As much as I like my DDMs, it was frequently a shame to me that distribution of rarity was tied to merit in the skirmish game. It is great to see RPG value driving that.
Will the Venomous Snake be a tiny, small, OR medium-sized miniature? I'm hoping tiny so that it can be a Wizard's familiar.I would think Medium, The Bestiary lists it as such.
I'm hoping small. I've already got a good collection of medium prepainted snakes.
I'm hoping small. I've already got a good collection of medium prepainted snakes.Will the Venomous Snake be a tiny, small, OR medium-sized miniature? I'm hoping tiny so that it can be a Wizard's familiar.I would think Medium, The Bestiary lists it as such.
I wish it was Large
"Gargoyle
Half-Orc Barbarian
Spectre
Werewolf
Minotaur
Ogre"
Now that is not a good list for rares. Most of these I'd consider stuff that is encountered in groups of more than one.
I'm hoping small. I've already got a good collection of medium prepainted snakes.Will the Venomous Snake be a tiny, small, OR medium-sized miniature? I'm hoping tiny so that it can be a Wizard's familiar.I would think Medium, The Bestiary lists it as such.
As far as I know, we already know all the small minis, and there are no snakes among them.
And I don't know: Small is not a good size for a snake. Tiny is good because that's small enough to hide in someone's trouser. Plus, you know, familiars. But other than that, the bigger the better.
The Venomous Snake is the perfect size and coloration for a Cindersnake, so it has a very "Golarion" feel to me. Love it.
"Gargoyle
Half-Orc Barbarian
Spectre
Werewolf
Minotaur
Ogre"Now that is not a good list for rares. Most of these I'd consider stuff that is encountered in groups of more than one.
I'm hoping small. I've already got a good collection of medium prepainted snakes.Will the Venomous Snake be a tiny, small, OR medium-sized miniature? I'm hoping tiny so that it can be a Wizard's familiar.I would think Medium, The Bestiary lists it as such.As far as I know, we already know all the small minis, and there are no snakes among them.
And I don't know: Small is not a good size for a snake. Tiny is good because that's small enough to hide in someone's trouser. Plus, you know, familiars. But other than that, the bigger the better.
Ogre is really the only one on the list I am disappointed to see as a rare. I have noticed that no large creatures have been announced in the Common or uncommon category yet, so I wonder if they are considering all of the larges rare.
The Half-Orc Barbarian I can definetely consider a rare, depending on the pose and level of detail. There are enough other orc warriors that you can use, so having one rare is not that big of a deal to me.
I really like the cleric. I love the fact that Paizo is making minis for the specific religions/organizations in their world.
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Ogre is really the only one on the list I am disappointed to see as a rare. I have noticed that no large creatures have been announced in the Common or uncommon category yet, so I wonder if they are considering all of the larges rare.
For this first set, all of the Large creatures are in the rare category. As we move on to Rise of the Runelords and beyond, this will not necessarily be the case. Looking over the preliminary Rise of the Runelords set, there are currently six Larges in the Uncommon category, including two more ogres (there are a lot of ogres in Rise of the Runelords).
The snake is Medium, for those of you who have been wondering.
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First, I really like the Snake. That is an awesome color scheme.
Really like the Cleric. I too like that you are using Golarion "religions/organizations". I hope you can maintain a uniformity in look with the various Golarion factions. This is something I thought DDMs lacked. Though I will give Peter Lee credit with trying to correct this somewhat in Lords of Madness with the Zhents.
I may need to hold the Dwarf in my hand. The cape is awkward in the way it hangs in the image.
Thanks you Erik for providing this much information ahead of release along with some of the insight in the creation of the set. I look forward to your next weekly preview. (It is good to save some of the reveals for we are still many weeks away from December.) btw- Any word from Wizkids on the time table for a December release?
Later,
Mazra
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Ok, you addressed the question of large minis and their rarity, so every large booster contains a rare. Do we know what the probability of a rare is in regular booster packs? how about for the "ultra rares"? and about how often are we looking at 2 small minis being in a standard booster rather than 1 medium? I'm subscribed for a case and, I won't lie, I'd be kind of dissapointed if most of the rares didn't show, ultra rares not being grouped in with standard rares in this case. For a 40 mini line-up buying more than 2 cases to complete a set just doesn't seem worth it, though buying individual minis from your site for more multiple minis of one kind is something that I definitely see in my future. Buying a few cases of the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set having 50% more models in it than this one is a bit more understandable, but with only one mini a pack I would be hard pressed to buy individual packs rather than just going in for the case because the chance for a rare is, well, rare (presumably). Buying packs of cards, for example, is much more worth the individual purchase rather than buying a box because you know you'll get a rare in the pack (whether it's the rare you're looking for is a completely different story). Do you plan on making future set's boosters contain more than 1 mini? I'm still very much looking forward to this set and future sets because I don't have the time to paint 10-20 minis for one encounter, it will be nice to just be able to open my box of minis and pull out a bunch of pre-painted plastic ones and instantly add life to the battle field. Thanks for all the posts and updates about this product, you guys do a great job of being on top of things and I appreciate the effort.
MEGA PARAGRAPH
The FAQ for Pathfinder Battles subscriptions has answers to most/all your questions and more.
Ok, you addressed the question of large minis and their rarity, so every large booster contains a rare. Do we know what the probability of a rare is in regular booster packs? how about for the "ultra rares"? and about how often are we looking at 2 small minis being in a standard booster rather than 1 medium? I'm subscribed for a case and, I won't lie, I'd be kind of dissapointed if most of the rares didn't show, ultra rares not being grouped in with standard rares in this case. For a 40 mini line-up buying more than 2 cases to complete a set just doesn't seem worth it, though buying individual minis from your site for more multiple minis of one kind is something that I definitely see in my future. Buying a few cases of the upcoming Rise of the Runelords set having 50% more models in it than this one is a bit more understandable, but with only one mini a pack I would be hard pressed to buy individual packs rather than just going in for the case because the chance for a rare is, well, rare (presumably). Buying packs of cards, for example, is much more worth the individual purchase rather than buying a box because you know you'll get a rare in the pack (whether it's the rare you're looking for is a completely different story). Do you plan on making future set's boosters contain more than 1 mini? I'm still very much looking forward to this set and future sets because I don't have the time to paint 10-20 minis for one encounter, it will be nice to just be able to open my box of minis and pull out a bunch of pre-painted plastic ones and instantly add life to the battle field. Thanks for all the posts and updates about this product, you guys do a great job of being on top of things and I appreciate the effort.
1. Paragraphs help you organize your thoughts. Try using them, this is hard to follow :)
2. Early on, someone at Paizo, I think it was Vic, said that their goal was for 1 case of this set to get people a full set, or very close. They have not released any more details about the packaging process or rarity levels. As for Ultra rares, we have no idea and they have just been mentioned in one of the blog posts as existing to my knowledge.
3. We know that there are 3 pairs of small minis. 2 common goblins, a common gnome, a common dire rat, an (uncommon?) goblin shamman, and one unannounced uncommon. They will always be packaged in pairs (2 goblins, gnome + dire rat, both uncommons.
4. For future sets, they have made no official announcements concerning content or packaging. They have implied that they will contain more than 1 per booster, but they have not yet sized boxes.
For this first set, all of the Large creatures are in the rare category.
Since all of the Larges are in separate packs, that really makes them equally common.
I know I will be buying a disproportionate quantity of large packs, since that is what I need the most of.
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We know that there are 3 pairs of small minis. 2 common goblins, a common gnome, a common dire rat, an (uncommon?) goblin shamman, and one unannounced uncommon. They will always be packaged in pairs (2 goblins, gnome + dire rat, both uncommons.
Remember those changes Erik mentioned? They'll be affecting much of what you know about the Small minis. (It's still true that when you get a Small, it will always be paired with a particular other Small, though.)
Closer to the release date will there be a downloadable pdf checklist of every miniature in the set?
I guess. If Paizo won't do it, someone else will. You could go and turn the list from pathfinderminis.com into a PDF.
For this first set, all of the Large creatures are in the rare category.
Ah. So, in other words: They're all equally common? Or uncommon. Or rare. Ultimate Power = Ultimate Powerlessness and all that.
Anyway, that's alright, then.
As we move on to Rise of the Runelords and beyond, this will not necessarily be the case. Looking over the preliminary Rise of the Runelords set, there are currently six Larges in the Uncommon category, including two more ogres (there are a lot of ogres in Rise of the Runelords).
Will they look sufficiently disturbing?
...and the big meaty Ettin finally has the proper ink wash to make him a truly menacing brute.
This is a very good sign for this line! Washes are such a quick method of really enhancing the appearance of the mini. Although it likely does count as a paint step for production purposes, I hope they add a wash whenever they can. What killed WotC's mini quality (for both D&D and Star Wars lines) was when they stopped using washes and limited their paint steps to 3 or less.
Paizo seems to have done everything right in the marketing of the Pathfinder RPG line, and the same appears to be holding true for the Pre-Painted Plastic Mini line. Can't wait for its release!!!
Commenting on the figures themselves:
Dwarf: Well, it's a dwarf. if you've seen one, you've seen them all.
Cleric: She looks a bit too boyish. That's probably not the right word: She looks like a guy. Or at least her face. But that could, as always, just be the picture.
Snake: Great. Though it does sound like it's shouting soup.
Closer to the release date will there be a downloadable pdf checklist of every miniature in the set?I guess. If Paizo won't do it, someone else will. You could go and turn the list from pathfinderminis.com into a PDF.
I am fairly certain Paizo will have some sort of checklist available for these -- it really is essential when you a "collectable" type of product.
However, if they do not have one, I will create a one page pdf checklist with small graphics of each mini and will include their rarity and size. I'm holding off on doing this now as I am sure Paizo will do this.
Since we have begun commenting on the minis, its time to throw my jaded opinion of the minis out.
Dwarf:
Although it is a unique pose, I do greatly prefer "battle" poses rather than "standing triumphantly in the strong wind" poses. The axe looks a little too big -- an axe that big and heavy looks like its going to require a 25 Strength score to hold it.
Cleric:
It is a great versatile female cleric, but I also share a similar concern to KaeYoss that her face looks like the face of a young boy. (But maybe its just the angle the mini was photographed at).
Snake:
What can I say... its a snake. As far as snake minis go, it appears to be a decent and vicious looking snake. I am actually impressed that they have many paint steps used on this mini. WotC generally cheaped out on its snakes.
Cleric: She looks a bit too boyish. That's probably not the right word: She looks like a guy. Or at least her face. But that could, as always, just be the picture.
Cleric:
It is a great versatile female cleric, but I also share a similar concern to KaeYoss that her face looks like the face of a young boy. (But maybe its just the angle the mini was photographed at).
It is a half-elf. If there wasn't some gender confusion, I would say she looks too much like a human.
/ducks.
It is a half-elf. If there wasn't some gender confusion, I would say she looks too much like a human.
he he
It is a good point though. Half-elves are very different to sculpt at such a small scale... they are typically either going to look more human or more elven. On the plus side, at least we can quite easily identify that she's a female :)
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As much as I like my DDMs, it was frequently a shame to me that distribution of rarity was tied to merit in the skirmish game. It is great to see RPG value driving that.
Actually a lot of the time the rares in DDM didn't have any use at all in the skirmish game which was even more of a shame. There was also the problem of things you needed in volume often being uncommon and therefor almost impossible to get in numbers. Stirges, saw maybe 2. :/
Since we have begun commenting on the minis, its time to throw my jaded opinion of the minis out.
Dwarf:
Although it is a unique pose, I do greatly prefer "battle" poses rather than "standing triumphantly in the strong wind" poses. The axe looks a little too big -- an axe that big and heavy looks like its going to require a 25 Strength score to hold it.
Odd... I always think of dwarfs as using their equipment to overcompensate. That axe is smaller than the dwarf, therefore it is a 'small' axe.
Cleric: She looks a bit too boyish. That's probably not the right word: She looks like a guy. Or at least her face. But that could, as always, just be the picture.
Agreed. I actually thought it was a guy until I looked at the rest of the body.
Love the paint job of the armor, but I think it would have been better if 'she' had long hair, maybe braided in a ponytail. I know, wouldn't been all that practical for combat, but I feel would have looked better, and would helped to look more female.
Doesn't Iomedae have short, dark hair too? It makes perfect sense to me that one of her clerics would seek to emulate her (assuming their order doesn't already require as much).
Out of all the minis the only one that seems odd to me is the dwarf. The fact that his hair and cape are blowing is great, but it looks like his cape was donned over top of his hair. In all my years of costuming, I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.
Out of all the minis the only one that seems odd to me is the dwarf. The fact that his hair and cape are blowing is great, but it looks like his cape was donned over top of his hair. In all my years of costuming, I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.
It looks to me like it's less a cape around the neck than a curtain hanging down from his helmet. That's the only sense I can make of it, anyway.
It looks to me like it's less a cape around the neck than a curtain hanging down from his helmet. That's the only sense I can make of it, anyway.
Out of all the minis the only one that seems odd to me is the dwarf. The fact that his hair and cape are blowing is great, but it looks like his cape was donned over top of his hair. In all my years of costuming, I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.
That does not look like a cape, it indeed looks like an aventail hanging from the helmet.
Only made of cloth instead of mail.
It looks to me like it's less a cape around the neck than a curtain hanging down from his helmet. That's the only sense I can make of it, anyway.
Out of all the minis the only one that seems odd to me is the dwarf. The fact that his hair and cape are blowing is great, but it looks like his cape was donned over top of his hair. In all my years of costuming, I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.That does not look like a cape, it indeed looks like an aventail hanging from the helmet.
Only made of cloth instead of mail.
Ha. I knew there must be an actual word for that thing, but I was too lazy to go try and figure out what it was. :)
Ha. I knew there must be an actual word for that thing, but I was too lazy to go try and figure out what it was. :)It looks to me like it's less a cape around the neck than a curtain hanging down from his helmet. That's the only sense I can make of it, anyway.
Out of all the minis the only one that seems odd to me is the dwarf. The fact that his hair and cape are blowing is great, but it looks like his cape was donned over top of his hair. In all my years of costuming, I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.That does not look like a cape, it indeed looks like an aventail hanging from the helmet.
Only made of cloth instead of mail.
If I helped you learn something new than my work is done here:)
Doesn't Iomedae have short, dark hair too? It makes perfect sense to me that one of her clerics would seek to emulate her (assuming their order doesn't already require as much)./QUOTE]
And then there's the whole diversity angle: it's also nice that WizKids/Paizo recognises that long, flowing locks isn't required to look feminine.
In my experience, werewolves, minotaurs, and ogres pop up quite frequently in campaigns. And I GUESS if the sculpt for the half-orc barbarian is super special that one makes sense. But It actually doesn't to me. At all.
If these four minis fall under "rare" I wonder what kind of stuff manages to rank common. (EDIT: Okay, all large minis are rare. That's whatev'.)
Kobolds, goblins, wolves, dire Rats... some kind of spider, there's tons of those. I foresee lots of common/uncommon outsiders, like demons and devils, too, since they're so popular.
The minis line was attractive at first glimpse. They reeled me in, because not only was it a way to throw more money at Paizo, but it was a new way to get quality minis for my games. They kinda lost me on the random packaging for a bit, but then they made realize it wasn't that bad and the quality was worth it. Then they previewed some amazing sculpts and paint jobs and I was hooked.
I'm afraid that when I see the spoiler list and the rarity of certain things I'm going to be disappointed again.
Doesn't Iomedae have short, dark hair too? It makes perfect sense to me that one of her clerics would seek to emulate her (assuming their order doesn't already require as much).And then there's the whole diversity angle: it's also nice that WizKids/Paizo recognises that long, flowing locks isn't required to look feminine.
I wouldn't say the half elf cleric looks feminine. I get your point, but until I read 'her' in the description there was nothing to tell me she was female.
In the world of plastic minis in order to tell if something is feminine you generally need Long Hair (Which just as easily could be a male) or other distinguishing anatomy. The latter though at least with hasbro was often hard to distinguish,
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I, for one, just want to say that I love the look of the Cleric of Iomedae. I really appreciate that you're putting out a female mini that isn't some tarted-up strumpet. That makes the mini more versatile and honestly, there are enough flowing-tressed and ample-bosomed female minis around. This is what a fighting cleric of Iomedae would look like, in my opinion, and if she's androgynous enough to also use for a male character, then that makes her even more versatile.
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Let me first preface this that I like the Half-elf cleric of Iomedae. It could have been more feminine. Iomedae may have short hair, but there is no doubt about her gender. I can't help but think Davey.
Later,
Mazra
Snake:
What can I say... its a snake.
A snake a snake! Snake! A snake! Ooh, it's a snake!
There was also the problem of things you needed in volume often being uncommon and therefor almost impossible to get in numbers. Stirges, saw maybe 2. :/
Stirges were from the Dragon Queen set. They messed up the seeding in that set.
Cleric: She looks a bit too boyish. That's probably not the right word: She looks like a guy. Or at least her face. But that could, as always, just be the picture.To me, she looks like kind of a Joan of Arc-type.
As I said, it might just be because I only have a picture, not the real figure. Just send me the miniature you have and I'll take a better look. :)
Doesn't Iomedae have short, dark hair too? It makes perfect sense to me that one of her clerics would seek to emulate her (assuming their order doesn't already require as much).
I'm not talking about the hair. I'm talking about the face. Iomedae may have short hair, but she definitely has a woman's face.
I've never once seen someone do that, and unless you stood still all day without moving your head, I rather doubt it would even stay that way.
We're talking about dwarves here. Why would they move their head?
Hmm, a cloth aventail seems kind of odd to me, but that does indeed appear to be what it is. Thanks for the sharp eyes, Mournblade!
Kae, are you imply that our plastic heroine stole her face from teenage boy? OR (blasphemous sort that you are) are you suggesting that Iomedae's clerics are all tomboys and that it was the goddess herself who stole a boy's face?
I think some androgynous inquisitors shall be hearing about this, where is High Inquisitor Pat?
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A bright red coat is nature’s way of saying “I am going to murder you,”
And a bright red polo shirt is nature's way of saying "I am going to murder your PFS character"
A snake a snake! Snake! A snake! Ooh, it's a snake!
Its a Dire Rat in the set though not a badger!
Maybe they'll have a Shrieker MUSHROOM MUSHROOM.
Next time I'd *really* like to see an Elf Archer. There *is* an Elf Archer, isn't there? I mean, that's a classic, just like the Dwarf with Axe. PC quality would be nice, but even one that's only good enough to be "Elven Archer #7" would be fine by me.
How about a Hobgoblin? Bugbear? Razorcrow (or flock thereof)? How about a Boggard?
How about a more generic cleric with chainmail, mace and shield? If that's in the set, I'd love to see it.
Or if there is a cleric of any other well known deity, that would be neat.
Basically, I'd like to see more common-ish monsters, and PC/NPC types.
Kae, are you imply that our plastic heroine stole her face from teenage boy? OR (blasphemous sort that you are) are you suggesting that Iomedae's clerics are all tomboys and that it was the goddess herself who stole a boy's face?
I wouldn't be surprised if over 100% of Iomy's priestesses were tomboys, but what I'm actually saying is that this miniatures looks like a tomboy, but with no tom whatsoever.