Monster Core for Pathfinder 2nd Edition Review!

[Music] hey everybody today I have for you a preview of The Monster core rule book for Pathfinder second edition remastered and before we get started I need to let you know that I was provided a copy of this book by piso monster core is 378 pages from cover to cover and has a retail price of $59.99 the pdf version may also be purchased online for $1 1999 which is worth noting as piso heavily discounts their Rule books versus setting books in The Lost Omen line which typically cost $30 for those PDFs monster core is the remaster editions version of a bestiary and just like player Core 1 and GM core are refreshes of the core rule book and game mastery guide monster core is a refresh of bestiary 1 and this is very evident in the design of monster core as it is intended to provide you with the sort of greatest hits for Monsters as such it includes a lot of previously released content that has been updated to bring it in line with the remaster Edition these updates include things like removing alignments in favor of traits like holy and Unholy and changing some of the terminology such as attacks of opportunity becoming reactive strikes this book also replaces a few familiar monsters that originated with Dungeons and Dragons with similar but legally distinct new monsters for example shamblers have been redesigned as sargassum heaps this is more than just simply changing the monster's name and instead is a complete rebuild of the monster to suit the world of Gan but without sacrificing familiar traits the orgasm Heap is a sixth level plant monster and with a speed score of only 10 one could very well describe it as shambling but the redesign includes a few new twists to make the SAR gasm Heap its own distinct monster for example shamblers are enhanced when they are affected by electricity damage just like the old DND shambling Mouse they're descended from whereas the sargassum Heap has no special resistance to electricity and instead releases hallucinogenic spores that compel victims to walk closer towards it so these are new monsters that fit a familiar Niche but their redesigns not simply reskins another change worth mentioning is how Golems are treated basically the Golem type no longer exists and instead the common Golems found in the original bestiary have been replaced with similar constructs alchemical Golems are now noxious needlers clay Golems are now clay effigies flesh Golems are now charal Creations Iron Golems are now iron wardens and stone golems are now Stone bullworks each of these redesigned constructs function similarly to their Golem counterparts but with greatly improved and clearly defined relations to Magic instead of the golum anti- magic that seemed to just confuse everyone these new construct types each have specific immunities and resistances with damage types and traits it is worth mentioning for those curious about how the changes to Golem anti- magic might affect the willowwisp and its form of antimagic well simply there's not much of a change there for willo wisps they still have antimagic another of the redesigned elements worth mentioning is how they're handling dragons The Familiar categories of metallic and chromatic dragons have been replaced with Dragons based on the four mag iCal Traditions Arcane Divine occult and Primal monster core gives a stance for two new dragons from each of the four magical Traditions fortune and Mirage dragons are Arcane diabolic and Imperial dragons are Divine conspirator and um dragons are occult and adamantine and horned dragons are Primal they each have the familiar traits from dragons such as breath weapons but with new twists for example Oman dragons breathe a translucent mist of potentialities that overwhelms creatures with visions of possible Futures that deals the mental damage in all monster core provides stance and backgrounds for over 400 monsters which is more than any single best are that came before it in addition it also provides a few other treats that you might expect such as rules for creating liches and vampires or although I don't believe either of those have changed significantly from their original versions so that should give you a general idea of what's in the book it's basically a new and Polished bester but let's talk a little bit about pros and cons and I'll start with the pros this book is packed with a lot of content it has a ton of monsters for you to throw at your players and I believe the selection of monsters is on point this is indeed a book of The Greatest Hits that will be easy for you to drop into most games and not a lot of Niche monsters suited for specific campaigns or specific locations also I appreciate the redesigns rather than just reskinning problematic monsters from DND they took the opportunity to completely redesign them and from what I can tell these redesigns are mostly for the better also monster core simply makes the game better a clear example example of this is how they fixed Golems the new versions are clear easy to understand and do not sacrifice any real flavor and I know plenty of people will probably disagree with me but I think another positive here is the price specifically the price of the PDF 400 monsters in supporting content for 20 bucks comes out to about 5 cents per monster which is a pretty good deal that however assumes you don't already have access to these monsters which brings us to the cons the first and most obvious con is a lot of the monsters included we've seen before and everything previously published is still valid and can be used in the game so if you already have best yies 1 2 and three you may not find as much value in Monster core as you'd want from a whole brand new best J that said if you're new to Pathfinder second edition and don't already have those bestiaries this this is obviously the best monster book to get second some of the redesign with the remaster editions may have slipped through the cracks I haven't noticed any errors that I would consider deal breakers but as others online have noted the change in how grab Works has not been implemented as well as one might hope in Monster core in the old version grab automatically succeeded without a skill check and now with the remaster addition the attacking creature needs to succeed with an Athletics check to successfully grab but several monsters with grab abilities in Monster core have no athletic skill entry I don't consider this absolutely detrimental to the game or would prevent me from purchasing the book but it is definitely worth mentioning and I expect that this will probably be resolved fairly soon with some Mara so there you have it a quick look at monster core that officially releases on March 27th let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the book and as always thanks for watching take care and happy [Music] gaming

Channel: How It's Played

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Keywords: best, top 5, top 10, Pathfinder, 2nd Edition, PF2, 2e, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, DND, Paizo, Game, Role-playing, RPG, games, gaming, how to, guide, basic rules, rules summary, Pathfinder rules, Pathfinder rules summary, critical role, critical roll, pathfinder rpg, basics4gamers, preview, review, Monster Core, Bestiary, Remaster, Remastered, Monster Manual

Id: 3NiM0QtV2og

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024