Pathfinder 1E Pathfinder Bestiary Preview II

[Tinker Gnome]

You need to look about 5 or 6 threads down for your answer

http://www.enworld.org/forum/pathfi...w-bestiary-ii-now-available-d20pfsrd-com.html

Ah, thank you.

 

[frankthedm]

Yay! Free monsters! Good to see more previews on the critters. Thanks Mr Jacobs.


Edit, Pathfider Counters anyone?



http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5971/pathfound2.png
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/2180/hugelacewing6pack.png
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5471/pathfinderbeasts1.png
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5953/pathfound3.png

img34.imageshack.us/img34/5971/pathfound2.png
img24.imageshack.us/img24/2180/hugelacewing6pack.png
img24.imageshack.us/img24/5471/pathfinderbeasts1.png
img35.imageshack.us/img35/5953/pathfound3.png

 

[James Jacobs]

HA! Awesome counters.

The ant lion's my favorite, I think, but the ascomoid is a close second.

 

[frankthedm]

Glad you like them.

Care to comment on the size classes and "# appearing" on any upcoming pathfinder critters? Would be helpful for my hobby of putting these things together from various video game sprites. I can make guesses from the bonus bestiary and the ancient texts, but whatever help you are willing to provide...

 

[James Jacobs]

Glad you like them.

Care to comment on the size classes and "# appearing" on any upcoming pathfinder critters? Would be helpful for my hobby of putting these things together from various video game sprites. I can make guesses from the bonus bestiary and the ancient texts, but whatever help you are willing to provide...

The sizes and numbers appearing don't change all that much from 3.5. But there are changes. I don't really have the energy to sift through them right now, though...

The book itself should be out in only a few weeks, in any case...

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I wish Paizo had restored the (normal) ape to Medium. I am personally larger than most gorillas, and while I do have an appreciable reach advantage on most folks, I don't think I'm quite size Large ...

 

[James Jacobs]

I wish Paizo had restored the (normal) ape to Medium. I am personally larger than most gorillas, and while I do have an appreciable reach advantage on most folks, I don't think I'm quite size Large ...

yeah... Had that been higher on my radar I probably would have made that change. SHOULD have made that change. As it was, the crocodile's problem is fixed (that one WAS on my radar), but the sneaky gorilla got by and stays uncommonly big.

You can through the "young" simple template on a gorilla though to get it to behave as if it were Medium pretty easily though.

 

[frankthedm]

Yeah, gorilla fits better at medium IMHO. IIRC whoever was working on 2002 Chainmail even made the drazen's horde war apes medium on 25mm bases rather than ogre sized and on 40mm bases like the large figs.

pic related...


http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2236/apes.png
img12.imageshack.us/img12/2236/apes.png

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I should note... monsters in the PFRPG are not "easy" or "fast" to create. I don't consider "easy" and "fast" to be selling points for creating gaming material. That role is and should be filled by things like the simple templates, or by the fact that a GM prepares for the game before play begins... having been a GM for decades, I've actually always believed that building the game is just as fun (and is often MORE fun) as it is to play the game.

The monster creation rules are detailed, and we show you everything under the hood so that folks can create monsters using the same guidelines we used, but we made no attempt to make the process super simple or fast. Logical and detailed were our goals.

I like to see work done fast and if want to do some more with my free time, I'll do it. I like building my game world, but I don't think it's necessary for the tools to be hard or slow to make this time better spent. But maybe that is a play-style difference. (Well, it's not exactly "play"-style, but ...)

But it's awesome you have made some benchmarks. Wonder if your benchmarks looks similar to that of Wulf Ratbanes in Trailblazer. I suspect so, since you use the same source material, but maybe the methodology makes it look very different.

 

[Banshee16]

My general feel is that awarding multiple hit dice to fairly normal creatures and then giving them above average stats leads not only to deadly housecats but to Anti-Tank Wolves. Generally speaking, I think an animal should have 1 HD at Small or Medium size, 2 HD for large, and 4 HD for Huge, adding one extra hit die for solitary predators and powerful social herd animals (like elephants or rams). Then you give them decent ability scores and the result should be a credible threat... but no match for the Roman legions. In AD&D it made sense to give wolves 2 HD because they were fairly dangerous, but you didn't have bonus hit points for Constitution. All monsters basically had was hit dice, AC, natural attacks, senses, and a few special attacks.

I'm not so sure giving 1 HD to small or medium animals etc. is such a good idea. There's a massive difference between a medium animal like a dog, and another one like a donkey, for instance. Or a dog, and a smaller one like a bobcat.

Frankly, 1 HD is pretty weak, and doesn't reflect that fact that many (maybe most) animal species are, in a physical sense, *far* superior to humans.

My wife and I brought a German Shepherd puppy into our family a few months ago, and he's been busy growing...he's at 70 lbs now, and is likely going to put on another 30 before he's done. That's still only half my weight, yet, if it came to a contest between the of us, I'm pretty convinced he could dish out punishment far faster than I, and also likely take more punishment. There's no way he'd be 1 HD if I'm 1 HD.

Animals have reaction speeds (and strength) orders of magnitude superior to humans.

We have massive brains that allow us to invent guns, cars, and nukes. But compared to most animals, we're weaklings.

Now, imagine something more lethal, like a leopard or cougar. Those are also pretty much considered "medium". But if you read accounts of cougar attacks, unless the human is lucky, a cougar can kill a grown man in 5 or 10 seconds. It doesn't take long at all. Even if the human survives, by stabbing it in a pen knife or whatever, the human's likely going to come away with injuries that will place them in the hospital for months.....severed fingers from trying to pry jaws away from body parts, lacerations from claws, possibly crushing damage to the skull or other bones, etc.

Personally, I think lethal animal stats is one of the things that 3.0/3.5 did *right*.

Banshee