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.
Have the bases changed? They look square here, but circular in the Beginner Box and Bestiary Box. I am not sure about the 2 announced Adventure Path Pawn sets.
Wow. Just wow. I have been wanting these to happen for so long. My only problem with these pawn sets is they are making me hate my current games for their lack of them.
YES, YES,!!!(: Was wondering if perhaps the NPC's from the Rival Guide were going to be a part of this. I for one would LOVE to have them done in either plastic or cardboard!
Is there an RSS feed or very basic blog where every new official Pathfinder release is shown? I kind of stumbled onto this entry last night and would be very interested in one place for all new product announcements. The store blog nor the paizo blog provide this. Am I missing something?
I understanding making something new will require more work, but I guess all I am asking for is a single place so I can discover any new content announced in the Pathfinder RPG, Adventure Paths, or Gamemastery - basically all my subs. The Upcoming and NEW RSS feeds under Pathfinder RPG appear to be broken.
Have the bases changed? They look square here, but circular in the Beginner Box and Bestiary Box. I am not sure about the 2 announced Adventure Path Pawn sets.
Yeah, you're right ... the bases are square in the photo. I hope that was an oversight - I prefer the round bases over square. Plus, switching base shapes after some of the pawn have been released would be pretty odd ...
I'm hoping the square bases are just for the picture (although, that would be kind of odd as well, since you'd think they would have had lots of round bases floating around to use)
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Casey Weston wrote:
Have the bases changed? They look square here, but circular in the Beginner Box and Bestiary Box. I am not sure about the 2 announced Adventure Path Pawn sets.
Have the bases changed? They look square here, but circular in the Beginner Box and Bestiary Box. I am not sure about the 2 announced Adventure Path Pawn sets.
The image here is a mockup; the actual bases will be round, just like the others.
I understanding making something new will require more work, but I guess all I am asking for is a single place so I can discover any new content announced in the Pathfinder RPG, Adventure Paths, or Gamemastery - basically all my subs. The Upcoming and NEW RSS feeds under Pathfinder RPG appear to be broken.
I've found the bug that broke these feeds. Next time we update the site, they'll work properly.
So if evenly spread that's about 36 pawns per PC race? Again assuming an even distribution that's enough to cover 18 classes per race with a male/female option for each. So pretty much every race/class/gender combo would be covered. 7 (races) x18 (classes) x2 (genders) = 252? That'd be nifty. :)
Hmm, tempted to buy this... Already spending way too much on the minis line to subscribe to this one, but 250 npc tokens would be pretty great... I did notice however...
The Product Description wrote:
The NPC Coded Box is not part of any subscription, but 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 RPG subscription at the time the NPC Codex Box ships in order to receive the PDF for free.)
ISBN 978-1-60125-472-6
Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Pawns Subscription.
Might want to sort that out :p I'm guessing the free PDF for RPG subscribers is no longer applicable now?
EDIT: nevermind, found your answer. Still might want to clarify that contradiction quoted above.
I'm hoping this has multiples of common humans, such as guards, bandits, thugs, etc. I know that lots of these NPCs will be able to stand in for that, but it is easier to differentiate leaders from regulars if the regulars are all uniform.
If a "pawn for each race/class/gender combination" approach is taken, that would take 154 pawns to cover all of those basic possibilities. That would eat into more than half of the total distinct pawns presented in this box.
Crossover appeal between pawns eats into that of course. I remember seeing examples in the Beginner's Box pawns that had me thinking they'd be great for other classes. With all the various NPCs getting art in this, hopefully there should be some appropriate art folks would like to use for each combo.
I swear, these pawns are the quickest way to have a great "minis" collection.
They are!
While they might not stand out the way a plastic or metal mini would, at least you'll have enough money left over to bribe your players with delectable sandwiches instead of having to share your last package of ramen noodles. :-)
Though to be fair, I did shove quite a bit of money into the reaper bones Kickstarter. I think the pawns are a good backup for full figured minis, and they can definitely stand on their own too (with the proper bases.)
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Narl wrote:
I'm hoping this has multiples of common humans, such as guards, bandits, thugs, etc. I know that lots of these NPCs will be able to stand in for that, but it is easier to differentiate leaders from regulars if the regulars are all uniform.
I'm afraid you're probably going to be disappointed - the vast majority of this will be the 220 pawns for the class/level combos - the NPC Codex is going to be a book with a level 1 Barbarian, a level 2 Barbarian.... a level 19 Wizard, a level 20 Wizard etc. Adding in the 11 iconics, we've used 233 of the 250 pawns already
I'm afraid you're probably going to be disappointed - the vast majority of this will be the 220 pawns for the class/level combos - the NPC Codex is going to be a book with a level 1 Barbarian, a level 2 Barbarian.... a level 19 Wizard, a level 20 Wizard etc. Adding in the 11 iconics, we've used 233 of the 250 pawns already
Actually, in the book, most of the low-level PC-class characters are two to a page (like the wolf/dire wolf entry in the Bestiary), and it's still only one illo per page, so it works out to about 14 or 16 illos per PC class (spellcasters take up more room and switch to a one-per-page format sooner than non-spellcasters do), which means not as many of the illos are "eaten up" by PC classes.
I've talked to Andrew about the possibility of multiples of guards and such, and he'd like to make that happen, and in an optimal situation it certainly can happen, but the product isn't finished yet so we can't make any guarantees at this point.
Chief Technical Officer
