Pathfinder Battles Preview: A "Huge" Announcement

Those dragons are amazing! I love the idea behind "Evolution" Encounter Packs. Getting multiple sizes of creatures that come in different sizes can really help a collector fill out areas that so often are left with gaps. Good show!

<swoon>

Wow Erik, this is awesome news. I love this dragon. It is sweet! You have got me pumped up for these encounter packs!

Nice as the dragons are (and they are nice, make no mistake on that point), the "Evolution" Encounter Pack doesn't excite me nearly as much as the last two goblins from the Builder set being revealed does. One can never have too many goblins after all, but Dragons? They aren't encountered nearly as frequently.

The only thing that could make the White Dragon set better would be an egg or two... or maybe a clutch.

Oh, how big is this huge white dragon compared to the "Huge Black Dragon" from the original release? I ask because I had found the size disappointing for the Black Dragon.

Well done, this looks like a big step in the right direction on the previously undersized huge black dragon. (and less puny, but still on the small sized garg blue).

On un-size related matters, these are some of best dragon sculpts I've ever seen as well!

That's great news about the new Huges. Release the Froghemoth!!!! (please?)

Oh, how big is this huge white dragon compared to the "Huge Black Dragon" from the original release? I ask because I had found the size disappointing for the Black Dragon.

It's bigger. If I were to do the Huge Black Dragon today at the same size, I'd probably put him on a Large base. The Large White Dragon in the Evolution pack is significantly taller, and maybe even a bit bulkier, than the Huge Black Dragon we did for Heroes & Monsters.

The reason I'm not being too specific is that we don't actually have the Whites on hand, since we sent the paint masters to the factory over a month ago. When we get production samples I will photograph all of the dragons together for a fun size comparison.

One of the things I'm struggling with a bit is that our Gargantuan dragons are almost always going to be smaller than the WotC ones, because they cheated and put theirs on giant bases with tons of overhang. The Gargantuan Blue looks smallish compared to their Gargantuan Blue, but it's probably the right size for a Pathfinder dragon.

Which is frustrating.

But it is what it is, and I don't have a great "solution" at this point.

Thanks Erik, I appreciate it.

Great news. They is some awesome white dragons and the evolution idea is beautiful, I just hope it doesn't just stick to dragons - I know there is a female cloud giant out there that was also cut form the Runelords set. Personally I love to see a Frog evolution set - a bogwiggle (small), a bogwid (medium) a mobogo (large) and a creature very like a Frogemoth (huge), now that would be cool.
AT this rate I may as well sign over my pay to you guys - although I best leave some for my wife I suppose.

One of the things I'm struggling with a bit is that our Gargantuan dragons are almost always going to be smaller than the WotC ones, because they cheated and put theirs on giant bases with tons of overhang. The Gargantuan Blue looks smallish compared to their Gargantuan Blue, but it's probably the right size for a Pathfinder dragon.

Which is frustrating.

But it is what it is, and I don't have a great "solution" at this point.

I actually prefer the sale on yours. I liked the black but he was a little on the small size. I far prefer this to the exaggerated scale that wizards started to use. Size creep makes consistency between sets so much harder and can make using the minis harder on the tabletop. I think scale should be watched carefully and creep avoided. For instance while I think the Gug was just right in terms of scale, the elementals were almost too large for a large and the trolls are starting to become larger than their true giant kin. Your gargantuans (the rune giant and the dragon) are beatuifully scaled and look great on the table.

That Troll Champion will be the largest troll we'll do. Check out the Sea Troll from Skull & Shackles (once it's out) for the "definitive" height of a standard troll going forward (the one in Heroes & Monsters was too small).

Scale really is the most difficult aspect to get right with these things, that's for sure. :)

One of the things I'm struggling with a bit is that our Gargantuan dragons are almost always going to be smaller than the WotC ones, because they cheated and put theirs on giant bases with tons of overhang. The Gargantuan Blue looks smallish compared to their Gargantuan Blue, but it's probably the right size for a Pathfinder dragon.

Which is frustrating.

But it is what it is, and I don't have a great "solution" at this point.

I think part of that is a stylizing thing.

Icons dragons are more stocky too, and the models pathfinder favors are slender, more lithe dragons.

Feh, White dragons. Barely worth the name.

Give me Medium/Large/Huge Blues!

Scale really is the most difficult aspect to get right with these things, that's for sure. :)

That is a pretty big challenge. There have been some big wins as well. I love the Treachery demons scale, it feels like a big threat when you drop it, but fits nicely on it's base.

Others you've noted yourself were a bit small (H&M Troll) or really big (H&M Dire rats).

The Dire rats make great Donkey rats though! :D

Some things are just going to be different in scale between companies.

I felt the stone giants in runelords were a tiny bit small, though I do like the idea of having one of the races of giants a bit more slender. Variety is good! :)

One of the things I'm struggling with a bit is that our Gargantuan dragons are almost always going to be smaller than the WotC ones, because they cheated and put theirs on giant bases with tons of overhang. The Gargantuan Blue looks smallish compared to their Gargantuan Blue, but it's probably the right size for a Pathfinder dragon.

I found the WotC colossal red to be WAY too big. It would have been fine to be on a 6x6 base but standing on all fours, requiring it to be smaller. It would still qualify as a colossal and be plenty big.

Then again, the colossal they released is probably on par with the scaling on the Mythic Adventures cover.

The Colossal Red was obviously way too big and hugely impractical. I think everyone understands this. :)

I'd been pining for white dragon news for months... This makes up for it.

The Colossal Red was obviously way too big and hugely impractical. I think everyone understands this. :)

I'd buy one.

Yeah, as much as I love my icons red dragon, it's a statue, not a properly scaled mini.

The Colossal Red was obviously way too big and hugely impractical. I think everyone understands this. :)

This is why I didn't purchase it the three different times I had a chance for $50. I don't do dust collectors and the design was terrible. They could have done so much more with a colossal sculpt. Does Paizo have any plans for a colossal sculpt? I know beyond certainty this has been asked before, but I haven't seen it. I'm aware that colossal is impractical in general as few creatures are that size are fought, however with the Mythic Adventures rules coming out it may be more practical if they are a huge success.

Yeah, as much as I love my icons red dragon, it's a statue, not a properly scaled mini.

But such a beautiful statue...

This is great, and the white dragons look amazing.

"Ever since our second set, Rise of the Runelords, we've been working with WizKids to find a better solution for releasing Huge miniatures into the Pathfinder Battles line. Releasing figures this large as part of a normal set previously involved two different kinds of booster boxes, which was confusing to both customers and retailers. We knew we needed a better solution."

Does that mean however that cases will no longer have the option of getting the huge booster?
If that's the case, will these sets be part of our subscription?
If not, will our discount work on these?

With the builder set, and the evolution set, will subscribers get more codes?

Holy crap! This is awesome!

At $40, with three dragons? I'm gonna sell this non-stop!

I am a happy, happy game store owner, with a ton of happy future customers. Thank you, Paizo!

Nice. I love Dragons

We do not have any current plans to do any Colossal "miniatures". :)

Does that mean however that cases will no longer have the option of getting the huge booster?
If that's the case, will these sets be part of our subscription?
If not, will our discount work on these?

With the builder set, and the evolution set, will subscribers get more codes?

The Rise of the Runelords set is the only standard set to date to have a Huge booster associated with it. For the time being, we won't be doing Huge minis as part of big sets at all.

Subscription discount codes work for Encounter Packs. The White Dragon Evolution boxed set counts as an Encounter Pack for these purposes.

Make lots of these, Eric. I would point at how fast you sold through the encounters and iconics packs as a metric, and at how rapidly huge dragons rise in price on the secondary market. Don't under-produce these.

Erik Mona wrote:

One of the things I'm struggling with a bit is that our Gargantuan dragons are almost always going to be smaller than the WotC ones, because they cheated and put theirs on giant bases with tons of overhang. The Gargantuan Blue looks smallish compared to their Gargantuan Blue, but it's probably the right size for a Pathfinder dragon.

Which is frustrating.

But it is what it is, and I don't have a great "solution" at this point.

I think part of that is a stylizing thing.

Icons dragons are more stocky too, and the models pathfinder favors are slender, more lithe dragons.

They also were meant more for inclusion in the miniatures game, which they were really pushing at that point in an effort to save the line. Big Dumb Dragons on the battlefield did wonders for in store demos. So, while cool to put on the miniatures mat for D&D, they were definitely out of scale. Orcus was better, and more in line with the Rune Giant, I think. That one was actually meant for D&D games.

Edit: In other words: use your scale. It's doing just fine, if my own sales are a good indication.

I'm only one person but I gotta say I like the idea for getting huge minis out there outside of the sets and I really like the idea of the three dragons in a set. The miniatures line just keeps getting better imo.

I do like this better with the huges seperate, though I hope their rate of release gets a bit more frequent.

Since you are doing a medium, large and huge white in a single set, perhaps you can do a set with just wyrmling chromatics? While I would like multiple wyrmlings of each color, for cost and convenience purposes 1 of each in a pack would probably work best.

Will there be a Gargantuan White dragon in the future? I rather like my WotC white dragon, and it looks like these guys will fit right in line.

I want to add my support in releasing the huges in this manner. The dragons look great, but hopefully we can get other types of creatures in these sets. Although I understand the interest in dragons they have never been one of the most used creature types for my pc's to face. I think in general games that I have been involved in don't have a need for huge numbers of dragon minis.

The Colossal Red was obviously way too big and hugely impractical. I think everyone understands this. :)

Impractical, of course. But I love mine. I like to think of her as the largest dragon in what ever world she is in. ;-)

As for the Whites, I want to add my voice to those saying I love this idea for the release of Huge minis. Well done.

.... or really big (H&M Dire rats).

I used the dire rat as a were-rat. Then the scale didn't seem so wrong.

Make lots of these, Eric. I would point at how fast you sold through the encounters and iconics packs as a metric, and at how rapidly huge dragons rise in price on the secondary market. Don't under-produce these.

Both the Beginner Box Heroes and the Champions of Evil sets are currently available. :)

I do like this better with the huges seperate, though I hope their rate of release gets a bit more frequent.

That's the idea.

Lorian wrote:

I do like this better with the huges seperate, though I hope their rate of release gets a bit more frequent.

That's the idea.

You are just made of good news today! :)

This sounds great, I'm a fully signed-up fan of the pawns but like being able to have a few stand-out minis that are 3D.

Love the Evolution pack concept. Hope to see more - and some critters too, like the long-missed Huge Snake or Huhe Scorpion.

The Colossal Red was obviously way too big and hugely impractical. I think everyone understands this. :)

Going to have to disagree here. Since there is no upper limit to the Colossal size category in 3.5, way to big can't be a real issue. Impractical, yeah, you got me as He's not one I use often when I am gaming, but I have used him. And when I set him on the battlemat my players just cringed when I said "and, yes folks, he is to scale." He's about 120' tall in scale after all (roughly 14" tall at the top of his crest), which makes him a truly epic for.

Dragons evolution is a solid idea. Nice work.

I was not in a financial position to purchase D&D minis when they were all coming out. Now, however, I have been eating up the Pathfinder minis, though, with cases, singles, promos and encounter packs.

Like the army builder line, I think this direction for the encounter packs is fantastic.

And I might as well say that the sculpts and paint jobs keep getting better.

BTW, looking forward to the next Builder announcement...hoping for UNDEAD...

The evolutions pre-order is slated for July, what does that mean for an actual release date?

Drogon wrote:

Make lots of these, Eric. I would point at how fast you sold through the encounters and iconics packs as a metric, and at how rapidly huge dragons rise in price on the secondary market. Don't under-produce these.

Both the Beginner Box Heroes and the Champions of Evil sets are currently available. :)

availible HERE .... allience distributors sold out before they got through preorders (the store I work for preordered 2 and they were sold out before our order was filled)

You know what I see when I look at these white dragon miniatures?

The evolutions pre-order is slated for July, what does that mean for an actual release date?

That (barring major delays) it will be released on a Wednesday in July. Other than that it's too early to pin down any tighter.

Curmudgeonly wrote:

Does that mean however that cases will no longer have the option of getting the huge booster?
If that's the case, will these sets be part of our subscription?
If not, will our discount work on these?

With the builder set, and the evolution set, will subscribers get more codes?

The Rise of the Runelords set is the only standard set to date to have a Huge booster associated with it. For the time being, we won't be doing Huge minis as part of big sets at all.

Subscription discount codes work for Encounter Packs. The White Dragon Evolution boxed set counts as an Encounter Pack for these purposes.

I was thinking the gargantuan premiums for whatever reason. Hopefully those will continue :D

Happy to hear the large will be bigger than the Black Dragon from the first set. Pre-ordered :)