Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Frosty Black Friday!

Friday, November 17, 2011

The Paizo offices may be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, but nothing can stop the relentless march of preview images for the upcoming Heroes & Monsters set!

This week’s preview blog is a special treat in that it features only one miniature. But for my money, I think it’s the coolest miniature in the entire set! I’m talking about the Frost Giant!

The Frost Giant towers over the other miniatures in the set, raising his nasty axe high for a deadly blow to the head of any player character within his considerable reach. The larger size of the miniature really helps to accentuate the fine details of the sculpt, and this figure looks great standing next to his kin from other companies miniature sets.

But his “look” isn’t the only thing that makes the Frost Giant stand out. He’s got a trick up his sleeve. Literally.

Look closely and you’ll notice that this version of the Frost Giant holds a different weapon in his left hand, a mighty sword! Given the difference, you might think that Heroes & Monsters contains two different Frost Giant miniatures, but you’d be wrong!

The Frost Giant comes complete with two different left hands, each holding a different weapon!

WizKids sculpted the Frost Giant with an empty socket at its left wrist. The miniature comes with a choice of two different weapons, which you can snap in and out with ease. I’ve seen prepainted plastic miniatures with different parts before (a necklace here, a chain there), but I’ve never seen anything like the versatility of this mini before, and I think it bodes very well for future sets, which could hold similar surprises of their own.

Making big miniatures like this more modular is a nice way to diversify your doubles, and I’ll confess that it’s simply cool to play with this thing, changing one weapon for the other or adjusting the wrist to pull off the coolest pose.

So if you’re lucky enough to find the Frost Giant in your Heroes & Monsters booster and a friend asks “Did you get the one with the sword or the one with the axe?” you can answer:

“I got them both!”

That’s it for this week. We’re back to at least three previews next week, and we’re getting close to a complete set reveal! Happy Black Friday, everyone!

Erik Mona
Publisher