Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Bestiary - Discussion

[BryonD]

Well, that's hp as an abstraction for you. But it's better than the hole just closing up! (And not really doing that hp damage to the creature.)

Actually, it kinda de-abstracts the HP, because it is saying that 10% HP cuts a real hole in the side of the beastie. Nothing abstract about a crawl through sized hole.

Though I don't mind at all. Its a game where a Purple Worm might swallow you and you still be alive inside. And you might stop that from happening by using a bit of bat guano to lob an explosion of flame at it. Cutting you way out is just another of the fantastic differences. Though it is well and truly fantastic.

 

[Desdichado]

I went and downloaded it just today. It's worth it for the art alone, even if you don't play Pathfinder.

 

[Starbuck_II]

Well, that's hp as an abstraction for you. But it's better than the hole just closing up! (And not really doing that hp damage to the creature.)

Yeah that was a weird rule in 3.5. Like they had internal fast heal or something.

 

[carmachu]

So I got my Beastiary yesterday. The good and bad.

Good is its a gorgeous book. Its really top notch. And its chock full of monsters.

The bad? Its chock full of monsters. Lots of crunch and little fluff. Yeah I know the companions like dragons of Gol fill in the blanks, but it feels alot like the 4e MM which is of a slight disappointment.

 

[pawsplay]

Really? The demons and devils are rather detailed, particularly the quasit, imp, and lemure. Heck, I actually mildly disliked the refluffing of the goblin, as the creature described does not, in my mind, justify average intelligence.

 

[carmachu]

Really? The demons and devils are rather detailed, particularly the quasit, imp, and lemure. Heck, I actually mildly disliked the refluffing of the goblin, as the creature described does not, in my mind, justify average intelligence.

Thats my first impression. *shrug*

 

[Jason Bulmahn]

In regards to the swallow whole bit,

10% of its HP does not necessarily mean that you cut a big hole in the creature. What it does mean is that you did enough damage that it either vomited you out, or you cut your way out. Either way, the creature is not going to use swallow whole until healed... its got a tummy ache.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

 

[Drkfathr1]

I like the new mechanic, makes more sense and works just fine.

As for fluff, I felt like it had tons more. More than the 3.0/3.5 MM did. I really like that some of the monsters moved back to some of their classic origins, like the Rakshasa for example.

I also like the simplified variants in some of the entries.

Now I can't wait for Bestiary II!

 

[James Jacobs]

Really? The demons and devils are rather detailed, particularly the quasit, imp, and lemure. Heck, I actually mildly disliked the refluffing of the goblin, as the creature described does not, in my mind, justify average intelligence.

My take (since I'm the one who wrote up the goblin flavor): Goblins are actually pretty canny. Their "eccentricities" rise out of a lack of common sense (low wisdom) and low self-esteem and filthy nature and leadership quality (even lower charisma).

 

[James Jacobs]

So I got my Beastiary yesterday. The good and bad.

Good is its a gorgeous book. Its really top notch. And its chock full of monsters.

The bad? Its chock full of monsters. Lots of crunch and little fluff. Yeah I know the companions like dragons of Gol fill in the blanks, but it feels alot like the 4e MM which is of a slight disappointment.

We DID try to squeeze in as much flavor as we could, but two things limited us...

1) We wanted to have a one-monster-per-page (or close to it) format, so that navigating the book would be MUCH easier.

2) We wanted to keep the book world-neutral. There's no mention of Golarion at all in the Bestairy. It's actually kind of tough to get super detailed in the flavor text without assuming too much about the world in which the monster will appear!

In the end, I think that for the vast majority of the monsters, we managed to get a LOT more flavor text in there than most versions of the Monster Manual. There are, of course, some exceptions (the succubus and the linnorms come to mind), but overall I'm pretty happy with the amount of flavor text we DID manage to get in there and retain both of the 2 points above.

And in any event, we've already got a book line that does lots of flavor for monsters (the Monsters Revisited line). We didn't want to have too much reprinting of material. And since the Bestiary's primary job is to provide the raw rules for the monsters, that wasn't really a concern.