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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4
Untold Horrors!
Confront the creatures that go bump in the night! Bestiary 4 presents hundreds of new monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome of terrors you'll find pitiless psychopomps and blood-drinking nosferatu, insectile formians and faceless nightgaunts, and even unique mythological horrors like Spring-Heeled Jack and Grendel himself. Yet not every creature need be an enemy, as mighty empyreal lords, primeval outer dragons, and valorous swan maidens enlist you in their epic battles!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4 is the fourth indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a companion to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 includes:
- More than 300 different monsters.
- Creatures from classic horror literature and monster films, including the colour out of space, elder things, and kaiju.
- New player-friendly races like changelings, kitsune, and nagaji.
- Entities of mythic might, from despotic demon lords and alien elohim to terrifying Great Old Ones—including Cthulhu!.
- New creatures you can construct, like clockworks and juggernauts.
- New familiars, animal companions, and other allies.
- New templates to help you get more life out of classic monsters.
- Appendices to help you find the right monster, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat.
- Expanded universal monster rules to simplify combat.
- Challenges for every adventure and every level of play.
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
Confront the creatures that go bump in the night! Bestiary 4 presents hundreds of new monsters for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Within this tome of terrors you'll find pitiless psychopomps and blood-drinking nosferatu, insectile formians and faceless nightgaunts, and even unique mythological horrors like Spring-Heeled Jack and Grendel himself. Yet not every creature need be an enemy, as mighty empyreal lords, primeval outer dragons, and valorous swan maidens enlist you in their epic battles!
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4 is the fourth indispensable volume of monsters for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and serves as a companion to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds upon more than 10 years of system development and an Open Playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 4 includes:
- More than 300 different monsters.
- Creatures from classic horror literature and monster films, including the colour out of space, elder things, and kaiju.
- New player-friendly races like changelings, kitsune, and nagaji.
- Entities of mythic might, from despotic demon lords and alien elohim to terrifying Great Old Ones—including Cthulhu!.
- New creatures you can construct, like clockworks and juggernauts.
- New familiars, animal companions, and other allies.
- New templates to help you get more life out of classic monsters.
- Appendices to help you find the right monster, including lists by Challenge Rating, monster type, and habitat.
- Expanded universal monster rules to simplify combat.
- Challenges for every adventure and every level of play.
... and much, much more!
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2013
About the author
Jason Bulmahn
126 books41 followersLead Designer of Paizo Inc and Minotaur Games, creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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February 11, 2020the pathfinder is a serial murderer.
September 26, 2019
Basic Premise: Lots of monsters for the Pathfinder RPG system.
Highlights: monsters out of myth like Grendel and Spring-Heeled Jack. Kaiju! More Cthulhu-Mythos based nasties. Also a few new player-friendly races, like the kitsune.
As always, the book is laid out well, easy to read and easy to find what information is needed.
Highlights: monsters out of myth like Grendel and Spring-Heeled Jack. Kaiju! More Cthulhu-Mythos based nasties. Also a few new player-friendly races, like the kitsune.
As always, the book is laid out well, easy to read and easy to find what information is needed.
December 19, 2013
As I sit here, having just managed to finish my subscribers pdf of bestiary 4 as my physical copy reached my door I have to say that this might be the best bestiary Paizo has published to date. A cross over of american classic horror, international spook monsters, and the cream of the last 3 adventure paths this book brings some of the most interesting monster concepts to the table yet. From angel lords and demon demigods, body snatcher plants, mothers of all monsters, giant human disguising cockroaches, and dragons that can flit through the stars this book brings a whole new angle to monsters we rarely see in the fantasy setting. Also special mention needs to be made to the aberrations, oozes, plants, and fey in this volume which has both the largest number and most interesting to appear to date. From vermin controlling oozes with brains made out of giant larval queen bees and oozes made of molten slag to mi-go and the great octopoidal spawn of Cthulhu himself this book finally brings some much needed love to these underused creature types.
Now I will say this one may not be for everyone, those who don't like the idea of space fareing races, horror, or literary tropes crafted in a more modern age will probably not find much to love here but if the idea of having a world with more going on then what's on its surface or those who love the horror tropes of of modern scifi and slasher films then you are definitely in for a treat. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out how I'm going to mash Freddy Krueger, Cthulhu, and a sentient ooze craftedvfrom the blood of a dead god into a single game.
Now I will say this one may not be for everyone, those who don't like the idea of space fareing races, horror, or literary tropes crafted in a more modern age will probably not find much to love here but if the idea of having a world with more going on then what's on its surface or those who love the horror tropes of of modern scifi and slasher films then you are definitely in for a treat. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out how I'm going to mash Freddy Krueger, Cthulhu, and a sentient ooze craftedvfrom the blood of a dead god into a single game.
October 31, 2013
Normally, Pathfinder Bestiary books are an automatic buy for me. I just love monster books for RPGs in general, and Pathfinder books tend to be of a sufficiently high quality as to overcome my skinflinty nature. So when I heard through a RPG group on Facebook that the Bestiary 4 was out, off I went to Paizo, plunked down my $10 and downloaded the book and tore into it.
I wish I hadn't.
I can't say this is a *bad* monster book, but I doubt it will be for everyone. The bulk of the book's monsters are very much horror-themed, which probably will help the book's Halloween-time release, but if you're not into a horror-type game chock full of demon- and devil- types of monsters, you're going to be disappointed. A fair bit of the book is dedicated to statting out Cthulu monsters and such, which for a game like Pathfinder, just does not fit. Nobody charges Cthulu with a vorpal sword, man. They look at him and spend the rest of their lives either drooling on their chest while their eyes roll in their sockets, or they spend it transiting through Cthulu's undoubtedly labyrinthine digestive tract. Nuff said.
A fair number of entries also just felt deriviative, either further building on monster types already established, or inserting some of the more interesting examples of the Race Creation Rules from the Advanced Race Guide as full monster entries. That's just kind of lazy, really.
The artwork is excellent throughout, and it feels like the only thing that Paizo skimped on here was the originality. A shame, that.
I wish I hadn't.
I can't say this is a *bad* monster book, but I doubt it will be for everyone. The bulk of the book's monsters are very much horror-themed, which probably will help the book's Halloween-time release, but if you're not into a horror-type game chock full of demon- and devil- types of monsters, you're going to be disappointed. A fair bit of the book is dedicated to statting out Cthulu monsters and such, which for a game like Pathfinder, just does not fit. Nobody charges Cthulu with a vorpal sword, man. They look at him and spend the rest of their lives either drooling on their chest while their eyes roll in their sockets, or they spend it transiting through Cthulu's undoubtedly labyrinthine digestive tract. Nuff said.
A fair number of entries also just felt deriviative, either further building on monster types already established, or inserting some of the more interesting examples of the Race Creation Rules from the Advanced Race Guide as full monster entries. That's just kind of lazy, really.
The artwork is excellent throughout, and it feels like the only thing that Paizo skimped on here was the originality. A shame, that.
November 26, 2013
I think I’ve made it very clear that I am a huge geek and have been for many, many years. If you are unsure of this claim, just glance back at some of my posts from earlier this year where I discuss collecting comics and whatnot. So I’m sure that it will come as no surprise to anyone when I confess that I love roleplaying games. From Dungeons & Dragons to R.I.F.T.S. to DragonLance, I love just about all things fantasy related. A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and now I have a new obsession. Pathfinder is an amazing gaming system that both old and new role-players will love.
If you are a visual person for the most part, like me, then you’ll love this new bestiary. The book is crammed full of creatures and monsters alike, complete with stats, origin histories and color pictures. The detailed graphics of each entry are an excellent companion to help describe who or what is attacking your party.
My favorite aspect of this bestiary is the inclusion of the Great Old Ones, which are none other than deities that exist in the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft. As a HUGE Lovecraft fan, this was an amazing surprise, and I am wholeheartedly inserting some of these beasties into my own campaigns. Of particular note is the great Cthulhu himself! It just doesn’t get much better.
The PATHFINDER ROLEPLAYING GAME: BESTIARY 4 is a huge win for me and it’s a definite must-own if you enjoy RPGs. But whether you play or not, you should certainly pick this one up anyway, if just to see the detailed artwork. The book is available now.
If you are a visual person for the most part, like me, then you’ll love this new bestiary. The book is crammed full of creatures and monsters alike, complete with stats, origin histories and color pictures. The detailed graphics of each entry are an excellent companion to help describe who or what is attacking your party.
My favorite aspect of this bestiary is the inclusion of the Great Old Ones, which are none other than deities that exist in the worlds of H.P. Lovecraft. As a HUGE Lovecraft fan, this was an amazing surprise, and I am wholeheartedly inserting some of these beasties into my own campaigns. Of particular note is the great Cthulhu himself! It just doesn’t get much better.
The PATHFINDER ROLEPLAYING GAME: BESTIARY 4 is a huge win for me and it’s a definite must-own if you enjoy RPGs. But whether you play or not, you should certainly pick this one up anyway, if just to see the detailed artwork. The book is available now.
October 31, 2013
Usually by volume two, let alone volume three, these RPG monster books are filled with also-ran, super-weird monsters that nobody would ever use in a game. Not so with Pathfinder, which leans on it's new Mythic rules to supply the unlikely (and surprisingly successful) pairing of Lovecraftian Old Ones and familiar but not licensed Kaiju, plus more variety of dragons, giants, golems and undead. Throw in a dash of welcome weirdness with the tooth fairy and living topiary, plus mythic monsters of legend like Grendel, present with the usual high quality artwork and production values Paizo has got down cold, and it's another great book in the Pathfinder line.
November 24, 2013
This is an astounding volume addition to the Bestiary series. Finally, Paizo gives stats for some of the creatures it has mentioned elsewhere, like the insect-like Formian race. However, what I really enjoyed the entries on monsters like Grendel & Cthulhu (even though I am not a fan of Lovecraftian horror). My favorite monsters were the Godzilla-like Mogaru and the other Kaiju!
December 1, 2013
Another fantastic bestiary from the folks at Paizo!
June 16, 2014
My group and I really enjoy horror themes, so this book is a great fit for us. Those who don't won't find much here aside from a few mythic monsters to add to a mythic-level campaign.
February 18, 2014
There are a log of fun monsters in here as well as a surprising number of playable races. Some of the monsters struck me as quite niche.
October 6, 2018
This is an excellent accessory not only for the Pathfinder RPG but for those who still play Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews