Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 6 (PFRPG)

Yeah I remember the Mezlan, wish they got new art, but happy they made it in.

I quite like the product over all, but does anyone else have a wierdly low-rez image by Tyler Walpole for the Vavakia Demon on p.89?

I've looked closely at every other image in my copy and I've found every other image to be very high resolution and generally beautiful - the contrast is jarring to the point where I can't help but think it might not be intentional...

My friend tells me that there are several such low resolution graphics in the Bestiaries going as far back as #3. He thinks it most commonly occurs on reprinted monsters, where the original image was small, but then got improperly blown up to fill the larger page space of the Bestiaries during reprint.

I haven't confirmed anything of the sort, but I have seen several such images in the Bestiary 6, and speaking as a professional graphic designer, it's damned sloppy! I sure hope whoever is responsible gets a stern talking to, and that it gets fixed before reprint.

edit: also, why can't Herecites be oracles/druids/antipaladins/hunters/onimuji/etc. who don't rely on faith?

All divine spellcasters rely on faith. That's part of what makes faith what it is in the game, a belief in something larger than yourself. Typically that's a deity or demigod or the like, but can also be a philosophy or a pantheon or anything else a divine spellcaster must believe in so as to gain their powers. Including oracles, druids, antipaladins, etc.

Finally got my hard copy in the mail.

Were there issues with the print run? My copy has 30 pages out of order and duplicated with missing entries. It's horrible.

Luthorne wrote:

Would someone be willing to say how long a rougarou can remain in wolf form? Is it 1 minute/HD, indefinitely, something else?

1 minute/HD, as it works like beast shape I.

no it's indefinitely as the change shape monster ability which it is

Finally got my hard copy in the mail.

Were there issues with the print run? My copy has 30 pages out of order and duplicated with missing entries. It's horrible.

No issues I know of, but weird printing errors like this happen with every print run for every book in every publishing company. Let customer service know and they'll help you with a solution.

Thanks for the kind response, James!

All divine spellcasters rely on faith. That's part of what makes faith what it is in the game, a belief in something larger than yourself. Typically that's a deity or demigod or the like, but can also be a philosophy or a pantheon or anything else a divine spellcaster must believe in so as to gain their powers. Including oracles, druids, antipaladins, etc.

Even if you tried to make it so druid and antipaladins did that, that blatantly isn't how oracles and onmyouji work in pathfinder. Oracles don't have a choice in having power, it's just shoved into them faith or not. They don't even know where their powers come from, they don't have anything to believe in and there is a good chance of them disliking what gave them their curse....

oracles believe in a ideal don't they? hence the mystery

James Jacobs wrote:

All divine spellcasters rely on faith. That's part of what makes faith what it is in the game, a belief in something larger than yourself. Typically that's a deity or demigod or the like, but can also be a philosophy or a pantheon or anything else a divine spellcaster must believe in so as to gain their powers. Including oracles, druids, antipaladins, etc.

Even if you tried to make it so druid and antipaladins did that, that blatantly isn't how oracles and onmyouji work in pathfinder. Oracles don't have a choice in having power, it's just shoved into them faith or not. They don't even know where their powers come from, they don't have anything to believe in and there is a good chance of them disliking what gave them their curse....

Actually, it's EXACTLY how oracles work. Feel free to adjust that in your home game, but in Pathfinder, oracles are divine spellcasters and thus their power comes from faith. The oracle may not have a choice to believe since the supernatural elements of her faith are bound to her spirit and soul via her curse, but it's still divine magic and thus still faith based.

And since it says onmyouji spells are divine spells... they rely on faith as well.

That's not really something I want to argue though, so I'll back out of the discussion for now and let folks talk about how it might work differently in home games. I'm only here to confirm how it is assumed to function in the game as we envision it.

I am not really aware where I need to put this but
the hybrid weremantis on page on page 117 appears to have a full attack routine of flurry of blows and claws as well.

I thought monks could not use natural weapons alongside their flurry of blows?

I am not really aware where I need to put this but

the hybrid weremantis on page on page 117 appears to have a full attack routine of flurry of blows and claws as well.

I thought monks could not use natural weapons alongside their flurry of blows?

The best place to post possible mistakes like that one is the possible errata thread.

I just got my copy of Bestiary 6 in the mail. First I flipped through it, admiring the pictures. One feature of the Pathfinder Bestiary series that I especially like how is how the staff at Paizo credits the individual artist of each illustration in the margin. It makes it appear as if Paizo is not some giant corporate entity (cough, cough, Hasbro) in which recognition of individual effort is beneath their level of interest. I wish the staff at Paizo did this in all their publications, including the Player Companions, Campaign Settings and Adventure Paths. A fair number of these illustrations are familiar to me (especially, if memory serves, from Book of the Damned volumes) but, at least in some cases, the artists were not previously credited (individually).

In any case, it looks great! In the upcoming months, it will be included in the "Survey of Bestiaries" blog. In 2017, the staff at the Poison Pie Publishing House have been adding one bestiary each weekend to the survey. As of today, the survey currently includes 149 bestiaries.

Finally got mine yay!

One feature of the Pathfinder Bestiary series that I especially like how is how the staff at Paizo credits the individual artist of each illustration in the margin.

I didn't know that!

-flips to p.111-

Kim Sokol... I'll have to thank her sometime.

Am I the only one here who is disappointed in the huge number of reprinted monsters in this book? When I got into Pathfinder, i bought up a lot of the books, even picking up used copies on ebay. Now that the new bestiary is out, I'm a little annoyed that so much of it is material I already have.

EDIT: And what really annoys me is that its just reprints of stuff from Pathfinder books. Where are the pathfinder updates for crazy monsters from old 3.5 adventures Paizo wrote, like the Hoary Muntjak?

Am I the only one here who is disappointed in the huge number of reprinted monsters in this book? When I got into Pathfinder, i bought up a lot of the books, even picking up used copies on ebay. Now that the new bestiary is out, I'm a little annoyed that so much of it is material I already have.

There are supposedly the same percentage of reprints in the bestiary as their normally are in the bestiaries (which I rather appreciate since I don't buy golarion content so all the creatures in this were new to me and I otherwise would never have seen them).

Mav,

I think it's just you. Also updates from adventures/adventure paths aren't something that occurs regularly. *looks at Cabal Devil longingly*

In ANY case I enjoy this book tremendously.

I am fine with reprints from APs and other softcover books. In fact their some creatures I have been waiting for several years to be reprinted into a hardcover bestiary.

Dragon,

Like Cabal Devils? ;)

Am I the only one here who is disappointed in the huge number of reprinted monsters in this book? When I got into Pathfinder, i bought up a lot of the books, even picking up used copies on ebay. Now that the new bestiary is out, I'm a little annoyed that so much of it is material I already have.

EDIT: And what really annoys me is that its just reprints of stuff from Pathfinder books. Where are the pathfinder updates for crazy monsters from old 3.5 adventures Paizo wrote, like the Hoary Muntjak?

Nope, though I've seen many of them before, I know that in a Bestiary they'll get a lot more coverage and I'm a lot more likely to run into them as a player...not to mention it makes those monsters more available for other adventures, whether they're Pathfinder Society scenarios, modules, Adventure Paths, or third party adventures. Not to mention the convenience of having them all in one book when I'm browsing for monsters in a format that has pictures available.

A question for James Jacobs:

A few reprints in this book were from the Worldwound campaign setting book, but the Gallu demon from that source was not reprinted. Any particular reason?

I think I recall that the new outsiders in the Book of the Damned are all new, so I guess that won't be something the Gallu was saved for.

Mavrickindigo wrote:

Am I the only one here who is disappointed in the huge number of reprinted monsters in this book? When I got into Pathfinder, i bought up a lot of the books, even picking up used copies on ebay. Now that the new bestiary is out, I'm a little annoyed that so much of it is material I already have.

There are supposedly the same percentage of reprints in the bestiary as their normally are in the bestiaries (which I rather appreciate since I don't buy golarion content so all the creatures in this were new to me and I otherwise would never have seen them).

Yep...I believe the ratio of new and old is the same as the last few bestiaries. It might feel a bit obvious with this edition though because the total number of creatures I think is reduced, since there are more two page entries?

I'm not bothered too much, it's good to have them all collected in one place.

Getting monsters reprinted in a Bestiary also puts them into the PRD, which makes them easier for other publishers to use them in their own material.

Indeed. I for one am looking forward to PRD Obsicisdaemon.

Getting monsters reprinted in a Bestiary also puts them into the PRD, which makes them easier for other publishers to use them in their own material.

And for Paizo being able to use them in adventures by simply referencing the name, instead of reprinting the whole statblock, thus saving space for other nice things.

Has anyone tried to make the six Empyreal Lords we have a bit more equal to the CR they represent (this includes Arshea, Black Butterfly, and Ragathiel)? I'm having some difficulty comparing the stats of the three Emypreal Lords we received in this manual to Archdevils, Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Kaiju, and Great Old Ones of similar CR (it keeps coming up unequal in terms of power). Maybe it's just me?

Berselius,

Maybe the reason they're uneven is no one expects normally GOOD PCs to fight such creatures. But I could be wrong.

I wasn't assuming that a party of good-aligned PC's would fight them. I was assuming if an Empyreal Lord (such as Ragathiel or Arshea) fought against a force of equal CR (such as a Demon Lord, Archdevil, or Horseman of Apocalypse). In that case, the Empyreal Lords seem to be at a distinct disadvantage.

Try running Ragathiel against Barbarossa and see what happens.

Gorbacz,

Why would you want to fight a pirate?

I'm not sure, but the autocomplete on my phone's keyboard will likely have the answers when I stop punching the living daylights out of it.

Gorbacz,

Yeah autocomplete/autocorrect are the bane of many people's existence.

Of course, I meant Ragathiel vs. Barbatos fight. But I wasn't too far off, DAT BEARD YO.

They both do have very nice beards, no question.

A slime naga (p. 199) paired with about a half dozen slithering pits (p. 254) made for one of the most exciting and unique encounters I've run in a while. Have fun with that combo, folks!

That sounds like more slithering slimes than I care to imagine...

So is the rougarou's bite damage a d6 or a d4 because the creature's stats say d6 but the 0HD rules says d4?

If you look at the back of the Bestiery pg 302 on the chart a medium sized creature will have a 1d6 bite. Thus I would as a DM determine that in humanoid form this bite would remain a d6 as well. This is further Confirmed when you look at the entry for the Wolf pg 278 as a medium size creature which the Rougarou Change shape's into has. Also by the rules for Change Shape pg 298 they retain their stat abilities and gain any Special Qualities of the new form if any which the Wolf has none so they being a wolfen creature themselves would neither lose or gain anything in the wolf form.

This is just my humble opinion based on the rules set for from the Bestiery books and as a DM of 35 plus years.

Question about Troops.
How do attacks work?
In melee (for goblin troop) it just says: Troop (2d6).
They also have the overwhelm special ability where they deal 3d6 when they occupy the same square as an opponent.
So does that mean that any time a troop is adjacent to someone they automatically deal damage without having to roll for it, like a swarm?

Question about Troops.

How do attacks work?
In melee (for goblin troop) it just says: Troop (2d6).
They also have the overwhelm special ability where they deal 3d6 when they occupy the same square as an opponent.
So does that mean that any time a troop is adjacent to someone they automatically deal damage without having to roll for it, like a swarm?

For the most part, troops act like a swarm. The troop's attack is described on page 308 in the section that talks about the troop subtype. The short of it is that they can attack any creature within their reach or those that they share a square with.

This came out in april 2017.

-When is the pocket edition coming out?

The "Return of the Runelords" & "Tyrants Grasp" adventure paths make frequent use of this volume and i would be glad to add this last missing Bestiary volume to my collection.