Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)

You can rather face a Pyrausta than a Pinguin... lol... (not that I want to see Pyrausta as a high CR creature, but every mythology creature should at least be higher CR than the Pinquin)

@ Hinkle, the Squonk, Mahaha and Curupira didn't make it in Bestiaries and AP Bestiaries, but their work-outs are somewhere at paizo's office, the Squonk even has artwork flowing around on internet.

And Kain Darkwind, what about that animate tank, not something you see among Minotaurs and Pixies every day.

+ Smilodons are popular creatures, they are more poweful than Bulettes, Erinyes, Aboleth, Succubi, Karkadann, Mngwa, Allosaurus, Cave Lion, Cave Bear, Hydra, Minotaurs and the list goes on and on, no wonder it is at the same strength as King Kong himself. In other products I see the Smilodon gets the right treatment, as a CR 5 creature, which in my opinion suits it better.

Wow a CR 20 Tree creature (Lotus Tree) that thing must be really powerful!

And Kain Darkwind, what about that animate tank, not something you see among Minotaurs and Pixies every day.

I think he tried to hint at the fact that it was attributed to the wrong World War.

I like the animated tank but I really would like a animated/ghostly train.

I like the animated tank but I really would like a animated/ghostly train.

As long as it's vulnerable to suplexes.

I'm really surprised the Animated Tank made it in, good for them. :-)

I'm really surprised the Animated Tank made it in, good for them. :-)

It didn't, actually. I haven't been keeping track of the conversation, so I'm not entirely sure why it came up...

Well that makes more sense. :-)

I have Reign of Winter, so I'm good, it would be pretty difficult to use them outside of what they're written for. of which I won't say a word, except Good luck!... you'll need it.... too bad Yoda didn't get to use his sinister voice more often, the dark side might've taken him more seriously ("Did... did that toad just threaten me")... Or not:-D

You can rather face a Pyrausta than a Pinguin... lol... (not that I want to see Pyrausta as a high CR creature, but every mythology creature should at least be higher CR than the Pinquin)

Well, considering the original myth was about an insect-sized dragon that lived in fire and would die outside of it...I can see why a penguin would be more powerful...though thankfully the Pathfinder version isn't quite so vulnerable...still really small.

Nightterror wrote:

And Kain Darkwind, what about that animate tank, not something you see among Minotaurs and Pixies every day.

I think he tried to hint at the fact that it was attributed to the wrong World War.

Give this man (or woman) a gold star! 1918 was the Great War.

Now that we have flying apes and flying monkeys, I hope flying pigs are not that far off.

I told them they would come! No one believed me!

Dragon78 wrote:

I like the animated tank but I really would like a animated/ghostly train.

As long as it's vulnerable to suplexes.

I officially love you. Marry me! We'll play Final Fantasy VI all night on our honey moon. ;)

My copy finally arrived! I was so excited I was almost late to work.

I do find it odd that a megaprimatus is a Gargantuan creature with the strength of a Large sized dire polar bear, and nearly half the HD of a T-rex. Even assuming Kong was an advanced version (since he defeated three advanced Rexs), this seems to be slightly off.

It's four times bigger than a smilodon, but barely stronger and no tougher. A little disappointing.

Yeah, my only beef with pathfinder is when it comes to animal/vermin stats. Some of them make zero sense. Firstly, they only give the gorilla a strength of 15. The same as a mastiff. And in Bestiary 4, the giant flea and mammoth flea have the same strength score, despite the mammoth flea being two size categories larger. I mean, what the hell, Paizo?

Not to derail, but it's the same kind of logic that makes base Wolf animal companions Medium that become Large, and Bears are small that become medium. Not everyone wants to travel with Winnie the Pooh, you know! I suppose these creatures probably work fine in their niche, but it would probably be best to not try and draw direct comparisons, even when that would make sense.

Not to derail, but it's the same kind of logic that makes base Wolf animal companions Medium that become Large, and Bears are small that become medium. Not everyone wants to travel with Winnie the Pooh, you know! I suppose these creatures probably work fine in their niche, but it would probably be best to not try and draw direct comparisons, even when that would make sense.

That's another great example. It also doesn't make sense that every dinosaur you could have as a pet only ends up at large. Does the polar bear give new stats for using one as an animal companion, or does it say just to use the old bear stats? And WHY can you have literally every animal as either an animal companion or familiar EXCEPT the giant skunk, porcupine, and giant porcupine? WHY, PAIZO?! WHYYYYYY?????????????

yeah it's probably worth commenting on: Whoever did the art order for this bestiary very much took some threads on the board seriously, which complained of the lack of attractive male figures compared to all the sexy succubus style fey/outsiders/etc. There are many more revealingly dressed lithe male figures in this bestiary compared to similarly attired male individuals

I was wondering about exactly this, thanks for posting your observation!

For those of who didn't see some of those threads, it's not just that the female creatures were "too pretty" but that there are some 48+ female-only creatures that either use their beauty against men or are explicit in that they copulate with (male) adventurers, as opposed to the 4 male-only creatures that are either stated to be physically appealing or have their sex lives mentioned. Part of it was the art, part of it was the creatures themselves. It's really awesome to hear there's some movement towards a middle ground. This might be the first bestiary I buy.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

Great list and thanks for posting it. But what are the Cursed King and the Crone Queen?

Luthorne wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

Great list and thanks for posting it. But what are the Cursed King and the Crone Queen?

Well, the crone queen is a reprint from part six of Reign of Winter (you can see it here). The Bestiary 5 version has considerably less detail, but they're still formed from the frozen remains of Baba Yaga's daughters, which surprised me...I thought they would have filed that angle off.

The cursed king is a mummy with an animal's head in appearance, created by pharaohs as punishment for disloyalty, torturing and decapitating them, then sewing on an animal's head and binding their souls to their bodies, creating creatures of only slightly above animal intellect that exist in eternal, unliving agony as mockeries of the ambition that led them to subvert the pharaoh's authority.

Myth Lord wrote:

From that list I think you like science fiction stuff right? So the other stuff isn't in danger of being less cool? Hundun is also science-fiction looking?

I do like sci-fi/science fantasy, yes. My preferred genres right now are probably planar adventure, science-fantasy, and horror/dark-fantasy.

The Hundun looks like a figure in dark reddish-black robes (made of its own skin) with an unseen face, reddish skin, and a staff of organs and viscera. They're made of negative energy but not undead. They are the incarnate will of primordial god-horrors that existed before the multiverse came into being that now dwell in unreality beyond its borders, manifested into reality to reduce existence to fluctuating energy or voidlike heat-death, with the principles upholding the planes collapsed and destroyed. They seek an end to all order and are basically entropy incarnate. I'll note that while they and the Kytons both come from outside the multiverse, they're notable opponents of each other. Having said all this, a Hundun's staff functions as a Strange Attractor. I'll let you call on whether that makes it too sci-fi for your tastes or not.

There's plenty of other good stuff in there, though, that isn't sci-fi dependent. I think we just have different general tastes in monsters.

so a rule of thumb with a Hundun is never shakes it's hand, unless you happen to be of that sort of racial persuasion, in which case you should check it's not going to cast shocking grasp or something.

Personally I love the idea behind the deep one hybrid. You are not the strongest race in terms of stats and general abilities, but live long enough any you can be a deep one pc with your class and allies 'mostly' intact.

Races like the reptiloids and some of the more mysterious ones work well for occult and semi-sci fi or mystery games. Maybe I'll come up with some more unnerving encounters based on a mix of the sci fi with more conventional fantasy. Like one of my ideas being the 'lights in the skies' which is something I hope might make trying to thwart an abduction by greys, reptiloids, or some other alien force more intimidating. Basically it's a number of bright lights that are in the sky. They have a number of effects from causing fear, to cones of slow abduction, to simply unloading a number of powerful bolts at the party with varying effects (with at least one 'Deathray').

The nastiest thing is if you are unlucky enough to ever provoke an 'molecular deconstructer effect' which does exactly what it says on the tin. If hit by it, the victims are locked in place(unable to take any actions, move or do anything other than scream in pain) and slowly disintegrated, taking 5d6xthe number of turns affected of non-reducible or avoidable damage(though not unhealable) every turn. If reduced to 0 hit points, the target is dead and disintegrated. The target can be pulled out of the beam, but only by being pulled out by external forces(the other party members) or if the beam turns off its effect. Any attempt to physically remove the victim by use of requires a strength check, but if the person enters the beam (represented by a 20ft circular AOE) they also take half the damage of the 5d6 non-redusable non avoidable.

So remember to bring some rope or chain to lasso people out of the deconstructer effect.

This has been one of more disappointing bestiaries for the art direction.

*looks at weretiger*

Nope. Not even close. This one's pretty awesome, except for the Muse's face.

What are Megaprimatus' stats, BTW?

Yeah I'm not getting where everyone is saying the art is bad. Aside from the Muse's odd shadowing on her face, the artwork is pretty awesome.

WHAT ABOUT MEGAPRIMATUSSSS???

The muse is a subjective entity. It's appearance is personally based on whatever it's chosen inspiree perceives as true beauty. So some odd shading is kind of expected. I wonder if it might be possible to use a similar idea for having gods and goddesses interacting with mortals. Since they are generally so beyond mortals that probably looking at one its true godly form might lead to long lasting damage(like when Zeus revealed his true godly form to a potential lover and the sight of his form alone burned her to ash), so often they assume more comfortable guises and forms to walk among mortals, and communicate with them.

Only those truely faithful or knowing of the gods can identify one God from another while in their more mortal guises. Some gods have more preferred forms while others, like besmara, cayden, and idomeda, have still got motal bodies they can sort of return with(though some are a bit glowier than others). Not every God is like this though. Some are beings simply so powerful that death and mortality are concepts they are far beyond. Cthulhu, Dagon, and many of the other elder and outer gods are like this. And that is how they can be stated(kind-of) but also be powerful enough to make it impossible to actually kill them off completely.

I like the bestiaries. They always provide me with new things to tantalise the old neural tastebuds with story and encounter ideas. Also now we need to pit a tarrasque or some other kaiju sized thing against megaprimatus, have a bunch of poorly dubbed dragon empire inhabitents(paticularly tein shi) as actors, and we get some gnomes to make a motion camera, and we can have the players making King Kong vs Godzilla in golorian style. While also preventing the real life people and villages from being destroyed by the collosal monster brawl.

I like the bestiaries. They always provide me with new things to tantalise the old neural tastebuds with story and encounter ideas. Also now we need to pit a tarrasque or some other kaiju sized thing against megaprimatus, have a bunch of poorly dubbed dragon empire inhabitents(paticularly tein shi) as actors, and we get some gnomes to make a motion camera, and we can have the players making King Kong vs Godzilla in golorian style. While also preventing the real life people and villages from being destroyed by the collosal monster brawl.

Perfect. Also, what is Megaprimatus' STR and how is the art?

Lol make that king kong vs smilodon...

Tarrasque is way too powerful for megaprimatis.

ErisAcolyte-Chaos jester wrote:

I like the bestiaries. They always provide me with new things to tantalise the old neural tastebuds with story and encounter ideas. Also now we need to pit a tarrasque or some other kaiju sized thing against megaprimatus, have a bunch of poorly dubbed dragon empire inhabitents(paticularly tein shi) as actors, and we get some gnomes to make a motion camera, and we can have the players making King Kong vs Godzilla in golorian style. While also preventing the real life people and villages from being destroyed by the collosal monster brawl.

Perfect. Also, what is Megaprimatus' STR and how is the art?

It has 29 Strength. The art is fine.

10HD, 29 Str and a mangle effect on its rend. Also ignores difficult terrain from the forest. It is basically a smilodon in Gargantuan ape's clothing. The special abilities are good, just the chasis bugs me. Why not something closer to the T-Rex?

If they wanted King Kong they should have made him at least CR12.

It's not Megaprimatus fault... Blame Smilodon! That good old Aboleth-Slaying normal animal.

Its too high, so all other creatures look pathetic next to it.

I just act as if Smilodon never seen the light of day, and use the other-products CR 5 version.

Is it just me or is the Animate Hair directly lifted from Snake's Hair in the Simpsons Treehouse of Terror?

Honestly the reference that springs more immediately to mind for me is Junji Ito's Uzumaki, but I don't yet have my copy of the book.

I just don't understand why Paizo thinks apes are so weak. The first Bestiary suggests using the young creature template on the gorilla (which they only give a Str of 15) for chimps and orangutans. That would put them at Str 10 or 11. Even though the real world animals can be 5x's stronger than a human. And now an ape that fights dinosaurs has a Strength score that's less than an elephant's. I just don't get it.

I agree they do make apes way to weak.

The highest Animal from Paizo is the Diplodocus if i'm not wrong, but why King Kong isn't the highest CR animal out there? It would make sense to be. Finally an Animal from that group that could stand out.

Diplodocus was big, but I think it would make an easy kill for an group of magical people or a magical beast with high intelligence.

King Kong however, he's also not that dumb. Almost a magical beast without magic.

There are more factors than just realism in monster design. Sometimes you need a CR 9 cat.

Must be a pretty good book if you guys are only picking nits off an ape. :-)

There are more factors than just realism in monster design. Sometimes you need a CR 9 cat.

Did you even read the Smilodon entry? Its a CR 8 cat. Not 9.

And with that logic... Sometimes you need a CR 15 Ape or a CR 20 Dog.

Gorbacz wrote:

There are more factors than just realism in monster design. Sometimes you need a CR 9 cat.

Did you even read the Smilodon entry? Its a CR 8 cat. Not 9.

I did read it. Then I figured out that cats have nine lives, so I took my marker, crossed off "8" and wrote "9" instead. I actually wanted to add something more, but I got distracted by those totes adorbs piglets. Awwwwwwww. Sooooo cute.

Besides, it's not like King Kong was just a Megaprimatus. He was a Giant, Advanced, Megaprimatus.

Awfully upset about it, aren't we.

Magical cats have 9 lives, Smilodon are just tigers, with longer teeth. What cr are tigers? Oh yeah I rember. CR 4...

If a cat should be cr 9 or higher, its the mngwa.

Smilodons are not tigers, in fact they are very different from modern cats and I am not just talking about there two sabre teeth. Though I do think they should have been around CR5-6.

could we please drop the Smilodon tangent? Smilodon isn't even in this bestiary!!!

We simply need cats of any CR value. Bestiary is for cats!

We need Dire Smilodons! Because Smilodon isn't powerful enough! CR 15 Smilodons! Yeah!

Make it happen! :-D

Oh wait...

We need Dire Smilodons! Because Smilodon isn't powerful enough! CR 15 Smilodons! Yeah!

Make it happen! :-D

Oh wait...

We actually need Advanced, Giant, Half-Dragon, Fiendish, Nosferatu, Were-Smilodons.

And anyone, to the person who said we should drop it, this is still on topic, as it involves Megaprimatus. I know it shouldn't be that big of a deal and I know I could always change things with homebrew rules, but it just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, maybe if they gave it some sort of rage ability that boosted its Str and Con, I'd say "yeah, sure, that's fine that it only has a Strength of 29, even though it's bigger than a house." But since it doesn't (it doesn't, does it? I guess I don't really know) I just don't understand the choice on the developer's part. I mean, how the hell am I gonna pit him against my dinosaurs now?! :(

Oh well. It's ok, Mega-P. I'm weak for my size too. I still love you. After all, everything is better with apes.

Kaiju Smilodon;)