Review - Bestiary (Pathfinder)

I know I did the reviews backwards, but I bought the Bestiary long before I started the blog, I believe I even had B2 before then, so I'm working backwards.

Bestiary 
Paizo Publishing, LLC

Here there be monsters!


What is a hero without monsters to vanquish? This 328-page book presents hundreds of different creatures for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome you’ll find fire-breathing dragons and blood-drinking vampires, vile demons and shapechanging werewolves, sadistic goblins and lumbering giants, and so much more! Yet not all the creatures in this book are enemies, for some can serve lucky heroes as allies or advisors, be they summoned angels or capricious nymphs. And it doesn’t stop there—with full rules for advancing monsters, adapting monsters to different roles, and designing your own unique creations, you’ll never be without a band of hideous minions again!
The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary is the must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary includes:
• More than 350 different monsters
• Dozens of monstrous variants to modify creatures and keep players on their toes
• Numerous lists of monsters to aid in navigation, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
• Extensive rules for creating effective and balanced monsters
• Rules for advancing monsters by hit dice, template, or class level
• Universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and qualities like breath weapons, damage reduction, and regeneration
• More than a dozen feats tailored especially for monsters
• Suggestions for monstrous cohorts
• Two dozen additional animal companions
• More than a dozen different wandering monster encounter tables
• AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
• ISBN 978-1-60125-183-1

What you get: This is the other half of the Core assumption of the Pathfinder Role-playing game. With over 350 monsters you can play entire campaigns using just the Core Rulebook and the Bestiary.  358 page hard cover full color with thick pages. 

Main Review: While you can play straight out of the book, they included monster design rules, so Game Masters that feel like they need to emulate something specific can do that as well. This book really set the bar for art for Pathfinder more so than the Core Rulebook. Many traditional monsters had face-lifts, or face asunders in the case of the Troll. The look of many monsters has really made them stand out as something special. Ogres really received an interesting change from their 3.5 counterparts, which was based upon the Rise of the Runelords ogres, rather than looking like some Japanese yokai, now they are hillbilly ogres; with all that entails, yes, I mean they have Ho-downs. 

The book covers the basics you need, demons, devils, dragons, lots of goblinoids, and many of the same monsters you'll find in the Monster Manual 1. They do deal with some things differently. XP using Pathfinder is given out by the monster more like 1st edition. There are icons on the name bar of the stat block, indicating creature type, climate and terrain. They handled creatures which normally advance by class differently by adding Character stats for races that have stat mods and racial abilities. The last major thing they added that I really love, is the variants. Skeletons don't include just the standard skeleton, they include two variants as well, basically a simple template to overlay to create even more challenges. 

Some classic monsters from the best of the best OD&D modules make their way into this Bestiary. Monsters such as the Froghemoth, and vegepygmy. Others are removed from their old roles, such as the retriever and kyton. While new categories separate old groups, such as the celestials being split into more factions, like the Azata, Archons and Angels. Of course the most famous of all the reworked monsters is that little ball of insanity, the Goblin.

Great monster book, as the core of Pathfinder, if you're running this game you need this book.

Artwork: One of the best things that Paizo has done is re-envisioned many of the monsters. Wayne Reynolds did the cover as usual, featuring a Troll, the new Goblins and a Marilith. Aditional art by 

Family Rating: As this is a core rulebook, I will add a family rating. Some racy artwork and some particularly frightening pieces (to young children) in the book, so I'd say rated PG, parental guidance is suggested.

Cost: $39.99 Print, $9.99 PDF

Overall Rating: Must Have

of 20

Review - Bestiary 2 (Pathfinder)

Bestiary 2
Produced by Paizo Publications, LLC


Go beyond goblins with an army of fantasy’s most fearsome foes! Bestiary 2 presents hundreds of different creatures for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this collection of creatures you’ll find undead dragons and mischievous gremlins, shrieking banshees and unstoppable titans, the infamous jabberwock, and so much more! Yet not all these monsters need to be foes, as new breeds of otherworldly guardians, living shadows, and vampires all might take up adventure’s call. In addition, new rules for customizing and advancing monsters and an expanded glossary of creature abilities ensure that you’ll be prepared to challenge your heroes wherever adventure takes them!

The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 is the second indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.

The 320-page Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 includes:
• More than 300 different monsters
• Creatures both new and familiar, drawing upon the best-known beasts of legend, literature, and Pathfinder RPG adventures
• Challenges for any adventure and every level of play
• Hosts of new templates and variants, including simple templates for on-the-fly creature customization
• Numerous lists of monsters to aid in navigation, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
• New rules for creating and running high-level menaces
• Expanded universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and qualities
• New familiars, animal companions, and other allies
• And MUCH, MUCH MORE!

        ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-268-5

What you get: This is from the main product line for the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. It is a 320 page hard-bound full color monster book. Within it are more than 300 monsters, each entry has full color artwork. On the cover is one of Wayne Reynolds great pieces of artwork, featuring the Jabberwock, a protean and some of the gremlins.

Main Review: Having already reviewed Bestiary 3, this one actually drops back a little bit, my second copy actually arrived with a glue bubble on the inside back cover. (My first copy the box apparently got hurled across a warehouse in a game of hedonistic malevolence at the USPS, which Paizo graciously replaced for free). This book offers lots of fun stuff for Game Masters to throw at their players and especially brings the first Adventure path monsters into PFRPG rules, so that sinspawn, rune giants etc, have updated monster entries. 

It appears one of the main things this particular bestiary does is bring in the various new outsiders that Paizo has defined into their cosmology. Lots of unique entries, from the Aeons, Agathions, and Azata, to Nightshades, protean and qlippoth; lots of outer planar challenges for anywhere in the Great Beyond.  

One of the coolest things that Paizo has done with the various 'fiends' is given each of them an individual path, most notably, the Daemons (which first appeared in Fiend Folio, actually I think the D-series of modules was first), become the destroyers, the harbingers of ruin. This feels right for the neutral evil fiends. The four horseman of the apocalypse are daemons in the Pathfinder cosmology. This makes it easier for game masters to role-play their role more effectively. 

One of the most challenging this in this book is of course, the Jabberwock at Challenge Rating 23, with DR15/vorpal. This makes it flow with the original poem very nicely.

Value: Another great bestiary from paizo. For a 300 page full color hard bound, $39.99 is perfectly reasonable. The PDF at $9.99 is a phenomenal value.

Cost: $39.99 print and $9.99 PDF

Overall Rating: A strong showing, with lots of great entries, but not quite Epic, as most of the entries have very specific uses.

Review - Bestiary 3 (Pathfinder)

Bestiary 3

Produced by Paizo Publications, LLC

Test your courage against the most infamous foes of myth and legend! Bestiary 3 presents hundreds of monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this book you’ll find demiliches and demodands, grave knights and goblin snakes, norns and nephilim, imperial dragons and unfettered eidolons, and so much more! Yet not every creature needs to be an enemy, as winged garudas, crafty tanukis, and leonine lammasus all wait to join your party and answer the call of glory.


The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 is the third indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a companion to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time bestselling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.


The Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 includes:

• More than 300 different monsters
• Classic terrors from myth and literature, from the frumious bandersnatch and the righteous valkyrie to the cunning dybbuk and elusive kappa
• Hordes of new creatures you can construct, grow, or summon to aid your party in its adventures
• New player-friendly races to let you adventure as canny ratfolk, genie-blooded sulis, and more
• New familiars, animal companions, and other allies
• Challenges for any adventure and every level of play
• Some of the strangest and most beloved creatures from fantasy roleplaying history and the Pathfinder campaign setting
• Hosts of new templates and variants
• Appendices to aid in monster navigation, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat
• Expanded universal monster rules to simplify special attacks, defenses, and qualities
• And MUCH, MUCH MORE!

What you get: This is from the main product line for the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game. It is a 320 page hard-bound full color monster book. Within it are more than 300 monsters, each entry has full color artwork. A monster entry without artwork is a travesty. On the cover is another of Wayne Reynolds great pieces of artwork, featuring the great cyclops, grave knight and kappa. 

Main Review: What can I say, this is another great book from Paizo. While some recent material hasn't been Epic in my eyes, this book is phenomenal, probably better than Bestiary 2 in my eyes. This bestiary features many monsters which have been out of print for awhile, or have never seen print. It brings many OGL monsters into the PFRPG ruleset. Many of the creatures from the Adventure paths are brought into easily accessible print form in the single manual. Some great entries in here, the Bandersnatch joins the Jabberwock in pathfinder, the axe beak, atomie, and especially, the ROT GRUB, and the Rot Grub swarm. Really there are too many monsters to review every one, check it out at your FLGS!!

While there are only a few "PC" scale 1/2 HD creatures, the ones in this manual are pretty cool, I know the Catfolk at least Epic Ian will want to play. The others are Ratfolk, perfect for players who like were-rats and certain rat creatures from a workshop that makes games. Vanara made their appearance in the Dragon Empires Gazeteer, and are presented in full monster format here. Vishkanya seem to be an Indian myth, so they would be at home in Vudra and make the perfect poisoning rogue or ninja.

As this book is also supporting the future release of the World Guide for the Tian Xia area, it features many Asian inspired monsters, including several creature types, including Oni, Asura, Kami, and of course Rakshasa.  5 Imperial dragons also grace the pages, Forest, Sea, Sky, Sovereign and Underworld. Other archetypal Asian creatures include the kappa, kirin, penanggalen, and of course the tanuki. The terra-cotta soldier is one of my favorites, but the Jiang-Shi and Yuki-Onna are some of the coolest from mythology.

Value: Another great bestiary from paizo. For a 300 page full color hard bound, $39.99 is perfectly reasonable. The PDF at $9.99 is a phenomenal value.


Cost: $39.99 print and $9.99 PDF

Overall Rating:  EPIC! This is one of my favorite bestiaries from any game, and definitely keeps the bar high for Bestiary 4. 

Epic Meepo's Pathfinder Stuff

So Epic Meepo, one of the RPG Superstar's Top32 this year and previous Top16, has been making some sweet archetypes and previously he wrote over 100 Monsters.

Check em out:

Archetypes 

Monsters Galore

Obviously these are all subject to the OGL, Pathfinder's Licensing, and Epic Meepo, I post the links with Epic Meepo's permission. I do not own any of those ideas, I merely bring them to you!