The extraterrestrial menaces of Starfinder Alien Archive come alive on your tabletop with this box-busting collection of more than 300 creature pawns for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop science fantasy RPG! Printed on sturdy cardstock, each pawn features a beautiful, full-color image of an alien from the Starfinder RPG's first collection of interplanetary threats and unique player-character races. These cardboard pawns slot into size-appropriate plastic bases, making it easy to mix them with traditional metal or plastic miniatures. With multiple pawns for commonly encountered creatures and a handful of new foes to fight in starship combat, the Starfinder Alien Archive Pawn Box is the best way to ensure you've got the perfect characters to bring your Starfinder campaign to life!
Hundreds of aliens invade your tabletop! While creature pawns are broken out by base size, all starship pawns use medium bases. The Starfinder Alien Archive Pawn Box includes the following:
Small (and Smaller) Creatures
Anacite Wingbot (4)
Apari Constituent (4)
Electrovore (4)
Elemental, Air (4)
Elemental, Earth (4)
Elemental, Fire (4)
Elemental, Water (4)
Formian Worker (6)
Goblin, Space (6)
Gray (4)
Ikeshti Brood-Minder (4)
Robot, Observer-Class Security (4)
Skittermander (6)
Skittermander Whelp (4)
Symbiend I (2)
Symbiend II (2)
Medium Creatures
Aeon Guard (6)
Anacite Laborer (2)
Assembly Ooze (4)
Asteray (4)
Barathu, Early Stage (4)
Bryrvath (2)
Contemplative (4)
Contemplative Mentor (2)
Cybernetic Zombie (6)
Damoritosh's Arm Host (2)
Draelik (4)
Drow Enforcer (4)
Drow Noble Arms Dealer (2)
Elemental, Air (4)
Elemental, Earth (4)
Elemental, Fire (4)
Elemental, Water (4)
Formian Warrior (4)
Hesper (2)
Inevitable, Anhamut (2)
Kalo Deepspeaker (4)
Kalo Sharkhunter (4)
Maraquoi Hunter (4)
Maraquoi Shaman (4)
Marooned One (3)
Necrovite (2)
Nihili (3)
Nuar (4)
Occult Zombie (6)
Orocoran (2)
Orocoran Ichor Lord (2)
Reptoid (4)
Reptoid Master (2)
Robot, Patrol-Class Security (4)
Ryphorian Skyfire Pilot (2)
Ryphorian Technician (4)
Skeletal Undead (6)
Swarm Corrovox (4)
Verthani Aether Pilot (4)
Verthani Pure One (4)
Void Hag (2)
Witchwyrd (2)
Wrikreechee I (2)
Wrikreechee II (2)
Large Creatures
Angel, Barachius (2)
Apari (2)
Barathu (2)
Caypin (2)
Crest-Eater (2)
Deh-Nolo (2)
Dragonkin (4)
Elemental, Air (4)
Elemental, Earth (4)
Elemental, Fire (4)
Elemental, Water (4)
Frujai Soldier (4)
Haan (4)
Haan Combat Pilot (2)
Hallajin (2)
Ikeshti Rivener (2)
Ksarik (2)
Sarcesian (4)
Scavenger Slime (4)
Sharpwing (4)
Shobhad (4)
Shobhad Warleader (2)
Surnoch (2)
Swarm Thresher Lord (4)
Urog (4)
Huge Creatures
AHAV (4)
Bloodbrother (4)
Dragon, Young Adult Blue (2)
Elemental, Air (4)
Elemental, Earth (4)
Elemental, Fire (4)
Elemental, Water (4)
Mountain Eel (4)
Starships
Devil, Endbringer (2)
Novaspawn (2)
Tetrad Caravel (2)
Includes 20 medium bases, 10 large bases, and 5 huge bases.
The Starfinder Alien Archive Pawn Box is a shoebox-sized box of strong cardboard containing more than 300 pawns (thick cardboard cut-outs of creatures that fit into plastic bases, included in the set, for tactical combat on a grid). All of the creatures (and most of the artwork) come from the first Alien Archive book for the game, and because that book is about half the size of a Pathfinder Bestiary, there's not as many different creatures included as there would be in a similar set for Starfinder's cousin. However, the total number of pawns hasn't decreased, and this is reflected in the high number of multiples for most creatures: pawns come in either groups of six (space goblins, aeon guards, etc.), four (security robots, barathu, etc.), or two (necrovites, hespers, etc.). This means it's easy to have large battles without having to scramble for stand-in pawns. A little symbol in different colours on each duplicate makes it easy to tell duplicates on the battlefield apart--at least if you're not partially colour-blind like me.
Two positive things that stuck out to me about the set were that there's a *lot* of Huge-sized creatures included (always impressive to plink down on the table) and there is full coverage of core elementals, including four each for small/medium/large/huge elementals of the air/fire/water/earth varieties. This is *really* useful for Pathfinder as well.
My major critique of the set is that, unlike the Pathfinder pawn sets, the pawns in the Starfinder Alien Archive Pawn Box are not numbered and (a greater sin in my book) there's no set indicator. This makes clean-up a chore and mis-filing them a greater possibility, especially as more of these sets are released.
A couple of miscellaneous notes:
* If you're new to Starfinder, this isn't the box you want for PCs (unless you're playing something from the Alien Archive)
* This box is almost all creatures, but there are a few starship pawns.
Overall, I think it's a good set--the artwork is attractive and colorful, and the multiples of every pawn are really handy. But it does have flaws, and I hope those are addressed by Paizo in future sets.
I'm a fan of pawn sets. They're size-efficient and cost-effective. Who has enough money and room in their house to store 500 new 3D minis per year? And their flatness makes them very convenient when packing luggage.
In this pawn box Paizo succeeded quite well at keeping the whole image on the pawn (something which they haven't always done well). Maybe because Alien Archive is noticeably thinner than the Bestiaries, you get fewer different critters but a lot more of each (4-6 of things where a Bestiary box might give you 2-4).
I particularly like the elementals. This one has Huge elementals, which the Pathfinder Bestiary doesn't have. Each size of elemental has new artwork, and the bigger they get the angrier they look. Wouldn't want to run into the huge earth elemental in a dark alleyway :P
The big, BIG PROBLEM though is that the name of the pawn set isn't printed on the pawns, nor do they have numbers. That sounds trivial but it isn't. I store my pawns in the original cardboard in their boxes - easiest way to keep them sorted. If I need a monster from Bestiary 17 starting with Q, I pop open box 17 and flip cardboard until I come to monsters starting with a Q. After I'm done playing, I have a hand of pawns from five boxes, but each pawn has a box name printed on it so I now where to put it back. It's very easy and efficient.
Bestiary boxes, as well as Pathfinder AP pawn collections, the Villain Codex, NPC Codes all have this handy system. But the Starfinder sets don't. Neither Alien Archive, nor Pact Worlds, nor Core Rulebook. So if I've used pawns from all three in an adventure (which is really not that unlikely) I have to do a lot of looking up to see where to put them back. And Alien Archive 2 is going to hit the shelves in a couple of months. This problem could get bigger and bigger.
PLEASE PAIZO PUT THE NAME OF THE PAWN SET ON THE PAWNS. Also please the number in that set. You've done this for years and it's really useful. Why did you stop?
Overall a great set, but I was disappointed that there wasn't new Skittermanders or any of the other new races.
With future sets it would be super cool for more variations of the playable races, like Skitttermander mechanics or Barathu Technomancers.
But, I'm not going to let my personal preferences drag down the star rating of a very good set, so good job Paizo, give yourselves a round of applause!
Excellent cardstock. Beautiful artwork. Works well for adventures in Iron Gods, Star Wars, Shadowrun and of course Starfinder. Don't listen to nonsense reviews when you could take your game to the next level and make your players beg for more!
I thought that first one wasn't a box but one of those thinner releases.
Yep, you are right, Samy.
The product David linked seems to be just like the Pawn collections for a Pathfinder AP and will probably have only the iconics and base creatures from the Starfinder Core Rulebook art and will have no bases included.
Maybe even a few from the first AP "Dead Suns", as that AP will probably use some creatures from there.
This here is an actual box like the Pathfinder Bestiary Boxes and should include some bases indicated by the similiar pricing.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Distant Scholar wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
It's drawn from a book on creatures, so what reason would there possibly be for putting starships in this set?
** spoiler omitted **
I'm gonna guess/wish:
** spoiler omitted **
In the Bringing Out the Big Guns thread, we learned from the writer of Alien Archive about his very topic:
Jason Keeley wrote:
This is probably a conversation served better by another thread, but in the most teasing way possible, here's what you will see in Alien Archive: an alien that IS a starship, an alien that can turn into a starship, a sample starship for a familiar alien race, and a starship frame that you'd have to be a real jerk to use.
My guess is that the starship frame you would have to be a jerk to use is some sort of take on a space whale.
It's drawn from a book on creatures, so what reason would there possibly be for putting starships in this set?
** spoiler omitted **
I'm gonna guess/wish:
** spoiler omitted **
In the Bringing Out the Big Guns thread, we learned from the writer of Alien Archive about his very topic:
Jason Keeley wrote:
This is probably a conversation served better by another thread, but in the most teasing way possible, here's what you will see in Alien Archive: an alien that IS a starship, an alien that can turn into a starship, a sample starship for a familiar alien race, and a starship frame that you'd have to be a real jerk to use.
My guess is that the starship frame you would have to be a jerk to use is some sort of take on a space whale.
So if I want to be a real jerk of a GM, I need to wait a couple of months after August to give the party the "starship frame that you'd have to be a real jerk to use" as their initial ship, right?
Vic posted on the "Alien Archive" product page that there are over 90 different pawn images inside the box, which would average about three per creature.
Of course we will probably get like six "Space Goblins" and two "Necrovites". ;-)
Hmm.. so there are 90 images in this pawn set and almost 160 images in the corresponding book. Can some of the missing images be found in the core rulebook pawn set?
Hmm.. so there are 90 images in this pawn set and almost 160 images in the corresponding book. Can some of the missing images be found in the core rulebook pawn set?
No, Alien Archive has 160 pages, but over 80 creatures (with images).
There should be almost every creature (up to huge size, but not the gargantuan or colossal ones - planet-killing "novaspawn" are a good bet) in this pawn set.
Huge ones (like the "Ksarik") will most probably be in it once, while small ones (like the "space goblins") will probably be in it multiple times.
It's drawn from a book on creatures, so what reason would there possibly be for putting starships in this set?
** spoiler omitted **
I'm gonna guess/wish:
** spoiler omitted **
In the Bringing Out the Big Guns thread, we learned from the writer of Alien Archive about his very topic:
Jason Keeley wrote:
This is probably a conversation served better by another thread, but in the most teasing way possible, here's what you will see in Alien Archive: an alien that IS a starship, an alien that can turn into a starship, a sample starship for a familiar alien race, and a starship frame that you'd have to be a real jerk to use.
My guess is that the starship frame you would have to be a jerk to use is some sort of take on a space whale.
Hmm.. so there are 90 images in this pawn set and almost 160 images in the corresponding book. Can some of the missing images be found in the core rulebook pawn set?
No, Alien Archive has 160 pages, but over 80 creatures (with images).
There should be almost every creature (up to huge size, but not the gargantuan or colossal ones - planet-killing "novaspawn" are a good bet) in this pawn set.
Huge ones (like the "Ksarik") will most probably be in it once, while small ones (like the "space goblins") will probably be in it multiple times.
It was stated in the alien archive discussion that almost every creature will get two illustrations.
Hmm.. so there are 90 images in this pawn set and almost 160 images in the corresponding book. Can some of the missing images be found in the core rulebook pawn set?
No, Alien Archive has 160 pages, but over 80 creatures (with images).
There should be almost every creature (up to huge size, but not the gargantuan or colossal ones - planet-killing "novaspawn" are a good bet) in this pawn set.
Huge ones (like the "Ksarik") will most probably be in it once, while small ones (like the "space goblins") will probably be in it multiple times.
It was stated in the alien archive discussion that almost every creature will get two illustrations.
Thanks for the info, i didn´t see that. :-)
It will probably be a male and femal version each (or seven for some species)?! ;-)
Hey look. Sneak peek at spooky monsters in space. What ever that thing is on the side of the box, keep it the hell away from me.
Aww, is this an April Fools joke? That thing on the side of the box looks like some variety Barathu (or a Liavaran Dreamer?) which is basically the friendliest, most xeno-loving creature in the whole Golarion system
It's good to see that every creature gets at least 2 pawns and that creatures which are encountered in groups get up to six pawns.
Can anybody who knows provide an answer to how many creatures of one type the new "summon monster" spell can conjure?
I would guess up to four, as that's the number of pawns all elementals get, even if personally i'd like it to be one.
Can anybody who knows provide an answer to how many creatures of one type the new "summon monster" spell can conjure?
I would guess up to four, as that's the number of pawns all elementals get, even if personally i'd like it to be one.
When you select summon creature as a spell known, you select four creatures you can summon for each spell level you can cast it at. For example, if you select it as a 3rd level spell known, you pick four creatures for when casting it as a 3rd level spell, four for when casting it a a 2nd level spell, and four for when casting it as a 1st level spell.
If the creature you select if from the same level summoning table as the spell level, you can summon one such creature when you cast it. So if I choose medium fire elemental as one of my creatures I can summon with a 3rd level summon creature spell, I can summon one medium fire elemental when I cast it.
If however, I select a creature from a lower-level summoning chart as one of my summonable creatures for 3rd level summon creature, I can summon three of them. So if instead of a medium fire elemental I choose a Small fire elemental, I would summon three.
I could even make one of my 3rd level spell choices one medium fire elemental, and another one three Small fire elementals.
However the default for what features you can summon is elementals, so if multiple spell casters can summon elementals are what you are most likely to need more than 3 of.
Just checking- will this pawn set have labels and numbers?
(I had to manually write numbers on all my Starfinder core pawns.)
Labels, yes; numbers, no. (And, like the Starfinder Core pawns, there is color-coding to differentiate multiple pawns that have the same art.)
Do a lot of you want numbers?
It´s far easier to write "Skittermander 1", "Skittermander 2"... on the Initiative counter than to write "Skittermander Blue", Skittermander Yellow" and so on.
It´s a space issue.
So yes, i´m more of a numbers guy, even if both numbers and colors would be the best of both worlds.
But if i would have to chose, it´s numbers.
Thank you for asking, Vic.
And thank you very much @Owen for explaining "Summon Monster". :-)
Just checking- will this pawn set have labels and numbers?
(I had to manually write numbers on all my Starfinder core pawns.)
Labels, yes; numbers, no. (And, like the Starfinder Core pawns, there is color-coding to differentiate multiple pawns that have the same art.)
Do a lot of you want numbers?
Augh!
Yes, I really want numbers. I keep track of pawns by keeping them sorted by numbers. They go into binders, and I have files that index them by numbers. If I'm looking for a pawn of a given thing, I can search the files, and then I know both which set has it, and which number in the set it is. I turn to the page, and I've got it.
With the Starfinder Core set, I wrote in numbers in pen by hand, following the convention that used to be printed on pawns with (for instance) the Bestiary Boxes, where pawns that were copies got the same number.
Back in the day, Paizo put numbers on all of their pawns, as well as an indication as to what set it came from. I'm very sad that this seems to have gone away. I'm probably going to skip the Heroes & Villains set because of the missing labels and numbers. I wrote in by hand on the Starfinder Core set. I already have this set coming because of a subscription; I'm not sure what I'll do, as it's even more things to write in numbers on.
(Does this set at least have an indication that it's the Alien Archive pawns? Or is it only names? The names are the one label I don't need. In fact, there's probably even an argument for leaving them off.)
But *please* print all pawns with labels and numbers. It helps those of us who want to keep our pawns organized, and don't want to page through shelves of binders to find what we're looking for.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Oh, sweet, a Tetrad Caravel. Its artwork never showed up in the Alien Archive. Glad we finally get to see what it looks like. Also, anyone know if we'll get a Sunrise Maiden pawn anytime soon?
So is there a particular reason that a large number of things included in the AP and Society weren't included in this or the Core Pawn Box? Off hand, no Space Goblin Bullies, no Pegasus, no Akata, no Gaargakl just to name a few. I guess there could be a Dead Suns collection coming later, but that doesn't help for the SFS scenarios.
So is there a particular reason that a large number of things included in the AP and Society weren't included in this or the Core Pawn Box? Off hand, no Space Goblin Bullies, no Pegasus, no Akata, no Gaargakl just to name a few. I guess there could be a Dead Suns collection coming later, but that doesn't help for the SFS scenarios.
Presumably it's because the monsters you list arent in the CRB or the AA.
Early on in the line there's bound to be gaps. Hopefully we'll get a dead suns pawn set midway through 2018 and possibly a 'gap' set prior to that with odds and sods.