What monsters from the Bestiaries and Campaign Setting Books are considered "Particularly Rare"

[Mavrickindigo]

According to the "Monster Lore" Section of "Knowledge" checks:

In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s CR. For common monsters, such as goblins, the DC of this check equals 5 + the monster’s CR. For particularly rare monsters, such as the tarrasque, the DC of this check equals 15 + the monster’s CR or more. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.

I became intrigued at what is considered a "particularly rare" monster in the setting, because of something that happened in one of the "Pathfinder Tales" novels.

In one scene, two characters, who I assume are at least 6th level, if not more, since their training seems to imply they gained level in a prestige class, come across a CR 2 outsider. They look over the thing and have no idea what it is. Now, their jobs are all about outsiders, so they should have pretty high Knowledge (planes) ranks. I find it hard to believe they both couldn't make a DC 12 check to identify the creature when they go around throwing Demon names like its nobody's business.

This has led me to believe that the entire subtype of outsiders is "Particularly rare," if they couldn't identify what it is.

So, that makes me wonder: What sort of creatures we as players would take for granted should GMs be putting in the "particularly rare" category to emulate the feeling of not knowing what a weak monster is. We can already assume the Tarrasque is on this list, despite being Rovagug's Herald. What other creatures would be hard to know things about, despite level 1 parties being able to take them on in a fair fight?

[Adjoint]

I believe this can be a subject to regional variation. A creature common in one area may be extremely rare in another.

Creatures that are not native to some world (plane, planet), that cannot be summoned by summon monster spells and aren't known servitors of some deities, I would consider 'particularly rare' on the whole area of the world, with possible exception of some specific places they happen to inhabit for some reason.

[SheepishEidolon]

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So, that makes me wonder: What sort of creatures we as players would take for granted should GMs be putting in the "particularly rare" category to emulate the feeling of not knowing what a weak monster is. We can already assume the Tarrasque is on this list, despite being Rovagug's Herald. What other creatures would be hard to know things about, despite level 1 parties being able to take them on in a fair fight?

My interpretation: The Tarrasque is 'particularly rare', because it's rarely met:

B1 wrote:

The legendary tarrasque is among the world’s most destructive monsters. Thankfully, it spends most of its time in a deep torpor in an unknown cavern in a remote corner of the world—yet when it wakens, kingdoms die.

Few people will concern themselves with stories about a herald of one of many gods. Especially a god that's usually banned from worship.

Personally, I decide on the following rules of thumb: Higher CR means more rare, unusual for the region means more rare and exotic variant means more rare. Being off by 5 usually doesn't decide the battle...

[Eduardo8a]

SheepishEidolon wrote:

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So, that makes me wonder: What sort of creatures we as players would take for granted should GMs be putting in the "particularly rare" category to emulate the feeling of not knowing what a weak monster is. We can already assume the Tarrasque is on this list, despite being Rovagug's Herald. What other creatures would be hard to know things about, despite level 1 parties being able to take them on in a fair fight?

My interpretation: The Tarrasque is 'particularly rare', because it's rarely met:

B1 wrote:

The legendary tarrasque is among the world’s most destructive monsters. Thankfully, it spends most of its time in a deep torpor in an unknown cavern in a remote corner of the world—yet when it wakens, kingdoms die.

Few people will concern themselves with stories about a herald of one of many gods. Especially a god that's usually banned from worship.

Personally, I decide on the following rules of thumb: Higher CR means more rare, unusual for the region means more rare and exotic variant means more rare. Being off by 5 usually doesn't decide the battle...

Solar Angels and Balor Demons, have high CR, but are very common

[Rakshaka]

I often look at the monster's typical grouping (solitary, pair, etc.), and if its solitary only, its a rare monster. I figure that anything that lives alone doesn't have a lot of lore around it that a community of such creatures would inherit.

[Leingod]

Maestro del Juego Eduardo8'A wrote:

SheepishEidolon wrote:

Mavrickindigo wrote:

So, that makes me wonder: What sort of creatures we as players would take for granted should GMs be putting in the "particularly rare" category to emulate the feeling of not knowing what a weak monster is. We can already assume the Tarrasque is on this list, despite being Rovagug's Herald. What other creatures would be hard to know things about, despite level 1 parties being able to take them on in a fair fight?

My interpretation: The Tarrasque is 'particularly rare', because it's rarely met:

B1 wrote:

The legendary tarrasque is among the world’s most destructive monsters. Thankfully, it spends most of its time in a deep torpor in an unknown cavern in a remote corner of the world—yet when it wakens, kingdoms die.

Few people will concern themselves with stories about a herald of one of many gods. Especially a god that's usually banned from worship.

Personally, I decide on the following rules of thumb: Higher CR means more rare, unusual for the region means more rare and exotic variant means more rare. Being off by 5 usually doesn't decide the battle...

Solar Angels and Balor Demons, have high CR, but are very common

"Common" is a stretch, at least outside the Outer Sphere. It'd be more appropriate to say they're well-known. They've had a major enough role in Golarion that most everyone knows they exist and can relate some story they've heard about them at least, even if it's likely not accurate. Same for dragons, or genies, or merfolk. Even if you live in an area famous for them, you probably haven't met one personally, but everyone you meet's got some story to tell about them. They're just so well-known that most everyone grows up hearing about them.

Regional species like grippli and nagaji and the like, on the other hand, are probably much less well-known outside their particular stomping grounds. Ask a guy in Avistan what a grippli is and you'll likely get a blank look, whereas people living in the Mwangi Expanse would probably know at least a little about the little frog-people that live in the jungles and hunt with poison arrows.

Then you get to the creatures that, for whatever reason, are very obscure. Some are outsiders who don't make a regular habit of planar travel or being summoned by casters. Some are alien species, particularly those outside of Golarion's solar system, like the kasatha. Some do inhabit Golarion but have limited contact with humanoid populations; the inhabitants of Orv are stated to be a mystery even to those living in Nar-Voth and Sekamina, and in the isolated Vaults of Orv, I'd bet that there are even many natives who could tell you much, if anything, about the neothelids. The Algholthu intentionally try to keep surface-dwellers from learning about them, and I'd bet even merfolk and tritons and the like don't know about more than a few of the varieties other than the common aboleth.