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Pathfinder 2e is the game that broke my “one printer is enough” thinking. I’d been printing D&D figures on my original Elegoo Saturn long enough to get comfortable when a friend roped me into a Remaster campaign. Pathfinder wants a kitsune monk, a leshy druid with literal leaves coming out of its head, a gnoll fighter, and a sprite barbarian who needs to ride on someone else’s shoulder. None of those exist in the D&D STL ecosystem. All of them need a printer that handles fine detail at small scales without complaining.

This guide is specifically about choosing a resin printer for Pathfinder 2e: the demands the system actually puts on a machine, and which printers handle them without forcing constant compromises.

If this is your first resin printer, work through the complete beginner’s guide to 3D printing resin miniatures before you buy anything. The recommendations below assume you understand the basics.

Specs here come from the manufacturers and performance notes from published reviews. My own printer is an original Elegoo Saturn.

What Pathfinder 2e Printing Actually Requires

Pathfinder and D&D share a scale (28-32mm heroic) and a set of size categories (Tiny through Gargantuan), but the demands they put on a printer differ in three ways that matter for hardware choice.

1. Ancestry variety beats character count

D&D printing is mostly humans, half-elves, halflings, and a handful of dwarves. Pathfinder 2e has 30+ playable ancestries in the Remaster, and Society tables actively reward picking the weird ones. A typical party has a leshy, a kobold, a fetchling, and an automaton at the same table. You’re not printing five variants of the same human; you’re printing five completely different anatomies. That puts pressure on detail resolution at small scales: a sprite is 1-inch tall and still needs to read as a sprite.

2. Bestiary breadth, not bestiary size

D&D leans hard on dragons, giants, and big spectacle monsters. Pathfinder’s bestiary is full of small-to-medium creatures most casual STL packs ignore: mitflits, grippli, sprites, faceless stalkers, animated objects, leshys outside the playable lineage. Build plate capacity matters less than it does for D&D; resolution at the small end of the scale matters more.

3. Stand-in tolerance is real

Pathfinder Society explicitly allows representative miniatures. Most home games are more flexible than D&D groups about “this gnoll is filling in for an ogrekin.” The pressure to find the exact perfect model is lower. That changes the printer math: you can buy generic fantasy STL packs (where Pathfinder 2e specifically is not the target market) and get 80% of the way there. A printer that does small-creature detail well becomes more valuable than a printer that does massive monsters well.

FDM printers can’t touch the resolution required for ancestry-level detail at 28mm. For Pathfinder specifically, resin is the right call. The best STL sites for miniatures guide covers where to find PF-compatible files once you have a printer.

The Recommendations

Best Overall: Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra

For Pathfinder, the Saturn 4 Ultra is the right call for the same reason it tops most miniature-printer lists: 16K resolution (14 × 19µm XY) is finer than a painter can see on a 28mm figure, and the 211.68 × 118.37mm build plate gives batch printing room.

What earns it the top slot for Pathfinder specifically is the small-detail spec. Small prints like a 1-inch sprite or a 0.75-inch mitflit are where fine pixels and a gentle peel matter most, and the Saturn 4 Ultra’s 14 × 19µm pixels and tilt-release peel favor that work. I have not printed on one, so check reviews of your own model sizes before buying.

The other Pathfinder-specific upside is encounter density. A typical Pathfinder fight is one or two boss-tier enemies plus four to eight minions. The Saturn plate has room for a full encounter in a single run (check your STL footprints), which matters when you’re prepping for tomorrow night’s session and don’t want to chain three print jobs back-to-back.

Specs that matter for Pathfinder:

Best for: GMs running ongoing PF2e campaigns, Society GMs prepping rotating scenarios, players who want one printer for everything.

Best Mid-Range: Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra

For a single player printing their character plus a rotating set of NPCs and small encounter creatures, the Mars 5 Ultra is the sweet spot. 9K resolution (18µm XY) is more than enough for 28mm heroic ancestry models. At that resolution you’re well past the point where the printer is the limiting factor on a kitsune’s fur or a leshy’s leaf texture: the small gap to the Saturn 4 Ultra’s 14 × 19µm doesn’t show up at normal table viewing distance, it shows up in plate size and batch speed.

The constraint is plate size: 153.36 × 77.76mm is about 48% smaller by area than my original Saturn’s plate, which fits 10 to 12 standard 28mm figures per run, so expect around half as many. That’s fine for one player’s needs. For a GM trying to prep a six-PC encounter the night before a session, it gets tight. But the Mars 5 Ultra takes up dramatically less space, and its 18µm pixels against the Saturn’s 14 × 19µm are a small gap for 28mm figures. For most Pathfinder players who aren’t running the table, it’s the smarter buy.

The Pathfinder-specific argument is this: most of your printing will be one-off character models (your iconic, the new NPC the GM introduced, the boss for next week). You don’t need batch capacity. You need clean small-figure detail, and the Mars 5 Ultra’s 18µm pixels are fine enough for that on paper.

Specs that matter for Pathfinder:

Best for: Single players, two-PC duos, anyone whose primary printing is character models and NPCs rather than full encounters.

Best Budget Pick: Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K)

If your introduction to resin printing is happening because you finally decided to print your own Pathfinder figures rather than keep buying Reaper Bones, the Photon Mono 4 (10K) is where to start. It’s not the absolute cheapest resin printer on the market, but it’s a reasonable entry point for detail you’ll actually be proud of.

At 17 × 17µm XY the 10K panel is spec’d fine enough for 28-32mm ancestry detail. The build plate (153.4 × 87mm) is about 42% smaller by area than my original Saturn’s, so expect a bit over half as many medium figures per run, which is workable cadence for a Pathfinder player who’s printing as they go rather than batching armies. For more on whether you need to upgrade beyond this tier eventually, the best budget resin printer guide compares the full entry-tier field.

The catch with this printer at Pathfinder scale is the very small stuff. Very small models (0.5 inch and under) are hard on any printer; expect to spend resin tuning supports. If your campaign features a lot of tiny creatures, budget extra patience while you dial in supports.

Specs that matter for Pathfinder:

Best for: First-time buyers, players printing one figure at a time, anyone whose Pathfinder printing volume is moderate.

Honorable Mention: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro

The M7 Pro has the largest plate on this page: 223 × 126 × 230mm, with 16.8 × 24.8µm pixels. For Pathfinder GMs who want batch capacity, it’s a legitimate option and worth pricing against the Saturn. Its pixels sit within a few microns of the Saturn 4 Ultra’s 14 × 19µm and the Mars 5 Ultra’s 18µm, so the resolution gap is small on paper.

For most Pathfinder buyers I’d still push toward the Mars 5 Ultra if you mostly print one-offs, or the Saturn 4 Ultra if you batch encounters. But the M7 Pro is worth a look if plate size matters and the price works.

Comparison Table

PrinterXY ResolutionBuild VolumeBest Pathfinder Use
Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra14 × 19µm211.68 × 118.37mmEncounter batching, small-creature detail, GM workflow
Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra18µm153.36 × 77.76mmSingle-player character + NPC printing
Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro16.8 × 24.8µm223 × 126mmLargest plate on the list
Anycubic Photon Mono 4 (10K)17 × 17µm153.4 × 87mmFirst-time buyers, moderate volume

Check current price on all four.

What Resin to Use for Pathfinder

Pathfinder play involves actual play: minis get picked up, repositioned, knocked over by enthusiastic gestures. Standard resin is brittle and snaps thin features (spear hafts, wing edges, tentacles) on the second or third session. ABS-like resin is essentially mandatory for figures you intend to use at the table.

Siraya Tech Blu (now sold as Blu Tough in Easy Grey) and Elegoo ABS-Like are the two I’d start with. The best resin for miniatures guide breaks down the trade-offs between standard, ABS-like, and water-washable resins with a play-vs.-display split.

The leshy on your shelf is decorative. The leshy in your character’s hands needs to survive 20 sessions. Print accordingly.

Where to Find Pathfinder STL Files

This is where Pathfinder printing gets genuinely interesting. Because Paizo’s Open Reference Document is more permissive than 5e’s IP framework, STL creators can target Pathfinder specifically without dancing around naming. That said, most creators still go generic-fantasy and trust customers to map to PF2e themselves.

For the full breakdown of subscription vs. one-off vs. free options, see the best STL sites for tabletop miniatures guide and the MyMiniFactory vs. Patreon comparison.

If you also run D&D 5e at a different table, the best resin printer for DnD miniatures guide covers the same hardware question through a different lens: D&D demands more scale range and less ancestry variety, so the recommendations skew toward larger plates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a resin printer overkill for casual Pathfinder play? No. Even at casual play frequency, the cost-per-figure on resin printing adds up in your favor against buying Reaper Bones or third-party minis as the print count grows.

Can I print Pathfinder Society-legal stand-ins? Yes. Society explicitly allows representative miniatures as long as they roughly match scale and size category. Print a barbarian-looking figure for any barbarian; print a small creature stand-in for any small creature. The official Society rules don’t require licensed Paizo minis.

Do I need a wash and cure station for Pathfinder printing volume? Yes: regardless of system. Washing in an IPA jar works for a few prints; it gets miserable when you’re printing weekly. The best wash and cure stations guide compares the main options. Budget that purchase alongside the printer.

What about printing Pathfinder terrain? Pathfinder leans more on theater-of-mind and grid-based play than D&D’s TotM-and-battle-map split. Terrain is less central to most Pathfinder tables. If you do want terrain, the Saturn 4 Ultra and M7 Pro plates are the ones in this list that handle meaningful terrain volume; the other two are character-printer-first machines.

How many figures will a $30 bottle of resin produce? Roughly 30-50 medium-sized 28mm figures, depending on hollowing and orientation. A typical campaign’s worth of party-and-NPC printing fits in a single bottle. The math on resin printing for tabletop play stops being theoretical after your first session and just becomes obvious.