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Announced at Gamestorm by Jason Buhlman -- Paizo's new fall hardcover the NPC Codex. Will post more details later.
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Maker of "Way of the Wicked" the only evil AP for Pathfinder
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The rumours are true!
I think this is a great year to test out a book of generic NPCs instead of a Bestiary. We've had a lot of monsters given Paizo's commitment to annual Bestiaries and Frog God Games releasing Tome of Horrors Complete. Plus, Advanced Race Guide is going to give us plenty of creature concepts to tool around with.
Very excited. Did anyone record the announcement?
Hmmm. I'm not sure what this Gamestorm is but an NPC Codex does sound pretty awesome. The only thing that would be awesomer (if that were a word) would be an NPC Codex and a Bestiary 4.
I really hope this book has battle statistics on Razmir. I so wanna turn that guy into a smear on my dungeon wall.
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I really hope this book has battle statistics on Razmir. I so wanna turn that guy into a smear on my dungeon wall.
Keep in mind this is a Pathfinder RPG hardcover. There will be no ties to Golarion besides maybe god names. I would expect more NPCs like the Game Mastery Guide's NPC gallery, but exploded.
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I was on the panel with Jason (I discussed third party product upcoming releases). I don't believe anyone recorded the announcement so here is what I remember...
Paizo is officially announcing it on this site soon (this week or so) so more details will be available shortly.
This will be the fall hardcover 2012 and it is being done instead of the Bestiary 4 this year. It will be 300ish pages. I think that is just an estimate at this time. It will be big.
It will have every class 1-20th level. That is the bulk of the book. I can't remember if it was every class from just the Core Rulebook or include those from the APG or Ultimate books.
Most of those NPCs get their own page. Very low-level might be two to a page because they just need less space.
The odd level characters are sort of typical NPCs. A sword and board fighter. A two-handed weapon fighter.
The even levels will be "weirder". A whip master fighter, for example.
That way you are never more than one level from either a standard example of the class or a more exotic example.
The iconics will also be in the book. Several versions of each.
I think that is the bulk of what was said.
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
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Paizo needs to stop going out of their way to take my money!
I can't wait for this :)
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http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/181/813/1726009-shut_up_an d_take_my_money_super.jpg
This is pretty much how I feel about this. This is a great idea and look forward to pre-ordering this. Can't wait.
While I do understand that this is a book about NPC's the one thing you must have in this book is mages. Mages like Wizards and Alchemists who keep spellbooks. I would like to at the very least have a price tag next to their spellbook sections. In otherwords, I want more spellbooks, like we saw from Ultimate Magic. Just a few.
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http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/181/813/1726009-shut_up_an d_take_my_money_super.jpg
This is pretty much how I feel about this. This is a great idea and look forward to pre-ordering this. Can't wait.
While I do understand that this is a book about NPC's the one thing you must have in this book is mages. Mages like Wizards and Alchemists who keep spellbooks. I would like to at the very least have a price tag next to their spellbook sections. In otherwords, I want more spellbooks, like we saw from Ultimate Magic. Just a few.
Agreed. The NPCs I have the hardest time and that take the longest to create are casters, and prepared caster PCs expect to score their spellbook as loot. The greatest gift the NPC Codex could be to me would be an abundance of prepared casters with fully detailed spell books.
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mabe they will put the pathfinder iconincs in it at lvl 15 for the last time printing them.....
well one can hope.
It's not like the most esteemed and lovely and very good at stabbing things and people the LAdy Merisiel has anything much better to do than strike a pose for the camera.....
And the lovely SEoni too......
HEY!
I've got plenty of things to do beyond striking poses.
Such as...
I'm a bit bummed about not getting a Bestiary 4 ... but I hope that this will have stats for some of the Pathfinder Tales characters ;)
Very, very, very awesome. :D
How did I miss this for a week. Good to hear they decided to do this idea..
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I'm a bit bummed about not getting a Bestiary 4 ... but I hope that this will have stats for some of the Pathfinder Tales characters ;)
My gut tells me no because they're specific to the Campaign Setting, but the iconics kind of blur the line so maybe. But then, stating out the characters boxes the writers in to a large degree. Most Pathfinder Tales characters are hard to define as a single class for a reason.
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This book is going to be very useful! I use the NPC gallery in the GameMastery Guide all the time. A cracked-out version of that gallery is sheer awesomesauce.
This is pretty much how I feel about this. This is a great idea and look forward to pre-ordering this. Can't wait.
While I do understand that this is a book about NPC's the one thing you must have in this book is mages. Mages like Wizards and Alchemists who keep spellbooks. I would like to at the very least have a price tag next to their spellbook sections. In otherwords, I want more spellbooks, like we saw from Ultimate Magic. Just a few.
That might help.
I'm a bit bummed about not getting a Bestiary 4 ... but I hope that this will have stats for some of the Pathfinder Tales characters ;)
I hope they absolutely do not ever stat out the Pathfinder tales characters. That was the first step the FR that lead to alot of stupid things.
But I am so happy this book is coming out instead yet another book of monsters.
I'm a bit bummed about not getting a Bestiary 4 ... but I hope that this will have stats for some of the Pathfinder Tales characters ;)I hope they absolutely do not ever stat out the Pathfinder tales characters. That was the first step the FR that lead to alot of stupid things.
But I am so happy this book is coming out instead yet another book of monsters.
Too late, I think some official PF Tales characters have stats floating around somewhere.
Novel character stats should be fine, there were many more factors leading to FR's issues other than character stats.
Looking forward to this.
Disappointed in no Bestiary 4. If they had made a book of templates instead of the bestiary, that'd have been fine (or even to my preference). But NPCs? Meh.
I'd rather have epic rules, personally. Don't need NPCs.
This is great for someone like me. I can take hours just making a level 1 character, so to have them laid out for NPC's can make all the difference. Also, I personally thing that most RP encounters have too many monsters, I want to fight more city folk.
I approve! Make sure there are plenty of classes from the APG! Sample Alchemists!
My first reaction was "Aw, I'm angry at this for replacing B4."
My second reaction was "Darn it, I can't stay angry at something that sounds so AWESOME!"
Still kind of sad about the replacement of B4 for the year though...
Paizo has found a need and is filling it with this new book! I approve!
I guess that in all respects, this is our Bestiary 4. Remember, there are a lot more evil baddies to kill than just beasts and outsiders. Admittedly I'd be a bit worried that they are running out of ideas and are grasping for monsters a bit too obscure.
Poor Formians. They need to wait another year to get printed stats! :X
I fail to see the need for YET ANOTHER random NPC book. I mean really, there's an NPC guide, a Rival Guide and now this? Why?
If it was a hardcover about NPCs of Golarion, that'd be another thing entirely.
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I fail to see the need for YET ANOTHER random NPC book. I mean really, there's an NPC guide, a Rival Guide and now this? Why?
If it was a hardcover about NPCs of Golarion, that'd be another thing entirely.
Actually, both NPC Guide and Rival Guide were Golarion-specific, so it's about time for a setting-agnostic book of NPCs.
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Poor Formians. They need to wait another year to get printed stats! :X
They've actually mentioned that they're waiting till they have psionics to stat Formians, since they've been specifically called out as psionic inhabitants of Castrovel in Golarion canon.
There's a thread.
Actually, both NPC Guide and Rival Guide were Golarion-specific, so it's about time for a setting-agnostic book of NPCs.I fail to see the need for YET ANOTHER random NPC book. I mean really, there's an NPC guide, a Rival Guide and now this? Why?
If it was a hardcover about NPCs of Golarion, that'd be another thing entirely.
I meant more in terms of known NPCs of Golarion. Statblocks of, say, Socorro, Varian Jeggare, Radovan, Ruby Prince Khemet, Rhazmir...
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Actually, they say they're waiting until they have "appropriate rules," since formians are "psychic" inhabitants of Castrovel.
The word "psionic" is never mentioned.
True enough, assuming you care about the distinction between psychic and psionic. :)
Since they'd be rules covering the same things, written by the same people, I'm not inclined to care that much, personally.
I'm ready for this. I went through my GMG last night looking for some pre-made wizards and sorcerers to use for my session that got completely derailed. I was severely disappointed in the selection. Rogues, fighters, rangers, and various NPC classes, we got em in spades, but I think I counted TWO wizards. D20pfsrd.com has a lot of NPCs, and even the named NPCs don't see a lot of variety in this regard. I ended up using a diviner and a necromancer, both much larger threats than necessary, so I had to scale them back on the fly.
So yes, having a quick reference with NPCs would be immensely helpful for sessions that do not go as planned.
I love me some monster books! They are usually the first ones I look at. But with that said, I am actually glad this is coming out (tho nothing 'official' has been said yet!), I don't want Paizo to feel obligated to have to come out with a new monster book EVERY year because its expected of them. I'm not worried about them running out of ideas, I'm kind of a fan of mythology (I really love monsters!) so I know that there is an untapped wealth still out there. I just don't want them to crank them out the way WotC did at the end with the MMs (I mean, really, V? Mostly just rehashes of old monsters with classes!). I'm glad that Paizo is willing to try something different and completely usable!
On one hand this may be good. On the other hand I still remember never using the NPC Gallery statblocks from the GMG. Time to wait and see what gets delivered to the local game store.
I just wish I could purchase a book of all the collected art for Pathfinder so far. That would be an immediate buy for my entire group.
Great news! I've been hoping for this for years.
This seems like something I could make use of as I've got a player who wants henchmen and by the time this comes out (if I've done my math right) he should be leveled up enough to start pulling together an army of mooks. I just hope there's a variant rule in there detailing hirelings. Too many people just housrule Leadership down to first level taking it from a feat to a rule NOT to just add that into the cannon somewhere. Anyway I look forward to the release!