Pathfinder Battles Preview: Large and In Charge

Friday, February 10, 2012

A short and sweet preview blog this week, focusing on some of the Large miniatures in the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures. We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly.

In the meantime, I have more images of paint masters to show you! This time, I’m taking a tight focus on stone giants, the major threat of the fourth chapter of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” by Wolfgang Baur!

If you’ve got a copy of that adventure, take a look at the cover. You’re about to see a lot of it in glorious three dimensions. Starting here:

This Stone Giant is a spitting image of a creature from the Wayne Reynolds cover of “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and I think he may be one of the best prepainted stone giants ever created in plastic. Because you will need a lot of them, these guys are at the uncommon rarity.

You fight a lot of stone giants in “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and some of them have different statistics. For that reason and to mix things up visually, we’ve included the uncommon Stone Giant Champion, complete with a boulder raised high to crush your player characters.

Also from the cover, the Dire Bear makes a great companion to a band of stone giants, or as a “special friend” for your druid character. He’s also a Large uncommon.

The spellcasting stone giant Mokmurian is one of the primary villains of “Fortress of the Stone Giants,” and WizKids did an excellent job bringing him to life in three dimensions. Note the clear blue magical energy flaming from Mokmurian’s right hand, as well as the complex gold pectoral, belts, armbands, and skirt hem on this miniature. This rare miniature makes a wonderful leader for your Pathfinder Battles stone giant warband, and we’re thrilled to have him in the set.

There are, of course, more giants in the Rise of the Runelords set, but those will have to wait for future Fridays!

Until then,

Erik Mona
Publisher

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Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Path Pathfinder Battles
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Oh yeah! Bring on the Stone Giants!

Grand Lodge

OK! I am sufficiently blown away. In my wildest dream I would have not expected three Stone Giants matched well together like this. This is just AWESOME!

Later,

Mazra

P.S. Hi Berk ;)

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

They look even more like the models for the Easter Island heads when rendered in three dimensions. Which is a good thing.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm so glad that these stone giants are more than just large sized, block grey giants with a club stuck in midswing. I've got plenty of stone giants stuck in that pose. And none actually throwing a dang stone.

Now, there's one rock thrower, a spear wielder and a magic using one?! Are you guys crazy?? YOU CAN'T ROCK THE STATUS QUO!!

Spoiler:
Please keep doing so!


That is such a sexy selection of Runelord miniatures! I'm so jealous of the American gamers that can get these reliably. (I don't trust the import to South Africa of figurines like that...)

But when you goin to show us the REAL juicy pieces? A certain lamia matriach. A certain runelord. His blue, winged pet. Give us the awesome!

Grand Lodge

Eric Mona said wrote:
We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly.

Please tell me if that news is not expected today so I can stop refreshing the comments every 2 minutes, it's killing my smart phone's battery and disputing my work day.

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I saw the unpainted stone giant blanks in person and they are REALLY impressive. I can only imagine the painted ones are more so. :)

Lantern Lodge

Oh Paizo how you tease me!. After 16 months intrigue, mysteries, epic battles and a few side quests my players are finally about to battle Mokmurian during next Monday's session. Oh how I wish these Mini's came out a year ago. I have to admit i'm enjoying all the Runelord love this year. Good choice for your anniversary celebration. Keep up the magnificent work!

On the plus side, perhaps there will some significant overlap with the Shattered Star adventure path?

-Duane-


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jt Squish wrote:
Please tell me if that news is not expected today so I can stop refreshing the comments every 2 minutes, it's killing my smart phone's battery and disputing my work day.

Judging by Erik's previous comments on minis, previews and product pages, I'd wager that 'shortly' was less literal in terms of minutes and more abstractly in terms of days.

He is absolutely free to prove me wrong any second now, tho.

Grand Lodge

Dhampir984 wrote:
Jt Squish wrote:
Please tell me if that news is not expected today so I can stop refreshing the comments every 2 minutes, it's killing my smart phone's battery and disputing my work day.

Judging by Eric's previous comments on minis, previews and product pages, I'd wager that 'shortly' was less literal in terms of minutes and more abstractly in terms of days.

He is absolutely free to prove me wrong any second now, tho.

The logic part of my brain tells me exactly what you're saying here, but the "OMGIWANTNOW!!1!" part of my brain won't let me stop refreshing. It's a disease, I'm sure.


Great Job!

I am more interested in the packaging model.

Will the RotRL mini's be packedged similiarly to the Galactic Guardians Heroclix set?

In that set one case has 2 bricks with 2 Colossal sized minis, and 16 packages similiar to the old D&D minis where they have 5 figures in them or 1 large and 3 med/small minis.For a total of about of about 82 minis (2 colossal/garagantuan size, and 16 large, 48 medium small.

Will the cost be similiar as well?

The pricing for the super-booster(colossal size) is $29.99
the booster with 5 minis is $9.99

The total cost for a case would be just under $220.00

I'm hoping you guys can now get better terms with the success of the intial mini's. Maybe bring down the price.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jt Squish wrote:
The logic part of my brain tells me exactly what you're saying here, but the "OMGIWANTNOW!!1!" part of my brain won't let me stop refreshing. It's a disease, I'm sure.

I know it is. I think some folks in the off topic forum have a name and full diagnosis for it. Complete with all symptoms written out.


Having a variety of stone giants to use will be great. I'm not normally a big fan of having minis perched / mounted on terrain, but the sculpts look good overall. Mokmurian looks great! I also really like the dire bear -- it has a nice look of fierceness, without appearing cartoonish.

Images Updated
www.pathfinderminis.com


And no weird bony spikes on the dire bear!! Hey!

Grand Lodge

So beautiful...

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Is Mokmurian's mini shorter than the other stone giant minis, since he's supposed to be a bit of a runt (though still Large sized)?

EDIT: And they look great! I really could have used these the last few sessions I ran, my group just made it into the fortress last night!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

JoelF847 wrote:
Is Mokmurian's mini shorter than the other stone giant minis, since he's supposed to be a bit of a runt (though still Large sized)?

Yep.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Jt Squish wrote:
Eric Mona said wrote:
We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly.
Please tell me if that news is not expected today so I can stop refreshing the comments every 2 minutes, it's killing my smart phone's battery and disputing my work day.

Not expecting news today. Frankly, I'll be surprised if everything comes together by next week's preview blog, so there's no need to panic or check back every 10 minutes or whatever.

Liberty's Edge RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16

Vic Wertz wrote:
JoelF847 wrote:
Is Mokmurian's mini shorter than the other stone giant minis, since he's supposed to be a bit of a runt (though still Large sized)?
Yep.

Awesome! I'm really loving that level of attention to detail in the minis.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Shivok wrote:

Great Job!

I am more interested in the packaging model....
Will the cost be similiar as well?

These are exactly the types of question that WizKids is in the final stages of nailing down answers for. And no, we won't have them today. *Maybe* we'll have them next week... or maybe the week after.

Grand Lodge

Erik Mona wrote:
Jt Squish wrote:
Eric Mona said wrote:
We’re still sorting out the fine details of product format and exact release date, so again, there’s no product page for this set, although I have reason to believe that we’ll have good news to report on that front shortly.
Please tell me if that news is not expected today so I can stop refreshing the comments every 2 minutes, it's killing my smart phone's battery and disputing my work day.

Not expecting news today. Frankly, I'll be surprised if everything comes together by next week's preview blog, so there's no need to panic or check back every 10 minutes or whatever.

*whew* I'm actually relieved to hear that. These minis look amazing and I look forward to every Friday because of these posts, thank you for keeping us in the loop and for all the work you put into these posts. Guess there's nothing left to do but keep calm and carry on.


<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic minis.

Liberty's Edge

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The Problem with Being So Awesome

I know that the practicalities and "inside baseball" project management on an AP which militate against this are very considerable in strength, but...

BUT the entire IDEA of buying a new Adventure Path without an awesome plastic-crack miniature set like Rise of the Runelords supporting that AP is beginning to feel and sound decidedly ... inferior? Yes, that's the word: inferior.

As in "inferior good".

I don't know if a pre-assembled set list of "Monsters and NPC descriptions you MUST include prominently in your AP manuscript" being distributed to your freelancers with every AP outline is going to effect their design creativity in a significant way or otherwise reduce the quality of the writing in subsequent Adventure Paths.

Whatever the case, I don't see a way around that sort of new approach unless you are going to dramatically increase the lead time of your production pipleline for Pathfinder Adventure Path -- and in a very shot period of time, too.

Because your fans? Probably the ones who spend the most money of all your customers buying all of your prodcuts, regularly, are going to demand those miniature sets with at least ONE of your APs a year (if not both of them).

That's the problem with these minis being so awesome. It creates significant customer expectations that become difficult to fulfill.

Pitchforks, torches, it's gonna get ugly I tell you - UGLY!!

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

3 people marked this as a favorite.

I will submit that "difficult" is not equal to "impossible."

I can't speak to future sets beyond Rise of the Runelords, but I can say that Paizo is pretty awesome, and I'll leave it at that.


Vic Wertz wrote:
JoelF847 wrote:
Is Mokmurian's mini shorter than the other stone giant minis, since he's supposed to be a bit of a runt (though still Large sized)?
Yep.

I hope that, even though he's a stone giant runt, he's still bigger than the runtiest runt that ever runted (ie, the troll).


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jt Squish wrote:
*whew* I'm actually relieved to hear that. These minis look amazing and I look forward to every Friday because of these posts, thank you for keeping us in the loop and for all the work you put into these posts. Guess there's nothing left to do but keep calm and carry on.

See? Now you can try and save the phone battery. Or say 'screw it' and stay around here all day anyways. ;)


This batch sold the set to me. RotRL has been waiting for these minis since... the release of Fortress of the Stone Giants i guess.

Grand Lodge

Dhampir984 wrote:
Jt Squish wrote:
*whew* I'm actually relieved to hear that. These minis look amazing and I look forward to every Friday because of these posts, thank you for keeping us in the loop and for all the work you put into these posts. Guess there's nothing left to do but keep calm and carry on.
See? Now you can try and save the phone battery. Or say 'screw it' and stay around here all day anyways. ;)

It it's oh so hard to stay away from the blogy goodness, if I leave now who knows what I'll miss?!


Erik Mona wrote:

I will submit that "difficult" is not equal to "impossible."

I can't speak to future sets beyond Rise of the Runelords, but I can say that Paizo is pretty awesome, and I'll leave it at that.

Although it would be great if AP's and minis releases could coincide, I do not feel that it is necessary. From my perspective as a GM I always have a campaign or two underway, so I am not able to start a campaign as soon as an AP is released. I also like to take time to read though the AP's, do the necessary preparation work and add in some custom content. This usually means that I am starting an AP at least 3 months after it's first release.

So, having said that, I cannot help but feel that there are likely many other GM's in the same predicament. Accordingly, if minis for an AP were released 3-6 months after the release of an AP... it would actually be a good thing.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

I would consider that timeframe more or less "concurrent," frankly.


Starfinder Superscriber

Holy crap those are AWESOME! I seriously am bummed that I'll have wrapped up Rise for my group by then, but DAMN those are cool!

Silver Crusade

sweet stuff!! I may have to get a case of these!

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Varthanna wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
JoelF847 wrote:
Is Mokmurian's mini shorter than the other stone giant minis, since he's supposed to be a bit of a runt (though still Large sized)?
Yep.
I hope that, even though he's a stone giant runt, he's still bigger than the runtiest runt that ever runted (ie, the troll).

Mokmurian appears to be about the same size as the Ogre from the previous set. the other giants look about the same size as those made by wizards, if not a little larger. My only concern, and lets face it with a set this awesome I'm really just nit picking here, is that the spear hafts look a bit thin. Wizards made a set of death titans and giants with axes with super thin hafts and these just looked wrong and bend at odd angles all the time. Hard to gauge form these minis - arethey as thin as they look?

On a side note - I assume all of these will continue to have the harder plastic bases from H&M? These bases are far superior to the softies from other ranges.

Liberty's Edge

I bought a case of minis and they are fantastic. These new minis look fantastic as well. May I suggest however that Eco-friendliness was not friends of either Paizo or Wizkids when the decision on the packaging was made. If there is a way to cut down on this packaging, I would even submit to have more randomness than chewing up more of the environment with the boxes and plastic that the housed the Heroes and Monsters before their timely release from their cardboard and plastic prison.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

We are working on different packaging options, which is one of the reasons we haven't posted the product page or announced a formal release date yet.


I think the biggest problem with putting the minis out at the same time as the AP would be spoiling the adventures. If the players can see what they'll be up against in the AP, I think it creates a problem.
On the other hand, you do need the minis for the AP, so...
Maybe some kind of survey would be in order? To find out how long after the release of an AP people actually start playing it?


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Wow... those stone giants are unbelievable. Awesome poses, and their look just screams "Pathfinder". I have a few other stone giant minis, but I'd be embarrassed to line them up next to these guys.

The Exchange

I wonder how many of these miniatures will be missing parts!!

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

2 people marked this as a favorite.

They are all one-piece miniatures, so none of them should be missing parts. Generally speaking, Pathfinder Battles miniatures should not be missing parts at all, and WizKids is happy to help out anyone who receives damaged minis.


I was initially sceptical about the Pathfinder minis line. Got burned too many times with the D&D Minis y'know.

However, no company in the history of our hobby has ever supported its products the way Paizo is. The different options (Paper Minis, cardboard counter minis, Reaper Miniatures, and now the Wizkids products) is just staggering.

You guys are awesome.


Erik Mona wrote:
They are all one-piece miniatures, so none of them should be missing parts. Generally speaking, Pathfinder Battles miniatures should not be missing parts at all, and WizKids is happy to help out anyone who receives damaged minis.

Speaking as one of the few on the case content experience thread that had any problems, it only took a few bucks and a few minutes to use the Loctite Plastics Bonding System to fix my frost giant's right arm, as recommended by a fellow poster. It was even easier than asking for a replacement.

From the reports, it seems that damage is very unlikely to happen, and usually easily fixable when it does. (Though I hear that DDM was even bendier, there are still more bendy issues than breaky ones -- please don't overreact by making the plastic softer.) I am a very satisfied customer, and looking forward to this next set.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Fredrik wrote:
...please don't overreact by making the plastic softer.) I am a very satisfied customer, and looking forward to this next set.

Here, here. The slightly harder plastic means less of that annoying distortion and floppiness that plagued DDM, especially where weapons were concerned. I haven'y experienced a single breakage, and I'm far from gentle in storing my minis. Oh, and I love the rocks under the giants - allows the pose to be a little more dynamic and exciting, just look at the rock throwing giant! One leg raised leaning to one side - take away the rock and he looses that.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Erik Mona wrote:
I would consider that timeframe more or less "concurrent," frankly.

Is that an insight into the future of AP's and minis? Or am I just dreaming?

Erik Mona wrote:
They are all one-piece miniatures, so none of them should be missing parts. Generally speaking, Pathfinder Battles miniatures should not be missing parts at all, and WizKids is happy to help out anyone who receives damaged minis.

That's some awesome molding technology - are they really one piece? And considering you canny folk there, these are probably just the tip of the iceberg - the best is still yet to come!


Erik Mona wrote:
We are working on different packaging options, which is one of the reasons we haven't posted the product page or announced a formal release date yet.

When DW and I opened up the case that my gaming group bought we were amazed at the amount of packaging, but understood why it was there. We had pretty much purchased 4 store displays. It was not really an issue, though, since all of the packaging is recyclable in our area.

We stacked up the extruded plastic parts by mushing them together, flattened all the cardboard, and dropped it all in the recycling bin. That would have been the end of the problem if our trash day had not been a windy one. Little. Boxes. Everywhere.


I found that all the broken-down Medium boxes for a brick fit easily inside one Large box. So my recycling pile for this was four Large boxes plus the brick boxes torn down. Oh, and the plastic which again... wasn't big.

So no blowing boxes for me. <Grin>


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Jt Squish wrote:
It it's oh so hard to stay away from the blogy goodness, if I leave now who knows what I'll miss?!

It's always a danger to leave this site unattended. Especially the Friday blog. Erik has has the best dru... er, stuff.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Cat-thulhu wrote:
That's some awesome molding technology - are they really one piece? And considering you canny folk there, these are probably just the tip of the iceberg - the best is still yet to come!

What Erik meant by "one piece" is that there are no minis in the Runelords set that *come from the factory* in more than one piece (as opposed to the Heroes & Monsters Frost Giant, which has interchangable weapons).

Many of these minis are manufactured in multiple pieces. (Actually, nearly all of them are, given that the bases are usually molded separately.)

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Right.


I, too, like the rocks on the Stone Giant bases and the poses it allows the giants to take.

And I do find myself trying to be more careful with the minis since the plastic is a little harder, but they still end up being loosely crammed into travel boxes and have been none the worse for the wear. I'll take the better detail afforded by a little more brittleness any day.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Cat-thulhu wrote:
That's some awesome molding technology - are they really one piece? And considering you canny folk there, these are probably just the tip of the iceberg - the best is still yet to come!

What Erik meant by "one piece" is that there are no minis in the Runelords set that *come from the factory* in more than one piece (as opposed to the Heroes & Monsters Frost Giant, which has interchangable weapons).

Many of these minis are manufactured in multiple pieces. (Actually, nearly all of them are, given that the bases are usually molded separately.)

Thats kind of what I thought was the case. So any idea when we will see the rune gi...err, case incentive (hope, hope).

Also an idea to answer the size judging queries. Could you not put the figure next to one of the same scale fro mheroes and monsters? Or even just a silhouette of one. It's pretty easy to gauge scale but a visual would make it much easier. Other than that, I thank you - but my bank account does not...

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