Pathfinder 2E Pathfinder Monster Core

[MonsterEnvy]

The Demons and Devils will probably be notably affected as the primary ones which are not Pathfinder original are likely to go away unless they are renamed.

 

[Andvari]

It's unsatisfactory to discover a creature's weaknesses based on die rolls anyway. It's more interesting by uncovering it through exploration (perhaps its maker left a book somewhere) or by asking relevant NPCs.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It's unsatisfactory to discover a creature's weaknesses based on die rolls anyway. It's more interesting by uncovering it through exploration (perhaps its maker left a book somewhere) or by asking relevant NPCs.

Eh. In some cases there are enough of these things around I wouldn't expect people trained and expert in the relevant skills to be in the dark, especially since few of these things are liable to be things you encounter in the first 3-4 levels.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

There are four bestiaries? I'm assuming the NPC listings in the GMG are considered to be the fourth?

 

[MuhVerisimilitude]

To add onto 'golems are getting redone':

Golems are being renamed bastions (probably to get away with the association of the Jewish legend of the golem; I am going to call them bastions for the rest of this post) and instead of being immune to magic, they will now have damage reduction to magic and some other ability changes, with a particular weakness to certain types of damage.

People find bastions as is to be highly frustrating and reductive; they have blanket immunizes to all kind of magic except the one they are weak to - which can often be just a single spell or a spell trait. This overrides what the spell actually does and instead does a certain amount of damage and applies a status effect. This makes them really weird to fight, and if you don't use Recall Knowledge and succeed, you can become very confused as to what is happening.

IMO, while I haven't run a proper combat where players have faced a pre-remaster Bastion, I agree with these takes. They feel much more like a puzzle boss and I'm not certain how well set up Pathfinder 2e - or any tabletop RPG, really - is set up for that; since if you don't "solve the puzzle", you can lose hard or end up in a boring combat. This is probably particularly bad if they are used as solo PL+2 or PL+3 encounters.

Bastions will be a lot more usable and interesting from now on.

I have played an adventure path that involves at least two of these bastards, might've been three even, and all of them were horrible.

The first of them was some kind of wood golem, I think. We had to run in panic, twice. Nothing works against these guys. Defensive magic? lol

Since they effectively ignore all magic except a particular subset, you can't do anything to stop them unless you have that particular element available. Also causes endless rules discussions.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Most golems can be taken down with conventional non-spell damage, its just--painful. My wife and I still curse about clay golems.

 

[pawsplay]

Gnolls are now kholos. This is one of the least legally necessary name-changes, as D&D style gnolls have existed in WoW and Everquest since forever. However, it makes sense to me, because it ties them more closely to Golarion lore, particularly the large gnoll population in Mwangi that are called kholo. While still decidedly monstrous, the focus seems to be on them usually having a more coherent culture.

 

[Reynard]

Has anyone picked this up yet today?

 

[Velderan]

Has anyone picked this up yet today?

They shipped my subscription order a few days ago, so I have the PDF but haven't had a chance to look through it yet. I probably won't get time until this weekend so hopefully my print book is here by then.

 

[Andvari]

I think I’ll stick to the old Bestiary. As I run my game in the Forgotten Realms, it’s actually advantageous to me the closer the monsters are to their D&D cousins.

Apart from that I think it’s a good thing they are trying to make the Golarian monsters different.