Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 3 Hardcover – December 16, 2011

Bestiaries are one of the most important tools a GM has at hand. Monsters and villains are the most important factor in a game. Too much of the same monsters, and players get bored. At the same, a very weird mix can truly unbalance the game and make the players feel like a Scooby Doo show, a different monster each week.Some other people have stated in their reviews the different components in the book. If you are a player, move on, these books are better left at the GM's hands. If you are a GM, you must have a bestiary already, so there is little we can say in terms of presentation.Paizo has been producing book of the highest quality in terms of materials and presentation. Expect the same thing here.As far as content go, this book offers such a mixed variety of monsters that is next to impossible to not find something that is useful for your campaigns. As well, the mythology mix in this book certainly helps you get creative in thinking in new ways to spice up the encounters in your games.I stringly recommend this book. For me, the oriental creatures were the deal breakers and as soon as I saw an example of them, I knew I had to have this book.

My major disappointment with this book is the cover, there was a portion of it which either intentionally or unintentionally did not get properly laminated and has worn off a bit. Being a perfectionist I find this immensely disappointing.My only other complaint with this book is that they continue to have this habit of creating 'groups' of monsters. The Devils and Daemons were enough, but apparently now there are Asura, Div, Kytons, Oni, Kami all of which boil down to "More inherently evil things" (with the exception of the Kami) and most of which don't even have a consistent theme, look, or abilities. Speaking of which, why aren't all oozes called "Ooze, (Name)" and grouped like that?There are some people that call this the asian bestiary, and they're 2/5ths right. There are a large number of asian inspired monsters, but there are just as many if not more other monsters. There are some old favorites, my particular penchant being for the Normal Animal A + Normal Animal B = Ridiculous Monster C (ie Owlbear).In summary the Bestiaries and their exotic monsters are my favorite part of being a DM. I wait only for the return of "Hamster, Giant Space".

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.

Like the first and second books in the bestiaries the third book in the series features great art and a slew of monsters that populate Paizo created worlds with some old favorites from the former best selling adventure publisher TSR repackaged and face lifted. It is excellent overall, but to me there is not much in it one could not live without, but many people will find the creatures from other real world mythologies interesting. A lot of the creatures are simply elemental or environmental variations like giant rabbit, giant fanged magma rabbit, giant fanged snow rabbit, giant fanged desert rabbit, giant fanged cave rabbit. Just kidding about the rabbit, but you will find this in actuality with dragons and trolls at least. This book would be very helpful for gamers who like high levels of play. Glad to add it to my collection, but a lot of the monsters here are in their other supplements.

I can't say enough good things about these books. I love paging through them for ideas to drop on the party or spice up some AP encounters. I will say, I'm still not a huge fan of the way some of the info is arranged in the books - you never really know what part of a monster's name the alphabetization is applied to, and the appendix info and certain ability definitions aren't always where you'd expect. But for the most part, I love reading these. Essential hardcover for any PF group.

I've been very happy with all the Pathfinder resources that I've purchased. The books seem sturdy. The artwork is good. The content is good. I have a small problem with the monsters they chose to add in the follow-up Bestiaries. I don't think most DMs are going to find uses for them unless characters are doing LOTS of planar travel or higher-end adventures.

Very useful book. I use it for my D&D campaigns. I’m using a lot for my campaigns

As a DM, I absolutely love it when a company puts out a monster manual with a wide variety of monster that are each bursting with flavor. The Bestiary 3 delivers, giving you a huge number of new monsters, each of which has a lot of potential to work with. I would recommend this for any Pathfinder players or DMs.

It's probably more useful than Bestiary 2, but that will depend on your campaign. There are lots of non-European legendary monsters and less of the weird extraplanar stuff that seemed to clog up B2. Looks great, of course.

Good

Great read, plenty of ideas.

Amazing monsters for the Pathfinder game!

Bestiary 3 is exactly what you are expecting by now from Paizo. Over 200 new monsters, the usual fare of additional dragons, demons, devils and so on. It also adds a great collection of standalone monster types like the Cold Rider and the Wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing. The big new addition to this one is the clockwork series of monsters these range from little spy bots to hulking goliaths and as always the backstory of these creatures is very interesting. The art as can be expected is beautiful and every creature is given a colourful paragraph or so about the creature, some are backstory while other are more about the creatures habits but all are interesting and really help to get creative juices flowing when looking for things to add to encounters. New races have also been added in this book and include Catfolk Ratfolk and others which are not folk all of them are interesting in their own way and are appreciated options for those looking to be something a little different. Familiars also see their share of new additions including the otter the pig and the fox. If you liked what you have seen in other bestiaries or you are just jumping in at #3 this book will not lead you wrong. Worth every penny.