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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary (PFRPG)

5.00/5 (based on 3 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary (PFRPG)
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Mind-Shattering Monsters!

Little is known about some of the deadliest horrors inhabiting the world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and that's just how these denizens of dream and thought like it. The less their secrets reach the average adventurer, the more easily they can hunt in the Dimension of Dreams, steal the minds of unsuspecting victims, and spread fear and discord throughout the multiverse. But their secrets are finally revealed! The perfect companion to Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures, this grimoire of new monsters is a must-have for any Game Master running an occult campaign, whether or not the player characters are themselves psychic spellcasters. Within these mysterious pages you'll find:

  • Nearly 50 new creatures that possess psychic abilities or are based on occult themes.
  • New playable races, including variant duergar and samsarans, as well as munavris—albino humanoid denizens of the Darklands' Sightless Sea.
  • Aliens from Golarion's planetary neighbors and beyond, including yithian elders, enlightened contemplatives, and Liavaran dreamers.
  • Denizens of the mysterious Dimension of Dreams, including rival azatas and demons who vie for control of sleepers' minds.
  • Seven creature templates to turn your favorite monsters into mind-bending foes such as alter egos, animus shades, relentless psychic liches, or thought-sapping psychic vampires.
  • Statistics for powerful aboleth omnipaths, neothelid overlords, and the unique otherworldly horror known as Tychilarius—the perfect capstone to high-level occult adventures.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-767-3

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
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Psychic and Occult style Critters Abound

5/5 —

I love bestiaries and Paizo doesn't disappoint in quality and variety when it comes to there monsters.
The Good
-A new Aeon, Azata, Azura and Rakshasa.
-New 0HD races.
-New fey(Boggart and Fear Eater)
-Some alien life forms like the Shotalashu.
-Alternate/more powerful versions of many creatures.
-Psychoplasmic creatures! and other interesting templates.
-New type of Naga(Dream).
The Bad
-A lot of alternate versions of existing creatures.
-No new elementals.
-Almost half the book are outsiders.

And Madness Followed

—

As the title suggests, this is a sourcebook of critters for the new Occult Adventures source material. Most of them use psychic magic or rules or variant class skills, so if you don't intend on buying the master volume, leave this one on the shelf. There are however, a handful of psychic-flavoured adversaries that don't use these rules. The creatures presented have a scale of OA knowledge, so DMs can jump right in with some of the less complicated offerings. Tychilarius the BBEG is actually free of psychic rules, strangely enough.

The creatures presented are of all CRs and most, if not all, major creature types have something added to them. This book is packed cover to cover with usefulness, the inside cover having the standard bestiary breakdown of CR, type and role. I wish Paizo would release this page as a preview for perspective buyers.

Flavour-wise, we have denizens of any place dark, mysterious or dark and mysterious place. The Dominion of the Black gets a major nod in Tychilarius; the underdark has many new hazards; Vudra and Tian Xia get foes to fit with their exotic feel; and many of these critters have ties to the shadow plane, astral plane or dreamscape.

Players have complained that some of the more recent creature offerings feel uninspired. I do not feel this way about this book. There are variants for some creature types, but mostly the creatures feel exotic and fresh. My favorite so far is the tattoo guardian, a construct with a wonderful flavor appeal. There are also lots of templates.

My only major complaint is that the book seems to have a disproportionate number of undead. Woe betide the psychic spell caster who dies any sort of death! All in all, a book I'm excited about. I really have to commend the designers on having a variety of creatures of all types, CRs and with varying amounts of OA rules.

You can never have too many monsters

5/5 —

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

Monsters enjoy an interesting privilege in roleplaying games. It seems that no matter how many there are, there are never too many. There are a lot of monsters in Pathfinder and there's a very good chance that many of the ones in Occult Bestiary will never see use in any of my games. But I like having them nevertheless. And some will see use. Maybe a lot of use. Overall, Occult Bestiary is a great addition to any GM's bookshelf.

Worth the Wait

5/5 —

At first when I heard that the Occult Bestiary was meant to be appended to Occult Adventures I was irritated that we weren't getting the book all in one.

After reading the book, however, I've totally changed my opinion. I loved the flavor of the monsters in this book, and especially the templates, and having to wait a little longer to get just that little bit more out of the first burst of truly weird and wacky baddies now seems totally justified.

There are more than a few occult reskins of traditional monsters, which I am personally a big fan of, a smattering of templates that help bring the monsters they didn't give an eldritch makeover into the fold, and more than a couple brand-new ones that hail from places like The Dimension of Dreams or The Dominion of the Black.

This book has got me all kinds of excited for Bestiary 5!

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Adam Daigle wrote:
zergtitan wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:

Munavri

** spoiler omitted **

That's a playable race! O.O

I know what I'm playing next!

They are a 0-HD race, which only means "playable" if your GM allows it. They are as playable as svirfneblin, trox, strix, or, as Axial mentioned, drow nobles. They are intentionally more robust than the races in the Core Rulebook. When you grow up sailing the Sightless Sea, as your ancestors have for ages, you tend to end up pretty badass.

As it stands I would either use them as really threatening bad guys, or I'd run an all-Munavris campaign.

The Munavri are good aligned.
Shadow Lodge

What is the difference between the psychic vampire and the vetala vampire? Or is the psychic vampire just an update to the vetala?
Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Wow, so just got my hands on the PDF, and was amused to read some of the new Universal Monster Rules, specifically: Psychic Magic, which basically lets a creature use its SLA in very non-vancian spell caster kind of way. A creature has a number of Psychic Energy points (PE), and when casting them consumes some number (which basically is the spell level.) They can also undercast any undercastable spell that they know for 1 less PE per level lower.

This all makes for some weird monster blocks for some outsiders, who have basic SLAs (like summon, and greater teleport) as normal SLAs.

Presumably for Psychic Magic SLAs the rules for concentration for psychic spells continues to exist.
Silver Crusade Contributor
Galnörag wrote:
Presumably for Psychic Magic SLAs the rules for concentration for psychic spells continues to exist.

They don't have thought or emotion components (unless specifically stated). Check out page 144 of Occult Adventures.

Eh, PE sounds completely unnecessary, just extra work for the GM.
Designer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Milo v3 wrote:
Eh, PE sounds completely unnecessary, just extra work for the GM.

In practice, I've found it's easier to GM because I can just have the list of spells and pick the one for the current situation, reducing one pool, as opposed to when a monster has 4 different 3/day and 4 different 1/day spell-like abilities and I have to flag how many of each I've used so far.

Designer
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kalindlara wrote:
Galnörag wrote:
Presumably for Psychic Magic SLAs the rules for concentration for psychic spells continues to exist.
They don't have thought or emotion components (unless specifically stated). Check out page 144 of Occult Adventures.

SLAs don't have verbal or somatic, so they don't get thought or emotion, but I believe the psychic magic creature ability is actual spellcasting, rather than spell-like.

Really need to grab Occult Adventures and this. Then when Bestiary 5 comes out ill start laying out that modern day occult campaign that my players want.

Anybody care to spill details on the azata, the aeon and the boggart?

Psychic Vampire

spoiler:

gains slam attack
drain psychic energy(1d4 drain to target's highest mental score)
psychic magic
possession
posses object
DR10/cold iron and magic
fast healing
fire 10 cold 10
+4 channel resistance

Azata, Uinuja

spoiler:

CR 15
Large size
Dark skinned humanoid with night-blue hair, blue butterfly/moth wings and 4 eyes.
Dream Walker-(planeshift to Elysium and dimension at will.)
Psychic Starknife-(turn starknife in a spiritual weapon that gets a full attack and can teleport back to the azata)

Aeon, Synesis

spoiler:

CR 4
Medium size
Looks like two tornados with arms intertwined as one.
Cognitive Aura- grants different benefits to non aeons.
Unintuitive Reach- can gain reach and do +2d6 precision damage to a target when it doesn't expect it.

Boggart

spoiler:

CR 4
Small evil fey
It's face looks like a calf's but with a mane of lank hair and eyes the size of saucers.
Abduct(when it strikes with both claws it can get a free drag maneuver.)
psychic magic

Any chance you could spare some Rakshasa details?
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Rakshasa, Amanusya

spoiler:

CR 6
Medium size
Lithe female dancer with backwards facing head, claws, and a long protruding tongue.
Psychic Magic
Beguiling Dance- (Can use perform(dance) skill instead of acrobatics and concentration checks. Also a free feint attempt if she succeeds in her tumble check to move through a creatures threatened space)
Swift Change- (Can change into it's true form as a swift action.)

I'd like to know about the Painajai and Psychic Lich.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Ah, so the beastie in the forground is the boggart. Cool :3
Dragon78 wrote:

Rakshasa, Amanusya

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks! I appreciate it. Guess I'm getting this and the players' companion come September.

Shadow Lodge
Dragon78 wrote:

Psychic Vampire

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks, I have got to get this book for sure.

Psychic Lich

spoiler:

Psychic Feast- If the Lich succeeds on will save that has reduced effect it instead takes no effect also mind-affecting effects that can heal it.
Bewildering Touch- causes permanent confusion
Touch deals psychic energy damage.
Has a different means of rejuvenation/destruction then a standard phylactery.

Demon Painajai

spoiler:

CR 14
Large
Thin humanoid shape with multiple red spider like eyes.
Dream Walker- Can hurl spear 50ft with no penalties and can drag targets back to it.
Chain Spear
Mental Static Aura

Dragon78 wrote:

Psychic Lich

** spoiler omitted **

spoiler:
And it has a mindscape as a phylactery, correct? How does that work?
Dragon78 wrote:

Demon Painajai

** spoiler omitted **

GET OVER HERE!

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The description of the Omnipath (page 39) starts with the following text:

Quote:
Hidden away in secret lairs, omnipaths serve as information hubs between othagu (aboleths, veiled masters, and other such creatures).

This is the first time I have seen the term "Othagu". Has it been mentioned before?

Paizo Employee Developer
Chet wrote:

The description of the Omnipath (page 39) starts with the following text:

Quote:
Hidden away in secret lairs, omnipaths serve as information hubs between othagu (aboleths, veiled masters, and other such creatures).
This is the first time I have seen the term "Othagu". Has it been mentioned before?

I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've revealed that name.

Developer
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Oh my. They're on to us.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Rakshasa, Avatarana

spoiler:

CR 12
Medium size
Instead of legs, this bald thin humanoid has extra hands and a flap of skin covering it's face.
Absolute Independence- immune to charm, compulsion, magic jar, and possession.
Corporeal Possession- Can posses a pinned, helpless, or willing creature.

Adam Daigle wrote:
Chet wrote:

The description of the Omnipath (page 39) starts with the following text:

Quote:
Hidden away in secret lairs, omnipaths serve as information hubs between othagu (aboleths, veiled masters, and other such creatures).
This is the first time I have seen the term "Othagu". Has it been mentioned before?
I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've revealed that name.

In Occult Mysteries it was said...

Spoiler:
The word "aboleth" roughly translates from the unpleasant language of the veiled masters into Taldane as "owner," "master," or even "god," depending on the translation consulted. The aboleths dwell in deep underwater cities, both in the lightless, flooded expanses ofthe Darklands, and in the open ocean depths. They are the most numerous of their kind, but are ruled and manipulated in turn by more dangerous species. As a whole, these ichthyic aberrations refer to themselves as the "alghollthu," yet the surface world ignorantly uses the name aboleth to apply to all of their kind.

Algollthu and Othagu...? What's the distinction?

Also, what kind of good aligned are the Munavris (LG, NG, or CG?) and what is explained about their culture?

With them being good-aligned and having those redonkulous stats I'm almost tempted to run an all-Munavris campaign where they fight everything else in the Darklands.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

spoiler:

-They are CG and have a long war against the Urdefhan.
-They have milky white skin and lavender or pink eyes and white hair.
-They like to sail violet sailed ivory ships across the Sightless Sea.
-They sometimes ally with Darkfolk but they don't trust each other completely.
-They excel at sightless sea battles.
-Because of there telepathy ability they rarely speak aloud to each other.

Paizo Employee Creative Director
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chet wrote:

The description of the Omnipath (page 39) starts with the following text:

Quote:
Hidden away in secret lairs, omnipaths serve as information hubs between othagu (aboleths, veiled masters, and other such creatures).

This is the first time I have seen the term "Othagu". Has it been mentioned before?

Heavy sigh.

This isn't the first time we've mentioned this word—it's the second, and we misspelled it.

The correct spelling is "alghollthu" and was first revealed in Occult Mysteries, on page 12, where we discuss the veiled masters.
Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Axial wrote:
GET OVER HERE!

Painajai wins! Fatality! (I designed that one, and you're right on the money about where I got the idea for the spear from.)

Veiled Master wrote:
Oh my. They're on to us.

Don't drop a meteor on us. Please?

Cthulhudrew wrote:
Veiled Master wrote:
Oh my. They're on to us.
Don't drop a meteor on us again. Please?

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Serpent wrote:
Axial wrote:
GET OVER HERE!
Painajai wins! Fatality! (I designed that one, and you're right on the money about where I got the idea for the spear from.)

Didn't notice the name until it got pointed out :D

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

A bit of info on the asura?
Shadow Lodge

Question for the Dev: Are Duergar supposed to be able to also use the telekinetic talents granted to them by their racial ability regardless of class or do they only get them if they are telekinetics? If they get them regardless of class when mixed with a kineticist do they use the same burn pool as the kineticist class burn pool or do they have a pool all to themselves?

Azura, Vayuphak

spoiler:

CR 5
Medium size
Blue skinned humanoid has two pairs of wings protruding from it's waist.
Psychic Magic
Enveloping Winds

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
CorvusMask wrote:
Serpent wrote:
Axial wrote:
GET OVER HERE!
Painajai wins! Fatality! (I designed that one, and you're right on the money about where I got the idea for the spear from.)
Didn't notice the name until it got pointed out :D

If you're referring to the fact that the name resembles the Finnish and Estonian words for "nightmare", I can confirm that it's no coincidence either. :-)

Nor is the monster's name that means "dreamer/sleeper".
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Really looking forward to this, particularly the Boggart and the fiends. I was a little worried Rakshasas and Asuras were never going to get any reinforcements.
Silver Crusade Contributor
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm glad they're making more kytons. Maybe one day the ephialtes will get its reprint. ^_^

I like the fear eater, it's like an evil version of the caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland.

I really like the Shotalashu, wich is(or at least one of) the creatures that act as mounts for the Lashunta.

I love the Prism Dragon though I wish it got better art for it.

I also really like the Liavaran Dreamer, Dream Naga, Yithian Elder, Baku Dreamweaver, Psychic Stalker, Psychic Vampire, Tattoo Guardian, Munavri, Boggart, and Tychilarius.

I also like the new aeon, azata, azura, and rakshasa.

How is the art for the Yithian Elder, Liavaran Dreamer, Neothelid Overlord and Tychilarius?
And any new information regarding Tychilarius and the Dominion?
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Thanks, Dragon78 - nice to see some new asuras.

Any info on the Mnemor?
The Exchange
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

I really like the Shotalashu, wich is(or at least one of) the creatures that act as mounts for the Lashunta.

Speaking of that, did this creature get appropriate stats for use as a Mount or Animal Companion in addition to a standard statblock? The Lashunta have a cavalier archetype that still has the Mount class feature and wondering if they now have access to a more appropriate mount then, say, a horse.

Paizo Employee Developer
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
I like the fear eater, it's like an evil version of the caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland.

The fear eater was originally called the dread glutton and was picked up from RPG Superstar 2015. When brainstorming the book, we felt it was a great fit, and were happy to provide yet another avenue for Superstar contestants to see their work in print!

For those who still don't have the book, it's worth pointing out that the munavri are so badass that they're +1 CR.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:
For those who still don't have the book, it's worth pointing out that the munavri are so badass that they're +1 CR.

Yup. They're really intended to be one of the ONLY good-aligned dwellers of the Darklands, and as such they kinda need to be badass so they can stand up to all the grimdark down there, after all.

Are there any new alghollthu in this book? If so what are they like?

Also if any of the developers are willing to answer this are the as of yet unrevealed alghollthu based on deep sea life the way veiled masters and aboleth are? If more obscure abyssal fish make it into Pathfinder as monsters I'd be very pleased.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Alex Smith 908 wrote:

Are there any new alghollthu in this book? If so what are they like?

Also if any of the developers are willing to answer this are the as of yet unrevealed alghollthu based on deep sea life the way veiled masters and aboleth are? If more obscure abyssal fish make it into Pathfinder as monsters I'd be very pleased.

There's one new one, yes.

It is sorta based on deep sea life, yes.
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Mark Moreland wrote:
The fear eater was originally called the dread glutton and was picked up from RPG Superstar 2015. When brainstorming the book, we felt it was a great fit, and were happy to provide yet another avenue for Superstar contestants to see their work in print!

Nice! I liked the dread glutton!

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Devil, Mnemor

spoiler:

CR 5
Medium size
Ghoulish looking creature with milky eyes and a proboscis like tongue hanging from it's distended jaw.
Easily Forgotten
Memory Syphon

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