Pathfinder Battles Preview: Ogre the River and Through the Woods...

Friday, March 2, 2012

One of the best parts of working at Paizo is getting to see the brand new art fresh as it arrives in the office. When a new Wayne Reynolds cover painting makes its way to the art department, editors and developers flock to the big monitors to check out the latest masterpiece. It's become a sort of ritual around here.

Five years ago, when we first launched the Pathfinder Adventure Path, we marveled as each new volume brought a fresh take on a classic fantasy monster. Wayne's goblins on the very first Pathfinder cover (flavored by James Jacobs's insane portrayal in the text) immediately conveyed our plans for the new Pathfinder product line—delivering a fresh new take on the classic themes and monsters of fantasy gaming.

In Pathfinder Adventure Path #3, “The Hook Mountain Massacre,” author Nicolas Logue cranked the “fresh new take” into overdrive in his portrayal of ogres as monstrous inbred hillbilly brutes. Wayne Reynolds gave Nick's ogres a puppet-like look that pushed the creepiness even further.

Just as we'd done with the goblins in volume #1, we wanted to give Pathfinder's ogres a distinctive take, and a distinctive visual look. Nick and Wayne delivered, creating an adventure that remains one of the most memorable and unsettling of Pathfinder's entire run to date.

You'll get a chance to play this great adventure (or play it again) in July with the release of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path Anniversary Edition hardcover. The Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles prepainted miniatures set will support the campaign, with tons of miniatures inspired by images from the adventures.

Including three amazing ogres!

Up first is the uncommon Ogre, your general rank-and-file maniac. Like all three ogres in the set, this handsome gentleman comes directly from Wayne Reynolds's cover of “The Hook Mountain Massacre,” and he's never looked better. Don't tell the Ogre from Heroes & Monsters, but he's the runt of the litter when placed next to his, um, kin from Hook Mountain!

YEE HAW! Look out for this here big fella with the huge club! We call him the Ogre Brute on account of him swinging around that big stick, but he works just fine as a rank-and-file warrior. He's an uncommon like his brother.

On Hook Mountain, it takes a strong ogre indeed to keep all the family in line. In this set, that duty falls to the brutal Jaagrath Kreeg, a rare miniature with a leering smile and lust in his beady little eyes. I can say with authority that your players will love killing these guys, and you'll love putting them out on your game table.

Details on the release date, format, and price of the Pathfinder Battles Rise of the Runelords set are still being solidified by our partners at WizKids.

And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set. I can promise exciting Pathfinder Battles previews at this time in this space for many, many more months to come!

Erik Mona
Publisher

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Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Path Pathfinder Battles
Dark Archive

All of these look so awesome
I can't believe two are uncommon, they look so awesome.
At first I was like why do I need 2 ogres but each is different and looks awesome.
Did I say they are awesome?

Grand Lodge

Paizo gives good ogre. I love them and can't wait to see the goblins!


No Mammy Graul? Oh well.
So we are only into our second set and we have 4 Male Ogres?
Id say thats not cool....but these figures look so spectacular I can't help but love them. Just take a break from Ogres for the next couple of sets.
Ogres alwasy looked like cave men in D&D until 3rd edition..then they became camel-heads. Its so good to see classic ogres again.

Good preview!

Still no news on case distribution and price huh? Im hoping for one case to be enough to get a complete set. Im also hoping for the case to be under $300...but it's not looking so good is it? :)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

awesome!


That ogre brute nearly turned one of my PCs to jelly when I ran "Hook Mountain Massacre". (Though I had replaced his stats with the ogre degenerate from "Classic Monsters Revisited". Pummel FTW.)


Awesome looking brutal ogres. Can't wait to get my paws on them.


Jason Grubiak wrote:


Still no news on case distribution and price huh? Im hoping for one case to be enough to get a complete set. Im also hoping for the case to be under $300...but it's not looking so good is it? :)

Yeah its not looking good for that


This set looks a ton better than the last set IMO. Very nice indeed!


That poor, poor Heroes & Monsters ogre. I'd not want to be the runt of the litter in an ogre-family. *shudders*

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Jason Grubiak wrote:


So we are only into our second set and we have 4 Male Ogres?
Id say thats not cool....but these figures look so spectacular I can't help but love them. Just take a break from Ogres for the next couple of sets.

I don't have plans to do any more ogres for a while. There are more females coming in this and later sets, that's for sure.

One thing to keep in mind is that we're generally going with existing Pathfinder art as reference for these miniature sets. If all of our existing art for ogres shows males, we'll probably be doing male miniatures.

If an illustration for a character like Mammy Graul doesn't lend itself particularly well to a miniature, we probably won't do it.

I say probably because in several cases for this set, we actually ordered new art if we needed a mini of a figure that had bad or no art the first time around.


Joey Virtue wrote:
Jason Grubiak wrote:


Still no news on case distribution and price huh? Im hoping for one case to be enough to get a complete set. Im also hoping for the case to be under $300...but it's not looking so good is it? :)
Yeah its not looking good for that

Not sure why. The PF Mini's had to be a great success for Wizkids/paizo as well and I'm looking at the Galactic Guardians Standard Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 9.99 for 5 figures and a Galactic Guardians Super Booster Pack (1-Colossal Figure) Marvel Heroclix for 29.99. they also have Chaos War Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 8.99 for the same amount of figures. I got over 1k mini's and the detailing for these mini's has pretty much been the same as the pathfinder mini's.

As the #1 RPG linein the industry today Paizo has to get it's fans a pricing similiar to this. Not what we got last time which I believe we got hosed!

Scarab Sages

Ogre Brute, backside. Didn't need to see that... *scarred for life*

Spoiler:
8^)

Liberty's Edge

I agree that the booster makeup needs to be made cheaper. I think 5 medium/small figs plus one large per booster for around the $10-12 mark would be perfect.


Any word on if there will be a promotional mini for this set like the black dragon?


Yes the Rune Giant.

This is supposed to be promotional but considering its gargantuan size then this opens up the possibility for the rune giant to be very rare and they could include other Huge creatures that were part of RotRL as part of the "collosal sized superbooster".

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

We've not formally announced a rune giant in this set. Just setting the record straight.

That's not to say that _won't_ be one in this set, just that we haven't announced one. I want to make sure the plans for case counts, booster counts, etc. are finalized before we start talking about promotional miniatures.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Shivok wrote:


Not sure why. The PF Mini's had to be a great success for Wizkids/paizo as well and I'm looking at the Galactic Guardians Standard Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 9.99 for 5 figures and a Galactic Guardians Super Booster Pack (1-Colossal Figure) Marvel Heroclix for 29.99. they also have Chaos War Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 8.99 for the same amount of figures. I got over 1k mini's and the detailing for these mini's has pretty much been the same as the pathfinder mini's.

In fact, WizKids tells us that from both a sculpting and a painting perspective, these are the most expensive miniatures their company has ever done. Most superhero miniatures have far fewer paint steps, for example, because their costumes are so much simpler. For the same reason, most of them also involve less sculpting, less complex molds and dies, etc.

So while I can say that we'll try to get the price down as much as we can, and part of the delay in announcing specific product details for this set has been tied to that effort, the idea that these have the same production costs as comic book miniatures is simply incorrect.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Kalraan wrote:
I agree that the booster makeup needs to be made cheaper. I think 5 medium/small figs plus one large per booster for around the $10-12 mark would be perfect.

Sadly, I think your ideas about minis pricing are stuck in the last century. The price of plastic is driven by the price of oil, and that picture is not pretty.

Beginner Box Heroes is a non-random set of four mediums, and it's priced at $12.99. Champions of Evil has six repainted minis for $19.99.


Vic Wertz wrote:
Kalraan wrote:
I agree that the booster makeup needs to be made cheaper. I think 5 medium/small figs plus one large per booster for around the $10-12 mark would be perfect.

Sadly, I think your ideas about minis pricing are stuck in the last century. The price of plastic is driven by the price of oil, and that picture is not pretty.

Beginner Box Heroes is a non-random set of four mediums, and it's priced at $12.99. Champions of Evil has six repainted minis for $19.99.

It's ok Vic, I've still buying 3 cases with 3 promos. I've also been singing the praises of the minis line everywhere I go. So if I have my way you guys will do fine.


Gosh, if this set has twenty more sculpt than H&M, and with rarity we got about 83 mini's in that set, we could expect around 125 mini's for a complete set of RotR. If the price point still stays at the 3.30 ish mark per mini but we get some Huges in the mix, that would be Ok with me. But that would price a case containing a complete set at somewhere around $415. And who knows what a gargantuan promo might cost, above and beyond that.

With the Lords of Madness set, I had to buy 5 cases and do some trading to get a complete set. That was well over $415, but I did get more total minis Those stupid very rares really jacked the set price up... And I really think the quality of the Pathfinder commons was superior to the commons we got from D&D. I'll take quality over quantity any day.

The real questions now are, we will be likely to get a full set in a case, or will cases be chunked up into smaller less expensive pieces that leave the odds of getting a full set up to chance? And will the introduction of Huges skew the per mini price point? I really appreciated being able to get a whole set in a single case. I hope that kind of distribution continues. Whatever Patfinder decides, I really want their pricing to allow them to continue providing these phenomenal minis for a long time.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Berk the Black wrote:
I really appreciated being able to get a whole set in a single case.

We appreciate that too, and WizKids understands how much we appreciate it. Ease of collecting will continue to be a goal for this line.


Vic Wertz wrote:
We appreciate that too, and WizKids understands how much we appreciate it. Ease of collecting will continue to be a goal for this line.

Excellent. I understand you're not promising success, but that it's a goal.

I'm not a gambler by nature. So there's no way I'd drop $200-$400 on a bunch of boosters in the hopes I'd get a full set. I'd give up way, way earlier, once I had a few things I really liked. On the other hand, knowing that I should get a full set with a roughly 2:1 (40 molds, 83 average minis per case) at roughly $3-$4 per mini... that I can justify.

It's all psychology.

Liberty's Edge

Vic Wertz wrote:

Sadly, I think your ideas about minis pricing are stuck in the last century. The price of plastic is driven by the price of oil, and that picture is not pretty.

Beginner Box Heroes is a non-random set of four mediums, and it's priced at $12.99. Champions of Evil has six repainted minis for $19.99.

Sadly, you are right. It would be nice to have a cheaper price point though, because the minis are crazy expensive here in Australia - and we still want them.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Shivok wrote:
...I'm looking at the Galactic Guardians Standard Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 9.99 for 5 figures and a Galactic Guardians Super Booster Pack (1-Colossal Figure) Marvel Heroclix for 29.99. they also have Chaos War Booster Pack Marvel Heroclix for 8.99 for the same amount of figures.

HeroClix booster pricing is a bit tricky, because WizKids doesn't set MSRPs, but I believe the prices you're quoting are from a discounter.

A Galactic Guardians brick contains eight standard boosters and one super booster, so you're quoting a brick price of $109.91. Using the standard industry markup, that brick would be $147.84. (We sell it here at paizo.com for $133.06.)

The price you're quoting on the Chaos War booster is also discounted; again using the standard industry markup, a brick of 10 would regularly be priced at around $126.62 ($12.66 per booster). We'll be selling those bricks for $113.96 ($11.40 per booster).

(I'm not saying you shouldn't buy from a discounter; I'm just saying that when you do price comparisons between HeroClix and Pathfinder Battles, make sure you're comparing list vs. list or discounted vs. discounted.)


Vic Wertz wrote:

HeroClix booster pricing is a bit tricky, because WizKids doesn't set MSRPs, but I believe the prices you're quoting are from a discounter.

A Galactic Guardians brick contains eight standard boosters and one super booster, so you're quoting a brick price of $109.91. Using the standard industry markup, that brick would be $147.84. (We sell it here at paizo.com for $133.06.)

The price you're quoting on the Chaos War booster is also discounted; again using the standard industry markup, a brick of 10 would regularly be priced at around $126.62 ($12.66 per booster). We'll be selling those bricks for $113.96 ($11.40 per booster).

(I'm not saying you shouldn't buy from a discounter; I'm just saying that when you do price comparisons between HeroClix and Pathfinder Battles, make sure you're comparing list vs. list or discounted vs. discounted.)

Vic, the actual cost from the discounter is $95.00 per brick with a marquee figure or 1 case (2x bricks) with 2 marquee figures for 199.00 with free s&h and $50.00 per 24 figure brick for Chaos War. They have the the PF hero 4 pack for $8.00 and the Champions of Evil for $14.99. and a case of Pathfinder Battles minis for $190.00 with free S&H! These are the discounted prices.

Liberty's Edge

The Promo Copy wrote:
And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set. I can promise exciting Pathfinder Battles previews at this time in this space for many, many more months to come!

It kind of sounds to me like Eric was writing this while rolling around in a large pile of money.

Dark Archive

Wow, these look amazing!!!


Much better looking than the H&M ogre! Love 'em!

Regards,

V


Erik Mona wrote:

So while I can say that we'll try to get the price down as much as we can, and part of the delay in announcing specific product details for this set has been tied to that effort, the idea that these have the same production costs as comic book miniatures is simply incorrect.

The price is fine. Minis at this quality for the current price is a good deal.

In my opinion this is what helped kill WotC's minis. Their costs went up but they wanted to keep the price low so they lowered the quality. Towards the end the mini paint jobs were total hack jobs. They relied on translucent plastic for several minis so they didn't even have to paint any part of it. (For elementals this works fine, but some minis should be painted. Heck some of their painted elementals looked better than their translucent ones).

Scarab Sages

The huge ogres are great, but what about

RotRL spoiler:
Ogrekin, which are medium size? If they are also added, that will be a lot of ogres in this set.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

It sure would be awesome if this set had an ogrekin mini!

Dark Archive

Burning the midnight oil Erik?

Was busy the whole day, just now got to see these, wowza!

Edit:

Erik Mona in the blog wrote:
And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set. I can promise exciting Pathfinder Battles previews at this time in this space for many, many more months to come!

Do tell !

Grand Lodge

When was the last time someone released three Ogres in the same set that actually looks like they belong to the same clan?

This is shaping up to be one of the best minis sets ever, rivaling Blood War and Giants of Legend in every way.

Later,

Mazra


Awesome!

Shame that this part in my RotR campaign will be over in month or two.

Well, I am sure more of em will spawn if that is how cool my minis will look in the future.

Silver Crusade

Wow, those are really nice!

I may have to actually get a case this time around

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

1 person marked this as a favorite.

And future games and campaigns will always need more ogres!


Erik Mona wrote:

It sure would be awesome if this set had an ogrekin mini!

Erik, you tease!!

These minis just keep looking better and better.


I really do enjoy throw ogres into my games but I'd like to throw some bigger trolls in that I don't have to paint.

Dark Archive

bigkilla wrote:
Wow, these look amazing!!!

+1; these are truly AMAZING! :)

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder LO Special Edition, PF Special Edition Subscriber
Terry Dyer wrote:
"...some bigger trolls..."

I don't know about trolls in the path but..

:
is there a Scrag? Trolls are fine but aquatic trolls are better. especially if based on the art in hook mountain (I think it was hook mountain anyway{

Eric Mona wrote:
And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set.

Please, please, please be a Skull & Shackles themed set.


bmcdaniel wrote:
Eric Mona wrote:
And in late-breaking far-future news, I now have a pretty good idea what will be in the NEXT Pathfinder Battles set.
Please, please, please be a Skull & Shackles themed set.

+1


The Ogre and Ogre Brute are actually reversed in the set.

More than a few people got the wrong version in the singles pre-orders.

The Ogre has the club and the Orge Brute is the larger one with the hook.

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