Hellhound, Nessian Warhound

The hellhound is indeed one of the most iconic creatures of classic fantasy tabletops. As one of the oldest creatures in the game—both in the sense of the idiom and literally—this fiendish foe comes in two varieties; the classic Hellhound for that early-level punch and the Nessian Warhound for a reminder later on that the forces of the evil aren't messing around.

The hellhound at level 3 makes a wonderful minion to some greater threats between party levels 2 and 5. It remains threatening throughout, as its go-to jaw attack does an extreme amount of damage for its level—assuming the target is good-aligned, of course. Though it's a simple creature, it does exactly as it needs—especially when working in packs. Any fire breath that is used in combat has the potential to recharge allied fire breaths. A potent combination.

The Nessian Warhound operates in this same space, only at level 9 with the added nastiness that it can use a reaction to recharge its own breath weapon if you hit it too hard.

These two creatures are indeed Hell's Best Friend. Consider including them when you want to hint at more nefarious forces at play within your world. Also, consider what you could do to easily modify the statblock to make it more horrifying! Make them explode on death! Make a death hound that does negative damage instead of fire! Make Cerberus and cross the Hydra with the Nessian Warhound!

The game is yours. Give them hell.

- Reece

Hook 1 (Max) - The Nighthound

The local baron is very proud of his hound, naming it as the reason his hunts always go without issue—no prey can escape him. To his credit, it is most likely true. Every single one of his ancestors has had an animal like this; some theorize that the family is blessed by the spirit of a great hunter who watches over them and takes the form of the creature that aids them.

This beast appears to be a large wolf, its fur is black as coal and its eyes are cold pupilless white orbs. Unusual, no doubt, but nothing that should make people wary.

What should scare them, however, is the fact that in the darkness of night, shadows in the shape of a hound stalk both the castle and the outlying town. Where these shadows lurk, bodies are often found in the early morning hours after it's been spotted, seeming as if attacked by a large dog. Stranger still, these corpses are not only torn apart, they are also singed or terribly burned as if someone wished to hide the evidence of the killing.

Hook 2 (Nemanja) - The Beasts of Mochmor

The warlock-kings of the secluded orkish kingdom of Mochmor have been hunting alongside a pack of blood-haired hyenas for as long as anyone can remember.

In truth, it is not the hyenas who serve the warlocks, rather it is the reverse. The fiendish predators have a reputation for hunting down aasimars on the material plane. This, of course, is achieved by pointing their vassal kingdom in the direction of any single target they deem worthy. They raid and even declare wars without regard, all to score a singular kill against their most hated foes.

Hook 3 (TJ) - Can We Keep Him?

"Look Daddy, a puppy!"

Griswold turned to look in the direction his son was indicating. Sure enough, there was a small canine in the alley to their right. And it was smoking. Smoldering, even. Oh, dear gods. He rushed to it as it limped out of the alleyway. Had someone tortured this poor little dog? He went to pick it up and almost immediately dropped it, his hands singed. The dog—or maybe creature—was hot to the touch, though it didn't seem to be damaged save for the limp. The small pup looked up at him and Griswold froze. Its eyes were like burning coals. It licked him in his stunned state and his skin charred where its tongue passed.

"Back away, son, it isn't safe!"

But Luka didn't listen. He outstretched his arms for the small dog and it lept into them. Immediately, the boy's clothes began to scorch, small burn holes pocking the new outfit. His husband wasn't going to like this. He turned back to his father with wide eyes, oblivious to his now-smoking clothes. Before he could utter a word to drop the thing, Griswold already knew what was coming next. His husband wasn't going to like this either.

"Please, Dad, can we keep him?"

Still shocked, words fled his mind as he rushed over to Luka to tear the dog away from him. His clothes were already thoroughly burned.

His skin was not.

Frost Giant

Frost Giants, like their other giant kin, are just- Really large people.

Sort of.

Generally, they're portrayed as large, tribal, and often barbaric peoples who serve as a Viking or Nord stand-in. This, in my opinion, doesn't do them justice. The most notable thing about the Frost Giant is how many of it skills and abilities can be activated with just a single action. This design choice could lead to some of the most dangerous encounters you could make. Why? **Because any creature can Ready a single action as a two-action activity.** These are intelligent creatures, you should run them as such.

A group of frost giants stumbling across travelling, frost-bitten players could easily make short work of them. Use their plethora of single-action activities to turn the battlefield into a living (icy) hell for your players:

• A player goes to move and ends up adjacent to an ally? That triggers the **ONE ACTION, 15 FOOT CONE** Chill Breath one of the Giants had Readied.
• Try to move away from an ally? That triggers the Throw Rock another giant had saved for just this moment.
• All bunched up or have the giant surrounded? Guess who has a Wide Swing action all Ready to go?

Frost Giants are an opportunity to give your players a chilling reminder that some things are more prepared to take them out than others.

Hook 1 (Nemanja) - The River Beyond The Wall
Should anyone somehow evade or defeat the dozens of frost drakes that guard the ascent to the Land Beyond The Wall, they will find a tribe of unusually civilized Frost Giants. The citizens of this great society all talk in riddles and wear ridiculously long fur togas. Outsiders are taken to lavish feasts and festivities and treated with amicability. Should the outsiders try following the massive river that is born at the very base of the wall, the giants change disposition completely, becoming sadistically violent in an instant.

Hook 2 (Max) - The Cripple
The Cripple, despite his crass moniker provided by the locals, is a fearsome and famed mercenary in these lands. He takes on the most dangerous and lucrative contracts, hoping to gather power and experience to defeat the giant who long ago robbed him of his arm and eye, reclaiming his birthright as the clan leader.

His years on the road have taught him a thing or two. Fighting dirty and pressing any advantage you might posses are things you learn living the mercenary's life. Hence, he's always prepared with a plethora of useful tools, traps and gadgets at his disposal.

Hook 3 (Reece) - The Mithral Lands
The Frostguard Giant Clan and The Dwarven Mithral Mining Co. have been at odds for nearly a hundred years. Skirmishes with The Company in addition to fouling water and dying wildlife have greatly reduced the clan's numbers. Desparate, a single druid among the clan breaks tradition and seeks aid from outsiders. An agreement seems impossible given the incompatibility between the march of progress and the old ways. Helping the giants take back their tundra seems a mortal duty to some; though those who want to help are not only putting themselves at odds with The Company, but all those who rely on them for profit.

And Power. 

Elemental, Water

 The water elementals in the bestiary include living waterfalls, quatoids, tidal masters, brine sharks, and elemental tsunamis. Most of them are either penalized for not standing in water, or have abilities that benefit from being in open water. While you *can* stick one of them in a pool and have your players surprised and scared, encountering these in the open sea (or, you know, on their home plane of water, that is... all water?) makes for so much more drama.

The Untari jungle is known for its many streams and waterfalls, but any attempt to map their locations is futile, as they appear to be changing places. Indeed, the jungle is a place of thinning, where the material plane meets the plane of water, and the many living waterfalls who keep crossing over find it very fun to move the streams and rivers around. However, they are very shy and secretive about it, and if mortal eyes see them in action, they might grow violent.

The Angulii pass, a stretch of sea between Northlandia and the polar ice caps, is known for its treacherous waters. Many terrible aquatic beasts lurk here, but among the most feared are entire schools of brine sharks. These elementals are said to jump dozens of feet up into the air, dragging sailors with them and plunging them into the cold depths of the ocean. Some of the more experienced sailors claim that offering them fresh water might keep them off - while others dismiss it as dangerous and wasteful superstition.

The Blue Brothers were the twin tidal master guardians of Akhtana Archipelago. One day, a group of small, octopus looking elementals appeared and whispered something into the brothers' ears. The brothers immediately nodded and then left into the deep, never to be seen again.
As the Calamity, an elemental tsunami that visits once every fifteen years, approaches, the islanders must choose: will their strongest and most capable try to stand against the Tsunami themselves, or shall they go on a quest to try and find their lost guardians?

Elemental, Earth

This group of golem-lites includes the living landslide, sod hound, stone mauler, xorn, and elemental avalanche. They also need almost no introduction, as "behemoth made of earth and rubble" is just such a common trope across all media.

The Transrealm Shadowbank Corp is the largest chain of banks in the world(s), ran by a shadowy cabal of seven primal dragons. The dragons' rival has recruited several teams to strike at several of those banks, breaking their reputations as impenetrable. The easiest of those includes jumping through an unstable portal to a demiplane strongly aspected to earth - where gems are kept, and sod hounds alert their living landslide handlers when any single one of the precious stones is moved but a millimeter. 

A group of daring thieves have pulled off the impossible - managing to steal a precious diamond from one of the vaults of the Transrealm Shadowbank Corp. Unfortunately, just as they return to the material plane, closing the portal behind them, a hungry xorn appears, and with him some stone mauler thugs. The three-legged gem eater proposes a trade for the diamond, but his companions disposition clearly states that no is not an answer.

Birkenbock mountain is home to a grumpy old elemental avalanche. Unknowingly, when old ladies living on its slopes talk about keeping quiet not to cause an avalanche, they aren't talking about natural avalanches - instead, Ol' Slide is particularly fond of his peace and quiet. Those in the know will sometimes leave offerings in the form of scrolls of silence or similar magical trinkets, and just sometimes, they might unexpectedly stumble upon a gem, or a hidden cave filled with treasures, when traversing the mount.

Elemental, Air

 And so, our week of elementals begins, with the air elementals - including the elemental hurricane, invisible stalker, living whirlwind, the mighty storm lord, and the zephyr hawk.

Griefholme, the city of light and magic, is a place where magic is so commonplace that day-to-day life of most citizens relies on it. One of the many unconventional uses of conjuration is a bounded elemental hurricane that is let out into the streets at night - doing a job of hundreds of servants with brooms within mere minutes. While the creature is under strict orders never to initiate a fight unprovoked, it has taken to its duty very seriously, and will aggressively defend the hygiene of the city.

Whisper is an invisible stalker with a vendetta. Having been called to perform terrible deeds by a rogue necromancer one too many times, he plans to execute the mage. To that end, he has given the necromancer the location of some ancient treasure, hidden on a solitary, faraway mountaintop - but also failed to mention that said mountaintop is an elemental vortex point, notable for being the spawning grounds of large numbers of aggressive young living whirlwinds. However, Ol' Joe the Necromancer wouldn't risk his own life - instead sending naive young adventurers after the treasure, with promises of rewards sure to be broken.

Hush Featherstep is an ancient storm lord noble. In his youth, hush was an avid falconer in his home plane of air - and even in his old days, his trustiest companion, a zephyr hawk named Swyft, had been at his side. Unfortunately, these days Hush's sight has grown weak - and when Swyft goes missing while on a hunt on the material plane, Hush must turn to some mortals for help. All of the signs point towards the bird-like elemental flying straight into a massive storm brewing on the horizon.

Efreet

While i kind of hate the "hehe, every wish gets corrupted" trope that seems so popular in the hobby, and even consider it a symptom of a greater issue - namely, the players vs GM mentality - if you really like those? Use Efreeti, its implicitly in their nature to corrupt wishes to their own gains.

Aggagni the malik has a very specific choice of victims. His army of spies, scouts and turncoats is present across the world. Whenever a sorcerer with a fiery blood, someone aspected to a fire breathing dragon, or a cleric worshiping one of the fire gods makes their first kill, Aggagni appears before them offering to fulfill a single wish. While he will rarely straight up corrupt the wish (unless insulted during the exchange), if a wish can somehow help him advance the construction of his fortress-city, he will take the opportunity. Once Granjipoor, the scourge of Mortals is complete, Aggagni plans to launch a full-scale invasion of the material realm and crown himself its god-emperor.

An immortal monster from the realms beyond is ravaging the world. Only magic as powerful as the wish spells can even allow it to die, though it would still take a heroic deed to actually slay it. The gods have abandoned the mortals, as they gave up hope long ago. As a group of warriors and mages prepare for their last stand against the foul beast, a devil and an efreet appear before them. The devil offers them a wish in exchange for their souls. The efreet smiles from ear to ear and says he will grant them a wish that will to exactly as they ask. As the sounds of wanton destruction draw ever closer, the heroes must choose.

Even without the wishes and fireballs, an efreet is a tough combatant. An efreet rogue's favourite way to loot is an overly elaborate prank. Several years ago, he decided to put an alarm spell on an ornate old lamp. When someone touches the lamp, the efreet dimension doors to appear before them, using some smoke and mirrors tricks to make sure the finder believes he was truly stuck in the inanimate object. If the victim is alone, he slays them outright and takes their belongings - but he much prefers meeting groups. In such a case, he spends a few days filling the ears of the finder (his faux "master") with tales of jealousy and betrayal - and when the group inevitably starts a fight, he uses it to disappear with their treasures, as well as the lamp. Then he places the lamp somewhere for the next poor suckers to find, and the cycle starts anew.

Drakauthix

 One thing i will always praise paizo for is throwing in some outright weird monsters in their books. The drakauthix (please don't make me try and pronounce it) is one of those things. A giant, floating, carnivorous tentacled mushrooms that see through clouds of spores. And i'm bloody loving it.

Rotten hill, the windiest peak in all of Ungerlund, is now home to a crazed fungal monstrosity. The spores of a juvenile somehow left their dark, underworld homes, and hatched on the sunny hill. However, the constant heavy wind that blows across the entire area keeps sweeping away any sight-spores. Hence, the drakauthix is crazed into being less passive than most of its kind, violently lashing out at any motion it manages to detect in its close vicinity. As the hill is a popular spot among locals, the Duke has offered a reward to anyone willing to cleanse it.

Explorers under the leadership of Ser Henry Hearthwise have achieved their goal - they reached the famed bottom of the world. Except, after going several hundred kilometers underground, discovering several lost civilizations, and going through caverns no mortal eye has ever seen... they're in for one more surprise. What every civilization since the creation of the universe has considered the endpoint of the world itself, is in fact populated by a sea of flying, tentacled mushrooms. Ser Henry being who he is, some foolhardy shenanigans net him a discovery that will shake up all theories about the world - beneath the shroom colony, a deep and dark abyss lies... and the fungal beings seem to be feeding on the remains of whatever lives below.

The king has been killed, and very creatively. Someone managed to slip live drakauthix spores into the ink that was delivered to the king's scribe. Soon enough, several of the fungal behemoths rose up across the castle, most notably in the king's bedroom. A rescue party must go into the keep and find any remaining survivors, while also trying to contain the infestation. 

Dragon turtle

Look at this thing. It has positive modifiers in each of the mental stats. Please, please, please, don't treat it as just an aquatic beast. It can be so, so much more.

Ships transporting magical components and alchemical goods between the coasts of Dardagos and Nuova Zbriglandia have been disappearing. An expedition under the lead of Captain Karamarkos will yield a disturbing truth - Zgrulla, an ancient dragon turtle, has began amassing wealth. Apparently, she dreams of flying across the skies like true dragons, and is paying an entire tribe of sea devil witchers an exorbitant sum of money to conduct a ritual that would give her wings. If the ritual is stopped, she flies into a murderous rage - but less vengefully minded sailors might aid the ritual, earning her gratitude, and the knowledge of the unexplored, riches and adventures filled Blodmoon archipelago.

Several years ago, lord Asmint got what he thought was a snapping turtle for his garden pond. When the reptile started becoming too large for the pool, he ordered his slaves to release it into the glades right outside the city. The slaves, in their laziness, actually released the turtle into a nearby sewer pit.
Several years have passed, and the "Sewer Dragon" has grown as large as a horse - though its size is somewhat stunted by the confines of the space it resides in. With an urge it doesn't understand - one for the open sea - making it nervous and agitated, the reptile now plots revenge against its former captor. Anyone wandering the sewers risks getting forcefully recruited into its war effort.

The treasure of the pirate Ysgarr contained, among other things, the Eye of Storms. The famed gem turned out to contain the wild magicks needed to undo a curse cast upon poor Ungar the Unlucky. Unfortunately, years back, before he became a professor at Port Lagrazza's university, a vain and egoistical dragon turtle named Plasmorasmus ate the pirate. Afterwards, the turtle had the pirate's treasure melted, and then poured over its armor. However, the mighty being has since gone "civilized" - holding lectures about marine wildlife and geography out of an amphitheater built around a dock. While moody and asocial, the professor is well loved in the port city - and scheming to steal a peace of his gilded armor won't get much support for Ungar and his friends.

Crocodile

 The croc comes to us in two sizes - the basic crocodile and the primeval deinosuchus. Despite clocking in at a measly level 2, the crocodile has one of the deadliest abilities in the game - death roll. Once you drown a PC in knee-high water, you will get a reputation as that GM.

The Milzeezipee river is a great route for logs, cut in the north and transported downstream. Unfortunately, some gators have realized folks who try to steal single logs from the massive groups make for easy food, and gator hunting season has been called for. Each gator will net you ten gold, and the hunter who bags the largest of the beasts will get another thousand, along with a magical machete. 

A group of grizzled mercenaries is approached by a strange man in a beige robe called Stevanos Irwinos. He wishes to (for some insane reason) catalogoue the crocodile population of the Nakhunta glades. The catch is, he wishes no harm on the animals. As the glades are treacherous and full of dangers, he needs protection.
Even as a legendary deinosuchus - a crocodillian beast the size of a small house - capsizes their boat, Stevanos keeps trying to calm the situation down and urges his compatriots not to hurt the beast. If they listen, they are rewarded a single scale from the lizard king when their ordeals are over - allowing them to summon an entire army of dinosaurs as a one-time boon.

Legend holds it that if a lizardfolk egg is swallowed whole by a dire crocodile, it will immeddiately hatch and give birth to a mighty champion of the swamps. A militant iruxi shaman now summons a troupe of foreigners he once nursed back to health, and asks them to help him devise a plan of action. He wishes to distribute as many eggs over as big of a territory as he can, hoping to raise a physically enhanced warbands.
Of course, even if they know of a way to help him, the foreigners are at a conundrum - such a warband would surely be used for invasion. On the other hand, the sanctity of an owed favour is not to be carelessly broken...

Bronze Dragon

Bronze dragons seem to occupy a bit of a weird niche in pathfinder 2 - while they are explicitly the most common of the metallic dragons, and the most likely to ally with humanoids, they also seem to have a bit of a lethargic, maybe even misanthropic angle to them, where they won't go out looking for adventure - but if it does come to them, they will gladly accept it.

Llyweth and Thywell are a rare case - two differently coloured dragons who lair together. It is said that together, their knowledge of the Duchy of Antal - on whose outskirts their lair lies - is complete. Llyweth, the bronze, tends to know the scientific and empirical stuff, while Thywell, the brass, knows all of the latest gossip, along with the oral history and folk tales of the region.

The Knights Most Eclectic And Electric are an extended family and an order of knights founded by Sir Montague. The patron formed the order several years ago after returning from a voyage across the Black Ocean. Apparently, on that expedition, the ship's crew almost died of starvation on a deserted island, before a mysterious, tanned stranger appeared out of nowhere with food, water and tents. After saving them, he made sir Montague promise that when his time of need comes, one from the knight's bloodline will answer.
Several generations have passed, and while sailing across the Green Sea, a mighty dragon rises from the water, and demands that one of Sir Montague's heirs come with him...

Hengra is a particularly reclusive young bronze dragon. In her quest to be left alone, she found a way to make her repulsive gas stick around, and coats the entire in it every week.
Unfortunately, Hengra also owns the only remaining issue of an ancient book detailing how to cure lycantrophy, and it recently hit the nearby town of Mosswell. A borderline insane group of teenagers now plans to try and plead with the dragon, hoping to at least see the book, but luck may not be on their side.

Blue dragon

Random thought: if you run them as written, there's a decent overlap between what makes a blue dragon encounter (be he a young, adult or ancient) tick and what makes a devil encounter tick - in both cases, you can have a completely civil discussion (or even a full-blown social encounter, with rounds, and skill checks, as the pf2 core rulebook suggests) while everyone involved is planning the demise of the other party.

While all blue dragons desire power, wealth and titles, Bandallagrim has seen enough of the first two in his long lifetime. Titles, though, are what he tends to hoard. Whenever there's an inheritance crisis, a title that can be gained through election, or even a revolution, Bandallagrim is sure to be close by, in one of his many humanoid guises. Although he rarely accepts any responsibilities that come with the ducal, presidential and even kingly positions he claims, he is sure to murder anyone who dares contend with him in cold blood.
The inheritors are a group of descendants of nobles whose titles the ancient dragon usurped several generations prior, and they are sworn to one day defeat him and reclaim their ancestral homes. While they have their suspicions that the next high priest of the theopolis of Nea Romagna is indeed their ancient foe, acting out on it too soon might turn the entire god-sworn city against them.

A mad dryad is known for singing "the blues" deep within the darkest corners of the Feywood. Unfortunately, while her song is indeed as beautiful as the stories describe it, it is also a part of an insidious ritual, and those who hear it become enthralled to the dryad's blue dragon master, unless they have a will of iron.

In the world of Sarpharathia, though they rule their domains alone, blue dragons actually follow a strict hierarchy among themselves. When the mysterious god-emperor of dragonkind disappears without a trace, the world plunges into chaos. After several days, a young blue dragon appears before the city of Porfiria's champions, claiming he knows of a way to crown a human(oid) as leader of the dragons, solving two problems - both renewing stability across the globe, and insuring that humans will be treated with respect and dignity. Of course, that plan of action also conveniently requires the heroes to dispose of some of the dragon's own rivals, and he has yet to explain his own motivation for helping them...


Anyway, blog maintenance time. I'm toying with the idea of actually posting some of the stats for the monsters I implied should be modified from their bestiary entries(the Ghost-Rider aasimar, the myriad exotic treants, the mutated stirges...).
However, as this would consume a bit more of my time than the blog has been so far, I'm not going to do it if it rings on deaf ears. If one of those has particularly piqued your interest, do leave a comment and let me know, I'd like to start off with a more popular one, and see how it goes. Cheers.

Alchemical Golem

While by no means the toughest or meanest golem in the bestiary (its the second lowest level of the bunch, outclassing only the flesh golem), the alchemical golem might actually be the toughest one to prepare for.
With the potential to dish out six different types of damage, its nigh impossible to set up defenses against it. Fighting one should feel wild, chaotic and unpredictable, and should keep both players and player characters on their toes. The fact that while rare, these golems do become sentient, can also be used in many, many ways...

The order of the Last Light has outlawed both the technomancers and the necromancers. Banding together, they have repurposed several Alchemical Golems by filling their vials with ghoul fever and zombie rot. If the decree outlawing them isn't revoked by dawn of the next day, they threaten to release these necrotic constructs in the poorest slums of the city, killing thousands in a matter of hours. Luckily, a certain young thief has information about where the scholar controlling the golems is hiding, but getting to him wont be easy...

Bjørn Bloodsplat was an alchemist who heard the stories of alchemical golems attaining true consciousness, and tried to replicate such an occurence. His experiment went a little too well though - BB-769 not only ended up with a personality, it ended up with six of them. Depending on the balance of chemicals in its many vials, it may try to murder, negotiate with, or preach to the envoys sent to recruit it.

Lucas Longly was a dwarven merchant and dabbler in the arcane, who among other things left an alchemical golem as heirloom to his progeny. A hundred and fifty years later, Lucas's grandson Yucas is in need of such a construct. There are several complications though - the cave in which the dormant golem is located has become infested with dire bats, who could easily shatter the delicate glass dome adorning the golem. What is more, dire bats have recently been pronounced an endangered species, meaning that anyone involved in harming them would need to pay quite high a fee. The specialists on Yucas's payroll will need to get creative.