Pathfinder 1e: The Character Codex Subscription Will Include …

A few weeks ago we announced the Book of Beasts: Character Codex and that it would be released as individual PDFs as well as a subscription. What we did not have finalized at that point was what all would be included in it. We asked your opinions and we made our decisions.

The Book of Beasts: Character Codex will include the NPCs from the following classes:

• Alchemist
• Arcanist
• Bloodrager
• Brawler
• Cavalier
• Hunter
• Magus
• Oracle
• Slayer
• Swashbuckler
• Warpriest
• Witch

Twelve classes in total will get 20 NPCs cover the entire level range. Half of them will be normal, standard builds, roughly what you expect from this class. The other half are thematic, experimental. Some of the latter group use archetypes. Half if the builds use races from the core rulebook. The other half utilize races in the Advanced Race Guide, with particular emphasis on races that also appear in the Book of Heroic Races: Advanced Compendium. The standard/thematic builds do not match up with core book / ARG builds. A changeling warpriest or oracle make more sense than an elf because a changeling posses a a Wisdom and Charisma bonuses while an elf possesses neither.

What books does this project draw from, you ask? Sure this book draws inspiration from the NPC Codex, but that book only used the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. This one uses classes that are not in the core rulebook and I already mentioned the Advanced Race Guide. So what other books are used? Obviously the core rulebook will be used. Classes in this book come from the Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Magic, and the Advanced Class Guide so feats, spells, and archetypes from those books are fair game. We also had to have Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Equipment in the mix. The above books are pretty much the end of the list. The Warpriest Codex includes some spells from Horror Adventures because they made sense for the character, but they were the truly evil ones. Even lesser evil warpriests like the Champion of Greed did not go there. Only the truly heinous ones went there. So we may include other books from time to time, but they will be rare. And yes, we will be including some that have every last spell, magic item, feat, etc from the core rulebook and the book the class comes from and nothing else. This way you save some really simple builds and some characters with more involved builds.

So how does the subscription work precisely? Well, we will be launching the subscription at the same time as the Warpriest Codex and it will include that codex with it. Whenever we release a new PDF for individual sale, subscribers will automatically get a new PDF where they purchased the subscription. They get them all plus the final Character Codex when the project is complete.

As an added bonus, we will be including the Hero Lab Classic files for subscribers. Those that purchase the individual PDFs will not receive these included but can purchase them separately. Subscribers get this included as a way of saying, “Thank you,” for purchasing this early.

Now I know you’re thinking that all of this sounds great, but how much does it cost? That is a great question. Short answer: it’s complicated. Long answer: the final PDF will cost US$14.95 and individual PDFs will cost US$3.95. The subscription’s price is going to flux. The subscription will start off costing US$4.99 and as we increase PDFs, we will increase that price until we get to the final price of US$14.95. At that point, the price will remain there. So if you know you are going to want this collection of NPCs, you shouldn’t wait to grab it. It won’t be long before the Magus Codex is added to the subscription. We’re hard at work on that one already.

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