, I salute you for your efforts to keep myself and the other poor souls still waiting for their subscription PDFs from going insane with curiousity.
Cool! I was hoping one of them could move at lightspeed. How does it work?
Like teleport without the spell. If it can see a location in a straight line from itself, the dragon can become light, travel the distance, and become itself again as a move action. Which means it could travel to the moon if it could see it...
EDIT: ...and still get an attack in.
Technically, that can't be right, because starflight is much MUCH faster than the speed of light. It's traveling light-years in the space of a few days.
Probably, but no special power is given. He is drawn to other kaiju and will fight them whenever he can. This makes him a mixed blessing: when by himself, he is an unstoppable destroyer. When a kaiju is attacking a community, they actually like seeing him arrive to kick the monstrosity's butt.
Cool! I was hoping one of them could move at lightspeed. How does it work?
Like teleport without the spell. If it can see a location in a straight line from itself, the dragon can become light, travel the distance, and become itself again as a move action. Which means it could travel to the moon if it could see it...
EDIT: ...and still get an attack in.
Technically, that can't be right, because starflight is much MUCH faster than the speed of light. It's traveling light-years in the space of a few days.
Well, think about this. Use Mythic Eagle eyes to ignore distance penalties, see an equivalent of a distance of Earth to Pluto, then travel there in a move action xD. Now mix this with time stop.
I think The Flash is kind of out classed in speed, lol.
On the one hand sad that there isn't a Mothra or King Kong expy, on the other hand giant, 3 tailed, heat blasting scorpion and 2 headed Rodan are f*+#in' sweet!
I'm not really up to date with my kaiju knowledge apart from the big names and the ones from Pacific Rim. Is the scorpion one a reference to any of the existing ones?
What is the Formian artwork like? Specifically, do they have humanoid-looking heads, or ant-looking heads?
Is there a limit on time travel for time dragons (i.e. could they travel to the beginning of time or the end of time)?
What kind of social (living in groups) humanoids/monstrous humanoids are there? (i.e., human, orc, serpentfolk, grippli, drow, derro....)
I believe Ferros brought this up earlier so I'll repeat it. The time dragon gets to use the time travel ability 3 times in its lifetime and I believe can only travel back to a point in time in which one of the people traveling with it was alive.
I am only through G and really need to go to bed, but just wanted to say, as a paleontologist...thank you Paizo for getting the dinosaurs right.
Fully-feathered Velociraptor and Diplodocus with proper nasal placement and body stance made me happy. Keep that artist in mind for future dinosaur commissions.
How the hell am I the only one of the people here who hasn't gotten this yet?!?
I feel your pain. I feel it so very much. Thankfully I'm about to go to a movie, so I have something to distract me. Hell if I know how I'm going to survive if mine doesn't ship til next week though...
Argus being Gargantuan :-( ? Fomorian TItans being beautiful?
Do the Fomorian have Ram horns?
I hope the person that said Slimer (ghostbusters) is in the bestiary isn't referring to the Hyakume.
I'm glad the Erlking and Leanan Sidhe are races and not Uniques!
Also out of all dinosaurs, why Diplodocus?
Not such a cool updates this time too bad...
Good news comes from strange corners this time as I really like the sound of the evil ogre-sized crabfolk! And I do love the Juggernout not being some humanoid golem group of just larger variety what I first thought!!
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Kthulhu wrote:
Feros wrote:
Sauce987654321 wrote:
Cool! I was hoping one of them could move at lightspeed. How does it work?
Like teleport without the spell. If it can see a location in a straight line from itself, the dragon can become light, travel the distance, and become itself again as a move action. Which means it could travel to the moon if it could see it...
EDIT: ...and still get an attack in.
Technically, that can't be right, because starflight is much MUCH faster than the speed of light. It's traveling light-years in the space of a few days.
You are completely right...which is why starflight and the Solar Dragon's Beam of Light ability are two separate abilities. :)
Are there monsters drawn in the style of the Bestiary 3 clockworks? (hope not)
Is the Xenopterid (I LOVE THE MOVIE) a vermin creature?
A couple, but it's rare. Unfortunately, the style from Carrion Crown (Spring-Heeled Jack, Beheaded) is around in here. Don't like it at all. Also disappointed that the Nagaji and the Wayang have reused artwork from the Dragon Empires Gazetteer. Makes it feel more like a waste of space to me.
Xenopterid:
The Xenopterid is a vermin and mindless. The wings could be bigger in terms of using it as a cape/trenchcoat, and the torso down is kinda meh. But, the optical illusion the face has with making a human face is pretty awesome
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Guang wrote:
What is the Formian artwork like? Specifically, do they have humanoid-looking heads, or ant-looking heads?
Is there a limit on time travel for time dragons (i.e. could they travel to the beginning of time or the end of time)?
What kind of social (living in groups) humanoids/monstrous humanoids are there? (i.e., human, orc, serpentfolk, grippli, drow, derro....)
Formians have insectoid looking heads. I'm not sure I'd call their appearance ants however...
No Limits to Time Travel:
Time Travel (Su) Up to three times in its life, a great wyrm time dragon can travel to any point in time, taking with it a number of willing creatures equal to its Charisma modifier.
I added in the humanoid construct, dragon, and fey with character levels and left out the completely—and obviously intended to be—monstrous. I also left out the hags.
What is the Formian artwork like? Specifically, do they have humanoid-looking heads, or ant-looking heads?
They look like Ant Centaurs. Think of how the bee people from Bestiary 3 look; its a very similar design to that.
Quote:
Is there a limit on time travel for time dragons (i.e. could they travel to the beginning of time or the end of time)?
Spoiler:
Yes and no. A great wyrm Time Dragon can travel to any point in time it wishes (and can bring along a number creatures up to its Charisma modifier), but it can only use this ability three times during its lifetime.
Quote:
What kind of social (living in groups) humanoids/monstrous humanoids are there? (i.e., human, orc, serpentfolk, grippli, drow, derro....)
Besides the five reprinted humanoid races? (Changeling, Kitsune, Nagaji, Samsaran, Wayang)
Um, Wyrwoods and Trox from the Advanced Race Guide got reprinted (their new art looks MUCH better for both creatures, in my opinion) and every monster from Distant Worlds is reprinted in Bestiary 4 as well (the art for the four-armed race from the Red Planet also looks a lot better, in my opinion).
There are a couple others. There's a few new types of giants as well as the formians, but I'm afraid you're not going to get a great answer from me for this one because it is an EXTREMELY vague question.
Formians are insectoid, but they have their own look to them. Ant-like for sure, but they are a far-cry from the ant-centaurs of 3.5. Very alien looking and I love it.
Owb is a creature from the shadow plane that the Dark Folk worship as gods. I definitely will be replacing drow in my campaign as the Underdark race for Dark Folk now.
The pard looks like a blue-ish, purple-striped lynx/houst cat hybrid. My description doesn't really do it justice. It looks cool.
The living wall would pair well with the Lurker Above and the Trapper. Seriously, Room of Death. They smash people into other walls and can link up with others of its kind to create a large Living Wall. It's a construct that looks undead and acts like an ooze.
Seps are from the Medival Bestiary. They are snakes that have acid blood and liquify people they eat.
Agyra (Two Headed Rodan): 150+ Wingspan
Bezravnis (Three tailed Scorpian with Death Lasers) 130 foot long
Mogaru (Godzilla with two tails): 140 feet tall
The Pooka is this bunny woman... thing... It's like a furry drew Thumper.
I take it that the kaiju have 60-ft spaces at most.
I got to say. I'm a little underwhelmed with the kaiju as far as their size is concerned. They could have been a lot bigger. If I want super sized, I could always look at the Oliphaunt of Jandelay, since it stands thousands of feet tall apparently.
Another Kaiju related question:
Someone mentioned a sonic boom ability with Agyra. How does that work?
You gotta remember that they made these monsters more like the classic kaiju, which is around 50 meters. It's still REALLY large. Honestly, anything beyond that becomes unwieldy in combat since it'd move so much faster than the PCs.
Everyone roll initiative!
It goes first
It moves away at a 200-foot stride.
At that height, you'd have to probably handle movement and such more abstractly.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Thunderous Blast (Su):
When Agyra uses her swift flight, she creates a thunderous sonic boom. This devastating explosion of sound occurs at her location when she activates swift flight, filling an area equal to her space and her reach combined—resulting in a 100-foot-diameter burst of sonic energy. All creatures in this area of effect take 20d10 points of sonic damage, are permanently deafened, are knocked prone, and are stunned for 1 round. A successful DC 41 Reflex save halves the damage, reduces the deafened condition to 1d4 rounds, and negates the knocked prone and stun effects entirely. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Pooka
Erlking
Buggane
Springheel Jack
Jinmenju
Leanan Sidhe
Tooth Fairy
Almiraj
Juggernout
Fomorian
Argus
Hyakume
Formian
Swan Maiden
Nosferatu
Nightgaunt
Grendel
Jack o Lantern
Tikbalang
Alpluachra
Clockwork Dragon
Cephalophore
Body Snatcher
Ankou
Colour Out Of Space
Lorelai
Qallupilluk
Peluda
Mindslaver Moss
Vouivre
Zomok
Warsworn
Rokurokubi
Dark Dancer
Dark Caller
Solar Dragon
Lunar Dragon
Pard
Living Wall
Seps
Karkinoi
Drakiana
Maenad
Lampade
Xenopterid
Blood Golem
Mammoth Flea
So far the things I dislike are:
Dislikes:
- Argus being Garganguan
- Pooka being a bunny instead of horse.
- No Nekomata or Bakeneko
- No Chesire Cat
- Drakiana being Mythic, above 20 CR, Unique and not called Echidna
- Lampade being good
- Springheel Jack not having another artwork.
- Too much Carrion Crown creatures and artwork style.
- Another load of landscape giants.
- Jack o Lantern and Almiraj just being CR 1.
- Formians not being ants no more but some Thriae like folk.
- Many re-used artwork
- Re-used playable folk