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Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast (PFRPG)
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Embrace the Beast Within!

Anthropomorphic animal races have been a staple of fantasy gaming for decades, and Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Beast presents all the tools you need to play members of some the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game's most iconic bestial races. Packed full of character options for members of all classes, as well as some that members of other races can adopt, Blood of the Beast is sure to spice up any campaign!

Inside this book, you'll find:

  • New class archetypes including the tengu jinx witch, the catfolk serendipity shaman, the grippli war painter, and the vanaran fortune-finder.
  • Exciting new feats to accentuate beast-blooded races' inherent abilities, such as ratfolk's swarming ability and kitsune's shapechanging trickery.
  • Dozens of new spells, alternate racial traits, and favored class bonuses to customize characters of all stripes.

This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-901-1

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

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

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4.20/5 (based on 13 ratings)

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Pretty Good (Needs More Lore, Less Filler)

4/5 —

When the Advanced Race Guide came out, the number of playable races in Pathfinder suddenly increased substantially. There’s an argument to be made that perhaps it was too much, too fast, with some of the new races competing (stats-wise) more than favourably with the classic Core Rulebook races. I frankly get tired of seeing nagaji bloodragers and kitsune swashbucklers, but I guess that’s neither here nor there. The value in Blood of the Beast is that it grounds these new races into the Golarion campaign setting, adding some information about where they come from and how they’re perceived. For GMs and players interested in a cohesive view of the setting, the promise is an important one. As with all of these Player Companions, of course, there’s plenty of crunchy new options for character building as well. The races covered here are catfolk, gripplis, kitsune, nagaji, ratfolk, tengus, and vanaras.

I really like the concept for the cover art, though the actual execution is a bit too cartoony for my tastes. The inside front cover is a zoomed-out map of the Inner Sea with coloured highlighting showing where the various races covered in the book originate. I think it’s too zoomed-out to be of a lot of real use though. The inside back cover is the cover art minus any text.

After a page for the table of contents, we then get a two-page introduction. There’s a new trait for each race covered in the book. Some of the traits are fine, but some are of the generic “+1 to a skill and it’s a class skill” type that are really just space-fillers and list-lengtheners.

Each of the seven races then get a four-page long entry with a brief overview, some favoured class options, an archetype or two, and often other options like new feats or spells. Although many of these new options are flavoured as tied to a particular race, most don’t actually have being a member of that race as a prerequisite to taking them. I’ll go through each of these entries briefly.

Catfolk get a few new archetypes, including the Prowler at World’s End for bloodragers (giving them medium spirits), the Ravenous Hunter for inquisitors (a specialist demon-fighter with an oracle revelation), and the Serendipity Shaman for shamans (gets some new hexes—one of them, Tweak the Odds, is really good!). There are some new, forgettable feats, and a new natural course for wildsoul vigilantes called “feline.” Of the new spells, bit of luck is really powerful since it can be used before or after the results of a die roll have been revealed (which is rather unusual).

The new favoured class bonuses for gripplis are interesting, and I really like a cool new archetype for mediums called the Fiend Keeper—it specializes in containing an evil spirit. The other archetypes are the Poison Darter for rangers and the odd War Painter for skalds. There are also some new feats and spells, but nothing that jumped out at me.

Kitsune get some alternate racial traits, new advanced versatile performances for bards and skalds, and a new archetype, the Nine-Tailed Heir for sorcerers (great artwork here!). There are some new feats for shapeshifters, a really clever new spell called contagious suggestion, and some new vigilante talents (I like the one called “obscurity”—-it’s basically the opposite of renown).

For Nagaji, there are new naga bloodlines for bloodragers and sorcerers. There’s a new cavalier archetype called First Mother’s Fang, which is a sort of governor/general concept; it’s pretty good in broadening the knowledge skills available to cavaliers, and who doesn’t want to ride around on a giant snake? There’s also some new mesmerist tricks and spells.

I love the new ratfolk archetypes, and might have to give one a try soon. There’s the Opportunist for fighters (a really cool, skills-focused alchemist mix), the Scavenger for investigators (a gadget type of alchemist with a great feel), and the Swarm Monger for druids (which is pretty much what it sounds like). There are several feats, all of which build off the Swarming special ability of ratfolk, and they’re quite good too. The only “meh” thing in the entry is a new psychic discipline, Warp.

Tengus receive several new feats (I like Lovable Scoundrel) and spells, as well as several new archetypes. Courser for swashbucklers makes for a super-mobile character, though they have to give up a lot. The Jinx Witch for witches provides for some interesting abilities to absorb and expend spells (and has some great art). The Red Tongue for skalds provides an odd mix of rogue talents. I think a lot of writers just don’t know what to do with skalds, but I can’t blame them—-I don’t know either.

I will always hold a special place in my heart for vanaras, since that’s the race of my favourite character (Goldcape) in the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP I’ve been running for a couple of years now. The race here gets some new alternate racial traits, including size changing, as well as the usual favored class options. There are then several new Meditation feats, but none of them are worth it. Fighters may be interested in the new advanced weapon training options. There’s one new archetype, the Fortune-Finder for rangers—-it’s frankly just kind of bland. Unchained monks get some new style strikes and ki powers (with freedom of movement particularly great). Last, there’s a new eidolon subtype for unchained summoners called Ancestor, but it’s not particularly interesting.

Pretty much every book in the Player Companion line is going to contain its share of filler mixed with some real gems of creativity. I thought Blood of the Beast is better than many in the proportion of wheat to chaff. I would have like more than just a couple of paragraphs on how each of the races fit into Golarion—-remember, that’s the value-add of the books (along with the art), as all the new rules options will be immediately stripped out and placed on the Archives of Nethys. But all in all, this is a worthwhile book to buy.

Aside from the Fan Boy/Girl factor, . . .

1/5 —

I really don't understand why this book got such good reviews. I was very hesitant to buy this one from the start. Both because past experiences with cramming in far too many things into one book have led to, well predictable results and the very, very thin theme of the focus here.

This is probably the first product I outright want my monies back. But probably worst of all is that this book probably kills any possibility that the few races involved here I actually do want a Player's Guide for are likely to never get a good one now.

It's pretty much as I feared, far, far, far too little on anything I'm interested in, except I'm struggling to actually find a single thing I find interesting, good, or something I'd use. Just too forced, and the actual goal seems to be to make sure a few snowflake things get in the game rather than focusing on each of the races, and it shows which of the race options where favored and which got options because they had to get something.

A lot of fun ideas to build around

5/5 —

Blood of the Beast does just what a Player Companion should, in my opinion, do: it provides a large number of options that would be interesting to incorporate into a character or build a character around.

Such beauty in being the beast

5/5 —

A great book that offers nice alternative new options for the animal-like races and even some that can be used by other races too.

While most of the options are restricted to the exclusive races for PFS play, you could probably go wild with a homebrew setting.

The art in the book is beautiful as well, having at least 2 pictures of each race to represent how they look like.

Better than I anticipated

5/5 —

I was ready for this book to be average. I was wrong. SO MANY OPTIONS! Feats, Traits, Archetypes, Spells. This book really delivers on the mechanical side.

The artwork, layout, and flavor text are all great too, especially the in the Nagaji and Kitsune sections.

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Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
So what are the other catflok archetypes(well other then the bloodrager one) like?

Spoiler:

Ravener hunter is a Mwangi flavored Archetype that's concerned with ridding the jungles of the Ravener King agents and expelling them from the Material plane.

-Skeld
Paizo Employee Developer
1 person marked this as a favorite.

So a Nine-Tailed Scion Fighter Kitsune who takes Human Guise and Racial Heritage can dump all their other feats into Magical Tail and then wield up to Nine Ratfolk Tailblades at once? I mean, it'd take until level 10 to get that many tails, and you'd have literally no other feats, but it's still mildly amusing.
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
KitsuneWarlock wrote:
So a Nine-Tailed Scion Fighter Kitsune who takes Human Guise and Racial Heritage can dump all their other feats into Magical Tail and then wield up to Nine Ratfolk Tailblades at once? I mean, it'd take until level 10 to get that many tails, and you'd have literally no other feats, but it's still mildly amusing.

I'm not familar with the abilities you mention, so I can't comment on what can or can't be done with all that from a rule standpoint.

When you have an opportunity, look at the book and get all the requirements/details you need to make that kind of determination.

-Skeld
Sczarni
Skeld wrote:
Sirrano wrote:
Hey Skeld, any chance you could enlighten me as to some of the options for (best race) ratfolk?

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

That's a lot of cool sounding stuff. I'd love an overview of the

Spoiler:
investigator archetype and inquisitor FCB
if you don't mind :).

Is the Warp discipline Wis or Cha based? Can I get the first level discipline power?
Skeld wrote:
captain yesterday wrote:
Also, i would like to know if there's any cool maps, that maybe show where these races typically hail from.

There's an Inner Sea map inside front cover with regions for each race.

-Skeld

Thank you for everything you've provided so far. If you're willing to answer one more question, just what sort of beast-blood races are found in the River Kingdoms according to that map? And where are Kitsune most commonly found according to it?

Paizo Employee Developer
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks to everyone who kept the discussion here on topic and has answered questions about content thus far.

At this point, the book is starting to go out to subscribers, and as time progresses, more people will have the book than don't. So let's put a moratorium on the reveals of what's on every page of the book and give those still waiting something to look forward to exploring when they finally get their copies.

If anyone has specific questions regarding design intent, clarity, or errata, feel free to ask those questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
Skeld wrote:
Plausible Pseudonym wrote:

Whoa, Ratfolk get a Psychic discipline and four psychic class favored class bonuses?!

Can you tell me the Psychic favored class bonus and a vague overview of the Warp discipline?

Spoiler:
Favored Class Bonuses

Mesmerist - +1 bonus on Concentration to maintain hypnotic stare
Occultist - 1/6 focus power
Psychic - phrenic amplification
Spiritualist - 1/2 HP & 1/2 skill point to Phantom

Warp Discipline - It is Vudra/Casmaron flavored as ratfolk have a tradition of searching out tears in the fabric of reality that grant them some teleportation and defensive type abilities and bonus spells.

-Skeld

+1 the Thanks. I wonder if ratfolk's propensity for psychic magic reflects their roles in Starfinder?

Edit: Or maybe a designer is fond of The Fog from Pinky and The Brain? :)
Paizo Employee Developer
7 people marked this as a favorite.
Ambrosia Slaad wrote:
Or maybe a designer is fond of The Fog from Pinky and The Brain? :)

Crystal wrote the ratfolk section, so you might be on to something.

Silver Crusade Contributor
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Always awesome to see the developer in the thread, answering questions.

Thank you, Mr. Moreland! ^_^
Grand Lodge
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

Looks like I'm done here.

Thanks for playing.

-Skeld
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Thanks Skeld! Thanks Mister Moreland!

I hope to see more of this later in November.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Glad to see some love shown to the beast races. All the info that Skeld provided was great, and I look forward to being able to read it all for myself. Now, I just need to get the money for it.
Skeld wrote:

Looks like I'm done here.

Thanks for playing.

-Skeld

Thank you very much for your responses. I know that's a lot of work.

So, how is the art?
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
So, how is the art?

I like it for the most part. The interior art is far better than the cartoon cover suggests. That Grippli looks like Kermit mid-laugh.

-Skeld

How many pieces of art does each race get?

Do you have a favorite piece of art?
christos gurd wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:

More often than not, I have my PDF by now...not this time. I has a sad. :"(

Skeld, any chance of spoiler-ing the Grippli spell Sweat Poison? I have a Grippli Alchemist and would love to see what it does.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

That seems redundant with their base/racial trait...they already could produce poison. I guess that is for those who swap out...?

I'm guessing the spell is inspired by the Grippli ability...

-Skeld

the race trait is once a day

Then that does make the spell useful, doesn't it?! Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks for the reveals, Skeld.
Looking forward to the regions map for these blood beasts. Love maps...perhaps one reason I am a Geography teacher? Nah. :P"
Skeld wrote:
Ventnor wrote:
What is the gist of the Prowler at the World's End, if you don't mind my asking? And maybe the Naga bloodlines too, if you don't mind answering that.

** spoiler omitted **

-Skeld

O_O Grippli is my favorite race in this book, but that Bloodrager archetype makes me want to play a Catfolk character now!

Cannot wait to get my PDF! Hint, hint, Paizo! Ship mine now, please?!
Silver Crusade

Are the maps only for the Inner Sea? Given that some of these races are from Tian Xia, you'd think the map would be global on this one.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to see this book and flipping through it once it hits stores. I probably won't buy it until it's sanctioned for Pathfinder Society, though, since that's most of my play.
Grand Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

How many pieces of art does each race get?

Do you have a favorite piece of art?

They each get two. The Ratfolk Swarm Monger is probably my favorite.

-Skeld
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Fromper wrote:
Are the maps only for the Inner Sea? Given that some of these races are from Tian Xia, you'd think the map would be global on this one.

The only map is the Inner Sea map on the inside front cover.

-Skeld
1 person marked this as a favorite.

anything good for an adorable bundle of fluffy death foxform fighting kitsune?
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
BigNorseWolf wrote:
anything good for an adorable bundle of fluffy death foxform fighting kitsune?

You'll have to check it out for that.

-Skeld
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hmmm, it is cool that these new kitsune feats and abilities can basically give them a unique playstyle when used for sneak attack feint builds. A kitsune slayer with just a few of the transformation feats will have swift action feints, pounce, and a fox form for scouting. I'm sure that some interesting builds for dazzling display might be possible as well.

Kind of saddened that we don't have a full 'kitsune bloodline', but I guess this sorcerer archetype can kind of make any bloodline into a kitsune bloodline, lol. I've just never felt like the tailed feats were worth it for kitsune sorcerers since they don't benefit from the race's enchantment bonuses.
Skeld wrote:
BigNorseWolf wrote:
anything good for an adorable bundle of fluffy death foxform fighting kitsune?

You'll have to check it out for that.

-Skeld

pre ordered from the FLGS but dont know how long it will be before i get my paws on it.

Dark Archive

So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?
Grand Lodge

Race guide version.

I think the kitsune sorcerer is my favorite art.
Silver Crusade
2 people marked this as a favorite.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Race guide version.

Awww...

:(
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Kevin Mack wrote:
So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?

I don't remember what Catfolk looked like in either of those books, I'll just say that the two pieces of art look like furry people with feline (cat, lion, tiger, whatever) heads and feet, with clawed people hands.

-Skeld
Silver Crusade
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Skeld wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?

I don't remember what Catfolk looked like in either of those books, I'll just say that the two pieces of art look like furry people with feline (cat, lion, tiger, whatever) heads and feet, with clawed people hands.

-Skeld

The Bestiary had the absolutely awesome Carolina Eade art.

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?

I don't remember what Catfolk looked like in either of those books, I'll just say that the two pieces of art look like furry people with feline (cat, lion, tiger, whatever) heads and feet, with clawed people hands.

-Skeld

The Bestiary had the absolutely awesome Carolina Eade art.

Favorite catfolk art of mine, period. None of the others come close, in my opinion. Fantastic vision in that piece of art.

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Fourshadow wrote:


Favorite catfolk art of mine, period. None of the others come close, in my opinion. Fantastic vision in that piece of art.

someone get that catfolk a tuna sandwhich, stat.

Why can't we have good art for catfolk, this is very frustrating.
Silver Crusade
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Why can't we have good art for catfolk, this is very frustrating.

I don't think anyone's said the ACR art is bad, I like it as a matter of fact.

I just like the Bestiary art more. A lot more.
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Why can't we have good art for catfolk, this is very frustrating.

Wildly varying ideas of what good is?

Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.
BigNorseWolf wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Why can't we have good art for catfolk, this is very frustrating.
Wildly varying ideas of what good is?

Eade was busy?

Shadow Lodge
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Fourshadow wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?

I don't remember what Catfolk looked like in either of those books, I'll just say that the two pieces of art look like furry people with feline (cat, lion, tiger, whatever) heads and feet, with clawed people hands.

-Skeld

The Bestiary had the absolutely awesome Carolina Eade art.
Favorite catfolk art of mine, period. None of the others come close, in my opinion. Fantastic vision in that piece of art.

Agreed. Eade really brought something new to the style of that all the others really lack. The later art feels a bit too derivative of the Khajit we see all too often to really stand out from the pack of cat people we see in fantasy.

We haven't gotten any art for them that is like B3's. That is what they were supposed to look like originally. Then Races of Golarion came along and said they can look more animalistic as well but we keep getting the bestial versions.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
doc the grey wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Skeld wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
So what sort of look have they went for the catfolk? Bestiary version, Race guide version or something else?

I don't remember what Catfolk looked like in either of those books, I'll just say that the two pieces of art look like furry people with feline (cat, lion, tiger, whatever) heads and feet, with clawed people hands.

-Skeld

The Bestiary had the absolutely awesome Carolina Eade art.
Favorite catfolk art of mine, period. None of the others come close, in my opinion. Fantastic vision in that piece of art.
Agreed. Eade really brought something new to the style of that all the others really lack. The later art feels a bit too derivative of the Khajit we see all too often to really stand out from the pack of cat people we see in fantasy.

Exactly. I was enchanted immediately by Eade's version. Its pose/behavior seemed more congruous with cats as well.

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Rysky wrote:
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Race guide version.

Awww...

:(

I say "Yay!"

That being said, it'd be nice if fantasy artists would actually use cat-ish things when it comes to catfolk more often, cats' spines are weird <_<

Product discussion thread, folks.

I'm glad to see Bloodrager getting new stuff- it's a fun class with a nice balance of martial and magic.
QuidEst wrote:
I'm glad to see Bloodrager getting new stuff- it's a fun class with a nice balance of martial and magic.

Indeed, I'm looking forward to seeing what the naga bloodrager bloodline is. Back in the playtest, I played a nagaji bloodrager with the aberrant bloodline and flavored his arms as sinuously stretching out like a striking serpent's, his spell storing kukri his poisonous fangs (storing corrosive touch as his 'venom'), and it was a lot of fun.

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