Advanced Bestiary
Jester David
Hero
4 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
If you're excited about D&D 5th Edition and planning on shelving your Pathfinder books alongside your 2nd Edition and Vampire: the Masquerade books then the Advanced Bestiary is not for you. Even from a fluff perspective (and there is some) there's not much to hold your interest.If you're a big Pathfinder fan and rely on Pathfinder Society and/or the Adventure Paths then this books is also not for you. You're just not going to be making enough of your own monsters.But if you're still committed to Pathfinder and running adventures of your own design then the Advanced Bestiary is a pretty darn good book. Even with the official monster books, having extra templates allows you to easily customize creatures without heavy use of class levels and lets you to surprise your players with old favourites while giving familiar opponents new tricks. And if your players have memorized the Bestiary or have apps allowing them to sneak a look at the stats, this book will really allow you to pull the rug out from under them.
If you're excited about D&D 5th Edition and planning on shelving your Pathfinder books alongside your 2nd Edition and Vampire: the Masquerade books then the Advanced Bestiary is not for you. Even from a fluff perspective (and there is some) there's not much to hold your interest.If you're a big Pathfinder fan and rely on Pathfinder Society and/or the Adventure Paths then this books is also not for you. You're just not going to be making enough of your own monsters.But if you're still committed to Pathfinder and running adventures of your own design then the Advanced Bestiary is a pretty darn good book. Even with the official monster books, having extra templates allows you to easily customize creatures without heavy use of class levels and lets you to surprise your players with old favourites while giving familiar opponents new tricks. And if your players have memorized the Bestiary or have apps allowing them to sneak a look at the stats, this book will really allow you to pull the rug out from under them.
Dragonhelm
Knight of Solamnia
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
Not only are there tons of ideas, but it's nicely laid out and gorgeous to look at. Good job, Green Ronin!
Not only are there tons of ideas, but it's nicely laid out and gorgeous to look at. Good job, Green Ronin!
smiteworks
Explorer
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
With only a few misses (for me), the templates are thought provoking and interesting for players. The back covers says that the book acts as a force multiplier and that is correct. I'm in the process of converting these over for use within Fantasy Grounds, and reading the descriptions has been a real treat. The book itself is now the best looking Pathfinder (or compatible) book I own. Green Ronin did an amazing job with this. Even if you don't want to go through the detailed steps of applying a template, you get around 100 fully stat'd NPCs ready to use right away. Each of those NPCs is well conceived and has an interesting mini-back-story to boot.
With only a few misses (for me), the templates are thought provoking and interesting for players. The back covers says that the book acts as a force multiplier and that is correct. I'm in the process of converting these over for use within Fantasy Grounds, and reading the descriptions has been a real treat. The book itself is now the best looking Pathfinder (or compatible) book I own. Green Ronin did an amazing job with this. Even if you don't want to go through the detailed steps of applying a template, you get around 100 fully stat'd NPCs ready to use right away. Each of those NPCs is well conceived and has an interesting mini-back-story to boot.
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
This is a book of templates and all the rules needed to update your monsters to scare the crap out of your players. It allows you change common monsters into uncommon threats.The book is big,311 pages and done in all color. there are an amazing array of templates, every element is covered, a series of Dread templates to create viscous undead....my favorite is the Heralds of the Apocalypse...templates themed around, war, famine, disease and death... just plain nasty. It also includes, new feats, monstrous abilities and two great indexes, templates by CR and sample creatures. All in all a great book to supplement your collection of bestiaries.
This is a book of templates and all the rules needed to update your monsters to scare the crap out of your players. It allows you change common monsters into uncommon threats.The book is big,311 pages and done in all color. there are an amazing array of templates, every element is covered, a series of Dread templates to create viscous undead....my favorite is the Heralds of the Apocalypse...templates themed around, war, famine, disease and death... just plain nasty. It also includes, new feats, monstrous abilities and two great indexes, templates by CR and sample creatures. All in all a great book to supplement your collection of bestiaries.
Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
A must buy book for any Pathfinder and 3.X campaign. It contains 120 templates and just has many examples of creatures that use the templates. It also contains a few new feats, spells, and class abilities.This book will help you re-energize old monsters (intelligent oozes, golems and kobolds!) or inspire original ones (Bipedal Winter Wolf Herald of War!). Owen K.C. Stephens did a great job up dating the old Advanced Bestiary. No wonder Paizo recruited him. A lot of issues from the old AB have been fixed. Abilities have been removed or revised and CR corrected (Quickling, I'm looking at you!). The rules are very up to date with what Paizo is doing as Mythic rules are used with the Instrument of the Gods template. Some templates are more complicated and demand more work from the GM because they let you create very unique creatures. The Amalgam is such a template as it lets you fuse creatures together! There are new templates like the Alacritous Creature that can be in two places at once for a brief moment. The Swarm Blooded Creature bleeds a swarm when it is wounded. Or the Terathocephalos Creature... It means it has the head of another creature, so you can make a rhino headed hill giant or a cobra headed horse!The art and layout are awesome. It shows that the kickstarter campaign was a success and the people at Green Ronin were able to inject lots of money up front in design and art. Pro-level quality work IMHO.
A must buy book for any Pathfinder and 3.X campaign. It contains 120 templates and just has many examples of creatures that use the templates. It also contains a few new feats, spells, and class abilities.This book will help you re-energize old monsters (intelligent oozes, golems and kobolds!) or inspire original ones (Bipedal Winter Wolf Herald of War!). Owen K.C. Stephens did a great job up dating the old Advanced Bestiary. No wonder Paizo recruited him. A lot of issues from the old AB have been fixed. Abilities have been removed or revised and CR corrected (Quickling, I'm looking at you!). The rules are very up to date with what Paizo is doing as Mythic rules are used with the Instrument of the Gods template. Some templates are more complicated and demand more work from the GM because they let you create very unique creatures. The Amalgam is such a template as it lets you fuse creatures together! There are new templates like the Alacritous Creature that can be in two places at once for a brief moment. The Swarm Blooded Creature bleeds a swarm when it is wounded. Or the Terathocephalos Creature... It means it has the head of another creature, so you can make a rhino headed hill giant or a cobra headed horse!The art and layout are awesome. It shows that the kickstarter campaign was a success and the people at Green Ronin were able to inject lots of money up front in design and art. Pro-level quality work IMHO.
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
Huge. Filled with cool stuff. Interesting art. Did I mention huge? I would probably give this 4.5 stars, simply because I would have preferred one entry per page, per two page, etc. instead of the flow format. Other than that, did I mention huge?
Huge. Filled with cool stuff. Interesting art. Did I mention huge? I would probably give this 4.5 stars, simply because I would have preferred one entry per page, per two page, etc. instead of the flow format. Other than that, did I mention huge?
5 out of 5 rating for Advanced Bestiary
I have owned both the 3.5 version and the Pathfinder version I didnt think they could improve on this item i was wrong. This is one of the best looking best done 3rd party books I have ever seen. I read the entire book in like 3 days it was so good and fun to read template after template. If you want to customize your monsters this is a must buy
I have owned both the 3.5 version and the Pathfinder version I didnt think they could improve on this item i was wrong. This is one of the best looking best done 3rd party books I have ever seen. I read the entire book in like 3 days it was so good and fun to read template after template. If you want to customize your monsters this is a must buy
Similar Threads
