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
As an aspiring GM without the infrastructure from previously playing D&D or other mini-based games, this set was exactly what I needed to start developing a well stocked collection of pieces. Compared to minis, you get more bang for you buck with these pawns. They are cheaper, more detailed, and considerably easier to store. Durability might later be an issue but a considerable number of the pawns come with extras. The inclusion of several of the more common animal companions was also a nice touch.
While the lack of racial diversity might be a bit of an issue (outside of a few animals, this is all Core races from what I can tell), I'm going to withhold my judgement on that until I round out my collection some.
So let's point out the positives in this review first.
1. If you love to play dwarves, elves, and humans (both male and female) you will want to pick up this set. I've never seen a more dwarf friendly set! Which is great for me! The multitude of elves and humans was unsurprising, so I'm not as excited.
2. If you love half-orcs, you'll be either excited or irritated, depending. Most of the half-orc npc's are male (which irritates my wife because she was looking forward to a female half-orc for her PC in Serpent's Skull). They are also mostly cast in the typical evil orc fashion. This is a bane to those who play them, but a boon to GM's who need more "orc" minis.
3. If you love halflings and gnomes, there are a few. However, they are somewhat hard to distinguish (I'll get to that later).
4. If you love half-elves, they kind of blend with elves and humans. You'll be good to use either.
5. The animal companions are represented (for the most part). This is great and I'm glad for it. While most people can just borrow from the bestiary, it was nice to have the ones that naturally don't start at a smaller size being made smaller in this set.
6. There is a mini for just about everyone.
Now with that in mind, let's get to the negatives.
1. Almost none of the titles of these pawns match the respective image. No, I don't mean they mixed them up. They were titled the same in the NPC Codex hardback too. Ignore this, if you can. I'm considering just putting the minis in order of race to eliminate this problem.
2. The pawns are indeed not fully cut like the Bestiary was. You can use pretty much any knife to solve this issue.
3. Some of the pawns are cut off at the weapon, which isn't cool. The images could have been shrank a bit more to accommodate at least a portion of them. This is glaring in the animals as well. The dog should not be bigger than the leopard. And dogs need butts too.
4. Lighting. I'm unsure if it's simply due to the shrinking of the images or poor printing, but some of these minis are quite literally black shapes with little art. This rankled me at first, but I've resolved that they have become the Dark Folk. Thus my purchase is still justified.
5. The obvious gnomes look like they are straight out of wonderland. This is not ok.
All in all, I'm glad I purchased this from amazon for about 12 dollars less. The pawns don't justify the 39.99 price tag. But for 27.99 and free shipping they do.
P.S. With all of that in mind, there is one mini that just stands out fantastically. The Knight (aristocrat npc pic) is glorious and should be used for any male human full plate warrior. They should have made more.
P.P.S. After punching them out and attempting to re-sort them into the frames it has dawned on me that not all frames are punched out in the exact same shape. So I have purchased Business Card slip sheets and they work fantastically for the large and medium pawns. The small pawns luckily will fit back in their frames (and for longevity sake, put the smooth side DOWN in the smooth from so they slide off each other instead of raking the cardboard). With that done, I have a final total
I love pawns so I had to get this but there were a few things I found rather disappointing.
First of all some of the sheets weren't punched through all the way. So before I got the hang of removing them just so several of the pawns didn't come free cleanly. Bits of the outer coating would remain attached to the frame and peal away from the backs of the pawns. Just be very careful when removing them. I'd recommend tracing over the cut lines with an exacto knife before you damage your new pawns.
The other part that I thought was a let down is the art distribution. Individually most of the art is just fine. When I separated them out by race and gender I was in for a real let down. The half-orc and dwarf gender ratio is extremely off balance. Females are out numbered by males about four to one. Of course there's lots of elven and and half-elven women depicted. To me this is about the same as when women's magazines are full of anorexic white girls. With just the occasional chubby girl or racial minority thrown in because they feel they're forced to put some in. Ya we've managed to take a step away from the chain mail bikini but we've still got a long way to go it seems. :/
I like the set, many many (N)PC´s are now availible, but I can also complete understand Steve Geddes disappointment. Out of the reasons he has written.
The redunancy is not my problem, for me it is that ther is for example not ONE pawn with a double-bladed-sword as weapon. When I put 300 Pawns in a box, I would expect to see every single weapon in one or another form, instead there are about 200 longsword/rapier blades inside.
Antoher point with is a little disappointing to me is the dark printing. This is not a problem only from the Codex Box, but for all pawns I have seen so far (Beginners Box, Bestiary Box, RotR pawns & Pirates AP pawns). They are all a bit to dark from the printing. Would be nice if you could change this for future pawns.
A suggestion for the next set: PLease put in some more Elementals, there are much to less of them. (I got the 5 mentioned Pawns set and only ONE water elemental :( )
I'm a big fan of pawns and if this were the only (or first) item in the product line, I'd have marked it higher. Given there are a bunch of sets out now, though, I feel this has a number of disappointing aspects.
The primary issue I have is selection of multiple figures - four cutthroat lawyers and only one horse, six buccaneers despite the existence of the skulls and shackles set. No doubt this depends on ones game style, but are there that many campaigns where a second or third horse would be redundant and where two lawyers would be a glaring shortfall?
Some of the names rankled as well (although I concede that's purely a cosmetic issue, it nonetheless prevented me from filing them in alphabetical order, as I'd prefer to do). Toothy transmuter? :/
I'd also have preferred there to be no included bases (now that they're available separately). It makes the box bigger than it needs to be and, for those of us using freight companies who utilise volume in addition to weight when determining shipping charges, that amounts to an additional cost for things we already have (or can get easily).
I'd give it two and a half stars if I could. I've marked it down based on comparisons with the other sets (which are far better executed, in my opinion).
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.
Do the Runelords or Skull & Shackles pawns have any guards in them?
I'm safely assuming that Skull & Shackles does have pirates though! :-)
I am really happy with the pawns so far and in a lot of ways I like them better than actual minis. I look forward to this coming out so I have more options for use as actual PCs since I am mostly limited to what is in the starter box at present.
I love the pawns!
Let's see, I can pay 35 bucks for 4 boosters of Pathfinder Minis(getting between 4-8 minis) OR I can pay 35 bucks for 250+ pawns that accomplish the same thing...for a poor, broke guy like myself it's a hands down no-brainer where the better value lies.
I hope you guys keep making the pawns for a long time.
My only complaint is that i'm sick & ****ing tired of Wayne Reynolds and wish you guys would feature some different artists on your covers more often.
Let's see, I can pay 35 bucks for 4 boosters of Pathfinder Minis(getting between 4-8 minis) OR I can pay 35 bucks for 250+ pawns that accomplish the same thing...for a poor, broke guy like myself it's a hands down no-brainer where the better value lies.
I hope you guys keep making the pawns for a long time.
My only complaint is that i'm sick & ****ing tired of Wayne Reynolds and wish you guys would feature some different artists on your covers more often.
7 boosters of H&M would get you 7-14 minis for 35 dollars you are correct for the most part.
Or get the Pawns which are nice too and it is a good way for someone that can't afford the minis to get a decent set of things to represent creatures in the game.
In PFS I always give my GM's a set of pogs if I am able to.. as most do not have the minis to support a scenario. It is a cheap way to go about it :)
Will this fill out the holes left by the Beginner Box races and classes? As of now, there are no pawns for when I want to play a half-orc character, or a ninja.
I'm not asking for every race/class/sex combination to be covered as in the Beginner Box... it just would be nice to be able to approximate them all, though.
There may still be art appropriate for crossing class lines. Though it doesn't sound like there are going to be too many in the way of "classic ninja"-looking characters if that's what is being sought. Hopefully with NPC Codex 2...
Will this fill out the holes left by the Beginner Box races and classes? As of now, there are no pawns for when I want to play a half-orc character, or a ninja.
I'm not asking for every race/class/sex combination to be covered as in the Beginner Box... it just would be nice to be able to approximate them all, though.
I doubt you'll see a ninja pawn in this set as the NPC Codex this box is a companion to only features NPCs built using the classes and races from the Core Rulebook. Of course that doesn't mean that there won't be a piece of artwork in the NPC Codex that might be suitable for a ninja.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
The Rot Grub wrote:
Will this fill out the holes left by the Beginner Box races and classes? As of now, there are no pawns for when I want to play a half-orc character, or a ninja.
I'm not asking for every race/class/sex combination to be covered as in the Beginner Box... it just would be nice to be able to approximate them all, though.
As mentioned Earlier in the thread, this will cover out the full race/class/gender combination for the core classes only
Will this fill out the holes left by the Beginner Box races and classes? As of now, there are no pawns for when I want to play a half-orc character, or a ninja.
I'm not asking for every race/class/sex combination to be covered as in the Beginner Box... it just would be nice to be able to approximate them all, though.
This box will only cover the core rules book like the NPC Codex itself. So I doubt you will see a Ninja, Gunslinger or even a Samurai. This is just one of those things. They may eventually make a book to cover the APG, Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic books though :)
The Samurai and Ninja could be covered in a Jade Regent set. Okay, two posts mentioning it. I'm done asking :)
As for only using core classes, I'm cool with this, as I can easily use them as stand-ins for the APG+ classes, at least the ones i'm interested in.
I think another great resource has been the Pathfinder Tales blogged stories. Each one has new art. Even if I don't have time to read the story, I always scroll down to gawk at the usually impressive art piece. There's some great ones in there and would make great NPCs.
I'm curious to know how culturally diverse the NPCs will be. A fair chunk of my custom world is inspired by the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. Will it all be European looking peoples and clothing? If so will there be future releases for "exotic" settings?
Hmm. I'm not sure exactly how they will be labeled, but "Human Fighter" wouldn't be the answer, because there will be several different human fighters. I'll ask Erik.
Hrm. I'm subscribed to Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but I want to opt out of this one product (it's not a rules based book, and I use a very fine hex grid that covers most of my table, and have done so for years).
I'm glad everyone else is psyched though! This looks great if you use the standard scale stuffs.
Not everything in a given product area is necessarily tied to a sub. To navigate between items in a subscription, the best way is to use the previous/next sub product links right above the discussion thread.
The plan is to use the names the characters have in the book. Not the specific name, but rather the general name (i.e. "lurking assassin," or what have you). Every character in the book has such a designator.
I feel a little vindicated. Because I whined louder than most for these. And our local joint can't keep any of them in stock.
So let's be honest. The pawns are doing well, aren't they Erik?
And I will tell you straight up. The Paizo artists own. I just.. That's the only way I can think of saying it. They own like Elmore owned in his heyday. That's how hard they own.
Today's NPC Codex Preview makes me ask: will there be pawns for the animal companions that are listed in the book? Or should we expect to just use animal pawns from other sources?
Actually a more accurate phrasing of my question would be: will the NPC Pawn Box contain art that is not in the NPC Codex?
It might.
But just from a rough estimate, they have more than enough new art from the book to cover those 250. Almost every page of the book has a new piece of NPC art, so 270ish pages of NPCs (not including the iconics chapter, nor the front and back matter), over 3 chapters, with a loss of about 5 per chapter is 255ish art pieces in total.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Now this is just curiosity, why is this set almost twice the cost of the unboxed sets? Is it the box and bases? Won't stop me buying it, but I am curious.
Like the NPC Codex and I'm looking forward to the release of the pawns. Would love to see a future release for pawns with ninjas, samurai, oracles, cavaliers, alchemists, witches, inquisitors, etc. PCs who are using one of these classes have a hard time finding suitable pawns.
I would really like to see some other colors of bases included for easily distinguishing key npcs on the battlemap. Including a handful of red stands to show aggressive npcs within a tavern filled with neutral npcs, for instance, or if the players use the pawns as pc tokens, then some green stands to single them out.
Obviously, this might be a bit too late to include with this box set, but maybe having another product that includes an assortment of stands would be great.
I don't know if you have the NPC Codex, but in that book, the Mounted Archer and Griffon Rider are, respectively, human and elven. I doubt that the Griffon Rider will appear with her mount, as she doesn't appear that way in the book's art. (The Mounted Archer doesn't have a picture at all, so I don't know about that.)
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
