More Iconic Promos!

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Obsidian Pathfinder Adventures Update

Before we jump into your regularly scheduled blog, we have the following message to relay from Obsidian:

We know many of you are eagerly awaiting the chance to explore Sandpoint and defeat the Runelords, and we're sorry to keep you waiting just a little bit longer: We're moving the launch day for Pathfinder Adventures to April 26.

The good news is why the game is being delayed: during beta testing over the last couple of weeks the community has given us a ton of feedback on everything from visual polish to card balance and general gameplay. We want to evaluate all of the ideas and address as many as possible before launch, and that process is going to take a little bit of time.

Ultimately, we hope you all agree that the result will be a better Pathfinder Adventures, just at a sliiiiightly later date.

Stuart Roch
Director of Publishing, Obsidian Entertainment

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We're just laying down the final versions of the Mummy's Mask promo cards this week, which reminds me that we have more promos to talk about! Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set #6 has just been released, complete with an extra miniature and an extra promo card. (See? Don't say we never gave you nothin'.)

Here's a look at the promo cards in Set #6. As a reminder, these cards have the Owner trait, meaning the character whose name is on the card can treat it as a Basic card.

Some Cards from Iconics that Already have ACG Character Cards...

Daji's card could have been named "Red Fox," but then I wouldn't stop shouting "I'm coming to join you, Elizabeth!"

People have been saying "Where's Lem?" since Iconic Heroes Set #1. There's this thing where we could only get one small mini into each set, and we wanted to make sure that Biter and... screw it, the important thing is that he's finally here.

And he brought his flute! The Instrument trait first appeared on Oloch's Orc War Drum, but has since migrated into Wrath of the Righteous and other decks. Basically, it means that you're gonna add 1d4 to other people's checks in some way—in other words, it'll make you a bit like a Bard. But if you're already a Bard, you get to add that d4 to everything anyone does that turn. Everything. Lem + Flute = popular.

Our favorite emo magus gets a shiny bent scimitar. Since he's just as concerned with spells as swords, Seltyiel can use it to pick up spells and then fling them back later.

Feiya has two cards in this set, including Daji the fox. Feiya's trick, both in the Skull & Shackles Character Add-On Deck and the upcoming Witch Deck revolves around recharging cards to reduce the difficulty of checks. Daji's great for many a spellcaster due to the Intelligence and Wisdom bumps, but when it's Feiya, suddenly she's reducing difficulty by 6 or 7 all the time. Pretty dodgy, if you ask me.

... And Cards from Iconics that Don't have Character Cards Yet

I swear there was some armor around here a minute ago.

We haven't released playable versions of Quinn the Investigator, Hayato the Samurai, or Reiko the Ninja yet. But their Iconic Heroes cards are useful even without their owners.

The investigator's main gimmick is peering into dark places. Just as Holmes has his magnifying glass, Quinn has his lamp. Anyone can use it to peek at cards and clear out barriers. When Quinn shows up, he'll be doing that a lot.

Reiko's black ninja armor is loaded with hidden weapons. Don't have a need for armor right now? Voop, it's a Hand Crossbow. Or a Dragon Pistol. Or in Reiko's case, maybe it's a Kusarigama. Just the kind of thing your shadowy figures would need in a pinch.

So that's Set 6. We get asked a lot, "Will there be more Iconic Heroes sets?" WizKids is still contemplating the answer to that, but we sure hope so.

And Speaking of Promos...

This year's Free RPG Day is June 18, and we've got another goblin character coming your way. We're not gonna say much about him for a little while, but here's Tup the Terrible!

Oh, one more thing: He has a sheep named Deliverance.

Enjoy the promos, Pathfinders!

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

The Magnificent 7 of Set 6

Friday, February 12, 2016

It's Friday, and I've got some delightful news to share with you! I'm pleased to report that last week, WizKids sent Paizo the first batch of digital sculpts for our next, as-yet-unannounced Pathfinder Battles set, and they are PHENOMENAL. A few of our editors looked over my shoulder as I flipped through them the first time, and one even suggested that this may turn out to be the best Pathfinder Battles set yet. I certainly agree that, at the very least, it's in the same league as some of our very best sets!

And just wait until you see the case incentive(s)! You guys are going to FREAK!

Of course, the set has not yet been announced (that happens VERY soon), and the sculpts are still in approvals, so I can't quite show them off just yet.

But don't despair! I do have some delightful images to show off of actual figure photos of miniatures from Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set 6, which is now available in stores and here on Paizo.com! This set is especially interesting in that it comes with one "extra" figure to help us round out the complete list of iconic characters revealed in Pathfinder RPG hardcovers up to the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide!

Check 'em out!

Here we've got Quinn, Human Investigator, one of my absolute favorites from the entire Iconic Heroes line (the other one probably being Oloch, from Iconic Heroes Set 5. From his perfectly applied eyes and facial details to the huge amount of well-painted gear, this figure has it all. It's also amazingly versatile, and can double easily as numerous characters, from spellcasters to rogues to swashbucklers, from heroes to villains alike. Quinn is COOOOOL, and I'm thrilled to add him not just to the Iconic Heroes line, but also to my own personal miniatures collection!

This is the one we've been waiting for ever since the original Feiya, Human Witch turned out something short of everyone's expectations back in the Reign of Winter set. The recent replacement figure WizKids randomly inserted into The Rusty Dragon Inn boosters was a minor improvement, but really revealed that the culprit was a weak face sculpt overall. There just aren't enough details on that face for painters to pick out, resulting in, well, let's just call her a "very happy" Feiya and leave it at that. I'm personally very happy to reveal that the second time is the charm (thanks in no small part to the shift to digital sculpting), and this version of Feiya suffers from none of the problems that marred her first appearance. Her face looks fantastic this time around, and her new "in the middle of battle" pose suits, her, as well. When you're trying to decide which witch to use, I think you'll find this is a witch worth making a switch. Ahem.

Of course, a witch isn't much without her familiar, so in this set we've also included Daji, Feiya's fox familiar. Daji has a neat mid-stride pose that differentiates him from the previous Fox miniature in Reign of Winter, and honesty the two foxes go together well for an animal encounter, if you don't want to use it as a familiar. Either way, folks seem to love them some animals, and Iconic Heroes Set 6 contains one of the most lovable to date.

Do you like your men bare-chested and a bit on the "goth" side? This figure is the answer to all of your (probably very adult-oriented) dreams! Seltyiel has his big magus sword ready for a skillful attack, and you just know his thin lips are about to let loose an absolutely cutting insult. I'm currently writing this character in our Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain comic from Dynamite, and having a blast. He's pretty much a villain (or, if you prefer, an "anti-hero") in the comic, but on your game table he can be whatever you want him to be. Good guy, bad guy, maybe a little of both...

Back in the ancient days, when the then very small Paizo editorial staff was brainstorming iconic characters, we decided that we wanted our iconic halfling bard to have awesome sideburns. "You know," we said, "like Lemmy in Mötorhead." When his illustration came in, I think it was James L. Sutter who suggested "Why don't we just call him Lem?" And a legend was born. I really appreciate the way this version of Lem, Halfling Bard is captured mid-song. Very useful for a bard figure. Alternatively, pair Lem with the Dwarf Bard drummer, the Half-Elf Bard violinist, and some Dancing Girls from The Rusty Dragon Inn, and you've got a ready-made concert!

We couldn't finish the Iconic Heroes sets without our two Asian-inspired iconics from Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat, of course! These guys don't get quite the same love as our standard iconics, largely because they represent sub-classes rather than full core classes, but that's pedantic inside baseball talk. They're still super cool, and they deserve some love. Reiko, Human Ninja comes in a sweet battle pose, a chain dangling between her two blades. She's definitely a cool killer you don't want to run into in a dark alley. But if you do, at least you'll now have a miniature to commemorate the encounter!

Last up this week is Hayato, Human Samurai! With his banner, lamellar armor, helmet, and more, Hayato is perhaps the most detailed of artist Wayne Reynolds's many iconic characters. I'm happy to report that WizKids is up to the challenge, and have delivered a fantastic rendition of the character in Iconic Heroes Set 6. Their efforts, as Hayato himself might say, are most honorable.

All seven figures come with unique cards for use with the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and all are produced at the highest possible quality allowed by the manufacturing process. Now that we've completed all of the Iconic Heroes sets in our original plan, I can say that I am very proud of the work both Paizo and WizKids have put into making these among the finest prepainted plastic gaming figures ever produced. We've done, I think, an excellent job, and have set quality standards it will be difficult for anyone else to match or exceed. But we'll keep trying, of course!

But wait, I can hear you gasp. Is set 6 really the final Iconic Heroes set?

That, my friends, remains to be seen. We've had a few discussions with WizKids about what comes next, but nothing has yet been decided officially. I can say that WizKids is watching sales of these sets very closely, so if you'd like to see more of them, the best possible thing you can do is purchase the ones we've already released. We'd all love to produce figures for the Occult Adventures iconics, or both versions of the vigilante class from Ultimate Intrigue (or heck, maybe even a "We Be Goblins" or "Iconic Villains" set), but those decisions are not entirely up to me—they're up to the market.

I'm at ToyFair in New York City this weekend, where I'll be discussing this and even more diabolical plans in person with our friends at WizKids. I hope to be able to report big things soon!

But more importantly, we're very very close to the announcement of the next big set, and that means we start the preview train all over again here, every Friday.

Don't forget to bring lots of coal so we can keep this engine HOT!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Iconic Heroes Set 5—THE REAL DEAL

Friday, January 29, 2016

Howdy, minis hounds! Last week, while I was trapped in the dreaded Paizo Conference Room (CR 23), the able Chris Lambertz took the wheel to show off digital renders of WizKids' incredible Iconic Heroes Set 5 for the Pathfinder Battles line of prepainted plastic miniatures.

I'm happy to report that the actual figures have arrived at Paizo and out in the wild, so this week we move from digital renders to actual photographs of the figures in the set. Would you like to take a peek? Of course you would!

Here we have Kess, Human Brawler. Kess is perfect for any unarmed female PC (though she'd honestly double as a male fairly convincingly), and even works as an NPC thug leader. I love her fist-forward pose, and the color detail on the face of the figure I have on my desk is very well done.

Next up is Oloch, Half-Orc Warpriest. Oloch is probably my favorite figure in this bunch, and one of my favorite miniatures in the entire Iconic Heroes range. He is a sentimental favorite, as I've been having a blast writing him in Dynamite's ongoing Pathfinder: Hollow Mountain comic series, but boy, what an intimidating, awesome figure. The banners on Oloch's back feature amazing detail. I really love this guy.

Zadim, Human Slayer is another sentimental favorite, since I wrote his "Meet the Iconics" backstory. This figure's pose is really interesting, depicting Zadim mid-strike with one of his deadly kukris. WizKids has done a phenomenal job properly painting the various layers of his voluminous robes.

Enora, Halfling Arcanist is another highly versatile figure, either as a spellcasting player character or as an NPC. We haven't done too many halflings in Pathfinder Battles so far, so she fills a very useful niche. Her eyes, at least on the version I have in hand, are among the best I've yet seen on a WizKids figure.

Is this set specifically designed to strum my heartstrings with sentimental favorites? Adowyn, Human Hunter is based on a character from my weekly Pathfinder campaign, run by my neighbor and Pathfinder's Lead Designer Jason Bulmahn. It's fun to see a character I've known for so long come to life, first as an amazing illustration by Wayne Reynolds and second as a sweet miniature from WizKids. You can really use Adowyn for any kind of archer character, but her flowing cape and overall aura of awesomeness almost demand that she be a player character. An amazing figure, overall!

Last up in Iconic Heroes Set 5 is Leryn, Adowyn's animal companion wolf. In the campaign, her animal companion is a gibbon, but perhaps Pathfinder Battles is not quite ready for that level of awesomeness. A wolf is, nonetheless, a highly versatile, useful miniature. With a run on its head and a mean black stripe running down its back, Leryn makes an even more imposing foe than friend. Team Leryn up with a pack of wolves from our first set, Heroes & Monsters, and watch your players run for the hills!

Iconic Heroes Set 5 is currently shipping from paizo.com, and is on shelves at your local game store. With premium paint jobs, unique Pathfinder Adventure Card Game cards, and some of the best sculpts yet in this range, this is one you won't want to miss!

I'm still hoping to get some new sculpts for our next big set so I can start off a new round of brand new reveals. It's coming very, very soon now...

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Out Adventuring, Be Back Soon

Friday, January 22, 2016

Hey, Pathfinder Battles fans! Erik is currently sequestered in meetings and other important Paizo happenings, so I'm stepping in to take the blog wheel this week.

Iconic Heroes Set 5

Earlier this week Tanis gave us a glimpse at a few brand new Adventure Card Game promo cards included in Iconic Heroes Set 5. I think it's about time to put some faces to those names, so let's take a look at the renders for the set. First up we have Kess (the iconic brawler), Oloch (the iconic warpriest), and Zadim (the iconic slayer):

And up next, we have Enora (the iconic arcanist), and Adowyn (the iconic hunter) and her wolf companion Leryn:

Iconic Heroes Set 5 is due to release soon, so keep your eyes out for final photographs of these figures on paizo.com in the next couple weeks!

Rusty Dragon Inn Singles

To give a quick update on the status of the Rusty Dragon Inn Singles: we do still plan to do a restock and some of our more highly sought after figures will be available once again early next week and to give our subscribers a heads up once this happens. Subscribers to Pathfinder Battles and any of our other subscriptions from paizo.com should have received their shipment notification email by now. If you still haven't seen this go through, let our Customer Service team know!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

A New Wave of Iconic Heroes Promo Cards!

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Here at PACG Headquarters, we love making promo cards! Sometimes, we get a little... out there. For example, Sweet Dragon Costume is a goblin in a kobold suit who is so completely convinced that he's a dragon that he can scare monsters to death.

Rawr.

But okay, there's one place we take promo cards very seriously. That's in the Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes miniatures boxes, because man, have you seen how cool those minis are? We want to hold up our end of the bargain. Now, you've already seen what we did with sets 1 through 3. So check out some of these swank promo cards in Set #4 and Set #5.

Iconic Heroes Set #4

Here are some cards for three of our most complex characters. Note that all these cards have the Owner trait; that means that the character whose name is on the card can treat it as a Basic card. That's huge.

You'd look grumpy too if Shardra boiled stuff behind your face.

The goal with these promos is to interact well with what the character does naturally. So Jirelle's Bloodcrow Rapier not only scales up with her by adventure deck number, it has a power which enables her to add the Swashbuckling trait to any check to defeat a bane—even if it's not a combat check. For example, the Skull & Shackles villain Caulky Tarroon can be defeated by a Dexterity check, but if you don't add the Swashbuckling trait, she's gonna banish the top card of someone's deck. Bloodcrow Rapier makes that problem go away.

Shoanti Earthbreaker deals with one of the most frustrating types of cards in the game: Constructs. Golems and other Constructs routinely turn off spellcasters' powers, including those of Crowe. The Earthbreaker means he doesn't really worry about that much. He just pummels them into oblivion.

Ritual Censer is one of my favorite cards in this group. Not only does it help Shardra acquire spells, but it feeds off her natural tendency to have characters bunch up around her. While she's helping people with their checks to defeat banes and succeed at Knowledge checks, Ritual Censer helps other characters succeed at checks to close Shardra's location. That's some fine synergy at work.

Iconic Heroes Set #5

By the way, these cards aren't limited to the characters who own them. Take a look at Kess's card. Who wouldn't want to punch their way into better Diplomacy checks? And everyone can, because you don't need to be Kess to play it. And this is good, since we kinda haven't released Kess yet.

Watch out for the spikes.

On the other hand, you want to be Oloch when you play the Orc War Drum. Oloch might be the best character at moving cards around. Displaying weapons and blessings to add to checks, discarding armors and blessings to heal, banishing allies to explore—if it's a card, he can do something cool with it. Orc War Drum lets him get some of those cards back, and enable others to burn allies to boost anybody's check at your location.

Double your pleasure, double your fun! Have two Leryns instead of one!

Hey, it's Leryn! As an ally! When Adowyn uses one of her powers that says "a card that has the Animal trait," Leryn is suddenly available for her—twice. Now it's not such a big deal to shuffle the cohort Leryn into Adowyn's deck, because the ally Leryn is waiting to be played. That's versatility right there.

Pretty cool stuff, says me. Promo-worthy, you might say.

Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

Class Decks Update

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

I wanted to give you an update on the Class Decks distribution schedule, since it's gotten a little wonky. We hit some unfortunate delays in the product chain, such that our Druid Class Deck came out in December instead of October, and the Barbarian Class Deck is coming out in February instead of January. We're very sorry about the delays, but we think you'll be happy with the results. To keep your appetite whetted, I'll talk a little about characters from a range of upcoming Class Decks, as well as their associated Iconic Heroes promo cards.

Barbarian

As you might know from our excellent Meet the Iconics blog series, Amiri is a bad-ass chick with a big-ass sword from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords, complete with Paizo Tragic Backstory™. We did a version of her giant-forged sword for Iconic Heroes #2, and we gave her some comfy armor in the Barbarian Class Deck.

Smashing in style!

The characters in this deck were designed with the Pathfinder Unchained version of the barbarian's mechanics in mind, so expect to see a bit more variety and utility in their rage powers. As a clue, let me reveal that Amiri's new roles are called Immovable Object and Unstoppable Force.

Oracle

The next deck in the release schedule is for all you scouting fans out there: the Oracle Class Deck. To kick off the design process, the design team spent a delightful afternoon learning about the different and fascinating methods of divination used throughout human history. These include armomancy, or divining by examining one's shoulders, labiomancy, or divination by lip reading (which seemed a bit cheaty to us,) and kephalomancy, or divination by using a baked ass's head. We recommend setting your oven to 425° for that last one.

Technically we didn't use any of those divinatory methods in the final design, but you've gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet. (Talk to Chad about oomancy sometime.) We did, however, come up with Ramexes, a pitborn oracle who specializes in haruspication, or the reading of entrails, and we gave Alahazra a fancy hat in Iconic Heroes #1.

Oracles dress for the weather—there's actually another hat under this hat.

Alchemist

To close out this week's column, we've got a sneak peek at the Alchemist Class Deck. Designers Liz Spain and Paul Peterson took point on this deck, which should terrify anyone who knows them. In addition to Damiel and his portable alchemy lab from Iconic Heroes #3, we're introducing the archetypal gnome alchemist. Meet Cogsnap:

Tell me he's not exactly what you expected.

Cogsnap is fond of cards that have the Automaton trait, and you'll see a few new ones in his deck.

That's it for this week—until next time, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

PS: Be sure to check out the latest Iconic Heroes releases here!

A New Look at Some Old Friends

Friday, December 11, 2015

With the January release date for The Rusty Dragon Inn right around the corner and everything entering "pause" territory for the upcoming holiday, I don't have any new figures to show off for this week's Pathfinder Battles previews. I DO, however, have a few new images of some old friends to show off, so in the holiday spirit, I thought I'd share a look at actual final figures from December's Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes Set 4. (These figures hit the Paizo warehouse too late to go out with December subscription shipments, and will be fulfilled in late-December/January.)

WizKids has continued their tradition of providing amazing paint jobs for the entire Iconic Heroes line, and Set 4 is certainly no exception. Below, I've outlined the six figures in the set with "final" photographed images of the actual release figures. Sometimes, zooming in super close on figures like this has a way of highlighting some of a figure's minor blemishes, but overall I think these photos are a good representation of what you get in the box.

Let's take a look!

First we've got Crowe, Human Bloodrager, from the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Class Guide. Crowe puts the "show" in Shoanti. Did you know superstar Pathfinder artist Wayne Reynolds based the look of Crowe on his own Pathfinder character? While I have little doubt that Wayne could produce an absolutely KILLER paint job on a blank Crowe figure, I also have little doubt that there is only Wayne Reynolds, and we can't all be great at art. For the rest of us, Iconic Heroes Set 4 does all the work, resulting in a beautiful figure.

Our first crack at Lirianne, Half-Elf Gunslinger, came in the Skull & Shackles set. While I adore the attention to detail and fine points of the costuming on that figure, I was never quite satisfied with the way Lirianne's face sort of fell into the overall composition, leading to a somewhat compromised miniature altogether. I'm pleased to report that Iconic Heroes Set 4 does away with compromise to present a figure that is awesome from top to bottom.

Next up is Hakon, most famous for being the iconic skald in the Advanced Class Guide, but more beloved to me personally for being the brother of the greatest Pathfinder RPG character who ever lived, Ostog the Unslain*. Hakon's face tattoos and eye tampos look better in hand than under the unforgiving magnification of digital photography, and overall I'm very pleased with how he turned out. He works great for any kind of axe-wielding warrior, and I can see this piece getting a lot of use at my table fighting with or against the player characters.

By my eyes, this figure turned out the best in the entire set. Here we have Jirelle, Half-Elf Swashbuckler, again from the Advanced Class Guide. Jirelle has a remarkably complex costume, so I've always been a little concerned with how the final figure would turn out. I needn't have worried. She looks fantastic.

Although the straight-on angle of this photo makes it difficult to see, my favorite thing about the Shardra, Dwarf Shaman figure is its three-dimensionality. I think this is the best dwarf we've created for Pathfinder Battles so far, and the morningstar/censer combination makes her great for any kind of ceremonial dwarf—a race that always stands on ceremony.

Shardra would feel quite lonely without her spirit animal Kolo, a rambunctious rock lizard. Perfect for use as a familiar, animal companion, or even just a random lizard in a subterranean encounter, Kolo has a message on its little scroll that says: Beware! I kick ass.

And that's it for Iconic Heroes Set 4! I'll be back next week with one more preview for 2015, and after that, we'll all have visions of brand new minis dancing in our heads!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

*Not guaranteed.

Iconic Heroes Set 4, Part 2

Friday, July 24, 2015

Last week, I revealed three digital sculpts for the upcoming Iconic Heroes Set 4 boxed set of prepainted plastic gaming figures. This week we complete the set with a look at the final three figures, as well as a look ahead to a special promotional repaint figure that will be available free with $50 purchase at Paizo's booth at Gen Con next week.

Let's look at the minis!

Here we have Crowe, Human Bloodrager from the Advanced Class Guide. Crowe is based on artist Wayne Reynolds's own Pathfinder character, so when we wrote an art order that said "just draw your own character here, Wayne," we were pretty confident we'd end up with something awesome. Since Wayne is incapable of producing anything that isn't awesome, we knew it was a pretty safe gamble. Crowe works great for a bloodrager, a barbarian, or really any sort of martial character. His face tattoo gives him a cool exotic look, and his earthbraker weapon looks like it packs a real punch.

When our friends from WizKids brought the paint masters for this set to the Paizo office last week, we all pretty much agreed that Shardra was the most impressive of the bunch. This dwarf shaman comes from the Advanced Class Guide, and for my money I think she's one of the coolest dwarf minis we've done to date. The level of detail on her headdress and the overall "weight" of the figure makes a strong impression. I'm thrilled to add this figure to the collection.

Of course, Shardra wouldn't be complete without her rock lizard familiar, Kolo, who also makes an appearance in this set. You can use Kolo in conjunction with Shardra or simply as a Small/Tiny lizard, something we've produced surprisingly few of in Pathfinder Battles so far. He's a fun addition.

Iconic Heroes Set 4 is expected to hit stores and subscribers this November!

Let's move on from boxed sets to talk about the very special figure above, the Red Dracolisk! This impressive lizard is available free with a purchase of $50 or more at the Paizo booth (#203) at Gen Con next week, while supplies last. We're leaving a few Red Dracolisks behind at Paizo to put up for sale some time after the convention season, so if you miss out on the Red Dracolisk or can't get to the show this year, don't despair!

We also have TWO MORE promotional Pathfinder Battles miniatures that we'll be distributing at Gen Con, but I want to keep their identities secret for now. We'll supply these figures to ticketed players of the Thursday and Friday night Pathfinder Society Specials at Gen Con, so be sure to look out for them at the show. Like the Red Dracolisk, we'll have several available on paizo.com eventually, so missing out at the show won't necessarily mean missing out forever.

I'm going to be spending most of my Gen Con packed away in Paizo's meeting room, but if you see me wandering around the booth, please take a moment to say hello! I love chatting about minis in person even more than I love talking about them here, and I'm eager to see you at the show!

That's it for now. No blog next week, but we'll catch up after the Big Show!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Iconic Heroes Set 4, Part 1

Friday, July 17, 2015

Last week, WizKids announced the release dates for the next two Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes boxed sets of premium-quality prepainted plastic figures for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. This week, I'd like to take a closer look at three of the figures from Iconic Heroes Set 4, which features familiar faces from the Advanced Class Guide and Ultimate Combat.

I want to start with Lirianne, Half-Elf Gunslinger today, because I had a chance to review the paint master for this figure in-hand last week, and I was really impressed with the overall improvement since Lirianne's first miniature, which appeared in the Skull & Shackles set.

The original Lirianne is a perfectly acceptable miniature, even a good one when you consider the amount of detail on her outfit. But I was never completely thrilled with the way her face came out, and overall the pose wasn't terribly exciting. With the Iconic Heroes Set 4 version, Lirianne appears to be aiming or even firing her gun, and overall the pose is much more dynamic and interesting. Coupled with the superior paint jobs that are the hallmark of Iconic Heroes sets, this figure is well-positioned to end up looking really spectacular.

The iconic skald Hakon has always held a special place in my heart. I had a chance to write his "Meet the Iconics" backstory, where I not-so-subtly made him the brother of my long-running character in Paizo Creative Director James Jacobs's office Pathfinder campaign. So, in a way, Hakon is family, and it's been very important to me that he get an amazing miniature!

I'm pleased to report that WizKids definitely delivered on that score. Of the six paint masters we reviewed in-hand last week, Hakon was my second favorite (after Shardra, whom we'll see up close next week). Hakon definitely works as a skald, as a barbarian, as a ferocious villain, or really as just about any axe-wielding maniac.

Last up this week is our iconic swashbuckler, Jirelle. When Wayne Reynolds's original art first came in to Paizo I was thrilled and terrified, all at the same time. Thrilled, because here we had a fully clothed, fully ass-kicking woman warrior. Terrified because her costume was so complex I wondered how we were ever going to do justice to it in miniature form. I shouldn't have worried. That was before the advent of WizKids's super-premium Iconic Heroes sets, which are more than up to the challenge. Once again, the paint master for Jirelle looks wonderful, and is a great representation of the character and the digital sculpt revealed above.

"Hey," I can hear some of you asking. "If you've already seen paint masters, how come we only get to see digital sculpts? Why are you holding out on the real thing, Mona?"

That's a fair question, and the answer is that the final figures in all cases have sooooo many tampos—stamped-on details like face tattoos, clothing adornments, and so on—that the paint masters wouldn't reveal an accurate look at what the final figures will look like. They're very much a part of the process, in this case, and I want to wait until I have samples with the tampos finished before we show off actual minis. In the meantime, the digital sculpts I've revealed today do a very good job of showing what we're shooting for.

Iconic Heroes Set 4 hits stores and ships to subscribers in November. I'll reveal the last three figures in the set next week, and after that we're deep into Gen Con territory, and to see new Pathfinder Battles figures you'll have to track me down personally on the convention floor, get them as a $50+ sales incentive at the Paizo booth, or play one of the Pathfinder Society Specials.

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Friday Publisher Preview: Iconic Heroes Paint Masters

Friday, October 3, 2014

I've already spoken at length about our plans for the monthly series of Iconic Heroes Boxed Sets that begin in January. I've mentioned that WizKids intends to produce these figures at the highest possible standards, with premium sculpts and paint jobs.

I've even shown digital sculpts of some of the new figures. I've mentioned how digital sculpts give us as Paizo a lot more opportunity to ensure that details are exactly right (we just sent 17 sculpt comments for a single figure yesterday). But until now, all you've had beyond digital renders is my word that they're going to be awesome.

That changes today, as I reveal the paint masters for three figures from Iconic Heroes Set #1, the very first set that will hit in January 2015. WizKids factory painters will do everything they can to replicate these paint jobs exactly, so these figures should be an excellent preview of what you can expect from the final production run.

They are, however, missing some finishing details. Super-detailed work like complex patterns on clothing and pupils are applied via a stamping process called a tampo during the production run, so these elements often do not appear on paint masters. Try to imagine Seoni's tattoos and some of the dress detail work and you'll have a better idea of how the final figures will look.

Here we have the Valeros, Human Fighter like you've never seen him before. I think the face says everything you need to know about the power of digital sculpting over traditional practical methods, and the quality of all of his little pieces of adventuring gear really pushes it over the edge. Check out that tankard! Look at the bedroll on his back! I can't wait to get this figure for my own collection.

Valeros has a gnome buddy, and her name is Lini, Gnome Druid. Frankly, I really like the original Lini figure from The Lost Coast, but this one comes with a slightly more action-oriented pose and puts a little more focus on her sickle. We'll show off Lini's riding cat animal companion, Droogami, in next week's preview.

Seoni has always been one of our most popular iconic characters, and was one of the originals to appear on the covers of our Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, the very first appearance of the Pathfinder brand. Along with Valeros and several others, she stars in the Pathfinder Comics produced by Dynamite Entertainment, where she is coming into her own as the leader of the iconic adventurers. Like Lini, Seoni got a fantastic figure in an earlier set. The speed with which that figure sold out was one of the things that convinced us that we needed a better option for iconic character minis, and I think the pose on this new version is significantly more interesting than her original sculpt (which I also really liked). Of the six figures included in Iconic Heroes Set #1, Seoni has by far the most tampos still to come, but I think she's off to a great start.

Iconic Heroes also includes Sajan, Iconic Monk; Seelah, Iconic Paladin; and Droogami, Lini's snow leopard animal companion. Each of the sets also includes six unique Pathfinder Adventure Card Game cards specific to the included adventurers and animals. These cards are available exclusively in Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes sets, and are not part of existing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game subscriptions.

Swing by next week for a look at the paint masters of the other three figures in this set. In the meantime, check out the WizKids Pathfinder Battles items we've added to our annual Great Golem Sale, including Shattered Star boosters for $11.99, $10.00 off White Dragon Evolution, and more!

Erik Mona
Publisher