Pathfinder Battles Preview: Short and Sweet

Any set that include both an owl and a goat earns my approval. I need one for an existing character, and the other just inspires bizarre yet delightful character ideas.

Owl, Goat, Falcon, Fox, 4 Witches (so far) 2 Ice trolls, An Ice Elemental, and an Ice golem?!? Just take my money already.

I love the owl and the goat too!

Your description of the goat is just about the best I could imagine. "This is a goat."

Your description of the goat is just about the best I could imagine. "This is a goat."

Ooh, now I have a mini for wee baby Rombard!

I just keep thinking - Jungle Goat Leg Drop!

that can't be Radosek,
Radosek, in the books looks like Dr. Krieger from Archer

awesome Goat tho!!!!

Owl, Goat, Falcon, Fox, 4 Witches (so far) 2 Ice trolls, An Ice Elemental, and an Ice golem?!? Just take my money already.

well, since you're just giving it away…...

Another fantastic preview. I want every mini revealed so far! The owl and the goat are very cool additions to the line.

Thank you Erik, from the bottom of my heart, for that owl. It is perfect. The other figures are great as well. The goat was unexpected, but looks decent for a goat. My only concern is the rarity; I'm not sure that common is quite right for those animals, as I don't see much cause for there to be 2+ minis of them in play. At least, not that I can think of. Uncommon would work better in my opinion.

Vhalantru wrote:

Your description of the goat is just about the best I could imagine. "This is a goat."

Ooh, now I have a mini for wee baby Rombard!

I thought of Rombard too! I really like the owl mini... I know at least one PC in my group that will need that.

Gosh, the owl and the goat really are cool to have in this set. But I think they got beat by who they were competing with. The Ice Witch and Radosak Pavril are great, and the Herder definitely gains flavor with Goats around. They butt into people, right? :)

I'm thinking I really like the ice environment theme of this set, well, adventure path.

I admit, the animal selection is a nice change of pace, but I simply hope that we get a nice, three-dimensional Raven Swarm mixed into here too. That or a Witchcrow, although I suppose the Falcon could double as one, if we don't see one.

I hear the comments on the goat rarity. In the case of a basic sculpt like this, I'll often err on the side of common in favor of reserving the uncommon slot for a more complex sculpt or paint job. I figure a GM could use a herd of goats or something if need be. I also have to think of the guy who buys three or four boosters instead of the guy who buys a whole case. Still, this is one of the hardest parts about building these set lists (especially in the case of "Adventure Path" sets with lots of NPCs), and I'm constantly tinkering with my methodology based on feedback from customers.

I hear the comments on the goat rarity. In the case of a basic sculpt like this, I'll often err on the side of common in favor of reserving the uncommon slot for a more complex sculpt or paint job. I figure a GM could use a herd of goats or something if need be. I also have to think of the guy who buys three or four boosters instead of the guy who buys a whole case. Still, this is one of the hardest parts about building these set lists (especially in the case of "Adventure Path" sets with lots of NPCs), and I'm constantly tinkering with my methodology based on feedback from customers.

Coming out of a case with 4-5 goats isn't unreasonable. While nobody will buy a DM saying "okay, so Godzilla attacks you", they can reasonably be used for everything from large dogs to small horses and ponies.

Same goes for the owl, which can sub in for most birds or bats.

I think versatility should be the final deciding factor (aside from production cost I guess) for rarity. A mini which will only ever be what it is probably shouldn't be common.

Goat minis! My wife will be thrilled. When is this set supposed to drop? Gencon?

Why the hype around a goat mini? Why not the Lantern Goat? (I remember there was a lantern goat in the adventure as well)
There are million of plastic goat toys out there, I have around 50 of them in my huge animal collection from when I was younger for example.

I can sell them to you for 10 dollar each when I see this hype around it... j/k ;-)

When do you need a herd of goats, you ask? How about Serpent's Skull volume 1: Souls for Smuggler's Shiv. Jungle goats travel in herds. They come at night. And they can seriously mess up a first-level party.

Oah! And the Goat is common! I can paint one in black!

Yes Goat! and Owl! Awesome!

I'm a fan of any animal coming in multiples. I do understand the rarity issue regarding the goat for those who don't like/can't use multiples of it in a single scenario. I suppose the trade off is receiving that uncommon miniature with the advanced sculpt or paint job. I'll take that trade off 99 out of 100 times. As a DM for most of the campaigns I'm involved in, I sort of pride myself on my creative thinking. So if I can't find a way to incorporate a herd of goats or a parliament of owls, I'm just not doing my job well enough.

I like all four of these previews, and I'm excited for each of them. I'm a fan of any flying creature, animal or otherwise. During the campaigns I get to participate in where I'm a PC only, it often feels like the DM skimps on the aerial assaults during early levels. I prefer giving my groups a taste of all different types styles of battle in as many different terrains as I can. It helps serve as a preview for things to come, but also gives them a good understanding of what they do well, and what they need to work on.

I'm a fan of witches in general, and I must say that I really like the face on this winter witch. I'm also a fan of getting a male counterpart to the female witch. I feel the witch is one of the more fun and flavorful classes out there to play, but most males in my campaigns tend to overlook it completely. Perhaps they are so used to associating witches as being female, I don't know. Maybe this miniature will change that; at the very least it should provide some more versatility.

All in all, great job and I look forward to next week's reveal.

I love the goat and owl and common is all the better. I can use multiple goats. What other way to make them scare my players with "over the hill you see a horde of goats charging towards you. They seem to be gaining momentum as they are now running down hill directly towards you"! I love the more mundane animals although I'm sure there are some that do not. However, that is the case with most minis!

Nazenha Vasilliovna looks quite fabulous as well! Great set of minis!

That is indeed a lot of animals. I'm guessing we should expect a winter wolf as well.

The goat can also be used for the lantern goat in book 5.

Still holding out hope that this set will give us some fey creatures.

... but what about the russian soldiers and tanks??

... but what about the russian soldiers and tanks??

Since tanks would most likely be Huge, I guess the answer for that is no.

Personally I hope that there won't be too many modern looking minis that cannot easily double in a fantasy context. But I think I could agree with a similar ratio as we saw for the gun-wielding minis in SK. I would rather like to see more fey, though.

Rakshaka wrote:

... but what about the russian soldiers and tanks??

Since tanks would most likely be Huge, I guess the answer for that is no.

Personally I hope that there won't be too many modern looking minis that cannot easily double in a fantasy context. But I think I could agree with a similar ratio as we saw for the gun-wielding minis in SK. I would rather like to see more fey, though.

Fey would be exceptionally cool, but . . . .

. . . . so would The Mad Monk and a couple of different Russian Soldiers, circa the first world war. I'm sure I could find other uses for them.

Sweet Desna!

An owl!!!

How cool is that!?

I was just going to proxy last preview's Falcon as most bird familiars, but this is just SO much better.

And the actual miniature looks great too.

Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

I did not see the goat coming (never read the AP), but yeah sure. I sure can use some. As Vigil pointed out, they add some non-fantastic color to Smuggler's Shiv. The goat add another much needed option for familiar, can be used to populate farms, small towns, a perfect innocent looking polymorphed enemy/monster, etc. I am already thinking about ways to put goats in as many game as I can GM as a quirky running gag... It just stimulate my GM creativity as I am writing this...

The two human casters looks very nice too. Nazenha, in particular, is beautiful with the flowing robe and all. And Radosek might just be the perfect stand-in for my planned cameo appearance of Tim Pratt's Rodrick in my game when my players get a few more levels (the Ice woand looks almost like a sword).

This looks like THE set that will make me go crazy and go for a full case... The only thing I dread are those probable out-of-time russian soldiers... I hope they are not too many of those. Those and tanks, and Rasputin, are the reason I didn't buy this AP. Not a big fan of historical figures invading my fantasy world. A Rasputing mini wouldn't bug me though, I would just use him for something else.

I hear the comments on the goat rarity. In the case of a basic sculpt like this, I'll often err on the side of common in favor of reserving the uncommon slot for a more complex sculpt or paint job. I figure a GM could use a herd of goats or something if need be. I also have to think of the guy who buys three or four boosters instead of the guy who buys a whole case. Still, this is one of the hardest parts about building these set lists (especially in the case of "Adventure Path" sets with lots of NPCs), and I'm constantly tinkering with my methodology based on feedback from customers.

I LOVE the fact that I might wind up with upwards of 4-5 goats. They'll be amazingly useful as window dressing in village, town, and farm settings.

Don't get me wrong, I love lots of baddies and monsters, but I adore the idea of more common minis that I can put on the table (still holding out for townsfolk, etc... and more minis like the goat that aren't going to make PC's immediately grab the d20 for initiative rolls when I plop them down.)

Well done, well done indeed.... even if it IS key to a particular encounter in ROW... hmmmm, werecow anyone?

Nice I'm definatly looking forward to this set!

Mike

I'm really hoping that the set will include Nadya Petska. She's super important to the AP (and in my run, has even become a PC!), and there are currently no 3d minis of her available. I'd be surprised if she wasn't included, but I figured I'd chime in anyway :-)

From the title I was really expecting this preview to have a Halfling in it.

Didn't I see a hawk somewhere too? I'm very happy about this. A herd of goats will add just the right amount of flavor to many situations for me. I believe there is a rule somewhere that even states a regularly used small bonus is better than a seldomly used large bonus:) I don't know why we haven't gotten more townsfolk yet though. I was ecstatic to see a cook in my skull and shackles set. More of this please

More townsfolk figures are on the way. Not necessarily in this set, but the one after this one has a couple.

More townsfolk figures are on the way. Not necessarily in this set, but the one after this one has a couple.

Awesome news! thank you. :D

Cool minis. Radovan can easily be used as a PC, too.
But my druid would like his Dire Celestial Goat Animal Companion a little bigger! *casts animal growth*

Now, what about a pig?

Ruyan.

From the title I was really expecting this preview to have a Halfling in it.

LOL, I had the same thought.

Now, what about a pig?

I wanted a Nord for my Goblins so I made one myself. :-)

Also Erik, I am glad to hear that you will be adding in more townsfolk figures. There have been a few nice ones so far but more is always fun.

This preview is so sweet, it almost makes me want to start buying these again! Unfortunately, the durability is still a concern. WizKids has not addressed this adequately, IMHO. I will be keeping my money in my wallet until they do.

It's a pity, because I really want that owl familiar for my wizard, and that goat would have come in handy when my friend's PC got hit with a baleful polymorph. Erik, I commend you on your selections. It's like you're reading my mind!

SIGH.

More townsfolk figures are on the way. Not necessarily in this set, but the one after this one has a couple.

hooray!

The goat is nice and all, but you know those little 99 cent bags of plastic animals you can buy at Rite-Aid or any dollar store? They have goats aplenty... just saying. Animal minis are pretty easy to get. Monsters, heroes, etc... not so much.

I'm curious as to when we will find out what other sets will be coming out this year

...you know those little 99 cent bags of plastic animals you can buy at Rite-Aid or any dollar store?

I have tons of those. That's where i got the goat I used when my friend's character got polymorphed. Funny how that bag-for-99-cents plastic is more durable than what WizKids uses. Just sayin'.

More townsfolk figures are on the way. Not necessarily in this set, but the one after this one has a couple.

It might be interesting to consider a battles set based on repaint of popular humanoids for NPCs/PCs.(like the goblin/undead sets) There could even be a couple based around martial, arcane, divine, scoundrels, etc. I'm sure with all the sets you have enough different humanoids to choose from. Then each group could have 2-3 new sculpts as well. And a familiars set with repaints of those critter could be cool. some of those could even be non-blind like the encounter sets (though based on the fact that not many of those have been done, I assume they didn't do as well or aren't as feasible due to mold costs.

^personally, I get pretty upset when I see a repaint in a new set

I would be upset if repaints made it into the main Battles line of miniatures. However, I don't mind them in the Builder series. I think the point of the builder series is to provide a cheap way for DM's to accumulate multiples of common monsters. A gravity feed box (24-count) often costs about $45-$50.00, which means you're paying about $2.00 per miniature. That's a price I'm willing to pay-even for repainted miniatures-if it means fast-tracking my collection.

I think both the Goblins builder series and Undead Horde builder series had a few new sculpts, too. That's enough to tide me over and make the set "fun" to buy. I might have to rethink a purchase of a box if it had NO new sculpts.

In regards to XperimentalDM's post, I'd be somewhat wary of a straight-up Builder series of humanoid NPC's/PC's. If they did one primarily of humanoid soldiers, that could work out. A few more sculpts to go along with repainted versions of the better common or uncommon soldier-type miniatures out there might prove a home-run. That goes double if they actually get most (or all) of the faces decent. I like the idea of getting more soldiers or thieves or something of that sort that my PC's can fight against.

My concern is that I've noticed many of the requests for NPC's tend to be for non-combatant professions, like shopkeepers, barkeeps, etc. I'm all for these types of miniatures, but I feel they work better dropped into the Adventure Path sets. That way there is better regulation on the rarity of the character in question. For example, I'd love for a medium-sized version of a headmaster at a school of music to find it's way into a set. But it would likely need to be a "rare" because I can't imagine demand runs high for multiple headmasters/music teachers at a Bardic college.

I think if they ever decide to do a builder series for soldiers, I'd rather see different variants of a particular race make it into the set. If I want to build an army, I'm going to want foot soldiers, pikemen, archers, cavalry and a general. Even armies that have spellcasters among the ranks often only have a few. I feel like there are already enough representations of Arcane and Divine spellcasters to warrant leaving them out of a builder series. Each builder series consisting of an army could be made up of one race, with an elven army series following the human army release, and a dwarven army bringing up the rear. You could also just make one Pathfinder Builder Series: Army edition. You would be able to combine several races in one builder series with the payoff being less types of soldiers.

Twelve seems to be the magic number as far as the builder series is concerned. So using the idea that one builder series could represent multiple races, I think a pretty solid set could look similar to the following:

Human army:
foot soldier with sword (common)
foot soldier with axe (common)
pikeman (common)
archer (common)

Elven army:
foot soldier with sword (common)
foot soldier with axe (common)
pikeman (common)
archer (common)

Dwarven army:
foot soldier sword (common)
foot solider with axe (common)
pikeman (common)
archer (common)

This way there are no rarities, but an average box of 24 would only net you two of each miniature.

If the series sold well, you could release another one using the smaller humanoid races, like Gnomes, Halflings and Tieflings.

I think a Familiars set would need to be an exclusive, limited-run line. I'm all for a nice looking Tiny cat miniature that is to scale, or something sweet for my Witch like the Compsognathus. I would love a well painted Tiny-sized Thrush or an exquisite Greensting Scorpion. But the demand for more than one of each of these just isn't there.

That said, I wouldn't mind paying a higher price for well painted, well sculpted Tiny-sized (to represent Tiny and Diminutive creatures) and Small-sized Familiars. As people have pointed out, you can buy those tubes with similar creatures at hobby stores and elsewhere, but the sculpt and paint jobs are obviously poor. If Paizo tried their hand at a 6-piece Familiar line, visible in package (like the Encounter package) but of high sculpt and paint job, I'd definitely buy one. The set would have to be limited, and the pieces would be more expensive. But considering that they'd likely be serving me as my only source of Familiar for each creature represented for the next ten years or so of gaming, I would consider it a good investment.

Due to the complications and requirements of high quality miniatures in such low numbers, I think sites such as Kickstarter and the like would provide a way to control costs and increase profitability for the company.

Animal Companions are a different story. I would assume there is a higher demand for them, because many of them can work quadruple duty, with some working triple duty and all of them serving at least double duty.

Quardruple Duty- Animal Companions, Wild Shape possibilities, potential encounters with hostile or aggressive animals (like bears, bison, etc.) and of course those that can be conjured with the Summon Nature's Ally subset of spells.

Not all animals would work for all things, but it would be nice to get a few of the more popular ones out there. I know people use the tubed ones, but I'm looking for better sculpted, better painted miniatures that are actually to scale with the rest of the miniatures line.

Anyways, that's my two cents on the matter.

I have no current plans to include repainted figures in big sets.

I have no current plans to include repainted figures in big sets.

Thank you.

I have no current plans to include repainted figures in big sets.

another thank you

@pigraven you left out a crucial soldier, cavalry

*ahem*

I want a pony!!!

In all seriousness though, I feel that the absence of a medium-sized equine in any of the (Pathfinder or otherwise) ppmini sets to date is a glaring oversight. For the love of all folk small, why can't we get a deer, or a donkey, or a pony miniature?

That said, and while I wish the goat's pose was a bit less static (just a little turn of the head would have been lovely), I am irrationally excited that a goat miniature is in this set. Thank you!

Also, the owl looks beautiful. I'm not sure yet what I'd use them for, but I intend to pick one (or more) of them up as well, just on the strength of the piece itself.

@pigraven you left out a crucial soldier, cavalry

On purpose. The cavalry miniature would need to be large. While that would be amazing if it found its way into a set like this, both Builder series have all been the same size, to date. If you stick a large in with a bunch of mediums, everyone will know what the large is. Suddenly you've got people that want cavalry pieces taking all the big packs from each gravity display. This pretty much defeats the purpose of randomized packs.

I'd love to see a large-sized miniature version of the Builder series at some point. I hope when they get enough sculpts they like of a particular creature, such as Giants, that we get to see them in a Builder series. What do you think about that? Is it something you'd like to see? Is there a particular race of creature you'd like to see? Or do you think doing a large-sized miniature Builder series just isn't practical? Maybe you don't think there would be enough interest for a set?