Back in the Saddle!

Friday, September 8, 2016

I'm back from Dragon Con with a handful of new preview images from November's Deadly Foes set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures! And thanks to one friendly Dragon Con panel attendee, I've decided to add a FOURTH figure to this evening's preview, in part to make up for the last couple of weeks with no updates and in part to show her that dreams really do come true, sometimes much more rapidly than you can imagine!

Let's start things off today with this imposing Dwarf Slaver, as nasty a ginger as your player characters will ever encounter. With art based on the Chelish villain Kossrani from Pathfinder Adventure Path #97: In Hell's Bright Shadow, this guy has enough personality to be a hero OR a villain. He's also a good illustration of how things can go wrong during the sculpting and approval process, and how good WizKids is at fixing our mistakes! Take a close look at Kossrani's shield, with the awesome carved-in symbol of Asmodeus. Well, it would have been awesome if it hadn't been sculpted in reverse. You see, sometimes when we're laying out books, we flip an image on its Y axis to make for a more interesting page layout. This usually works with no problems, but occasionally, as in the case of Pathfinder #97, something like a holy symbol gets reversed and causes a bit of a problem. In this case, I didn't notice until the paint master came into the Paizo offices and I was holding it in my hand. Happily, WizKids was able to fill in the mold for the cut-out part of the shield, and will instead be producing the (correct) Asmodeus symbol using a tampo stamp. All praise be to the Lord of the Nine Hells! Miracles really do happen, you guys! The Dwarf Slaver is a Medium figure slated at the uncommon rarity.

Up next is the Torrent Hellknight, based on the Wayne Reynolds character design for the Hell's Rebels character Lictor Octavio Sabinus from the cover of Pathfinder Adventure Path #98. This is our third or fourth Hellknight in Pathfinder Battles so far (I've lost count!), and he's definitely one of my favorites. I think I've found that, as cool as all-black armor looks on the printed page, it sometimes results in fairly underwhelming prepainted figures, at least color-wise. Thankfully, the blue cape and silver scale armor in Wayne's design gives us some interesting colors to pop with this guy, and I think he'll be a popular choice for player characters and NPCs alike. Heck, get a couple of them and they serve as pretty killer elite guards for any of the various Chelaxian (or even just generally evil) NPCs we've released to date. The Torrent Hellknight is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Speaking of despicable Chelaxian villains, here we have Jilia Bainilus, the former mayor of the city of Kintargo and a very interesting character in the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path. Calling Jilia a villain is a bit of a stretch (as well as a bit of a spoiler), so in the interests of not ruining anything let's just say her Facebook alignment status is "It's Complicated." Jilia's look comes direct from the brush of Pathfinder superstar artist Wayne Reynolds and the cover of Pathfinder Adventure Path #99. I think she's got a fantastic look for a player character noble swordswoman. Although Jilia's official game statistics are... let's just say, "somewhat different," to me this is pretty much the perfect swashbuckler miniature, and I can't wait to use it in my games. Jilia Bainilus is a Medium, rare figure.

After one of my fun Dragon Con panels this last weekend, a dedicated Pathfinder fan came up to ask me if we might ever do a Pathfinder Battles figure of a Strix, the dark-skinned primitive winged folk who feature so heavily in the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path, Liane Merciel's wonderful Nightglass novel, and elsewhere. I was pleased to not only say "yes, we will!" but to say "yes, we will, as soon as humanly possible. In fact, we've got one in the very next set!" So here you go, Pathfinder fan. Your very own Strix Sorcerer, suitable for use as a player character or a nasty winged villain. Huzzah! The Strix Sorcerer is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Next week, I'll be back with more awesome previews for Deadly Foes. A formal announcement of the next set should hit soon. In the meantime, I'm currently working on the NEXT setlist with our recently returned Director of Licensing, Mike Kenway. We're starting with a blank slate and a VERY loose theme for this one, so please let me know if you have any requests! I'm particularly interested to hear what major races or groups you'd like to see us cover with multiple "like" figures in the same set. By my count we've done goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, bugbears, ghouls, and a few others.

What else do you want or need? Let us know in the comments.

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher