I picked this up last week, and thought I'd post my thoughts.
The best part is the section on creating your own creatures. there are a bunch of tables of standard stats for opponents by CR. So if I want to make a CR3 critter, I look up what a CR 3 creature is expected to have, statwise, and simply copy it down. Super easy.
Of course, the system is more complex than that, there are 3 categories, Combatant, Expert and Spellcaster, and a bunch of templates that can be used to tweak the numbers.
Theoretically, I can use this system to level-up or level-down existing monsters as needed.
The monsters section is a mix of space-ified Pathfinder monsters and new monsters. Notably, a lot of the monsters have an entry on how to use them as PC races.
Specific gear for some monsters is given in complete format so that a character can grab a monster's gear, or even make something out of the monster parts.
So, in all I'm quite happy with the Alien Archive. It would be worth it for the creature creation section alone, though having premade monsters to get you started, and as examples of special abilities is good too.
How well can the Creature Creator be used with just regular Pathfinder? Does it look compatible or does it look like there might be problems?
Quote from: jeff37923;1002677How well can the Creature Creator be used with just regular Pathfinder? Does it look compatible or does it look like there might be problems?
The creature creator is pretty Starfinder specific, so I'd say... maybe? I have heard that the AA creation system is based off of a similar system in Pathfinder Unchained. I'd recommend looking into that first. (I don't have Pathfinder Unchained, but I did flip though it at the gaming store.)
O believe most of the bestiaries for Pathfinder have a similar system for monster creation. it might be a bit more complex than the one in AA, I'm not sure.