Thursday, March 2, 2023

Pathfinder Pawns: "Enemy Encounters Pawn Collection" [RPG]

There are two things that the Enemy Encounters Pawn Collection is really useful for.  

First, large groups of enemies!  If you want to represent an entire orc warband, a xulgath (troglodyte) tribe, a large duergar slaving party, and more, this is the set for you.  Each monstrous species is given multiple numbers of variations within the group, so (just for example) the Ogre Family has 4 ogre archers, 4 ogre berserkers, 3 ogre killers, 3 ogre strikers, and an ogre patriarch.  It's a great way to quickly populate a mini-dungeon or cave network on the fly.  I used the Haunted Graveyard pawns (ghouls, skeletons, zombies, and the animating necromancer) for a hastily-planned encounter and it worked really well. 

Second, traps and obstacles!  There are several pawns (both 1x1 square and 1x2 square) that are designed to lay flat to represent traps and obstacles.  For traps, there are classics like floor spikes and pits.  For obstacles, things like rock barricades, piles of bones, and headstones can help add some interesting features to a grid map.  I've found the caltrop and bear trap pawns particularly useful.

The set is very different than Paizo's standard pawn collections, and definitely worth getting.

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