Pathfinder Battles Preview: Big Bads (Vol. 1)

Soooooo awesome!!!
Woot first!!!

Fantastic Preview!!!! A+++

Im sure some will argue that all 3 of these miniatures are very spacific to Rise of the Runelords so are not very useful in a game outside of the adventure path.

To them I say TOO BAD FOR YOU! :)
I love the unique minis that are tailor-made for adventures. I always hated when running moduals that the minor monsters had minis made for them but the big bad bosses needed proxies.

I love all 3. Now Im off to look at the packaging since I didnt notice the giant statue was on the box.

Oh and Erik...You said in the last preview that the next one was going to be disgusting and monsterous. These guys arent exactly disgusting. Did you have a change of plans over the course of the week? :)

I changed plans. Look for the disgusting stuff next week!

I can make all three of these things work for just about any kind of big bad. :) Huge, honking stone golem? Check. Cold, icy mage-y looking guy? Yep. Silver skinned mage with a cloak of dramatic flaring? Of course!

Make sure next week's disgusting is tempered with awesome and never before seen, OK?

I noticed the box design within minutes of when Vic posted it. I'm bummed about the removal of the Huge White Dragon, but my guess is that by the time we see it in a miniature set following RotRL, many (if not most) groups will not have yet reached it as an actual encounter during play of the AP, so it should hopefully be a case of no harm, no foul.

I would like to point out that as a result of these "delays" in getting new minis out in the marketplace, I am in the midst of having to resort to extraordinry means of obtaining new plastic. I'm rebasing 700 Dreamblade minis (that I got in the shrink, for free no less) and nearly 1,400 Mage Knight minis to pass the time.

Oh, if you are still taking advice on "what minis to feature" in subsequent sets? Honestly? COMMONERS. Two per set of 60. Common figures with a common frequency. A Farmer (with pitchfork) and a farmer's wife (with an apron). A boy and a girl. A male miner (with pick) and a matronly baker (with a rolling pin). Angry Villager with pitchfork; Angry villager with torch. A barkeep and a barmaid. You get the idea. A tinker and a carpenter, etc.

Common villagers that are immediately useful and which, some years hence -- when all combined together in a group of 50 or so -- will provide most GMs with a large numbers of common everyday folk to fill a town or urban scene with common everyday people. Not a one of em wearing armor and, at best, improvised weapons only. Whether that is as part of a riot, part of the crowd in a bar or the villagers that need rescuing in From Shore to Sea or a host of other modules or PFS scenarios - there is a sore and pressing needs for such minis.

And some stand alone tentacle minis wouldn't be that bad, either :)

I love Karzoug's statue! The figure looks just like the artwork, and the details on the gemstones and face are nice! The other two are well done as well. (And again Lamatar's sculpt looks almost exactly like his artwork).
I wish Dragon and Dungeon had done this with Age of Worms and Savage Tide: Producing minis that represent characters from the path.
Great preview, my excitement for this set is re-kindled.

I changed plans. Look for the disgusting stuff next week!

I though you were talking about Lamatar Bayden's robe - so pre-Starfall that it's disgusting!

I wish Dragon and Dungeon had done this with Age of Worms and Savage Tide: Producing minis that represent characters from the path.

Are you kidding me? A set of Spwan of Kyuss, and various wormy villains?

I'd STILL buy em in a heartbeat.

Great minis, Erik. I really like the Karzoug figure.

You indicate that the Karzoug statue looks “simple”, but I can see the detail in it. If you say it is ‘more’ detailed in person, really looking forward to it!

Oh, if you are still taking advice on "what minis to feature" in subsequent sets? Honestly? COMMONERS. Two per set of 60. Common figures with a common frequency. A Farmer (with pitchfork) and a farmer's wife (with an apron). A boy and a girl. A male miner (with pick) and a matronly baker (with a rolling pin). Angry Villager with pitchfork; Angry villager with torch. A barkeep and a barmaid. You get the idea. A tinker and a carpenter, etc.

Common villagers that are immediately useful and which, some years hence -- when all combined together in a group of 50 or so -- will provide most GMs with a large numbers of common everyday folk to fill a town or urban scene with common everyday people. Not a one of em wearing armor and, at best, improvised weapons only. Whether that is as part of a riot, part of the crowd in a bar or the villagers that need rescuing in From Shore to Sea or a host of other modules or PFS scenarios - there is a sore and pressing needs for such minis.

This x1000. We do a lot of roleplaying in our campaign, and interact with commoners a lot. I would love to see the full assortment of commoner minis as well. We make do, but it would be great if we could put an ‘actual’ farmer down than using one of his rogue-type minis in robes.

I would like to point out that as a result of these "delays" in getting new minis out in the marketplace, I am in the midst of having to resort to extraordinry means of obtaining new plastic. I'm rebasing 700 Dreamblade minis (that I got in the shrink, for free no less) and nearly 1,400 Mage Knight minis to pass the time.

Your putting them on bases to make them like DDM or PFB minis?

Where are you getting the bases? I always wanted to get my hands on plain black bases that I can glue stuff to and make my own DDM (well.... Pathfinder minis now).

Oh and I second the idea of commoners.

Just like Paizo sneaking an iconic PC or two into every set..Id love to see a commoner in each set. Brilliant idea!!!

And yes I really wish we could get minis made to fill the gaps in the 3 Dungeon Adventure Paths.
Id kill for a Kyuss or a Demogorgon mini....sigh. :(

Arent Demodands in the Beastiary 3? Make those please!!
Id love them for The Shackled City!!

Sorry Im getting off topic.

Your putting them on bases to make them like DDM or PFB minis?

Where are you getting the bases? I always wanted to get my hands on plain black bases that I can glue stuff to and make my own DDM (well.... Pathfinder minis now).

Litko makes them. Paizo carries a lot of Litko's game accessory products here, but Paizo does not (yet) carry Litko's wooden base accessory line.

You want the 3mm thick, laser cut circular plywood bases. For mounting small figures, you get the 20 mm bases. The most common ones, medium size, you want the 25mm bases, for Large, you want 50mm in size. Huge 3" bases are also available, but considerably more expensive per base, (Happily, you won't need many huge bases for projects).

The Litko bases are the exact same size and width as a DDM/PFB base for 12 cents a piece. If you want them in plastic, those are available as well in black acrylic, but at 30 cents a piece, are a tad too expensive for converting 1,000 minis. If I was only doing 100 or so, acrylic black bases might be fine for my tastes.

A can of flat black spray primer will have the wood bases all black and ready to glue up your new min to it in a jiffy. Aleene's Tacky Glue (slower dry, better bond - Walmart carries it) or a Krazy Glue pen (faster dry, weaker bond) will be fine for your purposes, either way.

The statue looks a lot better here than from the box art. I was concerned at first. No longer. This will totally fill the PCs with terror when I get the opportunity to plop this down on the gaming table. The other two are just stunning. This set becomes more essential by the week for running the Adventure Path. Great preview Erik! Thanks.

RotR already has some great non-combatants in the set like Aldern and Lucrecia. More commoners would be nice too. I know that Dungeon Crawler will be releasing some commoners in pre-painted plastic. Of course, with commoners a lot of variety is always good.

Later,

Mazra

I did have a little kid in the next set, but ultimately I cut him for something a little cooler. I am keeping an eye out for the right time for non-combatants.

it took an astute reader all of 11 minutes to realize that the packaging constituted a stealth preview of a previously unseen miniature, and revealed one of the big secrets of the Rise of the Runelords set.

Hey I almost got a mention on the blog.

Again.

Lol

I do love the Karzoug golem sculpt. Wish his weapon was aiming just a tad higher to showcase a head critical against a PC.

When I see Lamatar Bayden, I cannot help but think of the Ice King from Adventure Time.

If you guys have time at some point, I can't speak for anyone else but I think it'd be nice at some point to see another shot of the statue next to a Medium mini for scale.

That'll have to wait a bit until we have the minis back in the office, but it's a good idea!

Gross stuff possibly revealed next week that maybe no one has guessed yet:

Mammy Graul
Tendriculos
Room filled with poop?

I thought I read somewhere that there would not be a Mammy Graul mini. Too bad if true. A mini for that grotesque creature would have been useful well beyond running RotR.

Later,

Mazra

Um, no on at least one of those for sure.

I'll let you guess which one!

I did have a little kid in the next set, but ultimately I cut him for something a little cooler. I am keeping an eye out for the right time for non-combatants.

That's actually brilliant. Seriously, rescuing children, damsels, and other non-combatants is a huge RPG trope. It's kind of a bummer to drop a handful of soldiers or elven wizards or xorn on the battlemat and say "ok, there's the deck of this ship, see... and the captain has these prisoners tied to the mast, see..." I get the hairy-eyeball from my players and I can tell they're wondering why these kids are wearing full plate.

Oh, if you are still taking advice on "what minis to feature" in subsequent sets? Honestly? COMMONERS.

This. Like, alot. I'd buy a boxed set of commoners (like the heroes pack) in a heartbeat.

Heck, I'd settle for a micro-set of Pawns for commoners.

Oh now just stop, really, how am I possibly not going to buy this. The karzoug huge, mithril mage, etc etc. Ridiculous. How am I suppose to come up with another $519 for two sets. Stop teasing us and put them out already, I can't stand it.

Oh, if you are still taking advice on "what minis to feature" in subsequent sets? Honestly? COMMONERS. Two per set of 60. Common figures with a common frequency. A Farmer (with pitchfork) and a farmer's wife (with an apron). A boy and a girl. A male miner (with pick) and a matronly baker (with a rolling pin). Angry Villager with pitchfork; Angry villager with torch. A barkeep and a barmaid. You get the idea. A tinker and a carpenter, etc.

Common villagers that are immediately useful and which, some years hence -- when all combined together in a group of 50 or so -- will provide most GMs with a large numbers of common everyday folk to fill a town or urban scene with common everyday people. Not a one of em wearing armor and, at best, improvised weapons only. Whether that is as part of a riot, part of the crowd in a bar or the villagers that need rescuing in From Shore to Sea or a host of other modules or PFS scenarios - there is a sore and pressing needs for such minis.

Yes, yes, yes. Please.

I did have a little kid in the next set, but ultimately I cut him for something a little cooler. I am keeping an eye out for the right time for non-combatants.

They can be part of the set entitled "Normal People & Pets" (was trying to think of the opposite of Heroes & Monsters).

Im sure some will argue that all 3 of these miniatures are very spacific to Rise of the Runelords so are not very useful in a game outside of the adventure path.

This weirds me out because if people complain about it, they should not be looking at a set entitled "Pathfinder Battles: Rise of the Runelords". I mean, it is not like it is a big secret for what these are supposed to be used.

Um, no on at least one of those for sure.

I'll let you guess which one!

We're getting a room full of poop?! That is so effing awesome!

Jason Grubiak wrote:

Your putting them on bases to make them like DDM or PFB minis?

Where are you getting the bases? I always wanted to get my hands on plain black bases that I can glue stuff to and make my own DDM (well.... Pathfinder minis now).

hoardobits.com great prices! They even have 40mm (large bases) I've got almost 1k of MK and DB minis and I put them on these bases!

Hope it helps!

In fact Elsygmasis (MK mini) represents my newest PC -a Tiefling Synthesist! muhahaha

Just noticed this blog doesn't have any tags on it. Needs to have 'Miniatures' added so it shows up with all the other mini previews.

Well, once again excellent work. I was looking forward to the disgusting preview but can happily wait a week now. Love th etitle as well - vol 1 hey. sp when do we see vol 2? Some issues, and don't get me wrong I 100% love the minis in this preview.

Kourzag Statue: Huge stone golem, about time and beautiful. I posted elesewhere I hoped with had some crazing and stone effects, and boy doe sit. no white? Bah, we have an awesome stone golem! The gems on its hand look out of place, probably an artifact of the picture though.

Lamatar: Intelligent use of clear plastic, oh man do I love that face. Shame it's rare I could collect several of these - oh, well just need ot but more minis. The right arm looks seriously out of proportion (could be the ict fingers causing this confusion), and he looks weirdly short (though not as bad as an infamous trogoldyte from a mini set we shan't mention). I think this may look different in hand though. I want several of these, so its a shame they are rare, just means I need to buy more minis.

Ordikon: I love this mini. The pose is fantastic. His face doesn't look very well detailed however, and his left hand looks very oversized.

I agree that we need more commoners, and like the idea of 2 per set, but I think they should be uncommon. Hordes of common rarity monsters is far more useful, an uncoom rarity would still give you 3-4 in a case - more than enough merchants, barkeeps etc. I think a child would be good, a shame it was cut, although a cooler mini is obviously better. Perhaps when spoilering the next set you can let us know which one replaced the child. Commoners would also make for a good encounter pack - a sinple way to incorporate the uncommon rarity in a set, and still let people collect larger numbers.

All in all this is shaping up to be 1 of the best sets of minis I have seen. Can't wait ot see the next preview - Ogrekin times 2 and a graul hound?

Only 95 saving days until August. Make the most of them. Skip lunch if you must.

Ordikon: I love this mini. The pose is fantastic. His face doesn't look very well detailed however, and his left hand looks very oversized.

He has long fingers/claws type things.

With sharp points.

I agree that we need more commoners, and like the idea of 2 per set, but I think they should be uncommon. Hordes of common rarity monsters is far more useful, an uncoom rarity would still give you 3-4 in a case - more than enough merchants, barkeeps etc. I think a child would be good, a shame it was cut, although a cooler mini is obviously better. Perhaps when spoilering the next set you can let us know which one replaced the child. Commoners would also make for a good encounter pack - a sinple way to incorporate the uncommon rarity in a set, and still let people collect larger numbers.

I agree (although I'd possibly prefer rare, to be frank). Hordes of identical monsters doesnt really bug me (I guess I see it as a necessary evil), but hordes of identical villagers does, for some reason. I can't quite see the point in laying out miniatures for roleplaying encounters and encounters with too many 'innocent bystanders' are going to be a pain to run tactically. Thus, I wouldnt imagine getting much use for more than a handful at a time - and in those instances it would be important to tell them apart, in my view.

He has long fingers/claws type things.

With sharp points.

I had a vague memory that was the case. Out of curiosity what's the mini causing the paint scheme issues you mention at the start? (looking forasecret spoiler...)

I have fairly frequently needed handfulls of "bystander" miniatures for things like tavern fights or protect the innocent scenarios. I could see putting certain "commoner" type miniatures in the common slot, but it'd have to be a pretty generic figure like a bumpkin or a merchant or something, because the more specific you get, the less you'd want of that figure.

I was planning to make the kid a rare, because who wants multiples of the same kid? I feel the same way about something like a bar wench or a tavern keeper. You don't really need lots of that type of mini.

On the other hand, I remember a DDM figure (I can't remember the name) of a bald dude with a beer in one hand and a flying fist in the other. I like having lots of that guy.

When I see Lamatar Bayden, I cannot help but think of the Ice King from Adventure Time.

Oooh, can we have a Lumpy Space Princess?

I was planning to make the kid a rare, because who wants multiples of the same kid?

Octomom?

On the other hand, I remember a DDM figure (I can't remember the name) of a bald dude with a beer in one hand and a flying fist in the other. I like having lots of that guy.

Tavern Brawler! I love that mini.

Only 95 saving days until August. Make the most of them. Skip lunch if you must.

I'm making big batches of food on the weekends -- spaghetti or chili or whatever -- and freezing portions to grab in the morning for lunch. I'm also having tea instead of coffee.

Let's say that you buy two cups of coffee every weekday for $1.50 each, because you found someplace really cheap and don't get fancy stuff. Then you're paying $15 every week, which is $750 a year, and you could've done something else with that money -- like buy minis.

Red Rose original is $0.05 per teabag, and presumably you can get hot water for free. (It also seems to be less harsh on the system.) Then if you really need caffeine, a few dark chocolate-covered coffee beans from Mountain Man distributors should do the trick.

You're welcome.

Erik Mona wrote:

On the other hand, I remember a DDM figure (I can't remember the name) of a bald dude with a beer in one hand and a flying fist in the other. I like having lots of that guy.

Tavern Brawler! I love that mini.

Tavern Brawler is currently playing the role of Gibs Hephenus in my Carrion Crown campaign :D

Lem_Furryfeet wrote:

Erik Mona wrote:

On the other hand, I remember a DDM figure (I can't remember the name) of a bald dude with a beer in one hand and a flying fist in the other. I like having lots of that guy.

Tavern Brawler! I love that mini.

Tavern Brawler is currently playing the role of Gibs Hephenus in my Carrion Crown campaign :D

My brother used Tavern Brawler as the mini for his barbarian (who used a greatsword) in a 3.5e game for awhile, but then I encouraged him to switch to a guy that actually resembled his character more.

Does it look to anyone else like the Karzoug Statue is playing hockey?

Does it look to anyone else like the Karzoug Statue is playing hockey?

Glad I'm not the only one who thought it. Only question is, does he Play for the FGJ?

Does it look to anyone else like the Karzoug Statue is playing hockey?

I also thought the same thing.

Maybe they are trying to show he is slicing at those pesky medium-sized creatures?

Will we see The Sandpoint Devil and Erylium in tomorrow's post?

I'll bet the one year's servitude of a prized Halfling slave's service on at least one of them showing up!

The odds of seeing minis of things that aren't actually encountered in the AP are not high. In fact, those odds are low. So low that they couldn't be lower.

Your such the heartbreaker Vic!

But Erylium was encountered, but by your post I guess it's not meant to be.

Still, Happy Day Before May the Fourth Be With You.

But Erylium was encountered, but by your post I guess it's not meant to be.

We expect PCs to encounter Erylium; I was just talking about the Sandpoint Devil.

Not saying anything either way on Erylium... you'll have to wait for Erik on that topic.