Pathfinder Bestiary

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Pathfinder Bestiary
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Unleash the Beasts

Over 400 of fantasy's fiercest foes burst from the pages of this enormous 360-page compendium of the most popular and commonly encountered creatures in the world of Pathfinder! From familiar enemies like orcs, dragons, and vampires to new horrors like the nightmarish nilith and the three-headed mukradi, to suitable servants for summoners of every alignment, this must-have companion to the Pathfinder Core Rulebook is crawling with creatures to challenge characters of any level.

The Pathfinder Bestiary includes:

  • More than 400 monsters!
  • Gorgeous full-color illustrations on nearly every page!
  • Detailed monster lists sorted by level, type, and rarity to help you find the right monster for any situation!
  • Universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and qualities like grab, swallow whole, and regeneration.
  • Guidelines for providing appropriate monstrous treasures for any occasion.
  • Detailed lore sidebars offering additional information about Pathfinder's most popular monstrous friends and foes!

ISBN: 978-1-64078-170-2

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4.70/5 (based on 14 ratings)

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Very happy with it

5/5

Will be replaced with Monster Core, as I understand it. Good creature design and the art is incredible, imho.


5/5


A must Have.

5/5

This bestiary is a must have for every game master.

The good :
The monster have simplified stat block. Running them is easier.

The bad :
I miss the ecology section.
I miss monster templates.

The beautiful :
Art is gorgeous.


An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

The first bestiary for Pathfinder 2 clocks in at 362 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 3 pages of editorial/ToC, 2/3 of a page SRD, 3 pages of advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 352 1/3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested by my patreon supporters.

First of all, regarding organization, it should be noted that the bestiary includes lists of creatures by level, and a list of creatures by type – the inclusion of these is helpful when navigating the book. Creatures traits, ranging from rarity to sizes, are included, and the book contains 3 rituals, which all deal with outsiders – abyssal and infernal pact do pretty much what you’d expect them to, and angelic messenger lets you transport to a celestial plane or the material plane, acting as a messenger. Nice here: The system’s degrees of success and failure now present the chances for narratives hardcoded in here – the angel stranded, the pact gone horribly wrong; these tried and true and oft-employed plot-devices now have a representation within the framework of the rules.

Considering that this bestiary is the first one for PF2, it warrants a couple of additional observations regarding its quality as such; the first bestiary for any given iteration of a fantasy game inheriting the general tropes of Dungeons and Dragons is usually neither something that I usually enjoy reviewing, or that warrants particular mentioning. In many ways, there is simply not that much to discuss, as the bestiary is required for a precise use of the system anyhow. And indeed, this bestiary is the first of these “first bestiaries” in quite a few editions that I actually read in detail, and not simply referenced when its use was required; partially due to my reviewer status, and partially because Pathfinder’s second edition represents a pretty significant change of the dynamics of these books in a few ways.

So, the first thing to bear in mind, is that the first bestiary needs to present a sort of lowest common denominator (and that is not meant in a disparaging manner) for fantasy gaming with the respective game; after all, the monsters in these books make up what you’d consider to be the standard, the pool that all supplements will continue to draw from. You may not be able to assume that everyone has bestiary #4, but chances are that if you’re playing a certain game, you’ll at least have the first one, right? In a way, bestiary #1 for a given system thus has a lot of “mandatory” creatures to be included. You’ll need orcs, ogres, dragons, some of the most iconic demons and devils – you get the idea. And then, still, plenty of people will have their nerdrage, because their favorite critter’s not, or no longer, included.

Heck, I know, for that’s exactly how I felt when I read the 3.0 Monster Manual back in the day. Speaking of which – you can picture my abject boredom and disappointment when I realized that I could have just left the 3.5 version of that book on the shelf and not miss much; in many ways, from a monster-perspective, Pathfinder 1, for me as a person, started becoming distinct and actually relevant when Bestiary 2+ hit shelves, when the creatures started to differentiate in both themes and focus from what we had seen before. This held particularly true after Bestiary 2, but I digress. PF 1’s first bestiary, to me, did not exactly elicit any serious excitement; I got because I was dipping my toes in PF 1, and not because I had a serious desire to get it per se; it felt like another iteration of a book I already owned twice, and while it is to this date my favorite of the three, it also continued a focus that I couldn’t help but bemoan.

I might be an odd one out in that regard, but know why I pored over my 2nd edition monster books, time and again? Why I actually read those in detail, something that, apart from the context of reviewing, I never had the desire to do for PF 1, at least not in the beginning? (That did change later, when builds became more distinct and differentiated.) The thing I was missing? It’s simple. Lore. Granted, we don’t need the same lines explaining how undead have no place in the natural order of things ten times over. More often than not, the information on habitat, ecology, etc. actually proved to be inspiring to me and made up a lot of what I considered to be exciting about reading a monster book. In direct contrast, monster manuals based on d20-systems system-immanently got rid of those components in order to fit in more statblocks – after all, the increase in rules complexity also resulted in an increased amount of space devoted to the respective statistics of the creature. Compare to that how 13th Age’s statblocks got rid of essentially all non-combat utility in favor of lore for another extreme example on the lore-to-rules ratio – in that case, competitive scenarios beyond combat were somewhat scaled down.

The bestiary for Pathfinder’s second edition is, in one way, a step away from that tendency, while still embracing it. Some creatures have multiple paragraphs of lore, while others have a single sentence, and said lore if often Golarion-specific. The layout presents the creatures in a one-column style, with a margin providing information pertaining to the creature – say, mephitis, to name one, have the information that other mephit types exist; angels have a brief note on angelic divinities and locations; it’s not much, granted, but it reintroduces some immediately gameable components that usually were relegated to lore sections back into the meat of the book. Why not more? I get it. Personally, I love getting my detailed discussions of creatures, but there also are plenty of people that want to maximize the amount of rules-relevant material, particularly in such a book. I am pretty positive that nobody is going to explain about the sheer amount of creatures included in this tome. That being said, while this space is *often* used to accommodate the lavish artworks in this tome, it also sometimes results in lost real estate, and I was somewhat puzzled to realize that the Lore skill’s use of Recall Knowledge regarding creatures was not included. Listing sample DCs and subcategories for the creatures in question would have made sense, and filled in some space; in a way, I get why – this’d have made the book look more busy than it already does. But at the same time, the skill-engine of PF2 has this use specifically hard-coded into its bones, so the lack of this aspect did strike me as odd.

Then again, there is more than the excellent artwork to comment upon in a positive manner, and that would, at least to me, be simply how elegant PF2’s statblocks are. While statblocks, including high-level statblocks, can be pretty compact, the new format allows you to add a ton of complex abilities and flavor into the monster statblocks, if you so desire. For rank and file critters, this means we get more statblocks; for more unique creatures, this means you can get complex and captivating critters with lots of special abilities.

Many people, and I confess to being among those, were afraid that PF2 would attempt to beat 5e at its own game, and that has not happened; in many ways, the two systems have gone diametrically-opposed paths, in spite of some superficial similarities, and nowhere is this more readily apparent than in the creature design and statblocks. D&D 5e presents creature stats in a very novice-friendly manner; the statblocks spell out everything in detail – when a creature has the swallow whole feature, we have a whole paragraph explaining how it works for that creature. Spellcasting behaves similarly, paying for the reduction in spell statblock complexity by relegating components of the spell’s rules to the main spell text. The creatures in Pathfinder’s second edition go a different route: Instead of spelling out everything (at the cost of how easily you can parse statblocks quickly), they establish a series of abilities that come up time and again, and then present the crucial components in a tight manner. In Pathfinder’s second edition, you have to know what swallow whole does – but when you do, you can see the glyph for one action, maximum size, the damage, and a “rupture” value that represents the damage you need to do to get out; Engulf and many other abilities work in a similar manner. So yeah, Pathfinder instead frontloads a couple of things you need to know, but makes parsing/quickly running statblocks you haven’t prepared faster.

An example, perhaps, to illustrate the difference – let’s take a look at the good ole’ Purple Worm:
“Swallow Whole (one action glyph) Huge, 3d6+9 bludgeoning, Rupture 24.”
Vs.
“[Bite attack’s damage etc….] If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the worm. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the worm, and it takes 21 (6d6) acid damage at the start of each of the worm’s turns. If the worm takes 30 or more damage on a single turn from a creature inside it, the worm must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the worm.[…]”

Which of these is better? I honestly can’t say. Both of them have distinct advantages; 5e makes it easier for novices to have all rules spelled out at one place, while Pathfinder’s second edition requires that you know how “swallow whole” works – once you do, however, you become MUCH more efficient at running the creature; you don’t have to look for the mechanically-relevant components in a paragraph of text. I’ve talked to quite a few people, and the opinions are divided pretty much in the middle. Some prefer the detail, because they don’t want to learn the “universal” monster rules; some prefer the streamlining of these, particularly since the creatures in Pathfinder 2 have taken an important lesson from the first edition to heart – there is a much higher propensity towards having unique abilities (which are, obviously, properly spelled out), which renders them feeling less mechanical. Now, as a person, I can parse PF2’s statblocks more efficiently than those of 5e, plus I prefer this style. As a reviewer, I consider both to be two distinct and valid solutions to the same issue. So yeah, as far as I’m concerned, the PF2 statblock can be considered to be a success – statblocks are divided in utility, defense and offense – easy to read and parse.

Another success is one that is perhaps more subtle and something that mainly designers will notice, namely the fact that the statblocks adhere to a consistency between stats, sizes and e.g. spells – take e.g. a look at polymorph spells and the respective creatures. Speaking of creatures and details – one component to be renamed creatures. To explain that: IP and the like have been an issue all through d20’s lifespan, and this new edition takes a lot of critters and renames them according to Paizo IP. Let’s e.g. take the Alghollthu. These are now the catch-all terms for Bulwer-Lytton-esque antediluvian critters like Aboleths and Skum, as well as Veiled Masters; essentially the “Ruins of Azlant”-y critters (still one of my favorite APs). The categorical names makes sense to me as a whole; as for the other creatures, there are a couple of renames that are just a matter of getting used to it, and in several instances, I really like them. Take the Ankhrav. If you’re familiar with Germanic languages, “graben” means “digging”; “Grav” means grave; Ankh- is a pretty well-known prefix for a classic monster, so you can determine that that’s the new Ankheg. Arboreals are obviously tree-people, taking a step away from the ole’ Tolkien-IP. “Dire animals” have now become the proper appellations (cave bear, megalodon), with the obvious exception of dire wolves, which are a real world thing. Whether that makes sense or not for you depends, but the careful reader will also notice that the elemental creatures have been changed – we get 4 more normal elementals, and one odd man out per element. This includes xorns, invisible stalkers, salamander – those are now listed among the elementals. I confess to that throwing me in for a loop for a second.

So, one big advantage I noticed here, would be that many boss monsters have obviously been designed to focus on attacks on single targets or spread out attacks to multiple targets; the new action economy means that the boss monsters no longer require the set ups for full attacks to be efficient. GMs won’t have to engage in as much trickery as in PF 1 to make bosses, particularly stand-alone boss monsters, work. Speaking of bosses and something I LOVED seeing: The book takes an often more roleplaying-focused approach to some classics: Succubi, for example, now take damage from being rejected (cue in all those demons being insulted and becoming REALLY aggressive…), and this roleplaying angle can be combat-relevant, when e.g. including such a rejection or reference to one in the Demoralize attempt. I defy, I deny thee! Heck yeah. In many ways, this focuses more on the roleplaying, and uses it to supplement the combat; rules helping with roleplaying. That’s a good tendency, as far as I’m concerned. Mechanically, I love the succubus here; the artwork is (apart from 5e’s version), the least sexy take on the demon of lust I’ve seen in a while (srsly, I see more risqué outfits whenever I go out), so that may be a plus or minus for you. No chainmail bikinis herein; no cheesecake, no beefcake – so if you’ve been hoping for a more edgy game, if you considered the big games too sanitized, that hasn’t changed.

What *has* changed is often what kind of creatures were chosen: The highest-CR critter? It’s not a pitiful version of the Tarrasque (like in 3.0, 3.5 and PF1), but Treerazer, who goes Troll II on you – he turns you partially into a plant by just being near, and he’ll do more damage/horrid wilt you – OUCH. A really cool boss build of a unique critter, who gets an awesome build, a sentient, supportive artifact, and sidebar notes on cults. Awesome. I wish more creatures had been afforded this deluxe treatment – in particular, the take on the wendigo, another one of my favorites herein, would have deserved as much. The build is complex, genuinely frightening, and oh boy, it’ll kill you off…it’s a level 17 creature that sees heat, has the signature curse properly here, the ride the wind angle…this fellow REALLY deserved the lore angle. The amazing statblock only has one line of flavor, when it obviously would have been a perfect candidate for two-page boss-treatment. (Whoever made this one did a great job!) On a plus-side, there are quite a few options where this edition does some things I *personally* enjoy – werebeasts, for example, now have different abilities regarding their respective bloodlines. Wererats have different abilities than werewolves. Finer differentiation is nice to see.

There are some things that have kinda irked the OCD guy in me: Take, for example, the attacks called “jaws” – these attacks deal piercing damage, but there is no system beyond this damage type: Sometimes, these have reach, or range, sometimes they are agile (or deadly, or with another weapon property) – there is no nomenclature that differentiates jaw attacks from e.g. fang attacks. Fang attacks also cause piercing damage, and can also have weapon properties. Personally, I’d have prefer both referring to a unique type of melee attack with certain properties, instead of being essentially interchangeable. But that may just be me. This is not necessarily a downside for the vast majority of people. More relevant for most people: There are no rules for making your own critters, or for how class levels and abilities may be added to critters. I kinda hope that the engine here will end up being a bit more complex than the one for Starfinder; as much as I love SF’s engine, it also can be easy for math-savvy players to reverse-engineer.

The conclusion of my review can be found here.


An excellent collection of monsters.

5/5

This is a bestiary for a fantasy RPG game, meaning that it's a collection of monstrous enemies and allies for players to meet, face, likely defeat and brag about later! If this passage left you confused, you might want to check what role-playing games are about elsewhere, I will proceed assuming that potential buyer knows what s/he is looking at :)

Now, looking at this book from a gamer's perspective, it's a peach. The Bestiary provides you with a barrage of opponents to fight against or to team up with, from mundane animals to devils from abyss. How many of them? Scores, few hundreds by my count. What's the variety? Enormous, as creatures from real-world myths, cryptozoology, religion as well as made-up fantasy gaming staples (oozes, for example) are all present. Unicorns, gremlins, angels and rust monsters, wights and giant worms, dark elves and vampires.

Every creature is represented by artwork (ranging from good to gorgeous), lore (ecology, society, habits) and gaming stats (attacks, defenses, etc). One very big welcome change from previous edition of the game is that lore takes up FAR more space and there's lots more interesting, catchy information on each monster. That makes including them in the game and making them part of a living world much easier.

So I've been gushing so far, are there any flip sides? Yes, one minor annoyance - some monster's statistics spread across two pages, requiring an occasional flip back and forth. I'd prefer stats to all sit on one page, but I guess that was the price for keeping the book reasonably big. I can live with that.

Excellent volume. You won't be disappointed!


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Liberty's Edge

Question on Dragons - entry notes 'shape-changing dragons.' I can't tell if any of the dragons listed are shape-changing dragons. Can someone point one of them out to me so I know what to look for in the stat blocks? It's probably right in front of my face, but I can't find it.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Githzilla wrote:
Question on Dragons - entry notes 'shape-changing dragons.' I can't tell if any of the dragons listed are shape-changing dragons. Can someone point one of them out to me so I know what to look for in the stat blocks? It's probably right in front of my face, but I can't find it.

There are no shape changing dragon stat blocks, so you didn't miss anything, unless I missed it too.

My guess it's an optional ability you can slap on any dragon you want.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
captain yesterday wrote:
Githzilla wrote:
Question on Dragons - entry notes 'shape-changing dragons.' I can't tell if any of the dragons listed are shape-changing dragons. Can someone point one of them out to me so I know what to look for in the stat blocks? It's probably right in front of my face, but I can't find it.

There are no shape changing dragon stat blocks, so you didn't miss anything, unless I missed it too.

My guess it's an optional ability you can slap on any dragon you want.

It is, much like the spellcasting. The only difference is that the shape changing doesn't sub in for any other abilities.


The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What about the fey? Hamadryad, Elkin and the Wild Hunt, are they in?

Any Tane other them the jabberwocky if even?

I meant Erlking. Is it in the book? I don't think so.

The Hamadryad just got previewed in the newest blog post.

Again, any Tane other them the jabberwocky, if even?

What about the true elementals, which ones are in the book?

Silver Crusade

Yay for trans kitty Lamia and and John Cart of Mars snek Lamia!

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Are other lamia kin like hungerers and such mentioned?

Silver Crusade

CorvusMask wrote:
Are other lamia kin like hungerers and such mentioned?

I asked my friend who has the book about the lamia and those were the only two shown. There might be more mentioned in the writeups though.


I like pretty much everything in the bestiary, except:

-I don't know why, but it feels incomplete. (And it's not the fact that we pass from multiple bestiaries to one, I felt satisfied with PF1 B1 and I had all the D&D monster manuals).

-Why is the palette for all the azatas so green?

-Some of the art, especially the devil art.

-The fact that goblins are in here. You passed them to the CRB. There are no humans or elves in here, why goblins? Relatedly, I also dislike that the other ancestries are in here as monsters and we don't have ancestry stats (I know why, I still don't like it).

-For some weird reason faerie dragons are arcane sorcerers, but if they grow more powerful they become druids?

Some of the art I really like:

-Angels
-Demons
-Dragons
-Lamia (the normal one)
-Nymphs
-Poracha
-Voidworm
-Sphinx
-Pixie
-Wendigo


The Gold Sovereign wrote:
The Gold Sovereign wrote:

What about the fey? Hamadryad, Elkin and the Wild Hunt, are they in?

Any Tane other them the jabberwocky if even?

I meant Erlking. Is it in the book? I don't think so.

The Hamadryad just got previewed in the newest blog post.

Again, any Tane other them the jabberwocky, if even?

What about the true elementals, which ones are in the book?

No Erlking, no Tane and yes to the 4 classic elemental types.


Are there any alghollthus or Dominion of the Black creatures?


HTD wrote:
Are there any alghollthus or Dominion of the Black creatures?

Yes to both.


Amaranthine Witch wrote:
HTD wrote:
Are there any alghollthus or Dominion of the Black creatures?
Yes to both.

Which species exactly (other than normal aboleths and neh-thalggus)?


That's all.


captain yesterday wrote:
That's all.

Not really, there's also the veiled master and two servitor races in the skum and faceless stalkers.

Brain collectors are indeed the only Dominion of the Black creature I've come across.


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

Anyone find any Oni in this book?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Opsylum wrote:
Anyone find any Oni in this book?

No oni. No kami either. One assumes we'll get them at the same time, hopefully in Bestiary II.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Some minor things I noticed:

They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.

Merfolk can no longer breathe air -- They are aquatic, not amphibious.

Fungus creatures and plant creatures are distinct types of creatures.

Nothing unites the formerly reptilian humanoids except for a high likelihood of being able to speak Draconic.

Since all of the planar scions in the Bestiary have the Human keyword, I think we have confirmation about them being universal or near-universal heritages.


David knott 242 wrote:
They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.

Heh. Derro are WotC IP. But Dero, from the Shaver Mysteries, are public domain.


David knott 242 wrote:

Some minor things I noticed:

They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.

Merfolk can no longer breathe air -- They are aquatic, not amphibious.

Fungus creatures and plant creatures are distinct types of creatures.

Nothing unites the formerly reptilian humanoids except for a high likelihood of being able to speak Draconic.

Since all of the planar scions in the Bestiary have the Human keyword, I think we have confirmation about them being universal or near-universal heritages.

I'm homebrewing the Reptilian trait.

A question. What are the traits of the aasimar? Do they get the Celestial trait or the trait related to their planar race?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Some minor things I noticed:

They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.

Merfolk can no longer breathe air -- They are aquatic, not amphibious.

Fungus creatures and plant creatures are distinct types of creatures.

Nothing unites the formerly reptilian humanoids except for a high likelihood of being able to speak Draconic.

Since all of the planar scions in the Bestiary have the Human keyword, I think we have confirmation about them being universal or near-universal heritages.

I'm homebrewing the Reptilian trait.

A question. What are the traits of the aasimar? Do they get the Celestial trait or the trait related to their planar race?

Celestial, Human, Humanoid

Kobold is Kobold, Humanoid


Hill Giant wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.
Heh. Derro are WotC IP. But Dero, from the Shaver Mysteries, are public domain.

Probably unrelated to the change, but 'derro' is also Australian slang. :)

derived from the word 'derelict'. Means hobo, bum, no-hoper, poorly-dressed, unkempt person.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Fallyna wrote:
Hill Giant wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
They changed the spelling of derro -- They are "dero" now.
Heh. Derro are WotC IP. But Dero, from the Shaver Mysteries, are public domain.

Probably unrelated to the change, but 'derro' is also Australian slang. :)

derived from the word 'derelict'. Means hobo, bum, no-hoper, poorly-dressed, unkempt person.

I bet that is why Paizo changed it. The d20 SRD would have let them keep using the "derro" spelling under the OGL.

Silver Crusade

CorvusMask wrote:
Are other lamia kin like hungerers and such mentioned?

Coming back to this after getting my copy, there is a sidebar mentioning the Kuchrima and what is possibly the Hungerer.

Dark Archive

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.
That is very probably a typo.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.

That is very probably a typo.

Not all -- There seem to be some ancient dragons that are legitimately only huge. But with the red dragon being the biggest of the chromatic dragons, it does seem odd that its ancient version isn't huge.

I am thinking that one way to check the sizes might be to look at the reaches of their attacks. If the reach values going from one age category to the next go up but the size doesn't, I would take that as a hint that they probably got the size category wrong.

Dark Archive

David knott 242 wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.

That is very probably a typo.

Not all -- There seem to be some ancient dragons that are legitimately only huge. But with the red dragon being the biggest of the chromatic dragons, it does seem odd that its ancient version isn't huge.

I am thinking that one way to check the sizes might be to look at the reaches of their attacks. If the reach values going from one age category to the next go up but the size doesn't, I would take that as a hint that they probably got the size category wrong.

All chromatics are the same:

-young = large
-adult = huge
-ancient = gargantuan
The ancient red being the only exception.

There is no reach listed in Second Edition stat blocks anymore.
They only do that when creatures have an attack that differs in reach from the norm.

Dark Archive

New or optically changed Bestiary 2E creatures:

:
-Choral (s) Angel
-Arboral Warden (L) "Treant"
-Horned Archon (m)
-Baomal (G) two-headed Dragon Turtle
-Bulette (H)
-Cauthooj (m) beast/bird
-Azure Worm (G)
-Crimson Worm (G)
-Chuul (L) looks like a Mantis w 3 legs
-Dezullon (m) plant
-Drakauthix (H) fungus
-River Drake (m)
-Flame Drake (L)
-Jungle Drake (L)
-Elanax (m) fey
-Zephyr Hawk (s) air elem.
-Sod Hound (s) earth elem.
-Cinder Rat (s) fire elem.
-Brine Shark (s) water elem
-Ether Spider (L)
-Snapping Flytrap (L)
-Kapocinth (m) sea gargoy
-Gimmerling (s) fey
-Gogiteth (L) abberation
-Adamantine Golem (H)
-Gikkitog (H) abberation
-Guthallath (G) construct
-Hobgoblin (m)
-Kobold (s)
-Krooth (L)
-Leaf Leshy (s)
-Fungus Leshy (s)
-Giant Gecko (m)
-Mukradi (G) 3-headed centipede
-Nilith (m) abberation
-Ofalth (L) abberation
-Poracha (m) 8-legged cat
-Quetzalcoatlus (H) animal
-Quelaunt (L) abberation
-Shadow (m)
-Shuln (H) beast
-Skulltaker (H) undead
-Giant Anaconda (H) was gargantuan in 1E
-Goliath Spider (G) formally colossal
-Sprite (t) formerly diminutive
-Terotricus (G) fungus
-Uthul (H) elem.
-Wemmuth (H) plant
-Zaramuun (L) elem.
-Zombie Brute (L)
-Zombie Hulk (H)

Dark Archive

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Thanks, Marco, that lineup looks great! :)

One more day... just one more day! I'm glad I "saved" Knights of Everflame for tonight and didn't watch it yesterday! :)


People have been saying that the aeon didn't just take the place of inevitables, rather the inevitables are the aeons. Is that true? Could someone clarify that to me?

Silver Crusade

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The Gold Sovereign wrote:
People have been saying that the aeon didn't just take the place of inevitables, rather the inevitables are the aeons. Is that true? Could someone clarify that to me?

Aeon is the category, Inevitables an Axiomites are types of Aeons.


Rysky wrote:
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
People have been saying that the aeon didn't just take the place of inevitables, rather the inevitables are the aeons. Is that true? Could someone clarify that to me?
Aeon is the category, Inevitables an Axiomites are types of Aeons.

Oooh, that's interesting. I didn't realize that's what they meant when they said that Aeons were the new LN race.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.

That is very probably a typo.

Not all -- There seem to be some ancient dragons that are legitimately only huge. But with the red dragon being the biggest of the chromatic dragons, it does seem odd that its ancient version isn't huge.

I am thinking that one way to check the sizes might be to look at the reaches of their attacks. If the reach values going from one age category to the next go up but the size doesn't, I would take that as a hint that they probably got the size category wrong.

All chromatics are the same:

-young = large
-adult = huge
-ancient = gargantuan
The ancient red being the only exception.

There is no reach listed in Second Edition stat blocks anymore.
They only do that when creatures have an attack that differs in reach from the norm.

I distinctly remember the white dragon being only huge in size.

And, with four different attacks with different reach values, we do have reach listed in every dragon stat block. They only left it out when it was more than 5 feet (which is one out of the four attacks at size Large).


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Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Dark Archive

David knott 242 wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.

That is very probably a typo.

Not all -- There seem to be some ancient dragons that are legitimately only huge. But with the red dragon being the biggest of the chromatic dragons, it does seem odd that its ancient version isn't huge.

I am thinking that one way to check the sizes might be to look at the reaches of their attacks. If the reach values going from one age category to the next go up but the size doesn't, I would take that as a hint that they probably got the size category wrong.

All chromatics are the same:

-young = large
-adult = huge
-ancient = gargantuan
The ancient red being the only exception.

There is no reach listed in Second Edition stat blocks anymore.
They only do that when creatures have an attack that differs in reach from the norm.

I distinctly remember the white dragon being only huge in size.

And, with four different attacks with different reach values, we do have reach listed in every dragon stat block. They only left it out when it was more than 5 feet (which is one out of the four attacks at size Large).

You are right, i didn't look well enough, sorry!

Smallest size is large, biggest is Gargantuan.
The Ancient Red lists 20 feet reach with it's bite, so it should be gargantuan, not huge.

That being said, the gargantuan blue & gargantuan white minis from Shattered Star & Reign of Winter are now obsolete for Second Edition, as only green & red chromatic dragons get larger than huge.

I would have prefered simplyfying sizes to L, H & G for all dragons.
Medium Dragons are also not a thing anymore, so no need for those minis in 2E.

Silver Crusade

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Unless the Gamemastery Guide lets us make/use the other age categories.


David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?

Dark Archive

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It seems no Bestiary pawn Box is planned atm. The first pawn product announced for 2E is the "Age of Ashes" pawn collection in march 2020...

Can anybody verify that?

Silver Crusade

Xenocrat wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?

They actually do get the Call too.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Xenocrat wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?

Some probably do


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Rysky wrote:
Xenocrat wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?
They actually do get the Call too.

Maybe I slightly misread what the Bestiary said. The Call definitely does not get through, but I do not recall whether their hag mothers don't send it out or their sons are simply unable to respond for some reason. Does anyone else remember exactly what the Bestiary says about this matter? It will be several hours before I can look it up myself.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Marco Massoudi wrote:

The ancient red dragon is listed as huge, all other ancient dragons are gargantuan.

That is very probably a typo.

Confirmed typo. The ancient red is gargantuan.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

It seems no Bestiary pawn Box is planned atm. The first pawn product announced for 2E is the "Age of Ashes" pawn collection in march 2020...

Can anybody verify that?

If only there were a big show or convention coming soon that might be a good place to make additional announcements!

AKA: Stay tuned.

Silver Crusade

David knott 242 wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Xenocrat wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?
They actually do get the Call too.

Maybe I slightly misread what the Bestiary said. The Call definitely does not get through, but I do not recall whether their hag mothers don't send it out or their sons are simply unable to respond for some reason. Does anyone else remember exactly what the Bestiary says about this matter? It will be several hours before I can look it up myself.

It predominantly targets women, it made no mention of ignoring men.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Rysky wrote:
Xenocrat wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:

Another obscure item I picked up last night: Changelings are no longer female only. The difference is that male Changelings don't get the Call from their hag mothers, so they pass for members of their father's race a lot longer.

Any explanation for why hags don't kill them on birth?
They actually do get the Call too.

Maybe I slightly misread what the Bestiary said. The Call definitely does not get through, but I do not recall whether their hag mothers don't send it out or their sons are simply unable to respond for some reason. Does anyone else remember exactly what the Bestiary says about this matter? It will be several hours before I can look it up myself.

It predominantly targets women, it made no mention of ignoring men.

This is the correct reading of it, for the record.

Sovereign Court

PDF available yet?

Silver Crusade

1bent1 wrote:
PDF available yet?

Got almost 12 more hours.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Aww man, core book is available but bestiary isn't yet :D


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

It is now.


Are stats for familiars in here anywhere? I can't seem to find them.


My PDF order has been stuck on "Pending" and "not available" since 10am this morning, but the CRB came through just fine. Is there something up with the Bestiary file or is it me?

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