“Yaoguai” is a word associated with animal spirits or demons in Chinese tales. That said,
Pathfinder’s yaoguai seem far more closely related to the Fallout franchise’s yao guai.
These mutated monsters are the result of magically melding creatures together,
and they are still tormented by polymorph
effects. As such, they are
particularly likely to be found near the towers of transmuters and fleshwarpers
(who knows?—maybe owlbears are yaoguai that bred true) or in areas of wild
magic and magical pollution.
Then again, there’s no reason not to go back to the
mythology. Life as a yaoguai might
be a cruel fate for oni spirits too clumsy to manifest properly, or for kami spirits
who neglect their duties. They
might also be expressions of Nature’s rage, mounts for mongrelman heroes, or if
(you’re a 3.5 player) a sign of bleed-through from somewhere like the Far
Realm.
The transmuter
Carlton Griff specialized in creating hybrids—in particular, hawk-headed lions
more trainable than natural-born griffons. His yaoguai was a failure he came to regard as a success,
and he kept it on the grounds of his manor as a guard. (Repeated polymorph spells trained the beast not to harm him.) In fact, “success” with the yaoguai
persuaded him to experiment on his own form, and Griff is now a shrike-headed
man with the chest scales of an alligator (treat as a tengu with a +4 natural
armor).
A weak and envious
spirit, the spirit oni Fourth Lost Hope struggled to even manifest in a
mask. After his master was killed
and his mask shattered by adventurers, the wisp of a spirit was determined to
return and have his vengeance. But
once again he was not up for the task and manifested not in a giant’s body, as
he had hoped, but in the form of a quill-covered orangutan. Now a mindless horror, Fourth Lost Hope
still hunts the adventurers he blames for his condition.
Protean-blooded
sorcerers and alchemists set off a chaos bomb in the Wood Quarter. As the warpwave rips through the
streets, the chained bear in the bear-bating ring mutates into a yaoguai and
begins stalking the streets, slaying innocent and anarchist alike.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 4
284
Where are these D.C. bears the Fallout Wiki references? I’ve lived in this area for 27 of the
last 31 years and have never seen a bear.
I didn't even see a bear during the four years I went to college in a New
England town whose borders were marked
with bear crossing signs. Show
me these bears, Fallout 3.
It's hard enough posting to this site without Blogger adding mysterious hyperlinks that go nowhere (and that I can't edit out) all on its own.
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