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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Windjammer" data-source="post: 4847944" data-attributes="member: 60075">I'd recommend people to download the Bonus Bestiary on paizo.com - it's for free, once you've signed up for an account on the site (which doesn't cost anything, just requires a valid email address). It's basically Paizo's offering for FreeRPGDay. Here's an interesting tidbit. They redid the Allip as follows.Defenses: are weakened. Yes, Fort goes from +1 to +4; and Will/Refl stay at +4; but AC is reduced by 1 (was 15, is 14; flatfooted 13, was 13). Attacks: are nerfed. Yes, touch attack bonus goes from +3 to +4, but. Wisdom Drain is no longer 1d4 Wis drain on a touch attack but 1d4 Wis damage, and so is appropriately renamed ("Touch of Insanity"). It's basically a 4E-style concession to minimize negative effects a monster has on the party beyond the encounter in which the party meets it (4E Rustmonster would be a classic exhibit).And these news leave me puzzled. At level 3, Pathfinder PCs are considerably stronger than their 3.5 counter parts (more hp, more attack options, better skill ranks, better base stats owing to two racial +2 to ability scores [still in the final, if you do the math]). So while I expected the Bestiary to stay close to the 3.5 MM, not least owing to make it easy on those who wish PF to stay as close to 3.5 as possible, I expected either monsters of the same power level or slightly above. Heck, some people used the device to reduce the CR of 3.5 monsters by 1 when they were playtesting the Beta with their players, because feeding a CR 3 monster to a level 3 PF party was simply way too easy to merit a level headed XP reward.And now we see the opposite alteration, actually. What does this tell us? Well, it tells us what I expected early enough, that Paizo, as much as WotC, is conscientious in building a game that works for their organized play format (Pathfinder Society). Here's the catch. If your DM kills a character of yours in a home game, you roll up a new character of the same level for next week's game. If that fate befalls you in Organized Play, you roll up a level 1 character and start afresh - all the gear you accumulated (and for some Organized Play people, that's the main thrill) is gone. How do you fight that? Easy. Power up PCs, boost their hp, defenses, attacks, and do the exact opposite for monsters. So that when a party of PCs meets an encounter appropriate for its APL, there will be no losses or, worse, long time backdraws beyond the duration of a single session. That's your new CR 3 Allip, gentlemen. Well, good news for Society players. I'm not one of them, so this won't be a game for me if the final game aims to deliver more along these lines. The remainder of the Bonus Bestiary is well worth your time. It contains brilliant flavour texts (check out the Annis Hag's, in particular), and seriously tempts me to buy the final Bestiary even though I'd mostly use it to supplement my 4E MMs which are woefully underwhelming on that account.</blockquote>

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