Pathfinder Bestiary

4.70/5 (based on 14 ratings)
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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Dark Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Hydra, Troll & 3 Kobolds.

I'll definetly buy this for art & lore, even if i don't end up playing PF 2.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

2 people marked this as a favorite.

It's got a ton of both! :)

Liberty's Edge

3 people marked this as a favorite.

The mention of summoning creatures makes me very curious to see if we will get the "base stats + template" style of Starfinder, which has gone over very well at my tables.

Dark Archive

4 people marked this as a favorite.

I love the "detailed lore sidebars idea! :-)

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

"summoners"
>:O

More importantly, this means we'll be getting a bonkers amount of new Ancestries right off the bat, huh? I'm unbelievably psyched up!

Paizo Employee Franchise Manager

8 people marked this as a favorite.

There are no ancestries in this book, though we do have plans to release more ancestries soon.


20 people marked this as a favorite.

The new Kobold designs are heckin' adorable.


Ok, I'm completely excited even though I know the great majority of the monsters in it... I just want to see what's the new take of Paizo in the many names and abilities and traits and monstrous races (I'm not talking about ancestries) and specially the small but interesting COMPLETELY NEW content and creatures.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Albatoonoe wrote:
The new Kobold designs are heckin' adorable.

Are those Kobold? REALLY? I'm in love with this new design if they really are kobold. They are more draconic and I do like dragons, I'm sure. *-*

And that's a good way to get us an idea of how the old monsters can still surprise us with a new flavor.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

No mention of gremlins...
*sigh*

Silver Crusade

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

So, if I start a subscription with the CRB, will I get this also?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Drago95 wrote:
So, if I start a subscription with the CRB, will I get this also?

Yes, that's what the FAQ says and additionally I just started a new subscription with the Core Rulebook and it lists both that and the Bestiary in the pending subscription items.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

New Kobolds are so cute


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Pity this wasn't the same size as the core rulebook.


9 people marked this as a favorite.
Albatoonoe wrote:
The new Kobold designs are heckin' adorable.

I can just see them yelling "We're not adorable! We're ferocious and terrifying!" in a squeaky little voice, sounding even more adorable.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I like the troll redesign, but can't say I am a fan of the kobolds


1 person marked this as a favorite.
MMCJawa wrote:
I like the troll redesign, but can't say I am a fan of the kobolds

WHAT?! How can you not be a fan of those wee bipedal dragon babies?!

(I kid. Taste is taste)

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.
DaveMage wrote:
Pity this wasn't the same size as the core rulebook.

While I would have loved 600+ pages of monsters, I think the weight of that and the Core Rulebook would cause me to throw my back out heading to game sessions.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The topic of "the first Bestiary" was discussed heavily when PF2 was launched. I'll be very interested to hear who things turned out in the end.

Useless Feedback:
I don't know if it's just me, but I would have loved the opportunity to purchase a deluxe version of this as well as the CRB.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Steve Geddes wrote:

The topic of "the first Bestiary" was discussed heavily when PF2 was launched. I'll be very interested to hear who things turned out in the end.

** spoiler omitted **

Well then you are in luck. https://paizo.com/products/btq01y0n?Pathfinder-Bestiary-Deluxe-Hardcover

Liberty's Edge

Steve Geddes wrote:

The topic of "the first Bestiary" was discussed heavily when PF2 was launched. I'll be very interested to hear who things turned out in the end.

** spoiler omitted **

I have some good news for you!

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Seems to be a typo in the description:

Quote:
this must-have companion to the Pathfinder Bestiary is crawling

Should that be Core Rulebook instead?


Vorsk, Follower or Erastil wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:

The topic of "the first Bestiary" was discussed heavily when PF2 was launched. I'll be very interested to hear who things turned out in the end.

** spoiler omitted **

Well then you are in luck. https://paizo.com/products/btq01y0n?Pathfinder-Bestiary-Deluxe-Hardcover
Shisumo wrote:
Steve Geddes wrote:

The topic of "the first Bestiary" was discussed heavily when PF2 was launched. I'll be very interested to hear who things turned out in the end.

** spoiler omitted **

I have some good news for you!

Thank you both!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

New Kobolds look amazing! My entire Group went; Oooohhhh <3

Silver Crusade

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Awwwww, dem new 'Bolds, totes adorbs. *reloads the crossbow*


1 person marked this as a favorite.

A lore sidebar? I'm really hoping dragons got a big enough sidebar to give them the new pathfinder flavor all other creatures like demons and devils are getting.

Silver Crusade

Albatoonoe wrote:
The new Kobold designs are heckin' adorable.

YUSSSSSS I love them!

Also that lore sidebar has my attention.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Master Pugwampi wrote:

No mention of gremlins...

*sigh*

*pats Wumpums*


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Someone had to replace gobs now that they are an ancestry...

*cue all us Kobold fans to scream for kobold ancestries and get us ready to patiently explain to regular players of traditional ancestries like goblins and chaosbeasts why kobolds and half-niliths should totes be biological character choices in PF3's Age of New Options.*


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I hope that along their new found kobolds also got better stats
P.S I am trying to bait a developer into answering

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

4 people marked this as a favorite.
OCEANSHIELDWOLPF 2.0 wrote:

Someone had to replace gobs now that they are an ancestry...

*cue all us Kobold fans to scream for kobold ancestries and get us ready to patiently explain to regular players of traditional ancestries like goblins and chaosbeasts why kobolds and half-niliths should totes be biological character choices in PF3's Age of New Options.*

Kobold ancestry for Pathfinder 3.0 confirmed, coming in 2029. :-P


OCEANSHIELDWOLPF 2.0 wrote:

Someone had to replace gobs now that they are an ancestry...

*cue all us Kobold fans to scream for kobold ancestries and get us ready to patiently explain to regular players of traditional ancestries like goblins and chaosbeasts why kobolds and half-niliths should totes be biological character choices in PF3's Age of New Options.*

I could see a certain tribe of the adorable little 'bolds for a certain neutrally-aligned organization. There's history there.

Spoiler:
True Dragons of Absalom did have some awesome pregens that could make another appearance that I'd be okay with.


Looks interesting and I like the kobolds!

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
rooneg wrote:
Drago95 wrote:
So, if I start a subscription with the CRB, will I get this also?
Yes, that's what the FAQ says and additionally I just started a new subscription with the Core Rulebook and it lists both that and the Bestiary in the pending subscription items.

My pending subscription item list does not show the Bestiary. Hrmmmm....


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Will it contain creature/NPC creation rules like those in the appendices of Starfinder Alien Archive?

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Singularity wrote:
Will it contain creature/NPC creation rules like those in the appendices of Starfinder Alien Archive?

Appearently no.

That is being moved to a "Game Mastery" type guide.

Liberty's Edge

When I looked at the kobolds, after seeing them mentioned in this thread, I immediately thought Goblins morphed a bit into dragons and with dragon colors.

I preferred the old style (more distinct from the Gobs), but it seems to be popular, so no problem for me here. Also it gives a more pure-Paizonesque feel to them.

I wish very dearly that the lore sidebars are what PCs get when succeeding at their Know Monster checks :-)


4 people marked this as a favorite.

I am hoping the Paizofication of monsters is more widespread. They did a good start in the beginning of Pathfinder, notably with goblins, ogres and trolls, but didn't quite finish the job. I like the distinct look telling you straight off "This is Paizo." But some of the other creatures have been inconsistent in their portrayal. Hobgoblins in particular kind of range but tend to just look like grey orcs. The example we saw in the previews of the new hobgoblins and bugbears that show their family resemblance to goblins I think were a nice start. With the new adorable little kobolds, that's another step towards a consistent and distinct look for the game. I like that hydra too.

Now where's the new design for flumphs? Everyone needs more flumphs.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

I don't see the "Kobolds look like Goblins" angle AT ALL.
They look exactly like small "humanoid" versions of "new style" Pathfinder dragons.
Which means relatively short/blunt "snout", low-set eyes, and (ornamental/non-attack) horns.
Goblins don't have ANY "snout", don't have low-set eyes, or horns.
So the comparison seems based on thinking they don't look like "old style" non-Pathfinder-specific dragons. So yup, this is Pathfinder (2e).

I was curious Mark Moreland mentioned there was "no ancestries" in this book, meaning it doesn't offer the 2e equivalent of "PC race stat adjustments" (and racial abilities) for 0HD/Class-built NPCs which 1e Bestiary did for numerous races. I know there was general de-emphasis of class-built NPCs, but AFAIK it was supposed to be still equally valid option to use as appropriate... Yet no longer for all the 0HD Bestiary races, until whatever new product covering that is published.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Quandary wrote:

I don't see the "Kobolds look like Goblins" angle AT ALL.

They look exactly like small "humanoid" versions of "new style" Pathfinder dragons.
Which means relatively short/blunt "snout", low-set eyes, and (ornamental/non-attack) horns.
Goblins don't have ANY "snout", don't have low-set eyes, or horns.
So the comparison seems based on thinking they don't look like "old style" non-Pathfinder-specific dragons. So yup, this is Pathfinder (2e).

I was curious Mark Moreland mentioned there was "no ancestries" in this book, meaning it doesn't offer the 2e equivalent of "PC race stat adjustments" (and racial abilities) for 0HD/Class-built NPCs which 1e Bestiary did for numerous races. I know there was general de-emphasis of class-built NPCs, but AFAIK it was supposed to be still equally valid option to use as appropriate... Yet no longer for all the 0HD Bestiary races, until whatever new product covering that is published.

So, this was something I very much was expecting. in PF 1E, sure there are alternate racial traits or other mechanics geared for specific races, but for the most part, you could take a bestiary, pull out a new race, and roll up a new character. However, with the requirement of ancestry feats, you just needs a lot more mechanics for a new race to be viable, especially as the game goes on and the core races continue to get new ancestry feats/heritages. The only way to make a new ancestry viable then would be to either put it in a player splat, or dedicate a lot of bestiary space to each new race, which would drop the page count for other monsters

I do wonder how in the long run this will affect sales. New races were usually a thing in the later volumes that got people who otherwise wouldn't purchase a GM book to actually pick this up. So I wonder how changing this model is going to influence things...


MMCJawa wrote:
Likely idea on why playable versions in PF2's future Bestiaries went the way of the dodo

Huh, I completely missed that point. I thank you for the insight. Yeah, I'd rather have a dedicated Rac...Ancestry book like the old PF1 race hardcover, rather than half-baked options with minimal feats for each race...

(of course, they need to have the monster version's unique abilities as 1st-level feats, like what Goblin Scuttle is going to be errata'd 9 to 1 in the final version, hopefully)


Yeah, I was really hoping they would use the opportunity of larger page-count Bestiary format to include stuff like that where appropriate. If they would need an extra page anyways, maybe throw in extra "non-PC-stat" monster version(s) (e.g. archer or caster). Or similarly, some monster races could be "related" and thus share common ancestry feats as well as ecology info. It might not even need much extra room if the monster statblocks reference the Ancestry Feats instead of unique monster abilities that would need exposition anyways. I never expected EVERY race to get fully equal depth of options to Core Races, although some COULD get a full extra page for that type of stuff, which might even allow deeper ecology treatment to match depending how layout goes.

Oh well.

Dark Archive

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They better have multiple ancestry books though if they do since in 1e there was really only one race focused book :p


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Yeah, really wish we got an Advanced Races Guide 2.


CorvusMask wrote:
They better have multiple ancestry books though if they do since in 1e there was really only one race focused book :p

I suppose you meant there was only one Core race focused book, right? There are a lot of books about races in PF1, in the Campaign Setting and Player Companion product lines. One of my favorite books is from PF1 is Inner Sea Races, that covers lots of races.

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The Gold Sovereign wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
They better have multiple ancestry books though if they do since in 1e there was really only one race focused book :p
I suppose you meant there was only one Core race focused book, right? There are a lot of books about races in PF1, in the Campaign Setting and Player Companion product lines. One of my favorite books is from PF1 is Inner Sea Races, that covers lots of races.

None of those books introduce new races though which is what I was talking about :p They are essentially flavor or mechanical addons

Silver Crusade

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CorvusMask wrote:
The Gold Sovereign wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:
They better have multiple ancestry books though if they do since in 1e there was really only one race focused book :p
I suppose you meant there was only one Core race focused book, right? There are a lot of books about races in PF1, in the Campaign Setting and Player Companion product lines. One of my favorite books is from PF1 is Inner Sea Races, that covers lots of races.
None of those books introduce new races though which is what I was talking about :p They are essentially flavor or mechanical addons

Off the top of my head we got Skinwalkers from Blood of the Moon and Ganzi from Distant Realms, they weren't put into hardcovers until much later.

Also Shabti were introduced in an AP article.

Edit: Inner Sea Bestiary and Blood of the Sea also gave us a bunch of new ones as well.

Second Edit: Green Martian is from the Worldscape comic, and Dragon Empires Primer gave us a couple.

Third Edit: Kuru are from Isles of the Shackles and Munavri are from Occult Bestiary. Triaxians are from an AP as well.

Silver Crusade

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Without diving more deeply and thoroughly that's at least 20 from Softcovers.

Liberty's Edge

Quandary wrote:

I don't see the "Kobolds look like Goblins" angle AT ALL.

They look exactly like small "humanoid" versions of "new style" Pathfinder dragons.
Which means relatively short/blunt "snout", low-set eyes, and (ornamental/non-attack) horns.
Goblins don't have ANY "snout", don't have low-set eyes, or horns.
So the comparison seems based on thinking they don't look like "old style" non-Pathfinder-specific dragons. So yup, this is Pathfinder (2e).

Just because you do not see it does not mean people who see it are just old-fashioned grumps who dislike change

What gave me the feeling is that they are both IMO short and squat, with a crouched posture, with flattened oval heads, very colored eyes, wide mouth with very visible teeth and round prominent nose.

Really they evoke a very similar feel to me.


CorvusMask wrote:
They better have multiple ancestry books though if they do since in 1e there was really only one race focused book :p

I kind of suspect they might be changing up the model

I could see future RPG hardcovers basically built around some idea, and including relevant classes, races, items, class options, and even monsters all relevant for that theme. They've already been tinkering with that in the final PF 1E books, and it allows them to avoid falling into a trap of producing books that are just rehashes of 1E books.

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