Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 3 [Hardcover]

If there is the one type of RPG book that nobody ever has enough of, it's monster books ! Bestiary 3 for Pathfinder is here. Does it follow the tradition of great quality found in the previous two monster books? Is Paizo running out of steam in monster development? Is this the Wuxia Anime book of no use for a conservative SCA aficionado? Are demodands in? Skunks? Flumphs? Do Tanookis have giant scrotums? Find out!

===PRESENTATION===

A solid sewn hardcover book with over 320 pages in full color. While extremely pretty and of the usual Paizo art quality, I am somewhat torn as to a few pieces of artwork. Then again, it has more Eric Belisle and Carolina Eade than any other Paizo book, so I guess it's fine. There are several navigational aids, including indexes and CR tables. The book is a pleasure to look at and use.

===CONTENT===

OK, so we've had the mandatory Bestiary 1 which was a no-brainer. Then came Bestiary 2 which mixed "must have" monsters left after B1 with both new arrivals and plugging of several conceptual holes (Plants and Fey come to mind). So what's in for Bestiary 3?

First thing off - is this the Asian monster book? No, I'd say. There are several monsters that hail from Far East, but by no way do they overwhelm the book.

But, once could say, it's the Mythology & Nostalgia Monster Book. Mythological beasts from all walks of known folklore appear on the pages of B3. Germanic, Slavic, North American, South American, Philippine, Arabian, Persian, Chinese, African, Inuit... Legends of all these areas contribute their monsters and strange denizens.

Nostalgia means the triumphant return of Misfit Monsters: Flumph, Tojanida, Wolf-in-Sheep Clothing, all of them fresh after treatment they got in Misfit Monsters Redeemed. On a slightly less goofy note, classics such as Pseudodragon, Caryatid Column and Axebeak are back here as well. Demodands drop in to a long awaited "hi" and round out the classic evil outsider troupe.
And there's the Demilich, and boy does it live up to it's legendary TPK generator status.

More and more monsters from Paizo Adventure Paths appear for their update to the current ruleset. In particular, monsters from Legacy of Fire and Serpent's Skull APs appear in strong numbers.

Finally, more filling of niches yet unexplored. Catfolk and Suli (geniekin) races that are PC-ready. Clockwork constructs (robots, yay!), even more plants and fey to make up for their short numbers, funky new oozes (oozi?) such as Plasma Ooze.

Of course, there are "normal" animals and insects, and more dinosaurs than you can handle - James Jacobs, I see what you did there.

Taking up where Bestiary 2 left, there are quite a lot of high CR monsters, going up to CR 24.

The monsters are consistently presented in 1 page = 1 monster format, making the book far easier to use than the 3.5 MM. The universal monster rules system is here as well, with all the common special rules placed in one chapter.

===CONCLUSION===

So, to answer the questions stated above - yes, it follows the quality standard of B1 and B2, no, Paizo doesn't seems to be running out of ideas (this book contains very few "funky monsters made up from the scratch so that we can copyright them and never worry about somebody using them in their RPG which will overtake our products in sales someday"), no, it's not a Wuxia Bestiary (but it's does feel rather exotic if your entire knowledge of human mythology is limited to Western Europe), demodands, flumphs and skunks (both vanilla and giant variety) are in and OMG Tanookis don't have giant scrotums!

Love the book, please make more :)

A guy named Jakub Jaraczewski has a better review than mine, so read his.

I love this new bestiary. The first Bestiary was ok, but copyright problems hit me hard with some of my favorite monsters vanishing from the game. The second Bestiary was pretty cool; it added some things that I liked and I use it as often as the classic Bestiary. Then I got the Froggod Games Tome Of Horrors, and it was about as cool as the second Bestiary, but about three times the size and four times the cost.

But this third Bestiary...

As others have already pointed out, this is a tour of mythology from around the world. And, in the case of my home grown world the creatures added in this new Bestiary all fall neatly into the grand cosmic plans I've already laid down. It's like Paizo wrote this book just for my current campaign and for no one else. How can I not like it?

Overall it has a nice balance of monsters for all character levels, which is good. I seem to remember that Gygax's Monster Manual II had very little for low level players in it. I certainly hope that Bestiary 4 continues in the same vein as Beastiary 3.

This is yet another great product in the Paizo Pathfinder Role Playing Game ruleset. It is the third of three monster books, and it is chock full of all sorts of both classic and new creatures, including a large number that are Asian-themed. The art (as always) is amazing, and each creature is carefully written up to provide plenty of both "Fluff" and Crunch."

Highly recommended.

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