Bestiary 5 Comments

[Milo v3]

Bestiary 5 is out and I have to say I really like it.

It seems to have a decent amount of outsiders in it with aeons, archons, manasuptra, elementals, sahkils.... and uh angels, demons, and devils again (though I do rather like the Empyrean). The new races in it look interesting, I can imagine fat people loving Astomoi in the settings. King kong is abit weak though, and Esoteric dragons are.... odd.

So, what do other people think of the book?

[(Un)Inspired]

New races, you say...?

[Psyren]

The art is phenomenal. A couple of my favorites:

Empyrean Angel:

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Aether Elemental:

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Egregore:

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Lipika Aeon

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[Tuvarkz]

My favorite creature from there is definitively the Vilderavn, followed by the Pyraustas and the Rope Dragon.

[Milo v3]

New races, you say...?

There are a few races in the book, though a few are reprints from Golarion Campaign Settings Books:

1. Android, half-construct people full of nanites.
2. Astomoi, psychic race with no eyes, ears, nose or mouth.
3. Caligni, darkfolk who have freewill.
4. Deep One Hybrid, children of deep ones and humans that eventually transform into deep ones.
5. Ghoran, plant people who have delicious as a racial trait.
6. Orang Pendak, mini-sasquatches.
7. Reptoids, alien lizardpeople who shapechange into human form and try to rule the world from the shadows.
8. Shabti, simulacrum made out of broken mortal souls who has to endure someones afterlife in the person they duplicates place.
9. Skinwalker, people who can transform into a bestial form (changed from when they first appeared in Blood of the Moon, for the better).

Also, there is a social justice warrior in this book as a CR 12 Archon.

[Dusk Raven]

There are a few races in the book, though a few are reprints from Golarion Campaign Settings Books:

1. Android, half-construct people full of nanites.
2. Astomoi, psychic race with no eyes, ears, nose or mouth.
3. Caligni, darkfolk who have freewill.
4. Deep One Hybrid, children of deep ones and humans that eventually transform into deep ones.
5. Ghoran, plant people who have delicious as a racial trait.
6. Orang Pendak, mini-sasquatches.
7. Reptoids, alien lizardpeople who shapechange into human form and try to rule the world from the shadows.
8. Shabti, simulacrum made out of broken mortal souls who has to endure someones afterlife in the person they duplicates place.
9. Skinwalker, people who can transform into a bestial form (changed from when they first appeared in Blood of the Moon, for the better).

Also, there is a social justice warrior in this book as a CR 12 Archon.

Interesting. Of course, I only have... Bestiary 1 and 2. Thought I had 3, too. Would be interesting to browse the new one (and 3 and 4), if for no other reason than to get ideas for non-standard races.

[Vhaidara]

My favorite creature from there is definitively the Vilderavn, followed by the Pyraustas and the Rope Dragon.

followed by the Pyraustas and the Rope Dragon.

Rope Dragon.

...You are ****ing kidding me.

[Psyren]

Astomoi are pretty crazy. They can't talk and have to use telepathy to speak, and they can't see more than 60ft (like Oracles with that blind curse.) But all their spells are auto-silenced, with the V component replaced with a T component regardless of class, even language-dependent ones. If you want a "psychic caster" that doesn't have to deal with the fear thing and you don't mind breakdancing quietly, Astomoi have you covered.

Oh, they also can't eat normally - instead they mentally leech all of the nutrition from any food you give them, leaving the remainder inert. This renders them immune to ingested poisons. But their sensitivity to smell gives them a penalty to inhaled ones.

Interesting. Of course, I only have... Bestiary 1 and 2. Thought I had 3, too. Would be interesting to browse the new one (and 3 and 4), if for no other reason than to get ideas for non-standard races.

3 and 4 are on the PFSRD. If you want to find playable races from those, just search for CR 1/2 and CR 1 critters, the ones intended to be playable usually have an "X as characters" section.

...You are ****ing kidding me.

It's more like a snake really - small size. But yeah, it seems designed to be one of those gotcha monsters like the Cloaker.

[Tuvarkz]

It's more like a snake really - small size. But yeah, it seems designed to be one of those gotcha monsters like the Cloaker.

Methinks it's not as similar, as some of the lines imply the Rope Dragon is more likely to end up helping the team, and keeping one around only has it end up eating your rations little by little and is still useful as your typical rope.

[Vhaidara]

It's more like a snake really - small size. But yeah, it seems designed to be one of those gotcha monsters like the Cloaker.

Okay. I was about to have to slap someone around if they made a freaking Rope True Dragon.

[Psyren]

So, is the Orang-Pendak the first small size PC race in either edition to have a Strength bonus?

And Shabti are kind of awesome - immortal and immune to negative levels. (Well, they can still be killed by them if they get too many, but they don't suffer any penalties and automatically clear them all overnight.)

[Milo v3]

So, is the Orang-Pendak the first small size PC race in either edition to have a Strength bonus?

Sorta, but not exactly. With blood of angels & blood of fiends you could have small sized aasimar and tieflings with strength bonuses (my brothers actually playing one in a campaign I'm running).

[Psyren]

I forgot you could get a small Tiefling (not seeing it on the Aasimar) but doesn't that require those really weird heritages on the table that you have to roll randomly? Orang would then be the first reliable one at least.

[Florian]

I'm really cirious about the Caligni race.
I wanted to do a shadow-styled campaign for years now
, with heavy use of Dark Folk as enemies, but always got frustrated by lack of knowledge about their background and wjat drives them. Any news on this regard?

[Psyren]

I'm really cirious about the Caligni race.
I wanted to do a shadow-styled campaign for years now
, with heavy use of Dark Folk as enemies, but always got frustrated by lack of knowledge about their background and wjat drives them. Any news on this regard?

The Caligni entry mentions that, as a race, Dark Folk are enslaved by the Owb from B4. While most Dark Folk worship the Owb, the Caligni are actually throwbacks to when the race was free to choose its own path. As a result, Caligni who stick around Dark Folk communities tend to mysteriously go missing or turn up dead/murdered, because the Owb are threatened by their free will. (Basically this is their adventuring hook - the savvy or lucky Caligni end up leaving before this happens.)

There might be an AP that goes into more detail on them but reading the Owb and existing Dark Folk entries should give you decent amounts of fluff.

[Vhaidara]

Sorta, but not exactly. With blood of angels & blood of fiends you could have small sized aasimar and tieflings with strength bonuses (my brothers actually playing one in a campaign I'm running).

Doesn't playing them small give you an added +2 dex -2 str?

[Florian]

@Psyren:

Thank you for the information.

That actually comes close to what I was looking for. I wanted to use a Shadow/First World theme of a non-hostile concergence with the material plane as trigger for a later, more hostile takeover.

[togapika]

Can someone give a small description of the Android race? I'm interested to hear about them

[Florian]

Can someone give a small description of the Android race? I'm interested to hear about them

Look at the "Ecology of the Android" article in Fires of Creation.
Basically, they're an artificial race that gained sentience and a soul. They're created as adults and stay adults their whole life, reincarnating when another android is created.
As a created race, they're highly intelligent and dexterious, but lack social grace and awareness, up to the point that they're immune to moral boni (can be solved with a feat)

[Milo v3]

I forgot you could get a small Tiefling (not seeing it on the Aasimar) but doesn't that require those really weird heritages on the table that you have to roll randomly? Orang would then be the first reliable one at least.

Nope. There is a sidebar that lets you play non-human Aasimar and Tieflings, and then you take Angel Heritage for Aasimar or Demon Heritage for Tieflings (Variant Heritages are separate to the roll on a table thing and are completely reliable). I mean, you can do it with the table thing, but as you said, not reliable.

Doesn't playing them small give you an added +2 dex -2 str?

Nope. "Non-human aasimars have the same statistics as human aasimars with the exception of size. Thus a halfling aasimar is Small but otherwise possesses the same statistics and abilities as a human aasimar".

Can someone give a small description of the Android race? I'm interested to hear about them

They are a reprint, you can find info on them here.

[Psyren]

Nope. There is a sidebar that lets you play non-human Aasimar and Tieflings, and then you take Angel Heritage for Aasimar or Demon Heritage for Tieflings (Variant Heritages are separate to the roll on a table thing and are completely reliable). I mean, you can do it with the table thing, but as you said, not reliable.


Nope. "Non-human aasimars have the same statistics as human aasimars with the exception of size. Thus a halfling aasimar is Small but otherwise possesses the same statistics and abilities as a human aasimar".

Ah, I gotcha. Still, it's a variant of a variant, so I think your "sorta" answer is correct.