Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: NPC Codex

Being a long-time GM for my group of gamers, this book has made my life SO MUCH SIMPLER. I'm good at thinking on my feet and I try to be prepared for anything, but we all know that sometimes players wander off the path you expect, and sometimes you just need a NPC friend or enemy to throw into the mix. This book makes the games easier to keep organized and fantastically more appropriate to the situation. PROS: Pazio has been improving their way of organizing information and it shows in their latest book. They used the same structure that was well received in the Ultimate Equipment book. The info on the edge of the page makes it incredibly easy to flip through this book and find what you need without resorting to the index or the table of contents. I don't spend any time looking for specific page numbers. The NPC's are limited to the core rulebook, but that also keeps things simple. Anything I need to know about one of the pre-generated NPC I know exactly which book to look in. Especially with spell lists, that's important as i don't want to search through 3-4 books to look for a spell listed on this NPC. And on that subject... Spell lists for the caster classes! I can create a NPC in about 5 minutes at this point, having done so dozens of times, but one area I always struggled with were spells. I don't always remember which spells are for which classes and generally don't want to take more time while players are waiting on me just so I have a good selection. Because of that, my NPC casters in the past have been pretty generic and run-of-the-mill. Not so with this book, they have pre-selected spells that make sense and are powerful. Tactics sections for the NPC's. This is a nice cheatsheet for the GM (or whoever is controlling them) that gives them an idea of how the character was intended on being played, and what items/spells/effects would be going on at the start of most combat. This makes playing them on the fly much easier because you already have an idea of what to do. Excellent print quality and a sturdy feel to the book. A few books in the recent past have not impressed me with the quality of the paper and binding of the books. It seems they have gone back to a better printer because the book feels more like the original core rulebook in terms of quality. Items come pre-selected for the NPCs, making it an easy loot table if you wanted it to go that way. CONS: Limited to the core rulebook. I know I already mentioned this makes it easier, but at the same time a few of the books really add to some classes, maybe most notably caster classes. I look forward to a sequel to this. I would have liked if they had provided some base "boss" type NPC's, things purposefully rule-bending in order to really up the difficulty. BOTTOM LINE: If you are the GM, get this book, you'll enjoy it. If you are a player, you could get this book still to have a good basis for quickly creating characters in the future. The builds do make for a nice template if you wanted to use it that way, but overall the value to the typical player is probably limited.

Many years ago-- far more than I like to acknowledge!-- TSR published something called " The Rogues Gallery ," a supplement for 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . This little book published, in a series of charts, blocks of statistics for "average" AD&D characters from each character class at various class levels. It also included statistics for some of the legendary characters of Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk game setting-- famous characters like Bigby and Mordenkainen, names straight from the core books of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: names we all knew. The genius of "The Rogue's Gallery" was that it put statistics for hundreds of nonplayer characters at every Game Master's fingertips, making it much easier to manage random encounters. Need a fifth-level fighter? BAM! A tenth-level wizard? BAM! Armed with this book, Game Masters were much better prepared for nearly any unexpected interaction between a player character and an (otherwise) anonymous townsperson. Fast forward to Paizo's "NPC Codex," and you have essentially the same type of product, only exploded into something much bigger and better than the original. Instead of a chart depicting averages for each class at a variety of different levels, this weighty tome contains a fully-developed character for each level of every class in the Pathfinder basic rules!!! By "fully developed," I don't mean cardboard cutouts depicting vanilla characters at various milestones, but actual character ideas, built around unique concepts, so that each character is a living, breathing, unique personality ready to populate your Pathfinder game. Approximately every third or fourth character is named, with a brief character history, which provides a nice sample of even more identifiable individuals. There is also a chapter which provides the same type of examples for several of Pathfinder's more common prestige classes, unique statistics for player character animal companions, and multiple versions of Pathfinder's so-called 'iconic characters' (i.e., the characters depicted on various book covers and GM screens throughout the Pathfinder line). While the number of fully-developed NPC's in this book is staggering, providing GM's with dozens and dozens of ready-made character descriptions and stat blocks, going to this extreme level of specific detail is actually something of a double-edged sword. Many of these characters are actually so unique (and so readily-identifiable!) that they couldn't be recycled or re-used without a bit of modification. The more generic approach taken by the original "Rogue's Gallery" was in some ways more useful than this collection of unique, one-of-a-kind characters. However, the pluses to this more detailed approach far outweigh the minuses, making the NPC Codex an incredibly useful tool for any GM. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who runs, or intends to run, a Pathfinder campaign-- and I promise you that at some point you'll be thankful to have a useful tool like this to refer to.

As much as I like playing GM for games these days, it certainly is getting more complicated to take some time to plan and draft adventures before hand. Between work, study and other responsibilities, it is quite complicated to think on gaming sessions as I used to do when I was younger. That's where this book has provided an unbelievable source of inspiration. Paizo has provided hundreds of NPCs, arranging them by main class, but making use of almost all available class variants to date. This means that even when you have several pages of warriors, you really have a great array of different choices. You get NPCs of almost any level and even if you have to provide a NPC on the fly for a session, you can certainly find many different characters you can use of almost any level. The book is usual Pathfinder quality. Almost all NPCs have their own character drawn with very good art. Covers are paper used for the book are of great quality like all other books from Paizo. This is a great tool, one most GMs will certainly benefit from. And for players, it can provide plenty of ideas for different types of characters.

This is an excellent resource which will allow GM's with a less rules heavy game knowledge put together encounters wicked quick. Like every Paizo book (with the exceptions being the early printings of the core rulebook) it's incredibly well bound and of great quality, the artwork is superb and plentiful. The book rarely goes a couple pages without dropping in another character portrait, giving the reader a feel for the styles worn by a variety of people from many different backgrounds. Beyond the physical appearance of the book itself it brings (in my opinion) a much needed resource to pathfinder. The bestiary's are great for monster encounters but when you want to do a humanoid encounter you have to stat the guys out yourself or search for some that someone else has already made. This book is the bestiary for humanoids, with characters ranging from lowly cut-purses to the campaign ending boss you really do get your moneys worth.

Well put together, but you'll want to check the erratta on the paizo.com site, as theres' numerous minor mistakes on the stat blocks for the characters. Very nice for 'plug and play' NPCs as well as drop-in pregen player characters, though. Also gives a nice array of examples of how you can make characters of the same class different.

This book only makes me want more like it! It's a shame that it's only using classes from the core rulebook. I can't wait until they expand and make another! There's characters from level one all the way to twenty for all the core rulebooks' classes as well as a couple different options for each prestige class AND options for NPC class characters. Some characters have more extensive backgrounds while others are just a basic setup on options for that level. It's really aided me as both a player and DM to come up with character concepts from both types of games. Even though most of this information is present on the prd and srd sites, I really enjoyed the artwork of this book done by many different artists. Before I create a character I find myself browsing through this book rather than the core rulebook for ideas.

Great purchase, as advertised.

Unless you're statting out a BBEG creating unique and well equipped NPCs is a chore, and that is where this book shines. What it is also surprisingly good for is giving players ideas. If you're uninspired by the core classes and your usual archetypes, or struggling for some unique character concepts this book can help as well. Each NPC is done well enough that it would be no problem to pick them up and play them for a one shot or year long campaign. Everything is brilliantly organized, gorgeously illustrated, and decently written. My only complaint is that there were too few good aligned NPCs. The best 'villains' are the ones a paladin can't smite and a cleric can't stand against on principle.

Absolutely brilliant - covers all the main classes for every level, allowing you to have any character you need at a moment's notice. Sure, not ever class has racial variants for the same level, but with most of the work done, simply modifying for races is easy. A must buy IMO.

Excellent book, very handy to grab quick NPC's at the drop of a hat in any situation. Happy with the purchase for sure.

Gracias a este libro que llego en excelentes condiciones, podre tener algunas ideas de en que pueden evolucionar mis jugadores con sus personajes.

Anche se disponibile solo in lingua originale, questo manuale fornisce un ordinato elenco di personaggi non giocanti divisi per classe e grado di sfida. Sono inoltre presenti molti disegni ed interessanti spunti per il background dei personaggi. Molto utile, anche se non indispensabile, per un buon game master; pressocché inutile per i giocatori.

ist nicht nur die Menge des Inhalts. Auch dafür müsste man schon die 5 Sterne vergeben, denn hier werden wirklich Charaktere aller Klassen, Level und Rassen aufgeführt, egal was gerade gebraucht wird. Einschließlich Gesinnung, Ausrüstung etc. Für mich ist aber mindestens genauso, wie das Wissen verfügbar gemacht wird. Anders gesagt: wie lange brauche ich, um einen einen Charakter zu verstehen und mir anzueignen? Kann ich ihn schnell einbauen oder muss ich mich erst für einen Master-Studiengang einschreiben? Genau das wird hier vorbildlich gemacht. In kurzen, prägnanten Beschreibungen wird umrissen, was das Individuum ausmacht, was er will, wie er dabei vorgeht. Also zum Beispiel, auf welches seiner Ausrüstungsstücke er besonderen Wert legt. Und wie es so schön heißt, ein Bild sagt mehr als 1000 Worte. Die Illustrationen sind - wenngleich in leicht variierendem Maße - überwiegend "pathfinderesk", will sagen: von gewohnt hoher Qualität. Für das Äußere des Charakters muss ich also gar nicht lesen, sondern kann sofort anfangen zu beschreiben. Und da die Bilder so gut sind, erschließen sich sogar manche Eigenschaften direkt aus diesen. Alles in allem also eine echte Hilfe für den Spielleiter. Darum gebe ich hier gerne fünf Sterne.