Villains are at the heart of every great adventure—scheming, plotting, and causing mayhem—but creating a convincing and detailed group of antagonists is no easy task. Pathfinder RPG Villain Codex serves up 20 groups of vile miscreants waiting to menace your player characters and foil their every plan. Inside this time-saving tome, you will find a wide variety of foes, from a scheming regal court to a sinister doomsday cult, ready to challenge characters of any level. These villains come equipped with a host of new rules elements to give them the edge against players and fit into nearly any campaign!
Villain Codex is an essential addition to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 15 years of system development and an open playtest featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into a new era.
Pathfinder RPG Villain Codex includes:
Complete sections for 20 villainous organizations, including a power- hungry arcane society, a greedy merchant caravan, a fleet of scandalous pirates, a creepy secret society, and a wily thieves’ guild. Trade blows with the serpentfolk-worshiping monks of Fang Monastery, match wits with the sly bandits of the Merry Outlaws, or defend civilization from the wild druids of Nature’s Scourge!
Information on each organization’s history and structure, along with plot hooks to get the players interested in confronting the group.
New rules in each villain section, including feats, spells, and magic items.
A wide variety of new stat blocks for all organization members, using each villain section’s new rules.
Premade encounter groups, allowing Game Masters to quickly make use of the villains in every section.
... And much, much more!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-906-6
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I have all the stat-block books of the RPG line (except from Bestiary 6 =/ ). They are a must to me, as I don't want to expend my time creating foes again and again, and when I do create them, its good to have some examples.
There are dozens of NPCs in this book, with all sort of different classes (from hybrid classes to occult classes, or just the classic ones as well).While the classic NPC Codex arranged the many characters in it by "character class", this one arranges them by "Organization". The characters are all built to suit a sort of villainous theme, from evil cultists to secret society members to vile arcane scholars to evil druids. There are even pirates and thieves!
Villain codex has new gears, new spells, and some other options - the NPC Codex doesn't. These options to customize the villainous NPCs are also arranged by "Organization". You can also easily rearrange the members of the many Organizations to make new organizations, and the book gives some guidance on how to do this. Like this, you can use this book to insert many different foes in your campaigns "on the fly" (they are all ready-to-go NPCs, just like the NPC codex). Its ease to change their race, some class options, and the flavor, so you can adapt them to any setting or adventure.
Concluding:
The main point of the Villain Codex is, as with any "stat-block" book (Bestiary, NPC Codex, Monster Codex), to provide GMs with characters that are ready to be used on the table. There are some of options that can be used by players as well. You can somehow look at the characters in it to see how you would build your own Villainous NPCs, or maybe player can look at them and see how they would develop their characters class build.
Many are the ways you can use this book. I have it, and I use it all the time.
Unfortunately, I will be taking one star out of the five I wanted to give this book, as I believe we could get more high CR/level villains, to use as really powerful main antagonists in our campaigns. The most powerful ones in the book are CR 14... Powerful, but not so powerful.
Villain Codex should be called NPC Codex II! Indispensable for GMs.
When I first picked up the NPC Codex, I thought it would be what the Villain Codex would eventually become. Conversely, when I picked up the Villain Codex, I thought it would be what the NPC Codex was. Fortunately, both are great books and I may even prefer the Villain Codex as a GM, as it gives us a great selection of generic NPCs that will pop up in a variety of scenarios.
Combine this with the NPC selection of the Gamemastery Guide and your GM will have everything they need to bring the NPC faces of their campaign world to life. This book belongs on every Dungeon Master's shelf.
This book is not the best put out by Paizo as far as utility goes but it’s also far from the worst. To start with this book is essentially really a DM only book. The format is near identical to the Monster codex which is nice because it’s a familiar format. There are some new magic items and spells and feats and so on but ultimately they are of little use to players and especially little use to good aligned player character. The book is broken up into factions the first page of each faction tells you basically their backstory and evil mo. Then there are about 5-7 pages of “villains” who are part of this faction there are 2 per page and this is sort of where my issue with the book comes in. These NPC villains have no life in them, they have no flavor text about the villain and what makes them tick. This has come up with me a few times in the past especially with bestiary 5. I like the flavor text because it gets the imagination going and helps with coming up with some creative stories or encounters. My example is the Wyrwood in bestiary 4. The description of that monster alone is enough to set the mind racing with ideas for entire campaigns, societies, villains and heroes all from a description that is 2 short paragraphs. This is just lifeless stats over pages and while they are fine for what they are it over all takes away from the book as a whole to me. Also each entry does not have its own image to go along with it. I hope that they remedy this with the pawn set which is supposed to be coming out but I will be making sure I look out for a review on that before purchase I can promise that. I will say that some of the evil organizations are very interesting and things that really you could build entire adventures around and there are handy adventure hooks in the book as well to this effect. Finally at the back of the book are about 2 dozen more organizations with small paragraph descriptions of how they function just to give you some more food for thought which I did appreciate. The art that is present in the book as always is beautiful and that is one of the best things about the pathfinder books. They have the best art of any RPG out there.
And make no mistake, this, like many of the "Codex" line of RPG books, is a big ol' toybox. It seriously feels like dumping out a massive bin of old-school mix-and-match action figures onto the floor and playing Knights vs. Spacemen, or Cops & Cowboys. This is one of the best possible reasons to buy this book.
The groups are all either tried-and-tested fantasy tropes like the mercenary gang, doomsday cultists, douchebag guards, brutal slavors, or tribe of barbarians, possess that flare for reinventing classic fantasy stories that Paizo is so well known for such as the regal court or merry outlaws, or a mix of both, such as the Demon Knights and Death Cult. Want the evil queen from Snow White? They got that. Ever wondered what it would be like if Robin Hood were a jerk? They got that. Felt like tossing in some generic snake-themed ninja bad-guys for that 80's action flick feel? They got that.
That having been said, the book isn't perfect. There are two main issues with the book, though I admit that one of them is simply a matter of taste and may not be an issue at all. Firstly, whoever contributed to this book really, really, really loves rangers. Seriously they're everywhere. I understand that they are a fairly easy class to adapt to many villainous roles such as slavor, merc, cultist, tracker, assassin, etc, but it would have been nice to see more variety. Secondly, the book is missing some essential information when it comes to the goodies you can take from it. As an example, the book presents a very fun and flavorful new oracle mystery, but totally misses writing in the final revelation for that mystery, which will hopefully be fixed with the book's second printing.
Over all, aside from some small gripes and editing issues this book is great. At least half the fun of these sorts of books is reading about the plot hooks and suggestions for the various villains, and Villain Codex does not disappoint in this regard. As always, the ten dollar price tag for the PDF makes it an even more attractive option as well. This is a definite must-buy for those who like compilation books, are like me and get slightly lazy when it comes to building NPCs, or just want some springboards for generating minor and major story arcs.
The cats and mice ritual lets you temporarily transform the heads of helpless humanoids into the heads of mice while giving them an enormous fear of cats and things that resemble cats, while making them take damage if they go too far away.
So I just add a LE tribe of Catfolk and I've got Maus? Weirdest artistic adaptation in Pathfinder yet.
Awesome, Luthorne. The Seasoned Commander archetype sounds like it'd be cool for a Molthuni or Chelish general that the PCs have to deal with. Would be cool for a "take out the general and stop the invasion" scenario.
*What purpose do the paladins in this book serve and why do they stand amongst the villains?
I must admit that the book sounds a lot more interesting and varied than I first assumed. Would you mind sharing the roster for the Cruel Musketeers as well?
Awesome, Luthorne. The Seasoned Commander archetype sounds like it'd be cool for a Molthuni or Chelish general that the PCs have to deal with. Would be cool for a "take out the general and stop the invasion" scenario.
*What purpose do the paladins in this book serve and why do they stand amongst the villains?
*What does the Mirror Witch do?
*What does the Hellcat do?
Spoiler:
One of the paladins is a noncorrupt member of the organization, purposefully recruited and sent out to perform high visibility tasks to lead people to assume that while there are some corrupt individuals, it doesn't go all the way to the top, an opinion he shares.
The other paladin is simply in court because he has a request for the king involving land rights, and there are factions and enough complexities that he could become an adversary or perhaps be on your side depending on how things shake out...it's even suggested the PCs could get involved in the first place because he asks them to join his retinue because he knows it's full of intrigue and danger.
The mirror witch trades out their familiar for a patron mirror. Essentially, their patron contacts them via a mirror, which gains various powers as if it were a companion, rather than through a familiar. The patron mirror has its own special advancement table and abilities.
The hellcat is, unsurprisingly, a diabolically-themed monk. More surprisingly, it doesn't look compatible with the unchained monk, which is a bit disappointing. Their skill list is altered, their weapon proficiencies are altered, their monk bonus feats are altered. They trade stunning fist and fast movement for the ability to deal slashing damage with unarmed strikes and scaling bleed damage when they confirm a critical hit. They trade evasion, purity of body, and improved evasion for the ability to make another save after failing one at the end of their turn vs. effects that inflict an increasing number of conditions. They trade slow fall and still mind for DR versus nonlethal damage and endure elements against hot environments only. They trade wholeness of body and diamond body to be able to spend ki to get darkvision or scent initially, later on to be able to spend ki for fire resistance, and then finally to be able to spend ki to gain the ability to become harder to see or even invisible in the light.
Tonlim wrote:
I must admit that the book sounds a lot more interesting and varied than I first assumed. Would you mind sharing the roster for the Cruel Musketeers as well?
Spoiler:
ODDFELLOW CR 2
Half-orc fighter 3
LITTLE DEVIL CR 4
Halfling gunslinger 5
PISTOLEER CR 3
Human swashbuckler (picaroon) 4
SNEAK SHOT CR 4
Half-elf rogue 5
HOLY SHOOTER CR 4
Human inquisitor of Torag 5
ARCANE MUSKETEER CR 5
Elf wizard (spellslinger) 6
DRAGOON MARSHAL CR 5
Dwarf fighter (tactician) 6
BLACK-POWDER SAGE CR 6
Human investigator (steel hound) 7
Twin Fang Style lets you reduce a creature's armor bonus to AC when you hit them twice while dual-wielding either daggers or kama.
Two-Weapon Grace allows you to gain the benefits of Fencing Grace, Slashing Grace, or Starry Grace while fighting with two weapons, at the cost of a higher penalty to attack rolls for dual-wielding, or attack when you have a weapon in your off-hand. It also counts as Double Slice for letting you qualify for Two-Weapon Rend.
Twin Fang Style lets you reduce a creature's armor bonus to AC when you hit them twice while dual-wielding either daggers or kama.
Two-Weapon Grace allows you to gain the benefits of Fencing Grace, Slashing Grace, or Starry Grace while fighting with two weapons, at the cost of a higher penalty to attack rolls for dual-wielding, or attack when you have a weapon in your off-hand. It also counts as Double Slice for letting you qualify for Two-Weapon Rend.
Interesting. TWG sounds perfect for a Dex-based TWF character since I could stack other enchants on their weapons without Agile. I'll also have to look more at the Twin Fang Style chain. Thanks!
One last question, is Quick Stow "sheathe weapons as a free action"?
Hey, could I get some info on the Vaultbreaker Archetype as well as the Incendiary Sarge and Penetrating Charge Alchemist Discoveries? Fan of the Alchemist, so I'm interested in the options it has in this book.
One last question, is Quick Stow "sheathe weapons as a free action"?
Not quite, but it's along those lines. You don't provoke when sheathing a weapon, you can sheathe a weapon as part of another move action (and if you have Two-Weapon Fighting you can sheathe two light or one-handed weapons similarly), and when you use an action to acquire an item you can put it in your backpack or something similar as part of that same action, which includes Sleight of Hand or steal check, though you have to make a Sleight of Hand check if you want to avoid being noticed.
KaveDweller1349 wrote:
Hey, could I get some info on the Vaultbreaker Archetype as well as the Incendiary Sarge and Penetrating Charge Alchemist Discoveries? Fan of the Alchemist, so I'm interested in the options it has in this book.
Spoiler:
The vaultbreaker trades Brew Potion for Stealth as a class skill and the ability to disarm magical traps. They can select a small number of rogue talents in place of discoveries. They trade Throw Anything for the penetrating charge discovery. They trade poison use for the incendiary charge discovery, and their incendiary charges ignore more hardness.
Incendiary charge can be taken by a 4th level alchemist, and allows you to make a special bomb as a full-round action and attach it to an object, dealing full bomb damage (not halving it as normal for energy attacks) and ignoring some hardness while doing so.
Penetrating charge allows you to make a special bomb and place it on a lock as a full-round action. Instead of dealing damage, it damages the mechanism and makes it easier to open the lock. This can be reversed with time and an appropriate Craft check.
Thanks for that listing! Some of those spells and rituals sound like they'd be perfect for a Kingmaker campaign. You start putting your kingdom/settlement together, and a sect of murderous druids decide to make an example of you to all the other would-be settlers.
I love that 'mice' ritual too. It sounds utterly hilarious. Just which group uses it?
Thanks for that listing! Some of those spells and rituals sound like they'd be perfect for a Kingmaker campaign. You start putting your kingdom/settlement together, and a sect of murderous druids decide to make an example of you to all the other would-be settlers.
I love that 'mice' ritual too. It sounds utterly hilarious. Just which group uses it?
The focus organization for next Friday's blog on mysterious villain groups, so you'll be seeing a lot of them at that point. :D
Let me also say that I like the book having some non-evil opponents. Especially now that we have Ultimate Intrigue. having some people around who you can strive against one day and alongside the next pleases me greatly.
Let me also say that I like the book having some non-evil opponents. Especially now that we have Ultimate Intrigue. having some people around who you can strive against one day and alongside the next pleases me greatly.
Yeah, it's an interesting group, but if it's going to be covered soon, I'll leave it up to Paizo to provide a much more stylish presentation.
Another thing I think is pretty cool about this book is the Other Organizations appendix, which provides a list of possible other groups and their motivations, and then suggests a list of NPCs in this book that could make up their ranks for twenty-two new potential organizations. Some even have suggestions for how they might interact with the regular organizations presented.
And yes, I also appreciate there's a wide array of antagonists presented, some obviously sinister, some much more subtle and complicated.
Yeah, it's an interesting group, but if it's going to be covered soon, I'll leave it up to Paizo to prevent a much more stylish presentation.
Another thing I think is pretty cool about this book is the Other Organizations appendix, which provides a list of possible other groups and their motivations, and then suggests a list of NPCs in this book that could make up their ranks for twenty-two new potential organizations. Some even have suggestions for how they might interact with the regular organizations presented.
And yes, I also appreciate there's a wide array of antagonists presented, some obviously sinister, some much more subtle and complicated.
Yeah, the alternate organizations were a lot of fun to write.
What the highest level characters in the book? Any 17-20s? Are some organization leaders much higher level than others, or are they mostly in the 11-13 (or whatever) range?
What the highest level characters in the book? Any 17-20s? Are some organization leaders much higher level than others, or are they mostly in the 11-13 (or whatever) range?
15th level is the highest.
The organization leaders definitely vary, I think the lowest level ones are around 7th level, while as I said, 15th level leaders are the highest.
One last question, is Quick Stow "sheathe weapons as a free action"?
Not quite, but it's along those lines. You don't provoke when sheathing a weapon, you can sheathe a weapon as part of another move action (and if you have Two-Weapon Fighting you can sheathe two light or one-handed weapons similarly), and when you use an action to acquire an item you can put it in your backpack or something similar as part of that same action, which includes Sleight of Hand or steal check, though you have to make a Sleight of Hand check if you want to avoid being noticed.
Well that's a tad disappointing, I know myself and a ton of other people have been looking for free action stowing for a long time. I guess Quick Draw + Stamina is still the best option for the most part.
Hmmm...Vaultbreaker reminds me of the Cryptbreaker archetype from Inner Sea Magic. I have no idea if they are at all similar, it just brought that one to mind.
The Reaper's Lanturn and Mountebank's Megaphone both intrigue me greatly. Any chance anyone will divulge the basics of these two items?
Hmmm...Vaultbreaker reminds me of the Cryptbreaker archetype from Inner Sea Magic. I have no idea if they are at all similar, it just brought that one to mind.
The Reaper's Lanturn and Mountebank's Megaphone both intrigue me greatly. Any chance anyone will divulge the basics of these two items?
Spoiler:
The reaper's lantern is a black iron lantern on a chain that can be used as if it were a heavy flail, burning with a cold flame that lets it be used as a hooded lantern that can be commanded to dim the lighting in a very small radius. Once per day, you can deal extra negative energy damage to a target you hit, which you gain as temporary hit points. Additionally, if you bring someone to 0 hit points or lower needs to make a Fortitude save or die; if they are killed this way, an echo of their soul is stored inside the lantern's flame, which you can interrogate via speak with dead. Only the most recent victim's echo is there, though!
The mountebank's megaphone amplifies the user's voice up to ten times louder, and if the user has bardic performances, they can pay double the normal number of rounds to make any space within a thirty foot cone the origin for a bardic performance, but they have to remain stationary while doing so.
Hmmm...Vaultbreaker reminds me of the Cryptbreaker archetype from Inner Sea Magic. I have no idea if they are at all similar, it just brought that one to mind.
The Reaper's Lantern and Mountebank's Megaphone both intrigue me greatly. Any chance anyone will divulge the basics of these two items?
Twin Fang sounds like a great style for unchained rogues to adopt for those higher-armored foes.
Can we get a brief description of Terrifying Assassination and the higher level feats in the Twin Fang line, please?
Spoiler:
Terrifying Assassination makes it so that when someone survives your assassination attempt, they're shaken for a number of rounds, no save. For assassins, ninjas, and slayers.
Twin Fang Strike lets you, when making an attack action with a pair of daggers or kama, attack with both at a penalty, with only one getting precision damage and other effects if applicable.
Twin Fang Lunge lets you move up to twice your speed and use Twin Fang Strike as a full-round action.
Hey, could I get some info on the Fortune-Teller Archetype?
Spoiler:
The Fortune-Teller adds eight divination spells to their spell list, though they still have to choose them normally instead of automatically getting them. They can use Perform (oratory) to read someone's fortune as part of a bardic performance, which may grant an ally additional benefits or an enemy additional penalties...or perhaps make it less effective, depending on the outcome, which replaces countersong and distraction. They can use various fortune-telling items to avoid paying an expensive material component from divination spells, or help slightly boost a divination spells by using said item and paying the expensive material component, which replaces well-versed. Finally, they can debuff enemies by revealing their futures with a Will save to negate, which replaces dirge of doom.
shadowkras wrote:
Quote:
CLOWN CR 7
Human slayer 8
That's an horror movie waiting to happen.
Don't you love a farce? My fault, I fear...
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear...
Hey, could I get some info on the Fortune-Teller Archetype?
** spoiler omitted **
shadowkras wrote:
Quote:
CLOWN CR 7
Human slayer 8
That's an horror movie waiting to happen.
Don't you love a farce? My fault, I fear...
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry my dear...
But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns...
Don't bother they're here...!
The Fortune-Teller Archetype is not exactly what I thought it would be. However, it still sounds really interesting nonetheless. Thanks for the information!
I got my PDF and await my hardcover which is on the way, but am I the only one that is underwhelmed by this hardcover release? I mean the stuff is kinda cool, but it seems like it would be more appropriate in the Campaign Setting line or somewhere else.
I got my PDF and await my hardcover which is on the way, but am I the only one that is underwhelmed by this hardcover release? I mean the stuff is kinda cool, but it seems like it would be more appropriate in the Campaign Setting line or somewhere else.
Oh? It seems rather similar to the Monster Codex or the NPC Codex to me, and I'd say the organizations are far too vague for it to be a Campaign Setting book myself. Might I ask what gave you that impression, particularly in comparison to the other Codex books?
Maybe it is because I am not a strong fan of the other two codex books. I will give them a solid go before I straight up give them to thumbs down, but I think the main line in my brain is for stuff like Ultimate Combat, Bestiaries and Occult Adventures.
This just seems like fluff for the fluff lines if that makes sense =).
Maybe it is because I am not a strong fan of the other two codex books. I will give them a solid go before I straight up give them to thumbs down, but I think the main line in my brain is for stuff like Ultimate Combat, Bestiaries and Occult Adventures.
This just seems like fluff for the fluff lines if that makes sense =).
Ah, so you just don't really appreciate the Codex line at all, rather than it being something unique to Villain Codex.
I personally find it a bit odd that you include the Bestiary books as being a Pathfinder RPG line while excluding the Codex books when they are also primarily about stat blocks with some other miscellaneous crunch (new feats, gear, archetypes, and class options) and only a few pages to give them more context.
In my opinion, they don't have enough lore to really make them a Campaign Setting book, if they were going to be in the Campaign Setting line they would be associated with particular locales, have more information about their history within the setting, and other information along these lines, so I think it would have to be modified fairly extensively before being made into a Campaign Setting book.
But the Ultimate X and X Adventures books in the Pathfinder RPG line have always been their own thing.
Maybe it is because I am not a strong fan of the other two codex books. I will give them a solid go before I straight up give them to thumbs down, but I think the main line in my brain is for stuff like Ultimate Combat, Bestiaries and Occult Adventures.
This just seems like fluff for the fluff lines if that makes sense =).
Ah, so you just don't really appreciate the Codex line at all, rather than it being something unique to Villain Codex.
I personally find it a bit odd that you include the Bestiary books as being a Pathfinder RPG line while excluding the Codex books when they are also primarily about stat blocks with some other miscellaneous crunch (new feats, gear, archetypes, and class options) and only a few pages to give them more context.
In my opinion, they don't have enough lore to really make them a Campaign Setting book, if they were going to be in the Campaign Setting line they would be associated with particular locales, have more information about their history within the setting, and other information along these lines, so I think it would have to be modified fairly extensively before being made into a Campaign Setting book.
But the Ultimate X and X Adventures books in the Pathfinder RPG line have always been their own thing.
Okay you convinced me. They really are not too far removed from the Bestiaries.
That said, I am still not 100% a fan of the codex line. I don't hate them, I just wish they were softcover so they would be less expensive haha.
Okay you convinced me. They really are not too far removed from the Bestiaries.
That said, I am still not 100% a fan of the codex line. I don't hate them, I just wish they were softcover so they would be less expensive haha.
Oh yeah, nothing wrong with not being a fan, just good to keep your expectations in line. I know some people love the Codex line because they find it useful to have groups of NPCs (whether monstrous or not) ready to go, while other people prefer Bestiaries because, hey, cool new monsters with neato powers, while some people don't care much for either because they prefer books that have a high level of rules content oriented towards character creation and sometimes setting creation (such as occult rituals or leylines or piecemeal armor or what have you).
