Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5 (OGL)
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Beyond the veil!

Creatures strange beyond imagining and more terrifying than any nightmare lurk in the dark corners of the world and the weird realms beyond. Within this book, you'll find hundreds of monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Face off against devils and dragons, deep ones and brain moles, robots and gremlins, and myriad other menaces! Yet not every creature needs to be an enemy, as whimsical liminal sprites, helpful moon dogs, and regal seilenoi all stand ready to aid you on your quests—if you prove yourself worthy.

Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 is the fifth 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 a new era.

Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 5 includes:

  • More than 300 different monsters.
  • New player-friendly races like caligni dark folk, deep one hybrids, plant-bodied ghorans, and simian orang-pendaks.
  • Psychic creatures both benevolent and terrifying, from the enigmatic anunnaki and faceless astomoi to the howling caller in darkness and insidious, alien grays.
  • New familiars, animal companions, and other allies, such as clockwork familiars, red pandas, and many-legged wollipeds.
  • New templates to help you get more life out of classic monsters.
  • Appendices to help you find the right monster, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat.
  • Expanded universal monster rules to simplify combat.
  • Challenges for every adventure and every level of play.
  • ... and much, much more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-792-5

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Rulebook Subscription.

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My Favourite So Far

5/5

Don't have really anymore to add beyond that, love all the eldritch and occult flavor being pumped in ^w^


The weakest of the bunch

2/5

On the one hand, there are a good couple of gems and some very inspired entries throughout this book and, in truth, two stars is somewhat unfair, especially for the PDF. But, personally, I feel they're warranted, as this book seems to signal a shift in Pathfinder's direction, and one that I'm not happy about in the least.

First off, while Occult Adventures is readily available for consultation online in the SRD, I did not like to see a sizable number of monsters using rules from that book. It's one thing to have spells or feats from, say, Advanced Player's Guide or Mythic Adventures, as those are books that complement the game as a whole and present options for all classes, whereas Occult Adventures is a very specific niche that not all players will want to incorporate in their campaigns.

Secondly, I did not like the muddled product identity Paizo is showcasing here, with monsters such as the Android, Gray (Roswell), Reptoid (Reptilian) and Robot. Even the Annunaki seems more at home as the antagonist of, say, a Legion of Super-Heroes comic book. It's one thing to want to provide the tools for varied and diverse fantasy campaigns - in which constructs, space aberrations and even clockwork creatures can easily work without sticking out like sore thumbs - but quite another one to insert borderline hard-SF or contemporary conspiracy theorist creatures on a lark. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks this is not, and let's endeavor to keep it that way, please.

Thirdly, snake-bodied weasels with boar tusks? Serpentine bulls? Shark-headed sea serpents? Wolf-headed sea serpents? A chinchilla with a bat wing on the tip of its tail? An octopus with three shark heads? Really? Unless you have an absolutely amazing hook or a compelling campaign seed, why bother putting out this silly, uninspired dross? You can do much better than this, Paizo.


Monsters Galore

4/5

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

I like Bestiary 5 a great deal. On an initial look-through before reading it more thoroughly, there were numerous monsters that drew my attention, that made me want to know more about them, and screamed to be included in one of my games sometime down the road. There's a wide variety of monsters present, with every type represented and the spread between them being fairly even. Ooze is a monster type that is often under-represented, but there are quite a few new oozes in this book. Along with that there are lots of magical beasts, constructs, undead, vermin, fey, and so on. In addition, there are several mythic monsters, and Bestiary 5 is the first hardcover book to contain monsters using the occult rules from Occult Adventures. The monsters cover a wide variety of challenge ratings as well, from 1/6 to 24. The bulk of the creatures are in the low- to mid-CR range, but there are also a sizeable number of high-CR monsters as well.


Grim Reapers, Deep Ones, and Greys Oh My!

5/5

I have always loved Bestiaries and Paizo has yet to disappoint in department. Now with a 5th hardcover bestiary they continue with quality and variety. I will list the good and the bad of this fine product.
The Good
-Dragons, 5 great new true dragons, along with a variety of "lesser" dragons such as jungle drake, rope dragon, vishap, and awesome shen.
-Fey, a variety of ranging from low to high CR such as the house spirits and the glaistag.
-Giants, we finally get the Firbolg, been waiting to see this one for a long time.
-New 0HD races like the Astomi, Caligni, and Reptoid.
-Aliens such as greys and the Anunnaki.
-Elementals such as aether, the wysps and the awesome anemos.
-Interesting oozes such as animate hair, apallie, and living mirage.
-New clestials and aeons.
-Robots!
-Creatures from mythology.
-Old school monster such as moon dogs, muckdwellers, brain moles, and thought eaters.
-Some interesting undead like bone ship and death coach.

The Bad
-Some minor design issues.
-Some art issues.
-The Sahkil, another evil outsider group, could have used this space for Oni, Azura, or Rakshasa.
-Continued use of the mythic rules that to me should be a completely optional rule.


3 STARS?????

5/5

I can't agree with the below rating of 3 stars. (Read Below) This is on-par with any other bestiary piazo has produced. Although i cant speak of quality due to just buying a pdf, this bestiary has the best range of monster selection in my opinion. It adds some technology driven ideas, unique story driven monsters and my favorite: A BoneShip, literally the pcs can fight an undead ship!!!! The complaint of no new monster over CR25 is a lazy lie, using templates the Esoteric Dragons can be over CR25 with other CR20+ monsters utilizing templates provided can increase above CR25. This book contains ideas for familiars, companions, and constructs for many classes and pairs amazingly well with content from the Occult Adventures. I Love this book, and pathfinder in general due to the wealth of information it has for both a PC and a DM. Cant wait for more!!!


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IS THIS THE TYPE ALL IN CAPS THREAD!

CAN I USE EXCLAMATION POINTS, OR IS THAT JUST OBNOXIOUS!!!!!

ALSO IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR A PURPLE PEOPLE EATER.... right! Mobogo! Never mind I'm good :-)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
DarthPinkHippo wrote:
Stats for the Big Blue Ox would be fantastic. I have a superhero setting in which I am wanting to run an old west American myths and legends game. That statblock would only make it better. :D

Whenever some more Arcadian related products come down the line, I hope that there are Pathfinder treatments of Babe the Blue Ox, Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, John Henry, and other American folklore characters (in addition, of course, to the Native American mythologies).


I have a Halfling Druid for Kingmaker named Johnny Appleseed, has the plant domain :-)

Designer

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Myth Lord, I have to say, as someone who shares many (though not all) of your monster preferences, I personally feel that the level of repetition of your opinion in these threads is counterproductive to both of our preferences. Once is great! We want to hear everyone's voices so we know how to make the most awesome bestiaries possible. But right now you have 36 out of 252 posts in this thread, and many of those 36 repeat your main ideas (and thus rhetorically weaken them, rather than strengthen them). You shouldn't worry that people won't hear your opinions if you post them only once. At the very least, I know that Wes and I read every one of these posts (and I imagine so do others at the office).

Just my thoughts and suggestions, anyway.


Well I hope you guys don't waste your time reading mine :-)

Designer

5 people marked this as a favorite.
captain yesterday wrote:
Well I hope you guys don't waste your time reading mine :-)

But you're not just fast but from the past.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Myth Lord wrote:

I made that post for myself, not for other people that want sciencefiction creatures, they get more than enough in this bestiary already, I want a non science-fiction magnet user, and because this bestiary has so many SF creatures, I have to mention it that way.

Sorry I can't put emotion in my words/posts like you can. I'm really sorry i'm not native English/American so I can put emotion and sweet little humor twists in my sentences.

And i'm sorry I don't want to buy a bestiary for others. :-p

1. Who is to say what is "more than enough" of a certain type of creature? Where is the cut off on them? 1? 3? 12?

2. Every book is for everyone, not just one person. While it would be interesting if Paizo made us each our own books, that might get cumbersome in the store area of the web site.

I see what you are saying -- you want your interests predominant in this book, with fewer of the things you dislike. But, given that you are adamant about certain things you dislike, aren't you suggesting that others buy the book you want, or for you, rather than a book for them?

I expect that the book with be an assortment of creatures, with both too many and not enough of certain monsters depending on who you ask, just like all the others.


A Halfling druid, wow, I think I have never seen that combination. In fact since I started playing Pathfinder I have only seen a couple of Halfling PCs.

Purple People Eater, yeah I wouldn't mind one of those but I do agree the Mobogo is the closest I have seen.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Pathfinder is a game with a vast setting, spanning entire worlds that encompass infinite themes. As a result any monster is welcome, from any inspirational source. Truth be told, I've yet to see a monster that I couldn't use in some capacity with a little bit of imagination...and that's what monsters are for, to spark the imagination.


I have but the list is very short compared to what is available.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Some more Indian and African monsters would be awesome. Definite look to Ethiopian folklore. I've kind of fallen in love with it over the last couple of weeks.

And of course any creature from this thread is open season. *cough* hupia *cough* ;-)


14 people marked this as a favorite.

Myth Lord, I really think your behavior needs to change. I'm saying this as someone who also wants to see most if not all of the creatures you've suggested, though not necessarily your version of them. By acting this way you are hurting, rather than helping the chances of them getting in the game. Your outbursts piss people off, and cause them to associate your ideas with those outbursts. This makes people whom otherwise would have wanted your creatures, or not cared one way or the other, become resentful of them because every time they see them, they think of your temper tantrums. I would suggest, no, implore, that you do the following:
1.Stop requesting the same thing dozens of times. Saying you want it, and even doing a little campaigning for it to show why it's awesome, is okay. Shoving it down everyone's throats over and over again is frustrating.
2.Stop suggesting your own creatures as alternatives for other people's ideas. When someone says, "I want a creature with this ability or theme" it's okay to suggest a creature you want that fits that role. When someone says "I want a Wereraven" and you tell him that he should use these two vaguely similar mythical creatures instead, that's frustrating. Know the difference.
3.This is the big one: Stop complaining about the existence of creatures you don't like. Just stop. At this point we all know you don't like aliens, robots, lycanthropes, PC races, monsters that are too mainstream, and so on and so forth. Saying that you hate something every single time someone requests it is not going to prevent it from being included. Lots of people, including me, love those creatures. They are going to be there. Period. End of discussion. Complaining isn't going to make them go away, it just makes you look like a selfish jerk who won't let other people have what they want for your own benefit. The inclusion of these creatures isn't going to prevent yours from showing up, so just enjoy the ones you like and ignore the ones you don't.
4.Stop stating your opinions as absolute fact. D&D did not rip off mythical creatures, that's just flat out incorrect. Stop insisting that to be the truth. Really. That is infuriating.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

For North America, at the top of my list for monsters I would like to see are Raven Mockers, some dragons based on Horned Serpent myths, Water Panthers, and maybe a more horrific monster drawing from the Skinchanger folklore than the current PC race.


MMCJawa wrote:
For North America, at the top of my list for monsters I would like to see are Raven Mockers, some dragons based on Horned Serpent myths, Water Panthers, and maybe a more horrific monster drawing from the Skinchanger folklore than the current PC race.

Unhcegila would be cool.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Definitely want to see some stuff from Nyambe. Bbeen reading it lately and I really like it.

No shameless plug for my American monsters in this post :D

Hupia... sorry... i couldnt help myself :D


Water Panthers?

I want to see stuff from (almost) everywhere;)

Hupia, has a nice ring to it, hupia:)

The Exchange

1 person marked this as a favorite.

What about more denizens native to the Darklands. Also, more variations of Aboleth would be interesting.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Flynn Greywalker wrote:
What about more denizens native to the Darklands. Also, more variations of Aboleth would be interesting.

I personally don't expect any all-new alghollthu in here, but we could see the return of the veiled master. ^_^


I just want to see Llamafolk.. and maybe Camelfolk... and maybe Alpacafolk....


Or Werellamas... Werecamels... werealpacas...


Dire Pika...


1 person marked this as a favorite.

It has been a long time since we got some new Lamia.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
It has been a long time since we got some new Lamia.

How about a Llamia? Half-lamia, half-llama.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Cthulhudrew wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
It has been a long time since we got some new Lamia.
How about a Llamia? Half-lamia, half-llama.

Not only did I choke on my hot chocolate while reading this, I also really want to see it. Dammit.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Which half human? If upper body llama then it could have a spit attack.


Creatures we haven't gotten new types(in a hardcover bestiary) since B2- Aeons, Agathions, Angels, Azata, Cockroach(Giant), Inevitables, Lamia, Proteans, Qlippoths, Solifugid(Giant), and Toad(Giant)

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

...how many giant toads do we need?

Silver Crusade Contributor

Yeah, of the nine major aligned outsider subtypes, proteans seem to have gotten the short end pretty hard. The only one new to the Pathfinder system is the voidworm; the others are from Legacy of Fire and The Great Beyond (respectively).

Even inevitables and azata have occasional stragglers appearing in APs and such.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

There's been a protean (the ourdivar) in either the latest or the one-before-the-latest Giantslayer volume, too. But yeah, you'd think the embodiments of chaos would have greater variety.


I agree, you would think the embodiments of chaos would have greater variety.

We have a giant toad and a glacial toad, I would love a fire toad.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Samy wrote:
...how many giant toads do we need?

33-1/3. One for each revolution.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Kajehase wrote:
There's been a protean (the ourdivar) in either the latest or the one-before-the-latest Giantslayer volume, too. But yeah, you'd think the embodiments of chaos would have greater variety.

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


I'd like to see something llama like, actually, largely because I don't think we have any Incan/Andean creatures yet. Is that true? I certainly can't think of any off the top of my head. The Incas have a pretty neat llama god, Urcuchillay.

We need more proteans. Definitely. Love those guys. I'd like to see a couple more CN neutral outsider races as well. As awesome as the Proteans are, for beings of pure chaos they do seem to have awfully similar body shapes. I think a couple more CN races would be a good addition.

I'm not sure new giant toads would really be a priority, but if we can come up with really interesting variations, I'm all for it. Plus, I know of several frog and toad like mythical creatures I think should be included at some point. Those would mostly be magical beasts, though.

I'm a bit late to the point, but in terms of the fiend/celestial debate, my opinion is this: I like the fiends a lot more. It really comes down to diversity. Compare a Sarglagon to a Hamatula to a Gelugon, or a Sangudaemon to a Meladaemon to a Piscodaemon, or a Glabrezu to a Nalfeshnee to a Marilith. And that's just within single categories of fiends. They are so much more varied in appearance than Celestials. If Celestials were as diverse as fiends, I'd like them just as much. It's really not that evil outsiders are inherently cooler, it's just that a majority of the outsiders I was really impressed with happen to be evil. Still, I would really like the smaller categories to be expanded upon, and I'd be okay with waiting a while for more demons/devils/daemons while that happens. I really don't want any categories of fiends to stop appearing, large or small. (Except possibly Kytons. They're a little too nauseating for my taste, but that's just me. I'm not a particularly big fan of body horror.) If new Celestials were added that were totally different, I'd be all for that.

As for the Succubus archetype debate, let me just say I LOVE female succubi and those kinds of monsters. Probably a little too much. Still, I can understand that they wouldn't be very interesting to other demographics of people than myself. I don't think that their inclusion would be harmful in any way to people who aren't heterosexual males. Just ignore them. Though including more attractive male monsters would only be fair. There's plenty of monsters from mythology that could fill that niche that I would like to see. Just keep the female creatures coming as well, they are appreciated.


I think the llama is stated in the Animal Archive.

Liberty's Edge

Isn't this the guy that doesn't actually PLAY PF?


What? Me? I play.

Liberty's Edge

No, Myth Lord.
I remember someone from a few years back that acted just like him, criticizing APs just because the bestiaries didn't have the monsters he wanted, etc... Turns out he didn't actually played PF, just used the monsters for some board game he created or something like that


Yeah, that was probably him. He's gone through a few names. I think we need to get this discussion back on track though. It seems like some of the new monsters/groups of monsters are based on gods or groups of gods. What gods would you like to see outsiders or other monsters take inspiration from? I had an idea for a while about Anansi as a race of humanoid spider like trickster fey. Now that the Egyptian gods are in the game, I'm quite interested in seeing their heralds appear somewhere.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Wait what? m(


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Come on people, this isn't the place to beat up on people or criticize their gaming habits, if they buy the books, what they do with them is entirely up to them, and as long as they aren't abusive or jerks their is nothing wrong with stating their opinions :-)


The Annunaki were gods. So were the Manasaputra (I think.) The Brighidine is based on a Celtic goddess, and we even have Psychopomps based on Morrigan and Yama, among others.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Yeah it was him;)

I would like to see another CN group but since the Proteans have the destroy reality thing covered, I would want the other one to be fun loving tricksters who like to play games(both physical and mental). Think of them as a race of beings like Q(star trek) or Mr. Mxyzptlk. Though they could also warp reality they do it for different purposes then just mindless destruction.


That sounds like a really good idea. Might be cool if they were based on various mythological tricksters, but of course they don't have to be. :)


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Yes, you might have one that looks like a jester but another might look like a magical beast, another a dragon, then another might look like a cloud of green energy, living toy/doll, a swirl of light wearing a coat and top hat, etc.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

As long as all the creatures match up to table 1-1 from the Bestiary, I'm fine. (There were quite a few creatures in Bestiary 4 that didn't.)

Community & Digital Content Director

Mark Seifter wrote:

Myth Lord, I have to say, as someone who shares many (though not all) of your monster preferences, I personally feel that the level of repetition of your opinion in these threads is counterproductive to both of our preferences. Once is great! We want to hear everyone's voices so we know how to make the most awesome bestiaries possible. But right now you have 36 out of 252 posts in this thread, and many of those 36 repeat your main ideas (and thus rhetorically weaken them, rather than strengthen them). You shouldn't worry that people won't hear your opinions if you post them only once. At the very least, I know that Wes and I read every one of these posts (and I imagine so do others at the office).

Just my thoughts and suggestions, anyway.

Moreover, the product discussion threads aren't equipped or intended to be threads for this kind of debate. I've gone back and removed some back and forth posts for this reason.


Can you give some examples erithecleric?

Designer

ericthecleric wrote:
As long as all the creatures match up to table 1-1 from the Bestiary, I'm fine. (There were quite a few creatures in Bestiary 4 that didn't.)

No Bestiary, not even Bestiary 1, matched up to that table completely. The table is meant to be a guideline, so if your monster is far off, you note it as a red flag and make sure you have a good reason for it, rather than it simply being an accident (and also make sure it isn't either completely nutso amounts off or super off in the same direction on several attributes). For one example, the Tiny critters that often become improved familiars are almost all way low on damage for CR 2 creatures, but that's OK. If they also had way too low hp, AC, and saves, that would be an issue. Or for instance, oozes have no good base saving throws and often have 1 Dex, so their Reflex saves and AC are always below the "low save" and "AC" columns; in exchange, they often have way more hp than normal (since you're going to hit more often anyway).

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