3PP Bestiaries


Product Discussion

Dark Archive

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I'm always on the look out for new monster books. I own a bunch of them from OSR to PF. I was wondering if I am missing out on some. I currently own these:

Tome of Horror Complete
Tome of Horror IV
Advanced Bestiary
Beast of the Boundless Blue
Midgard Bestiary
Psionic Bestiary
Monsters of Porphyra
Mythic Monster Manual(from KS but haven't received yet)

What other monster books are out there? Preference is quality, substance(more then 64 pages), full color art, and in print.

I do use 3.X Monster Books and probably own 90% of them. So don't inclued 3.X books.

Scarab Sages

Raging Swan's Scions of Evil is really good. Hardcover 200 pages. For the most part it's not new creatures, but it's sort of like an NPC Codex for monsters. And not just pre-built but with fluff and story behind who they are. There's even a chunk at the back that is larger gangs, all specced out.

Also, this isn't exactly a Bestiary, but I like to use Slumbering Tsar as a pseudo-bestiary. I flip to the part in it vaguely near the CRs I'm looking for and mine it for ideas and stat blocks.

Dark Archive

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There are a great many smaller monster books.

Jon Brazer Enterprises
Book of Beasts series

Rite Publishing
20 Variant Foes
30 Variant Dragons
101 Not So Simple Monster Templates: No monsters, but 101 ways to change up existing critters.
101 Variant Monsters
Faces of the Tarnished Souk, An NPC Collection: A collection of over 30 different NPCs, most presented for use at three different levels of play. There's also a bunch of supplemental rules included.
Pathways: A free e-zine which contains all sorts of things. I admit I haven't read them all, but all the ones I have ready include a template and example creature.
Book of Monster Templates: Several templates, each with an example creature.

Rogue Genius Games
Codex Draconis
Mythic Menagerie

I know there are many more, but I'm all linked out for now.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4; Contributor; Publisher, Legendary Games

You should check out the entire line of Mythic Monsters books from Legendary Games - all quality, full color, in print. They average around 30 pages each.

In PDF, there are also two Beasts of Legend books (about 35-40 pages each), with monsters and spirits ideal for cold wilderness and the Construct Codex (28 pages) for horror-themed constructs.

The 304-page Mythic Monster Manual is at the printer now and will be available this summer.

Liberty's Edge

The Southlands Bestiary coming soon!

http://www.koboldquarterly.com/kpstore/product/southlands-bestiary/


Marc Radle wrote:

The Southlands Bestiary coming soon!

Southlands Bestiary at the Kobold Press store

Linkified!

Liberty's Edge

Awesome, thanks! (Doing links on my phone is a chore!)


The Teratic Tome. Print version is at Lulu.

Quality: Most unique visions of monsters I've ever seen. Can you say cannibal halflings?
Substance: Yes.
Full color art: No.
Print: Yes, at Lulu.

It's for OSR games.

Silver Crusade

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I would recommend Epidemic Books' Oathbound Bestiary: http://paizo.com/products/btpy8ogh?Oathbound-Bestiary Endzeitgeist's review is pretty good and sums up what I like about the work, its a pity that it did not get more attention.

Taking a page from Doug's Workshop:
Quality: Highly unusual monsters that your players will not peg right off the bat, and, presented at 3 cr levels (or 3 at the same cr level but with variant abilities) so that if they run into them again, they are in for even more surprises.
Substance: Yes.
Full color art: Yes.
Print: Sadly no.

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Justin Sluder already posted a link to the whole Book of Beasts line (thank you btw). However, I would like to highlight the Book of Beasts: Monsters of the Shadow Plane. This is one of the highest rated monster manuals and is filled with some incredibly spooky monsters, especially if you want to add a bit of dark horror to your game. There is somewhat of a focus on undead in this book, but some of my favorites are the living creatures, like the spiderbear and the darklings.


Allluria Publishing has some fantastic ones. Beasts of the Boundless Blue for aquatic monsters, Fey Folio Clans of the Fey for fey, and Creepy Creatures Bestiary of the Bizaare for a variety of monsters. Also their Remarkable Races provides a neat variety of nonhumans.

Fat Goblin Games has Forgotten Foes, a Pathfinderization of a bunch of 3e OGL monsters, the smaller Fat Goblin Travel Guide To Horrible Horrors & Macabre Monsters and Horrors of the North.

Bestiary of Loerem from Timeout Diversions is the new pathfinderized Sovereign stone bestiary. I had the 3.0 version and it was filled with lots of beasts with few magical powers.

Creatures of Barsaive is the pathfinderized Earthdawn bestiary.

Malevolent and Benign is a pathfinderized version of a selection of 120 monsters from XRP's 3.5 Monster Geographica series.

Mosnters of Sin Collection is seven themed sets of monsters from Kobold Press. I keep being tempted to pick this up.

The Black Bestiary Skortched Urf Studios' Hentai themed bestiary. Don't own it, can't comment on its contents or quality. Their shorter space and nemesis bestiaries are decent enough though.

The Great City Urban Creatures and Lairs by 0one Games. A city themed bestiary I again keep being tempted to pick up.

Mor Alden Creature Compendium from Headless Hydra Games is only 35 pages but I like it.

and Tome of Monsters originally by 4 Winds Games who got bought out by Pruple Duck Games has a lot of neat monsters from real folklore and myths.


Atlas Games Fantasy Bestiary is 3.0, but looks quite diverse.

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

Plus 4 more copies of Tome of Horrors Complete... just in case! :D

Shadow Lodge

Doug's Workshop wrote:

The Teratic Tome. Print version is at Lulu.

Quality: Most unique visions of monsters I've ever seen. Can you say cannibal halflings?
Substance: Yes.
Full color art: No.
Print: Yes, at Lulu.

It's for OSR games.

If we open this up to systems other than d20/3.x/PFRPG, then I have dozens, if not hundreds, of recommendations I could make.

As for strictly PFRPG, I think this thread has hit most of the major ones.


Kthulhu wrote:
Doug's Workshop wrote:

The Teratic Tome. Print version is at Lulu.

Quality: Most unique visions of monsters I've ever seen. Can you say cannibal halflings?
Substance: Yes.
Full color art: No.
Print: Yes, at Lulu.

It's for OSR games.

If we open this up to systems other than d20/3.x/PFRPG, then I have dozens, if not hundreds, of recommendations I could make.

As for strictly PFRPG, I think this thread has hit most of the major ones.

Hmm. The product says d20 conversant on OBS.

Then again I don't need it to say cannibal halflings - those things were around since original Dark Sun.

It does have one of if not the best artworks for a cover I have seen. Pity there are no previews...

Shadow Lodge

Oceanshieldwolf wrote:
Hmm. The product says d20 conversant on OBS.

I think ALL retro-clone stuff has that. It's probably because the OSR stuff is made possible through the OGL and the SRD, which intractably links it with d20. Even the official AD&D products are categorized that way on OBS.

Dark Archive

Awesome suggestions! Thank You all. I didn't ask for pre pathfinder stuff since I own a bunch of the material. I have half a bookcase just devoted to monster book from OD&D to PF and everything in between.

Dark Archive

Chuck Wright wrote:
Plus 4 more copies of Tome of Horrors Complete... just in case! :D

I do own two copies....one for S&W and one for PF. Adding four more would probably break my shelf. I could use a Tome of Horror V though....hint hint...


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The Psionic Bestiary from Dreamscarred Press.
Mindblast! Classic Monsters Augmented from Fat Goblin Games.

Dark Archive

Teratic Tome is great if you enjoy a sadistic slant on things. The guy who wrote Teratic Tome is about to release a monster book for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It's going to have full color artwork and add more twisted stuff to the OSR scene. ;-)

Shadow Lodge

LotFP bestiary? With FULL COLOR ARTWORK ?!?!?

NEED THIS NOW ! ! ! ! !

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