Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)

Aeons were a missed opportunity, if they made them more like a collection of neutral cosmic beings with each type a different purpose in the universe/multi-verse then a collective force. I like the fact they look like clouds, crystals, energy, and outer space. I wish there were more creatures like that instead of every cliché design we have for most undead and demon-like creatures.

Well we have an evil campaign coming up so I am sure we will get a lot of use out of the celestials in that one;)

The problem is that they have no agenda apart from making sure there's balance in things, and that one is mightily difficult to play out as either allies or antagonists.

Aeon: BEHOLD ME, WUBWUBRON THE BALANCINATOR. I guard the balance of magic item distribution in the multiverse. I are CR 20. You folks have to many trinkets, surrender your Big Sixes or else.
PCs: Srsly?

Inevitables are skewed towards an extreme, which makes them great for some concepts. But Aeons are just ... meh.

Admittedly you could say I'm cheating in considering the aeons good monsters given how much I change about them, and to that I have no response. I just think it's a missed opportunity to completely ignore true neutral outsiders save for as psychopomps.

Whoa whoa whoa. Since when are aeons and psychopomps the only true neutral outsiders? What about astral leviathans? What about the fascinating caulborn colonies? What about d’ziriaks? What about janni? Jinushigami? Jyoti? Kodama? Mephits? Nephilim? Shae? Shulsagas? Tojanidas? Xorns? There's lots of neat true neutral outsiders...ones that often have their own cultures and societies to interact with...as opposed to ones that are just created out of nothingness by reality itself to aid and/or hinder you for unknowable ineffable reasons only to dissipate after their task is done.

Edit: Hell, even elementals can be more interesting than aeons...at least they're capable of remembering things and can fulfill interesting roles in a nature-oriented culture.

Aeons were a missed opportunity, if they made them more like a collection of neutral cosmic beings with each type a different purpose in the universe/multi-verse then a collective force. I like the fact they look like clouds, crystals, energy, and outer space. I wish there were more creatures like that instead of every cliché design we have for most undead and demon-like creatures.

Well we have an evil campaign coming up so I am sure we will get a lot of use out of the celestials in that one;)

Uhm Marilith, Hezrou, Glabrezu and many others beg to differ.

Aeons look like silly copies of elementals spare for the Pleroma.

Huh. I just realized from "Good aligned monsters never get used" that its pity we don't have any "light isn't good" outsiders. You know, bad guys who look like good guys or have abilities good guys would have.

I mean, like, Shin Megami Tensei series of JRPGs has a thing where both law(Heaven) and chaos (Lucifer's demons) sides are bad for different reason(hence why neutral path is usually the best ending in the series' games. Neutral path is usually "Kill both sides so humans are free to choose for themselves" path), former is tyrannic to the "Take free will of mankind away" extreme and latter is "Strongest have the right to do whatever they want" brand of not-darwinism :p Since Pathfinder uses the alignment system, we can't really have scary dogmatic angels since by system everything with good alignment is, well, good...

(Note: Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not really familiar with invetables and other outsider types xP)

Combine Aeons and Inevitables. Give them more ghostly appearances, but gray and featureless. Now you've got the Auditors of Reality from Pratchett. Better at Aeoning than Aeons.

Combine Aeons and Inevitables. Give them more ghostly appearances, but gray and featureless. Now you've got the Auditors of Reality from Pratchett. Better at Aeoning than Aeons.

Replacing Death with the more tractable Combine Harvester.

I love the Auditors. ^_^

Huh. I just realized from "Good aligned monsters never get used" that its pity we don't have any "light isn't good" outsiders. You know, bad guys who look like good guys or have abilities good guys would have.

Lurkers in light? Jyoti? Probably others I don't recall off the top of my head...

Edit: Okay, lurkers in light are technically fey, but they're still extradimensional, so I'd say they count...

Whoa whoa whoa. Since when are aeons and psychopomps the only true neutral outsiders?

I'm specifically talking about outsiders styled after the exemplars from Planescape. So embodying an alignment and having a large number of subtypes.

Huh. I just realized from "Good aligned monsters never get used" that its pity we don't have any "light isn't good" outsiders. You know, bad guys who look like good guys or have abilities good guys would have.

I mean, like, Shin Megami Tensei series of JRPGs has a thing where both law(Heaven) and chaos (Lucifer's demons) sides are bad for different reason(hence why neutral path is usually the best ending in the series' games. Neutral path is usually "Kill both sides so humans are free to choose for themselves" path), former is tyrannic to the "Take free will of mankind away" extreme and latter is "Strongest have the right to do whatever they want" brand of not-darwinism :p Since Pathfinder uses the alignment system, we can't really have scary dogmatic angels since by system everything with good alignment is, well, good...

(Note: Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not really familiar with invetables and other outsider types xP)

Well we do have lurkers in the light and shining children for the evil thing that looks shiny/pretty thing. Also inevitables basically fill the role of heaven in the Megaten games fairly well. They look mechanical but their upper tiers even sorta look like classical angels/gods.

Luthorne wrote:

Whoa whoa whoa. Since when are aeons and psychopomps the only true neutral outsiders?

I'm specifically talking about outsiders styled after the exemplars from Planescape. So embodying an alignment and having a large number of subtypes.

But aeons only have the aeon and extraplanar subtypes. :p

Honestly, I'd rather port over the rilmani if you have to have a true neutral 'balance' type...at least they have a culture and memory.

The Shining Child and Lurker in the Light are the only light based creatures I have seen and they are evil aligned. I would like to see some non-evil light based creatures. I would also like to see some non-evil creatures from the dimension of dreams.

Dream Dragon comes your way, Solars are about light I guess.

No, Solars, like all celestials, have holy powers, I am talking about light based powers.

Dream Dragons are one and I would like to see creatures of different alignments from the dimension of dreams. Though I would think that N or CN would be common there.

Huh. I just realized from "Good aligned monsters never get used" that its pity we don't have any "light isn't good" outsiders. You know, bad guys who look like good guys or have abilities good guys would have.

I mean, like, Shin Megami Tensei series of JRPGs has a thing where both law(Heaven) and chaos (Lucifer's demons) sides are bad for different reason(hence why neutral path is usually the best ending in the series' games. Neutral path is usually "Kill both sides so humans are free to choose for themselves" path), former is tyrannic to the "Take free will of mankind away" extreme and latter is "Strongest have the right to do whatever they want" brand of not-darwinism :p Since Pathfinder uses the alignment system, we can't really have scary dogmatic angels since by system everything with good alignment is, well, good...

(Note: Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not really familiar with invetables and other outsider types xP)

In one session, I took a bunch of celestials and just flipped their alignment-related abilities. :)

Now I just had a picture in my head of good aligned demons and holy infused undead;) What if there was a dimension that reverses the alignment of anyone or anything with greater then Int 2 as long as they are there.

Maybe we need an "Aeons Revisited" book. :D

Maybe we should forget about them, as even their creators didn't really like them anymore.

Well maybe someday there will be a Paizo employee who likes them and will be there "champion".

Well at leas there will be more Angels though I hope they are not all reprints.

I really hope one of them is a Seraphim, though I'm a little worried that will never happen.

Erik Mona and I are both huge fans of aeons. We have slightly different views on what makes them great and why we love them, but we are both passionate about seeing them make it into print. So aeons definitely have "champions" among contributors and staff alike. I worked very closely with Erik on some things for this Bestiary. Whatever correlation you put between those sentences is your own :)

Now we will see who it really is! It's "Red Herring";)

Erik Mona and I are both huge fans of aeons. We have slightly different views on what makes them great and why we love them, but we are both passionate about seeing them make it into print. So aeons definitely have "champions" among contributors and staff alike. I worked very closely with Erik on some things for this Bestiary. Whatever correlation you put between those sentences is your own :)

I read this as:

Bestiary 5: In Strange Aeons

;)

Who is the champion of Mythological creatures?

Who is the champion of Mythological creatures?

Since you clearly want the role, how about you suggest random Finnish mythological creatures that aren't shared by Scandinavia? :p

I don't want the role, as i'm not putting creatures in the bestiaries, but if Aeons have champions, by the Gods Mythological creatures should have a champion too.

What do you mean by Finnish Mythological creatures that aren't shared by scandinavia?

Hiisi, Kalma, Surma, Ajatar, Haltija, Ebajalg, Tulihand, Nakinneito, Eksitaja, Kratt, Louthi, Koerakoonlased, Korkamurt, Kalivala, Nakki, Hall, Lempo, Libahunt, Lummutis, Vanapagan, Juudaline, Kurrat, Marras, Metshaldjas, Kipvutar, Loviatar, Ovda, Perkele, Sjotroll, Vammatar.

Admittedly, some of those are actually some of the more unpleasant gods, but here's a bunch of Finnish monsters.

If mythical creatures didn't have champions then we wouldn't have them at all in the game. It would all be aliens, mutants, robots, oozes, plants, vermin and standard animals.

If mythical creatures didn't have champions then we wouldn't have them at all in the game. It would all be aliens, mutants, robots, oozes, plants, vermin and standard animals.

Someone must be their champion, i'm curious who it is/are.

Nakinneito

lol

Dragon78 wrote:

If mythical creatures didn't have champions then we wouldn't have them at all in the game. It would all be aliens, mutants, robots, oozes, plants, vermin and standard animals.

Someone must be their champion, i'm curious who it is/are.

I'm pretty sure all the devs are interested in mythical creatures to some extent at least, though I know Wes Schneider is fond of some of the obscure ones specifically.

From Scandinavian (counting Denmark and iceland) mythology I like to see: (= my own made up stuff)

1: Ajatar - Demonic Serpent of the Forests, said to be the mother of all demons and the devil himself, suckles all snakes. (bite turns other creatures into lemures, would be cool as she is the Echidna for demons.)

2: Gloson - Undead boar/pig with razor-sharp back that cuts people in half and which haunts graveyards.

3: Otso - Bear made out of plants or other nature stuff, fierce protector of nature.

4: Ebajalg - A whirlwind monster, maybe some undead elemental of wind.

5: Kratt - Some form of hay creature that is infused by the demon by some ritual so it can perform tasks for its master (mostly involving stealing from other farmers), too difficult tasks however will burn the creature down to the ground.

6: Helhest - Undead horse with 3 legs, you can see the skeleton through the translucent skin. Said to be the mount for the Norse Goddess Hel, in the pathfinder game they could be the undead steeds/mounts for powerful undead and Dullahan.

7: Pesta - Pestilence spreading spirit or hag. I love Pesta in the Witcher III.

8: Gulon - The incarnation of gluttony, taking the form of bear-like Wolverine.

9: Vatnagedda - A evil golden fish with poison powerful enough to harm ghosts, its poison is used to keep ghosts away.

10: Skeljaskaimsli - A beach creature resembling a mixture of sloth, pangolin and tapir. (would be an awesome pet for the shellycoat)

11: Valravn - Evil raven creatures that feed on hearts to gain power of shapeshifting. Sometimes pictured as Griffon like creatures of wolf and raven.

12: All the evil whales, especially the driller and barnacled.

Skeljaskaimsli - A beach creature resembling a mixture of sloth, pangolin and tapir. (would be an awesome pet for the shellycoat)

I think they just found one in Sakhalin.

I'd like to see "The Black Eyed Children" in 5.

They're not as well known of an urban legend as say the Mothman, but I think a version of them would be cool.

In case you've never heard of them, their deal is that they are extremely pale children that show up on folk's doorstep, usually dressed in all-black in a style slightly off from what's modern, or typical. All they want is to be let in. They're speech also off as well. They say things like "It's food time" to imply things like they are hungry, cold, or need help. They sort of put the people answering the door in a slight daze which helps hide that their eyes are completely black with no pupils. Those that do let them in, will notice the black eyes, and that's usually the last that they remember. When the homeowner regains their senses, the children are gone and only vaguely remember the children being at their door. For a long time after all this goes down, the person is either sickly, has bad luck, or has nightmares every night they can't remember after waking up screaming.

Myth Lord wrote:

Skeljaskaimsli - A beach creature resembling a mixture of sloth, pangolin and tapir. (would be an awesome pet for the shellycoat)

I think they just found one in Sakhalin.

That is some bizarre creature, looks more like a furry dolphin or some horror evolution of the Platypus lol! :p

If they use the Black Eyed Children I hope they mix it with the Acheri or at least give it another name.

If they use the Black Eyed Children I hope they mix it with the Acheri or at least give it another name.

Yeah, they'd really have to give them a real name. "The Black Eyed Children" is really more a description of the phenomenon, rather than a name for whatever they actually are.

Erik Mona and I are both huge fans of aeons. We have slightly different views on what makes them great and why we love them, but we are both passionate about seeing them make it into print. So aeons definitely have "champions" among contributors and staff alike. I worked very closely with Erik on some things for this Bestiary. Whatever correlation you put between those sentences is your own :)

As are me and my friends, once in awhile it's fun to have a confrontation, or even a series of adventures, involving these literal forces of the universe the PCs must battle against. It can bring up interesting roleplay opportunities as the PCs must also reflect on their character's morals and ethics concerning battling such beings and how they feel about cosmic balance.

I think the problem with people and Aeons is they can't think of anything to do with them besides "hack&slash". It takes some real good storytelling to do something with them.

I don't think an Aeon has to go "rogue" to be a villain. You can just have Aeons that are really zealous at their job. A kingdom in utter peace for too long? (probabaly thanks to the PCs) There needs to be conflict so Aeons come in and fix that right up (making enemies of the PCs).

The easiest way to get Light is not Good is to simply use the subjective morality option from Unchained. Makes outsiders much more interesting than simply being "I am good + law".

As for new monsters, some weirder dire animals could be cool. Like dire echidna, and a dire koala ("Totally" not a drop bear), or dire axolotl with slow regeneration.

Yeah, I have heard of the "Black Eyed Children", something at similar to them would be cool.

I don't want the role, as i'm not putting creatures in the bestiaries, but if Aeons have champions, by the Gods Mythological creatures should have a champion too.

What do you mean by Finnish Mythological creatures that aren't shared by scandinavia?

Because we live right next to Scandinavia so we are bound to share some mythology?

Hiisi, Kalma, Surma, Ajatar, Haltija, Ebajalg, Tulihand, Nakinneito, Eksitaja, Kratt, Louthi, Koerakoonlased, Korkamurt, Kalivala, Nakki, Hall, Lempo, Libahunt, Lummutis, Vanapagan, Juudaline, Kurrat, Marras, Metshaldjas, Kipvutar, Loviatar, Ovda, Perkele, Sjotroll, Vammatar.

Admittedly, some of those are actually some of the more unpleasant gods, but here's a bunch of Finnish monsters.

Haltija is pretty much elf. Perhaps not same kind of elf, but its our stock translation for "elf" at least(then again we also often translate goblin as hiisi for some reason) :P Though I'm pretty sure some of things on that list weren't Finnish stuff since it doesn't really fit Finnish language, even the old timey one.

Also, missing umlauts, ä & ö are important xD

...Actually, yeah, what the hell did you get those from anyway? Most of them makes no sense in Finnish language(some of them are probably old god names that are nowadays used in different context so I don't recognize them since I'm not familiar with Finnish paganism xD(Not that its possible to be since its not like there is written text of them)) while some of them are really old timey Finnish. Like, pre written language or from some specific dialect.

Like, "Kalivala"? Are you referring to Kalevala aka Finland's national epic? ._.; Louhi is a witch from that...

Haltija is actually a possessor. Haltia is pretty much elf.

Haltija is actually a possessor. Haltia is pretty much elf.

Wait, are you Finnish as well? ._. Even then, I've never seen elf translated as "Haltia". And I'm pretty sure its supposed to be haltija like in "metsänhaltija" so like "ruler of the forest" or something

Huh. Wikipedia says haltija/haltia are synonyms .-. Well never seen that spelling before, but more you know huh xD

Anyway, yeah, some of things on that lists are spelled wrong. Like Kipvutar(unless that is some old spelling of the word since "kipu" does mean pain <_<), that seems to be supposed to be Kivutar which is apparently goddess of pain?

...I do find it funny how simple Finnish god names are. That one is literally pain + ess(whatever those things you put at end of nouns to indicate female gender are called)

If you guys are finnish/scandinavians, please tell me the name of the devil whale that drills (Pile-Drives) ships!

Man, I wish they would update the cover art.

Myth Lord wrote:

I don't want the role, as i'm not putting creatures in the bestiaries, but if Aeons have champions, by the Gods Mythological creatures should have a champion too.

What do you mean by Finnish Mythological creatures that aren't shared by scandinavia?

Because we live right next to Scandinavia so we are bound to share some mythology?

Wannabe Demon Lord wrote:

Hiisi, Kalma, Surma, Ajatar, Haltija, Ebajalg, Tulihand, Nakinneito, Eksitaja, Kratt, Louthi, Koerakoonlased, Korkamurt, Kalivala, Nakki, Hall, Lempo, Libahunt, Lummutis, Vanapagan, Juudaline, Kurrat, Marras, Metshaldjas, Kipvutar, Loviatar, Ovda, Perkele, Sjotroll, Vammatar.

Admittedly, some of those are actually some of the more unpleasant gods, but here's a bunch of Finnish monsters.

Haltija is pretty much elf. Perhaps not same kind of elf, but its our stock translation for "elf" at least(then again we also often translate goblin as hiisi for some reason) :P Though I'm pretty sure some of things on that list weren't Finnish stuff since it doesn't really fit Finnish language, even the old timey one.

Also, missing umlauts, ä & ö are important xD

...Actually, yeah, what the hell did you get those from anyway? Most of them makes no sense in Finnish language(some of them are probably old god names that are nowadays used in different context so I don't recognize them since I'm not familiar with Finnish paganism xD(Not that its possible to be since its not like there is written text of them)) while some of them are really old timey Finnish. Like, pre written language or from some specific dialect.

Like, "Kalivala"? Are you referring to Kalevala aka Finland's national epic? ._.; Louhi is a witch from that...

Kalivala was a mistake. I'd meant "Kalevanpojat," which according to whatever source a got it from, (which was a long time ago) are supposedly a race of evil giants. Are lot of them are extremely old, and do come from Finnish paganism. I confess I don't really know how to get the umlauts to work on my computer. Sorry.

Neat trivia, Kalevanpojat is pretty much "sons of Kaleva"

Anyway, not blaming you for lack of umlauts, just that it confuses me little since some of those names do sound swedish or something, like Vanapagan doesn't sound very finnish(quick googling says its estonian mythology and some kind of devil or god of underworld who is apparently dumb rather than malevolent, at least thats what wikipedia says) and some of them do sound finnish but like either they have spelling mistakes or its just form of Finnish I haven't heard.

If you guys are finnish/scandinavians, please tell me the name of the devil whale that drills (Pile-Drives) ships!

Wait, we have a wrestler whale? ._. Can you give me more description so maybe I figure out/remember what you are talking about? xD

Neat trivia, Kalevanpojat is pretty much "sons of Kaleva"

Anyway, not blaming you for lack of umlauts, just that it confuses me little since some of those names do sound swedish or something, like Vanapagan doesn't sound very finnish(quick googling says its estonian mythology and some kind of devil or god of underworld who is apparently dumb rather than malevolent, at least thats what wikipedia says) and some of them do sound finnish but like either they have spelling mistakes or its just form of Finnish I haven't heard.

Myth Lord wrote:

If you guys are finnish/scandinavians, please tell me the name of the devil whale that drills (Pile-Drives) ships!

Wait, we have a wrestler whale? ._. Can you give me more description so maybe I figure out/remember what you are talking about? xD

Patience, they will all be there in time. Besides the mouse, there's a cat, an ox, and a horse; there's a shelly thing and a cresty thing; there's something with cool markings, something that pile-drives ships, and something that impersonates islands. What I'm saying is that there's A LOT.

This is all there is, which I know, I guess we have to wait till the A BOOK OF CREATURES posts it, hope it isn't in 2 years.

November is WAY to long to wait for playable Darkfolk :(

It's also a long wait to find out what else in the book as well.

Just my two cents but...

in the past Pathfinder has used creatures/art from older books and included them in the newer bestiaries.

I humbly suggest incorporating the Agathion cervinal (Chronicles of the Righteous). He's a must and if anything, he should be included to ensure he becomes a future pawn. The artwork and concept are far too epic to squander in a supplemental book.

Also of note, it's time for Larabay from Isles of Shackles. Intense artwork that needs to find yet another place to flourish.

Both of these fellas also need a future pawn. Come on, paizo, you've already got the artwork. Just make the transfer. Sure beats creating some type of mystic fire element that inevitably gets lost in the shuffle.

I hope that the Lusca from Isles of the Shackles made it in. Also I hope that the Mountain Troll and Fey Animal(Template) from Land of the Linnorm Kings and Khala and Ved from Irrisen book as well.