Whether they be vile villains, able allies, or anything in between, the characters of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game NPC Codex come alive on your tabletop with this box-busting collection of more than 300 character pawns for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop fantasy RPG! Printed on sturdy cardstock, each pawn contains a beautiful full-color image of a character from the NPC Codex, as well as common animal companions, and numerous never-before-illustrated characters. Each cardstock pawn slots into a size-appropriate plastic base, making it easy to use in play alongside traditional metal or plastic miniatures. With multiple pawns of the most useful characters allowing you to create every single encounter from the NPC Codex’s encounter groups appendix, the NPC Codex Box is the best way to ensure you’ve got the right characters to push your Pathfinder campaign to the next level!
In addition to being part of the Pathfinder Pawns Subscription, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game subscribers who preorder this boxed set will receive a free PDF edition of this product when the boxed edition ships. (Note that you will need to have an active Pawns or RPG subscription at the time the NPC Codex Box ships in order to receive the PDF for free.)
Cover Art by Wayne Reynolds.
ISBN 978-1-60125-472-6
Contains 20 one-inch bases for Small/Medium characters and 5 two-inch bases for Large characters, plus these pawns:
Barbarians
1 Savage Mercenary (2)
2 Dwarven Rager (2)
3 Axe Warrior (4)
4 Dog Rider
5 Wild Lancer
The NPC Codex Box has become, next to the Bestiary set and an adventure path set, the collection of Pathfinder pawns I actually use the most frequently at the gaming table. The reasons why will become clear in a moment, but first I'll go over the usual rigmarole for those who aren't familiar with Paizo pawns.
Each pawn is a thick cardboard token with the name and artwork of a particular character or monster on both sides. The pawns fit into plastic bases that match the size the creature should take up on a regular 1" grid. The pawns are quite durable and they're a much more cost-effective and manageable way to get a wide variety of tokens than trying to collect individual plastic miniatures. An index on the back of the box matches the numbering of the tokens, so it's easy to find what you're looking for. The NPC Codex Box comes with over 300 pawns; many are unique, but there are multiples of some (for example, there are six "Beggar" pawns and two "Cautious Mages"). The box also comes with a couple of dozen of small/medium-sized bases and five large bases. There aren't any Huge-sized or larger creatures in the box. The collection matches the entries in the NPC Codex, a Pathfinder book that contains full stat-blocks for NPCs from levels 1-20 of each core class. With the book and the pawn box together, finding an appropriate NPC in the middle of a session becomes a snap.
I would guess roughly two-thirds of the pawns in the box are devoted to the core classes, with each class receiving twenty distinct pawns. The artwork is high quality, but I'm not convinced it always matches the description. The "War Priest" pawn, for example, just looks to me like a standard dwarf warrior, and there's nothing particularly flame-related in the image of the "Fire Cleric." The "Charlatan" looks like your typical back-alley rogue and the "Masked Lord" isn't even wearing a mask! There are a lot of little problems like this, so I wouldn't take the descriptions too literally when trying to pick a pawn for a particular purpose.
The prestige classes get a full forty distinct pawns, and I have to admit there are some awesome images with the set. I think if I were stuck for a character concept, I could just browse the pawns in the box and instantly get a couple of cool ideas. I should also mention that, with a few exception, the vast majority of images used are of the core races.
My biggest beef with the set is the fifty distinct pawns devoted to the NPC classes. These cover a variety of mundane professions, like beggar, diplomat, barmaid, mayor, guard, etc. The problem I have is that the artwork makes them all take dramatic poses, most look quite athletic, and several are armed. In short, many look more like adventurers than the sort of everyday-folk you would come across in a normal town. The barmaid is suddenly a supermodel wearing a revealing outfit with a "come hither" look, the diplomat has a sword on his belt and a cape blowing dramatically in the wind, the "recruit" has full-plate armor and a magic glowing axe, and even the "village elder" is a half-orc with a spear. Not every single pawn falls into this category, but there just isn't much in the way of variety in terms of body-type (no one's fat), social class (almost everyone is stylishly dressed), or posture (everyone looks like they're ready for something dramatic to happen in the next moment). I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I wish there were more that could easily blend into the background (just like in cinema, directors don't want to hire extras who are too distinctive and noticeable because it draws the viewers away from the actors).
The next eleven tokens are incredibly useful: each of the Iconics for the Core Rulebook classes. If you play PFS, you can imagine how often these would come out.
Finally, there's a collection of about twenty-five animal companions. Animals aren't really what one thinks about when it comes to NPCs, but it's really handy to have tokens for cats, dogs, horses, birds, camels, and more exotic things like constrictor snakes and even dinosaurs. I'm not a fan of the "pet" classes, but when people at my table do play them, it's good that they can find the token they need.
This is the box that I bring out when I'm running a game and someone has a new character and needs a pawn. It's easy to sort through and find something that fits the bill. As I said, I wish some of the artwork fitted the label better and that some of it was more "normal" instead of high-adventure, but all in all this set has become indispensable. It's well-worth the purchase, whether you have the accompanying book or not.
I have always loved the idea behind the Pathfinder Pawns, but even with a Bestiary Boxes 1 and 2 and a few Adventure Path pawn sets, I didn't really use them that often. Most of the time I stuck to my old minis, for two main reasons.
1) A lot of the common monsters like kobolds, hobgoblins, and bugbears were poorly represented in pawns. There just weren't very many of them!
2) There wasn't a great variety of potential PC's.
This box solves problem 2! This is a great set and a must own. Such a huge variety of characters from the common PC races. Plus a lot of great potential NPC's. Adding some animals is nice too.
If you are new to Pathfinder Pawns and don't know where to start, here's what I recommend:
These four will give you a solid base of almost everything you need. Everything else you get after that will add variety and zest to your pawn collection.
The NPC Codex box contains a stunning selection of individual pawns that may be used for players or NPCs. At the start of every session, I pass the NPC Codex Box around and let the players choose their pawn. The players love digging thru the box almost as much as I love sorting it for NPC pawns. Combine this box with the new Inner Sea Pawn Box for the various factions and cults to have every pawn you'll need to keep your Golarion campaign running fresh for years to come!
If you use miniatures and need a lot of colorful unique NPCs or PCs for your players than this is the set for you. Based on the NPC codex book, you will find all the previous artwork and more. Some double (like the guards), many don’t. All the core races are included, as well as some animals. With these alone can build an orc army, a dwarven megaforge, an eleven city, a medieval palace or a diversified metropolis.
It’s short on obvious specific cultists though, so if you need to run through the head church of Zon-Kuthon, this will not be enough. Unless you want to go on these with a magnifying glass, there is no point in heavily distinguishing the races. You may have a hard time telling apart the halflings from the gnomes, but I didn’t care and just lobed them into one bag.
The only real gripe I have is with the punch-out quality. If you are not careful enough, the imperfect cutout can damage the token. I had to fix a dozen tokens with glue (hence the -1 star), and even more needed their edges trimmed with scissors. So take care on your first go.
Is Paizo likely to keep shipping these with bases? Because, after buying the Beginner Box, Bestiary Box, and this, that's a lot of bases. If you keep adding them in (Bestiary II box, I'm looking at you), I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all.
Is Paizo likely to keep shipping these with bases? Because, after buying the Beginner Box, Bestiary Box, and this, that's a lot of bases. If you keep adding them in (Bestiary II box, I'm looking at you), I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all.
I was just flipping through my copy of the NPC Codex itself, and noted that there are a number of mounted NPCs (Dog Rider the 5th level barbarian, the aforementioned Griffon Rider, any number of paladins, etc.). However, I didn't see any mounted artwork in the book itself.
Will the pawns for those NPCs that are mounted show them as mounted, with size to match? Because that will make me a happy, happy person
Having a mounted and unmounted version would be ideal though :)
Is Paizo likely to keep shipping these with bases? Because, after buying the Beginner Box, Bestiary Box, and this, that's a lot of bases. If you keep adding them in (Bestiary II box, I'm looking at you), I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all.
Forty 1" bases would be better. One needs his inns and royal weddings populated. There's is nothing like characters pushing through a crowd with an actual crowd.
I just received my two Bestiary Boxes(next session is tomorrow) along with the NPC Codex. And at this point, I can't wait to get my hands on (at least) one of these.
And then the addiction can move on to Bestiary 2 and 3, and NPC Codex 2. And "Colossal and Gargantuan Box"(hint hint paizo)...
Looks like this may be delayed again, since no longer in the product release post! ): Have been so looking forward to seeing this come out! Maybe, they could do some of them in plastic and add them into a set or do one just for this?
There's some display weirdness going on with this. It's currently scheduled for the May subscription shipment.
Edit: Fixed the display weirdness—for now. You should see that the PDF will be available on May 22nd.
I own two sets of Beastiary 1 and I have more bases than I'll ever need. Truly. As for May release, YAY!!!! Super happy for that. Now if Beastiary 2 could come out before Gencon!
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Ninja in the Rye wrote:
Yeah, pretty frustrating, I've been delaying the start of a big campaign since January so we could have these Pawns.
I want to give you my money! Hurry!
On another note, does anyone have an idea what the shipping (in the Continental US) is likely to cost on this set?
The best way to get a shipping estimate is to put it into your side cart and start the checkout process. You'll see a pretty accurate estimate of the shipping to your address.
Ben, read through the last three pages. It's not just you. We've been waiting a long time for this one. To my memory, it's the most delayed product Paizo's ever put out. Printing issues happen, but it'll make the release so much sweeter when it's finally here!
On amazon, it is saying it won't be released till January 2014. Is this correct?
Hi, John. I noticed that too. Its highly unlikely. Amazon's machine is likely bugging out or simply playing it safe. I'm guessing a mid-July delivery through them.
On amazon, it is saying it won't be released till January 2014. Is this correct?
Hi, John. I noticed that too. Its highly unlikely. Amazon's machine is likely bugging out or simply playing it safe. I'm guessing a mid-July delivery through them.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Radiarch wrote:
Brutal Ben wrote:
Is it me, or is this running 8 months late?
Ben, read through the last three pages. It's not just you. We've been waiting a long time for this one. To my memory, it's the most delayed product Paizo's ever put out. Printing issues happen, but it'll make the release so much sweeter when it's finally here!
Visions of war is going to be 16 months late, nearly2 years since it was announced...
Paizo doesn't release the pdf to products for sale until they can start shipping the actual printed product, so if it says that the pdf can be bought from June 26, that's when you can purchase the physical product.
(Does the pdf include pictures of the bases too?) ;)
so, I am assuming this box only comes with medium bases? If so do we know how many?
The product description does not out-and-out say it includes bases. If this is the case and you never picked up a Bestiary Box, just add a pack of 20 medium bases to your sidecart and you should be set to unleash all four Cutthroat Lawyers on your unsuspecting PC's!