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WOOT !
WOOOOOT !
I have one question regarding and one request:
1.) Erik, do you know which monsters got cut from the 3.5 MM, apart from the copyrighted ones and the Tojanida ?
2.) I want a badass Wayne Reynolds cover on this, featuring the Cloaker, the Catoplebas and the Invisible Stalker ;)
I can't say for the Cloaker and the Catoplebas, but if you really want an Invisible Stalker on the cover, he can be there, no matter what the final picture looks like. Just imagine that he's poised to strike. ;)
If you subscribe to the Pathfinder AP, you get either 10% or 15% off everything BUT non-Paizo PDFs.
Wasn't aware of that - thanks for the info.
AJC
I would pre-order but they haven't announced whether Giant Frogs will be included in it.
Creative Director
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I would pre-order but they haven't announced whether Giant Frogs will be included in it.
How about:
James Jacobs is a big fan of frogs, and misses the fact that they weren't in the 3.5 MM, and is gonna do his Very Best to get frogs into the Bestiary, and while that's not a guarantee that giant frogs will be in the book, if they AREN'T, James will be as disappointed at the lack of giant frog as Dennis.
Best I can do for now.
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speculation - I think I've heard that Baur should know about the Golarion license by November 6 (plus it seems like he is contributing quite a lot in AP#4) and Aeryn has a big Blackdirge announcement scheduled for Nov 2 - is there a theme here?!?
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Chief Technical Officer
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If you subscribe to the Pathfinder AP, you get either 10% or 15% off everything BUT non-Paizo PDFs.Wasn't aware of that - thanks for the info.
AJC
It's 15%, not 10%. For full details, look in the description of the subscription.
I would pre-order but they haven't announced whether Giant Frogs will be included in it.How about:
James Jacobs is a big fan of frogs, and misses the fact that they weren't in the 3.5 MM, and is gonna do his Very Best to get frogs into the Bestiary, and while that's not a guarantee that giant frogs will be in the book, if they AREN'T, James will be as disappointed at the lack of giant frog as Dennis.
Best I can do for now.
Ok, well I'll buy the book whether there are giant frogs in there or not... but if they aren't in there I reserve the right to whine on the forums about it.
While I understand the feeling that there are a lot of subscriptions (certainly my wallet is feeling it), the ability to *own* a paper copy and *use* the pdf copy is awesome for me, and I'll sign up for the PFRPG Rulebook Subscription as soon as it is available. (Gotta keep up that Superscriber tag, after all.)
Also, I'm soooo excited for this book!
Yes +10
Subscriptions are the #1 biggest reason I buy from Paizo directly and it is a huge incentive for me to be a repeat direct customer.
Note: Subs are optional for those who don't want subs.
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Also: There will be a way that Paizo readers and fans can save some of their most beloved "chopping block" monsters from the headsman's axe, I assure you.
More details later, but I wouldn't cry any tears for any monsters yet.
Fantastic!
Will we be able to petition for the inclusion of the flumph?
Sam
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Right now, no.
Of course, the Pathfinder Advantage will apply to this item.
Truth be told, we will probably set up a NEW subscription for rulebooks in the Pathfinder RPG line, but that's a bit off in the distance.
Man, Pathfinder RPG Line. Heheh. Subscription Madness. I wonder if there will be sales Reps calling on the phone pitching PathfinderMax Subscription versus the Pathfinder Basic Subscription. Eventually, it will have to come to this. There is no escape.
Cheers,
Zuxius
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We'll have one page dedicated to dragons and one page dedicated to a paint-by-number dragon so that our customers can have whatever color dragon they want in their Bestiary. You want a rainbow dragon? Paint it! You want a red dragon? Paint it! You want a half green dragon half black dragon zombie werewolf vampire ethereal hippocamp dragon? Uh ... probably not enough room to paint.
This is my best idea yet!
I really believe the numbers on the dragons are important to get the colors right. I would also like recommended shades for Zombie-Ogre.
Cheers,
Zuxius
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We'll have one page dedicated to dragons and one page dedicated to a paint-by-number dragon so that our customers can have whatever color dragon they want in their Bestiary. You want a rainbow dragon? Paint it! You want a red dragon? Paint it! You want a half green dragon half black dragon zombie werewolf vampire ethereal hippocamp dragon? Uh ... probably not enough room to paint.
This is my best idea yet!
Yes, and the black and white dragon will be already provided for free in the book!
Wait... Paizo doesn't publish black and white prdoucts, do they by now?|
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Right now, no.
Of course, the Pathfinder Advantage will apply to this item.
Truth be told, we will probably set up a NEW subscription for rulebooks in the Pathfinder RPG line, but that's a bit off in the distance.
I am looking forward very much to the PF Bestiary.
Just a few question regarding the upcoming rule book subscription.
I know that you are unlikely to have already prepared a complete publishing plan for this subscription, but I'd like to know what you imagine this subscription to contain:
- Will the subscription eventually include rule expansion books, too (e.g. rule expansions for divince/ arcane/ martial classes, rule themes like the "environmental books" by WotC?)?
- Would any such non bestiary rule books also follow a yearly publishing pattern as 4e core books will do? (i.e. one new PHB + DMG + MM per year)
- Will all bestiary monsters be from non Pathfinder sources and/ or newly developed or do you expect to recycle monsters already included e.g. in the APs and modules?
If you are interested in receiving customer feed back on these points, too:
Golarion newbies are currently recommended in these boards to either buy the Gazetteer or the Campaign Setting.
Gods & Magic is an extension of the deity entries in the Campaign Setting which were an extension of the Gazetteer section on deities.
I am currently hard pressed to justify a subscription to all chronicle products (your main setting product line!), even though there is sooo much potential e.g. for regional books which could clearly extend the entries in the campaign setting book.
Please don't follow this path for rule books (and please reconsider it for PF chronicles) and create thematically more clearly separated books. [end of rant]
Thanks for listening and...
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
- Günther
Once the Bestiary is released, Paizo needs to hold a contest where customers are asked to count the number of invisible stalkers on the cover.
It's more of a philosophical question: How many invisible stalkers can hide on a book cover?
This has baffled Golarion's philosophers for millenia, until a Vudrani found the answer: As many as want to.
The guy's name's Irori, and he did get something out of that moment of enlightenment.
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Once the Bestiary is released, Paizo needs to hold a contest where customers are asked to count the number of invisible stalkers on the cover.It's more of a philosophical question: How many invisible stalkers can hide on a book cover?
This has baffled Golarion's philosophers for millenia, until a Vudrani found the answer: As many as want to.
The guy's name's Irori, and he did get something out of that moment of enlightenment.
And here I thought the answer was the difference between the total number of stalkers and the number that were noton the cover...
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And here I thought the answer was the difference between the total number of stalkers and the number that were noton the cover...
Hey david, anyone ever tell you you're avatar looks like a sock puppet? I keep looking at it and that's all I can think.
They should totally have sock puppets in the pathfinder bestiary.
Hey david, anyone ever tell you you're avatar looks like a sock puppet?
Mister Smoggles doesn't like you!
And here I thought the answer was the difference between the total number of stalkers and the number that were noton the cover...Hey david, anyone ever tell you you're avatar looks like a sock puppet? I keep looking at it and that's all I can think.
They should totally have sock puppets in the pathfinder bestiary.
I think my next BBEG is going to be a bard with ranks in perform (sock puppet) that he uses for his bardic abilities.
Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.
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Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.
yeah, this would be a nice thing.
Also: There will be a way that Paizo readers and fans can save some of their most beloved "chopping block" monsters from the headsman's axe, I assure you.Are we going to get to play Monster Survivor?
Yay monster survivor
Pre-ordered, as you know, everyone else is doing it.
One question is all I have, sorry if it's been asked before I didn't notice if it had or not.
Will the Monsters in the Bestiary BE Pathfinder RPG? Meaning they will incorporate the final fules and stats, skills, feats, will match with the Pathfinder RPG.
I can't see why not. It is supposed to replace the monster manual for the PF RPG.
If only rot grubs and ear seekers were OGL material...
There is an OGL rot grub hazard (not creature) in Necromancer Games's Tome of Horrors. Similar to how yellow mold was recategorized as a hazard in 3.X.
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I can't see why not. It is supposed to replace the monster manual for the PF RPG.One question is all I have, sorry if it's been asked before I didn't notice if it had or not.
Will the Monsters in the Bestiary BE Pathfinder RPG? Meaning they will incorporate the final fules and stats, skills, feats, will match with the Pathfinder RPG.
Then I will so be getting this book!!!
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Creative Director
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Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.
There's no room to do something like this.
Using a middle-of-the-road monster as an example (the minotaur), it looks like the "Monsters as Characters" sections generally take up about 1/4 of a page. Our current goal is to have most monsters be on one page. So assuming that there's, say, 100 monsters on 100 pages, that means either one of 2 things has to happen:
1) Each monster gets 1/4 of a page less of info. This pretty much means each monster gets NO flavor text.
or
2) We abandon the 1 monster per page route and add that 1/4 in for monsters. Which means we lose 25 pages for every 100 pages of monsters, which in a book the size of the Pathfinder Bestiary, would be a net loss of about 75 monsters.
Neither of those options is palatable to me. This, combined with the fact that the Pathfinder Bestiary's #1 purpose is to provide monsters and NOT character options, means that we won't be putting "Monsters as Characters" sidebars in the book, I suspect.
That certainly doesn't mean we won't ever do a "monsters as PCs" book, of course!
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Creative Director
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One question is all I have, sorry if it's been asked before I didn't notice if it had or not.
Will the Monsters in the Bestiary BE Pathfinder RPG? Meaning they will incorporate the final fules and stats, skills, feats, will match with the Pathfinder RPG.
Yes. The monsters in the Bestiary are all going to be for the Pathfinder RPG. That's indeed the whole point of the book. The 3.5 rules already have their monster books.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.There's no room to do something like this.
Does this mean that monsters which currently have this information, such as the minotaur you provided as an example, will have their Monster X as PC's information removed to make room for flavor? It'll be hard to make NPC humanoids/monstrous humanoids/giants without these stats if they are removed.
Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.There's no room to do something like this.
Using a middle-of-the-road monster as an example (the minotaur), it looks like the "Monsters as Characters" sections generally take up about 1/4 of a page. Our current goal is to have most monsters be on one page. So assuming that there's, say, 100 monsters on 100 pages, that means either one of 2 things has to happen:
1) Each monster gets 1/4 of a page less of info. This pretty much means each monster gets NO flavor text.
or
2) We abandon the 1 monster per page route and add that 1/4 in for monsters. Which means we lose 25 pages for every 100 pages of monsters, which in a book the size of the Pathfinder Bestiary, would be a net loss of about 75 monsters.
Neither of those options is palatable to me. This, combined with the fact that the Pathfinder Bestiary's #1 purpose is to provide monsters and NOT character options, means that we won't be putting "Monsters as Characters" sidebars in the book, I suspect.
That certainly doesn't mean we won't ever do a "monsters as PCs" book, of course!
Perhapes that 1/4 page of infomation could be put into a e-book? I personally don't consider it as 'monsters as characters book', but neccissary material for making your own NPCs.
Incidentlyi personally would be happy to see every monster get to pages. In my opinion, paizo's strength has been in detail. I would love to see what you could achieve with a page an a quarter of space for supplimentry infomation half a page for half a page for a stat block and quarter for racial traits.
I know you couldn't realisticially do this, and that most, at best many, players would consider this wasted space, but i did spend a very long time playing games which sold mostly 100 ish page books on individual player character orginisations.
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Creative Director
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Does this mean that monsters which currently have this information, such as the minotaur you provided as an example, will have their Monster X as PC's information removed to make room for flavor? It'll be hard to make NPC humanoids/monstrous humanoids/giants without these stats if they are removed.Its late, so forgive me if it has been covered but. Please, please, please. Can basicially everything but plants, oozes and unintelligent undead, be given a racial traits section to make it easier to make NPCs and give class levels. Ideally, i would like to make a dragon NPC with N levels of wizard, as easily(or as nearly as easily) as i would an equivilant level human.There's no room to do something like this.
I suspect so. I'd rather fill that space with rules for playing minotaurs as monsters, not as PCs. We'll see, though; we still haven't started doing the first experimental monster page layouts yet so we still don't know what sort of space we have. We might simply truncate it down to their ability score mods; even though you can work them out for any monster, it's probably best to keep those modifiers handy, I guess.
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Creative Director
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Perhapes that 1/4 page of infomation could be put into a e-book? I personally don't consider it as 'monsters as characters book', but neccissary material for making your own NPCs.
Incidentlyi personally would be happy to see every monster get to pages. In my opinion, paizo's strength has been in detail. I would love to see what you could achieve with a page an a quarter of space for supplimentry infomation half a page for half a page for a stat block and quarter for racial traits.
It's worth remembering that our plan is to do multiple Bestiaries, so eventually ALL of the monsters will be in books. The monsters that go into the first one are particularly important, though, since if you leave one off... the implication to a lot of customers is that they're gone, and if you want to use them in an adventure you have to spend space in the adventure statting them up again.
As for web enhancements and e-books... nope. Those aren't any easier to produce than print books for us; the only difference is that a web enhancement doesn't have a printer cycle. Since we don't do the printing at Paizo, whether or not a book is print or PDF doesn't make a difference to us. Both require the same amount of work and prep, and we're pretty much at capacity now with the books as-is without adding a web enhancement, which would essentially be an entirely new product.
Perhapes that 1/4 page of infomation could be put into a e-book? I personally don't consider it as 'monsters as characters book', but neccissary material for making your own NPCs.
Incidentlyi personally would be happy to see every monster get to pages. In my opinion, paizo's strength has been in detail. I would love to see what you could achieve with a page an a quarter of space for supplimentry infomation half a page for half a page for a stat block and quarter for racial traits.
It's worth remembering that our plan is to do multiple Bestiaries, so eventually ALL of the monsters will be in books. The monsters that go into the first one are particularly important, though, since if you leave one off... the implication to a lot of customers is that they're gone, and if you want to use them in an adventure you have to spend space in the adventure statting them up again.
As for web enhancements and e-books... nope. Those aren't any easier to produce than print books for us; the only difference is that a web enhancement doesn't have a printer cycle. Since we don't do the printing at Paizo, whether or not a book is print or PDF doesn't make a difference to us. Both require the same amount of work and prep, and we're pretty much at capacity now with the books as-is without adding a web enhancement, which would essentially be an entirely new product.
Entirely understandable. I think its sad that it cant be done, but i can understand your reasons for not doing it.
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And it's during my birthday month, and everything. Happy 30th for me, I suppose. Actually, it's a GREAT excuse to get it without taking 12d6 blunt damage from my wife. :)
Now if you really want me to have a pleasant surprise, include the Catoblepas (as a nice eye-ray monster to replace the depressing loss of the beholder), plenty of planetouched, and as many 1st edition classics as my poor heart can stand. :) (Like some sort of cat person. Every fantasy RPG has to have a cat people race!)
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Any official answer to these questions?
(...)
Just a few question regarding the upcoming rule book subscription.
(...):
- Will the subscription eventually include rule expansion books, too (e.g. rule expansions for divince/ arcane/ martial classes, rule themes like the "environmental books" by WotC?)?
- Would any such non bestiary rule books also follow a yearly publishing pattern as 4e core books will do? (i.e. one new PHB + DMG + MM per year)
- Will all bestiary monsters be from non Pathfinder sources and/ or newly developed or do you expect to recycle monsters already included e.g. in the APs and modules?
(...)
Thanks for taking the time to answer this customer's question,
Cheers,
Günther
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Perhapes that 1/4 page of infomation could be put into a e-book? I personally don't consider it as 'monsters as characters book', but neccissary material for making your own NPCs.Incidentlyi personally would be happy to see every monster get to pages. In my opinion, paizo's strength has been in detail. I would love to see what you could achieve with a page an a quarter of space for supplimentry infomation half a page for half a page for a stat block and quarter for racial traits.
I know you couldn't realisticially do...
EDITED:
Paizo (--> James' posting above) doesn't create web enhancement pdfs any more.If published as a separate book as suggested by James above, this could be the PFRPG version of the 3e 'Savage Species' hardcover, a still tremendously useful supplement.
I'd be in for it instantly. :-)
Cheers,
Günther
What's a toe-jam-eata?
More details later, but I wouldn't cry any tears for any monsters yet.Except maybe the tojanida.
A very heavy creature. Steps on your toes, turning them to jelly instantly. And then it eats them.
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Creative Director
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Will the subscription eventually include rule expansion books, too (e.g. rule expansions for divince/ arcane/ martial classes, rule themes like the "environmental books" by WotC?)?
Perhaps. It'd be a silly subscription if it only included the PF RPG and the Bestiary, yeah? We're still working out the details though.
Would any such non bestiary rule books also follow a yearly publishing pattern as 4e core books will do? (i.e. one new PHB + DMG + MM per year)
Again; we're still working that part out, so there's no news to report yet.
Will all bestiary monsters be from non Pathfinder sources and/ or newly developed or do you expect to recycle monsters already included e.g. in the APs and modules?
The first Pathfinder Bestiary (I suspect there'll be more than one over the years to come, if all goes well) will be primarily monsters from the SRD, as in, monsters from the 3.5 Monster Manual. We'll try to augment this with some old favorites from the Tome of Horrors, Pathfinder, and a few other sources, and there'll be a handful of totally new monsters as well. The vast majority of the monsters we've featured in the APs and the modules will NOT be in the first Pathfinder Bestiary; there just won't be room, since this first book has to preserve as much of the core SRD monster set as we can get.
This lavishly illustrated, full-color tome contains new takes on more than 250 of the best-loved, most popular monsters of fantasy ready for instant use in your Pathfinder or 3.5 campaign! From the comedic-but-deadly goblin to the world-killing Tarrasque, The Pathfinder Bestiary contains a wide range of foes suitable for battles with characters of all experience levels.
I like this lay-out style. One page per critter and all , makes it very appealing to the eye, =)
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We'll try to augment this with some old favorites from the Tome of Horrors, Pathfinder, and a few other sources
(Emphasis mine.)
Will that include other monster books that are OGL? I'm a volunteer for the Grand OGL Wiki which contains such beasties. It would be real neat to see possible Pathfinder versions of them in future bestiaries.
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Perhaps. It'd be a silly subscription if it only included the PF RPG and the Bestiary, yeah? We're still working out the details though.
Silly, maybe, it'll be cost effective though, I mean just compare the amount I'd spend on that subscription to the amount I'd spend on my AP subscription between now and then, and that subscription turns into a bargain ;)
Ok, since we are going to see next year the new Pathfinder Bestiary (...good !!!), I think we can give some suggestions and indications about errata in the old monsters SRD that were never corrected (I already posted this on another thread, but I'm not sure if this could be a better place). You know, things like skill points given/taken without meaning, strange feats without requirements, and so on...
I myself found this only recently:
CHAIN DEVIL (KYTON)
The feats that the Kyton has are wrong. Improved Critical can be taken only with a BaB of +8, but the Kyton has taken it (at best) at 6th HD with the 3.5 rules, and at 7th HD with PFRPG rules. The fact is, the old 3.0 rules gave feats to monsters only every 4 HDs, but since at his 8th HD the kyton had +8 BaB, he could easily take Improved Critical as a regular feat. With 3.5 (and Pathfinder), no more, since at best his BaB when taking the feat would be +6 (3.5) or +7 (PFRPG).
Hope this helps.
(I personally would gave him Intimidating Prowess as a feat... scaaaary !!!)
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Creative Director
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We'll try to augment this with some old favorites from the Tome of Horrors, Pathfinder, and a few other sources(Emphasis mine.)
Will that include other monster books that are OGL? I'm a volunteer for the Grand OGL Wiki which contains such beasties. It would be real neat to see possible Pathfinder versions of them in future bestiaries.
We don't know yet, but I suspect those "few other sources" will be Pathfinder Adventure Paths and modules only. At least, for Pathfinder Bestiary 1. Who knows what'll be in 2, 3, 6 or 32?
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RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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We don't know yet, but I suspect those "few other sources" will be Pathfinder Adventure Paths and modules only. At least, for Pathfinder Bestiary 1. Who knows what'll be in 2, 3, 6 or 32?We'll try to augment this with some old favorites from the Tome of Horrors, Pathfinder, and a few other sources(Emphasis mine.)
Will that include other monster books that are OGL? I'm a volunteer for the Grand OGL Wiki which contains such beasties. It would be real neat to see possible Pathfinder versions of them in future bestiaries.
Where can I pre-order Pathfinder Beastiary 32? :)
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While I understand the feeling that there are a lot of subscriptions (certainly my wallet is feeling it), the ability to *own* a paper copy and *use* the pdf copy is awesome for me, and I'll sign up for the PFRPG Rulebook Subscription as soon as it is available. (Gotta keep up that Superscriber tag, after all.)
Also, I'm soooo excited for this book!
I think this is probably the main reason I'm holding off as long as I can before posting a "Cancel -----" post. I love the fact that I have the pdf on my computer to do stuff say merge all the monsters in Pathfinder together or feats or traits or whatever & then the dead tree version to read away from my computer. Plus not having a local outlet for Paizo products is probably the other reason.
Nice to hear that there will be a Pf bestiary coming out. Hopefully I can rebound from this dismal month cash-wise to preorder it sometime soon.
As far as subscriptions are concerned, it would be nice to have the rulebooks in subscription form, that way they could get added to people that have those already & such. Unless of course that problem gets changed by the time this comes out, then a moot point.
RM