Great book. Very practical and well designed. It will see a lot of use during my prep time.
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We are looking forward to the opportunity to publish a similar book using the APG character classes, archetypes from Ultimate Magic, and so on.
So there might be an Advanced NPC Codex in the future? Nice!
Now if I can just get the pawns for these I'll be happy. ^_^
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NPC Codex (Core only)
Advanced NPC Codex (APG classes and ARG races)
Ultimate NPC Codex (incorporates Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat)
Makes for a nice and tidy line of books.
Does it nonsense half of core class is from APG or UM or UC, but doeent use feat from that book?
Sounds nice, but what i really want to know is whether or not you will include completely new material (spells and items and such), like you did in the rival guide (one of my favorite campaign setting books you've made along with the books of the damned and inner sea magic).
Does it nonsense half of core class is from APG or UM or UC, but doeent use feat from that book?
I don't understand what you're asking.
Sounds nice, but what i really want to know is whether or not you will include completely new material (spells and items and such), like you did in the rival guide (one of my favorite campaign setting books you've made along with the books of the damned and inner sea magic).
There are no new spells, items, feats, etc. in this book. The only new game material is the stat blocks (excluding the suggested groups at the end, which are just lists of teams built with individual NPCs).
Fantastic addition, between this and the GMG I have enough plug and play options to last for hours without having to reuse/change
The NPC Codex should have used all of the options available in the APG, Ultimate Magic, and Ultimate Combat. There isn’t enough space to include the classes/archetypes from these products, but you should have at least allowed the feats/spells.
I find myself updating stat blocks in APs because the NPC builds aren’t interesting (why does every NPC have Toughness and Dodge? That really bothers me, make something interesting!), so this new codex is pretty much the same thing and won’t be saving me as much work as it could have.
I like the fact that ALL of the info in the NPC Codex can be referenced by simply having the Core Rules.
The only issue I have thus far w the book is that a number of the PC's have 'she' in the description, but clearly have pictures of males ... makes using the artwork for encounters a bit difficult! :)
(See the Canibalistic Hunter for an example of this)
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Does it nonsense half of core class is from APG or UM or UC, but doeent use feat from that book?
I think you're asking how can it not use feats from the APG+, when half the core classes are from those books?
Well, actually they're not - The 11 classes in the Core Rulebook are 'Core Classes'. They are used for this book for all the characters.
Classes such as the Summoner from the APG are 'base classes'. These are not in this book, at least partially due to capacity - they wouldn't fit.
So there might be an Advanced NPC Codex in the future? Nice!
Now if I can just get the pawns for these I'll be happy. ^_^
Better yet, how about some Pathfinder Battles minis covering this book?
I hope this doesn't become bi-anual, I want at least two more hardcover bestiaries before I see another book like this, in other words, one that I will actually not buy unlike almost everything else from Paizo.
If I wanted a book of NPCs, I would want things like Catfolk rouges, Wererat Alchemist, Sphinx Oracle, Lizard Kings, Whole tribes of Nixies, Centuars, Goblins, Giants, etc. If you want a Drow hunting party or inhabbitants of a Drow city, Gnoll slavers, Assimar(angel-kin) Paladins, etc. Now these are things that would be useful. Things like unusual races, monsters, complex classes, entire tribes, cities, etc. of npcs ready for use.
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The only issue I have thus far w the book is that a number of the PC's have 'she' in the description, but clearly have pictures of males ... makes using the artwork for encounters a bit difficult! :)(See the Canibalistic Hunter for an example of this)
While its easy enough to just use different art for other encounters it to just tweak the encounters as written to match, the Cannibalistic Hunter is actually correct. Just give it another read. ;)
If I wanted a book of NPCs, I would want things like Catfolk rouges, Wererat Alchemist, Sphinx Oracle, Lizard Kings, Whole tribes of Nixies, Centuars, Goblins, Giants, etc. If you want a Drow hunting party or inhabbitants of a Drow city, Gnoll slavers, Assimar(angel-kin) Paladins, etc. Now these are things that would be useful. Things like unusual races, monsters, complex classes, entire tribes, cities, etc. of npcs ready for use.
See, to me, that sort of unusual or unique character is exactly the sort of thing the GM should be creating and customizing for the campaign. The purpose of this book is to provide tons of standard characters so the GM doesn't have to waste valuable time making a generic 5th-level fighter, 7th-level wizard, and so on and can focus on the interesting monsters, NPCs, and plots.
I am looking forward to picking this up, being able to plug and play some NPCs is nice. I am hoping that Hero Lab encorporates it, as it makes tweaking them even easier. Thanks for putting this together paizo!
By it being Core Only one could even use Venture Captain to modify them.
Maybe I missed it but are the iconic pathfinders going to be legal for PFS as pregens? Knowing if I am printing pregens from this book is going to be the big deciding factor if I buy it in hard cover or as a pdf.
Mark replied in another thread that the iconics in NPC Codex are legal for PFS play, though if the character has a PFS-banned feat (I think it's just Ezren with Scribe Scroll), it can't use it.
BTW, Mark wrote the stat blocks for the iconics in the book, so he should know if they're PFS-legal or not. :)
I honestly believe this book is better in PDF so you could print out each potential NPC and can easily mark on them to keep track of things.
Though I tend to use a computer during my games so I am a bit biased into the digital side of things.
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See, to me, that sort of unusual or unique character is exactly the sort of thing the GM should be creating and customizing for the campaign. The purpose of this book is to provide tons of standard characters so the GM doesn't have to waste valuable time making a generic 5th-level fighter, 7th-level wizard, and so on and can focus on the interesting monsters, NPCs, and plots.
And a heartfelt thank you for that!
I honestly believe this book is better in PDF so you could print out each potential NPC and can easily mark on them to keep track of things.
Though I tend to use a computer during my games so I am a bit biased into the digital side of things.
I'm working on importing the NPC Codex data into my NPC DB, which is hosted on d20pfsrd.com.
I've just finish all the barbarians.In the DB there is field called fulltext which has html mark up of the NPC. This combined with a css file, link located on the DB page, will give you a Pathfinder styled Stat Block.
Print and use to your heart's content.
Check it out.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/npc-db
What is the HTML under?
@chopswil: OK now I see it thank you!
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I DM, have a ton of books and in truth base most of my purchases on minis! However, and I say a BIG however, this is the type of book that I will pick up!
NPC's take a huge amount of time putting together and sometimes after prepping a huge, accurate stat block the battle may sometimes not even happen or is a lot quicker than I had hoped for. This will solve all of that, because now I can simply search through the book, find a well suited npc and have them ready to go! I love it.
I am also OK with it being classes from the core rule book only. There are SO many options to make variable type npc's from only the core classes and races! I think this book should only focus on the base classes! Give us a wide variety of these and then in the future come out with a book that focuses on the APG!
I don't need catfolk, ogres and various other monstrous type characters in this book! Those I can create on my own and are not the everyday npc's in my campaign world! However, a rogue which is the leader, task force or low level mission boy of a city guild is something which can pop up at any time and I may need a quick npc! The same goes for city guard types, wizards, clerics, etc. Core classes are awesome in their own right and a book of 500+ npc's of these with various levels still wouldn't be enough!
GREAT JOB and IDEA Paizo!!!
Fantastic book, will save countless hours of prep time, and infinitely customizable for any class. In a prior thread, Erik mentioned that they would see how well this one did before putting out another codex incorporating classes from APG and others. Due to the space constraint, I have no problem at all with limiting it to the Core only. I sincerely hope that there are more to come, and with the recently released Paths of Prestige book, the next codex could incorporate APG classes, and even begin to dabble in the newly introduced prestige classes as well. Having some examples of Hellknights or Pit Fighters would be just great, and if there are more to come, I will gladly snap them up! I just loved the personalities behind some of the characters, and it is fantastic to see that the creative fires at Paizo still burn bright! If you are asking if there would be interest in future volumes, I hereby give my vote for yes in writing! :)
Sean, is there a single person I can thank for Lanani Shabu?
Now that I've remembered to scroll up in this thread and have access to my office files:
The original stat block and character bio are by Jason Nelson.
The gender issue was added in layout (I don't know by who), perhaps because the art order didn't specify a gender for the character and what we got from the artist is an illo of a male.
rofl. Just read the Lanani Shabu entry. That's hilarious. Poor little transgendered cannibal.
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Are you guys sure that entry's art isn't intentional? After all, it was mentioned that there would be some transgendered characters present and the text seems to read that way quite easily.
She's a pretty neat character really.
Edit - nm, just woke up and misread some posts as if they were referring to that art as an error. Need caffeine.
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Papers & Pencils: Laura Kraul is all I can think of with Transgender characters.
Time for some thread necromancy!
Anyone want to tell me who drew the Death Initiate / Kel Sal Koth (I think that was her name)?
Time for some thread necromancy!
Anyone want to tell me who drew the Death Initiate / Kel Sal Koth (I think that was her name)?
Sarah Robinson says the artist for Kel Sal Koth is Mauricio Herrera. :)