Comments on New Bestiary.

[WhiteTiger]

I will probably do a full blown review of the New Bestiary just like I did with the main but it will be much shorter.

I just wanted to get other people's opinions.

Some quick notes:

Level Adjustment is gone.
XP award listed as part of each monster's stat. This is party xp not individual XP.
Organization and typesets & fonts are the same as the main rulebook making it easy to read. Well organized.
Artwork is a mixed bag, some good, some not so good but it's a matter of taste.
Undead & constructs no longer immune to critical hits & sneak attack.
Some templates changed becoming more flexible. (i.e. Half-Celestial - you pick 3 stats and they go up +4 and the other 3 stats go up +2.)
Mostly dedicate either a full page or 2 full pages to each character. for the most part only the dragons get more than 2 pages. Dragons get less hit dice (only 2 per age category, I think it used to be 3).


Overall, I like the new book if for no other reason that it's easier to get the stats that you need and you don't have to do calculate CMB/CMD and the XP is right there. Some of the stats and rules will take some getting used to it but overall it's pretty good. You can get by without and just use your old 3.5 manual but it is a mostly worthy addition.

[Philonous]

It's a beautiful product with some nice changes that help stream line the game. I only have a few gripes, one being theres not too much original material making it basically a revised 3.5 MM. My other small gripe is that some of the art is too cartoony (the goblin), but that's just a personal gripe.

I'm really looking forward to see what piazo has down the line and am hoping they start to take the game in their own direction.

[CEBedford]

I must say I love the Pathfinder iconic goblins. Plus Gremlins is a great movie for inspiring some visual details which can add a little more "realism" to your goblin descriptions.

I too was a little disappointed at the lack of PF specific monsters but then it dawned on me that this book, like the core rulebook were meant to be pretty light on the fluff. Still a few more new monsters would have been nice.

I do like how animals got fair treatment in this book. I find they're often overlooked in favor of constantly wandering random oddities. They're not just for companions or familiars.

All in all I think the mix of monsters is good for a core book and should serve any PF GM well. I haven't run across any monsters yet that I would not use. Plus it's the first time I've seen a black pudding look kinda bad ass!

[harmor]

The Wooly Rhinoceros (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/rhinoceros.html#rhinoceros-woolly) got my attention the first time going though the book.

[WhiteTiger]

I was hoping for a handful of new monsters as well. The only way you get new monsters at present is if you play one of their adventure paths. You get new monsters for that area you play in. I am currently running adventures in Qadira, Osirion & Katapesh and so there are some specific monsters for that area. I am hoping that they will reprint all of the monsters from all of the adventure paths and other assorted chronicle & companion books and maybe print it out as a Monster Manual 2 book but I'm not holding my breath.

[outrider]

My pathfinder bestiary was missing twenty pages. I need to take mine back to the store.

[harmor]

I'm sure there will be supplemental books. Give them time. Besides you can still use the 3.5 books.

[agoraderek]

I was hoping for a handful of new monsters as well. The only way you get new monsters at present is if you play one of their adventure paths. You get new monsters for that area you play in. I am currently running adventures in Qadira, Osirion & Katapesh and so there are some specific monsters for that area. I am hoping that they will reprint all of the monsters from all of the adventure paths and other assorted chronicle & companion books and maybe print it out as a Monster Manual 2 book but I'm not holding my breath.

The second Bestiary will contain monsters from the Paizo APs and modules, as well as some of the monsters from the SRD that were left out of the first book.

Long before the book went to the printer, Paizo declared their intentions for the first book: to update as many monsters from the SRD as possible and add some old school monsters from the Tome of Horrors.