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.
Obviously, when I said in February that it would be here in a month I was mistaken—all I can assume is that I was looking at the wrong line on the schedule. We're still awaiting a ship date from the printer; odds are good it will arrive sometime between August and October.
For those interested, I started a thread about a year and a half ago about making your own pawns from the out-of-print Monster Codex Pawns PDF. Monster Codex Pawns I was unable to find a physical copy so I did the next best thing. I think they turned out pretty well. Others in the thread had their own methods that would probably work equally well. Anyway, that's my 2 cents and I'll hush.
I'd love a reprint as well. Why are these not just produced as a matter of coarse? It's not like they need rule updates. They're art images. I don't want to have to make my own card stock as it won't match my other pawns.
There will be no reprint. Paizo can't sell enough of those to warrant the price tag you're seeing, because pawns are super dependent on print run size when it comes to price due to being specialized non-standard print item. Small print run = higher price. You ready to pay 100 USD for those? No, you're not.
Will the printable version of this ever be in stock again or am I stuck getting gouged on ebay if I want this? I have to say I am pretty new getting into Pathfinder 2e and buying the accessories has been an AWFUL experience. Minis especially the earlier Iconics are gone, pawns are gone, beginner box took me a full two months of searching high and low to find a physical copy. Like I get there are supply issues and probably doesn't help that Pathfinder has exploded in popularity since the OLG fiasco, but given all that at the end of the day as someone who is WANTING to give Paizo money they sure are making it hard and the customer experience atm (at lest mine) really sucks.
I believe that Aaron has hinted/suggested that the Pawns line is going to be relaunched at some point, though nothing formal has been released.
Hey Aj thanks for the reply, lol I actually messaged you on a different forum trying to buy your Bestiary Pawn box but it had sold already. I read that post that they were discontinuing some of the pawns line and I hope they reconsider.
I guess since the announcement that they are only continuing the bestiary line, I feel like I am caught in TURBO FOMO territory of "have to buy everything cause they won't ever be more if I ever want them down the line" and it doesn't feel great.
No worries...best of luck with your searches. I'm kind of curious to see how they tackle these...there seems to be demand, but costs have increased dramatically. I saw on a a RfC video that boardgame cardboard sheet costs had increased 400-500%...not 100% comparable, but close enough.