Pathfinder Battles Preview: The Gross, the Bad, and the Ugly

Only 3 more months...

its crowfood!

Pretty sweet.

By 'early August' release, do you mean they'll be first available at Gencon, or just sometime around then?

Was looking at these with Beastie Boys playing in the headphones, and man, that Faceless Stalker really looks like he's dancing... but they look great! I'm starting RotRL this summer, and I'm glad I don't have to hunt for the right minis!

We plan to have them at Gen Con, and have them in stores are the same time.

That's the plan, anyway! :)

Great - now all I need is a sponsor for the whole set which unfortunately surpasses my RPG budget :(

Hmmmmmmm. Early August eh? I might have to pull this out of my side cart and have it sent to me as soon as its available?

I want these minis now!

The Shattered Star AP will indeed be launching at Gen Con.

I really hope the next set is much more like H&M with more general stuff that can be used in every game. With each preview, this set gets more and more specific to RotR, which obviously is the intent, but it doesn't help those of us who run homebrew games.

A few points I hope Paizo considers for future sets:

New Collectors I'm new to collecting plastic miniatures, as I'm sure others are too, so I don't have anything besides what was in H&M. I'd like to expand my collection of all the essential sorts of miniatures without having to go back and buy DDM. Creating obscure miniatures that were never done in DDM means nothing to me, it just means I end up with more obscure and less usable miniatures.

Casual Buyers I didn't get into DDM because the few times I would buy a booster, it would be full of all sorts of very specific, obscure stuff, which was of no use to me since I didn't play DDM or 3.5 at the time. I think this set could produce the same effect in casual buyers who just decide to pick up a booster here and there, and end up with a bunch of very specific NPCs.

The White Dragon Cutting the white dragon was a big disappointment. It is a miniature that is needed for RotR, and useful in other games as well. The same can't be said for some of the other huge miniatures that were kept in.

I do still have my fingers crossed that we will see more general use miniatures in the last dozen or so that need to be revealed. Maybe some more giants?

It is good to see these. They are difficult to proxy when running the adventure path.

For new collectors out there, this site, Auggies and EBay are all good sources to find the traditional monsters made by Wizards of the Coast or Reaper, and many at really good prices. What makes the RotR set special is the minis within are unique to the Adventure Path. Finding a mini that looks remotely like a Skinsaw Cultist is very difficult. My recommendation is to find the time, pick up the new RotR book, the minis and have fun running one of the great adventures ever produced in the hobby. Then you will have a real need for exactly the minis produced in this set. Enjoy!

Later,

Mazra

New Collectors I'm new to collecting plastic miniatures, as I'm sure others are too, so I don't have anything besides what was in H&M. I'd like to expand my collection of all the essential sorts of miniatures without having to go back and buy DDM. Creating obscure miniatures that were never done in DDM means nothing to me, it just means I end up with more obscure and less usable miniatures.

Thanks for the feedback, Narl! I definitely understand your perspective. We try to consider all customers when we make these sets, and we're in it for the long haul. We plan to cover just about everything with Pathfinder Battles, but with the sheer number of characters, races, classes, and monsters in the game, it's going to take us a long time to get to everything.

By my count, 52 of the 65 miniatures in this set are either "generic" monsters (such as various goblins, ogres, and the like from the Bestiary) or specific NPCs that can easily stand in for any character of the correct race or class. By this measure, I would count an elf ranger like Shalelu as a "generic" miniature.

A guy like the Mithral Mage or Karzoug, or even quirky Runelords-specific monsters like the Karzoug Statue or Lamia Harridan are among the 13 minis in the set that I feel are truly "specific" to the set.

I don't think that's a bad ratio, though of course your milage may vary.

Casual Buyers I didn't get into DDM because the few times I would buy a booster, it would be full of all sorts of very specific, obscure stuff, which was of no use to me since I didn't play DDM or 3.5 at the time. I think this set could produce the same effect in casual buyers who just decide to pick up a booster here and there, and end up with a bunch of very specific NPCs.

These minis are designed for people playing Pathfinder. From today's blog, the Faceless Stalker and Ogrekin are actually _in_ the Pathfinder Bestiary 2, and the Skinsaw Cultist could easily double as any sort of masked cultist or thug in just about any campaign (even so, I didn't count them as "generic" in my above listing, just to be extra-conservative).

The next set has an even larger number of "generic" monsters, so I think you'll be very pleased with that one, even if Rise of the Runelords doesn't quite hit the mark for you.

The White Dragon Cutting the white dragon was a big disappointment. It is a miniature that is needed for RotR, and useful in other games as well. The same can't be said for some of the other huge miniatures that were kept in.

I do still have my fingers crossed that we will see more general use miniatures in the last dozen or so that need to be revealed. Maybe some more giants?

WizKids is working on a way to release the White Dragon, perhaps in an upcoming set or as its own stand-alone figure. Once they informed us that three Huges would have to be cut from the set for cost reasons, the White Dragon was an easy choice because it could so easily fit into a future release. The Karzoug Statue, by contrast, only really makes sense within the context of a set based on the Rise of the Runelords.

Had I known the set would only have four Huge figures, I probably would have chosen slightly differently, but I didn't know that, and rather than just scrap cool-looking minis for the Lamia Harridan and Karzoug Statue in the interest of getting more "generic" content out sooner, I decided to push off some of the stuff that could work in future sets into the future, and publish the Runelords-specific Huges in the Runelords set itself.

Nothing will really be "lost," because the cut miniatures can easily fit into future sets and independent releases. That wouldn't be the case with the Harridan or the Statue. Those minis would have just been lost forever.

And to address your last hope, the remaining figures are a mixture of campaign-specific and "generic" miniatures, probably about half-and-half.

I'll be picking up a full case from my FLGS--- how many more days of waiting? *looks at clock* And minutes? lol

If I'm a poor college student who can't afford to subscribe, am I ever going to have a chance at getting beasties like the Black Dragon or the Rune Giant again without having to risk the dreaded Craig's List?

Wow. 3 fantastic minis that I will certainly want multiples of.

Ogrekin. Fantastic. Pose looks good. Shading ont he skin, and creepy. What more could you want? Well more of them I suppose - but a family of identical octuplets still fits the ogrekin lifestyle I suppose.

Faceless stalker: Yay. Wanted one for a while now. This one looks really creepy with that hunch. Nice pose and shading.

Skinsaw cultist: Another one right on the mark in my eyes. looks great, nice colour scheme, nice pose. Captures the look of the art and the feel beautifully.

Also bearing in mind the pics are often less impressive than the mini in hand - these should be a real pleasure to draw from a booster. This is a solid preview and they are all COMMON!

If I'm a poor college student who can't afford to subscribe, am I ever going to have a chance at getting beasties like the Black Dragon or the Rune Giant again without having to risk the dreaded Craig's List?

The incentives are usually avaialable from a number of reliable sellers. I live in Australia and have hapilly bought from trollandtoad.com, miniaturemarket.com and auggiesgamesonline.com without any problems. You can get them for a reasonable price - recommended or lower quite often.

Nice to have a Faceless Stalker mini now.

Hey Narl:
I can understand all of your points and in truth cannot argue them as they are your perspective and feelings. All of them make sense as a new collector.

However, as someone on the flip-side who has been collecting from Harbinger these minis make a nice change to the common. I actually cringe a bit when I see another ogre or orc as I have hundreds of them. When I see something like the faceless stalker, skinsaw cultist and the Karzoug Statue I am very satisfied.

Keep in mind that I am not playing Rise of the Runelords and probably never will as all my gaming adventures are homebrew including my world. However, variety is the spice of life and I am very, very and let me add another very, happy to see the different minis.

There are many companies out there that sell the more common creatures (skeletons, zombies, orcs, etc). If you want take a look around and I am sure you can get everything you want.

Good luck and enjoy! I am sure Paizo will give you what you want!

Thank you Mr. Mona for this fantastic preview! You are doing a good job in raising the hype on this set, and I'm certainly buying into it.
Ogrekin: Its nice to have a deformed looking, medium sized humanoid. A great choice. Awesome detail on the face.
Faceless Stalker: A good looking minature, and I can honestly see other uses of this mini as a proxy (like for Totenmaskes). Weird.. I don't actually remember them in the AP except as a possible wandering monster. Might this mean that they're featured in an encounter??
Skinsaw Cultist Again good looking, whether in its role in the AP or as a cultist for Gyronna, The Whispering Way, or any number or other debased organizations.
The choice of these three as commons is exciting to me, since it'll be a lot easier to collect multiples and then mod them...

I'm still holding out for an Annis Hag. :)

Faceless Stalker: A good looking minature, and I can honestly see other uses of this mini as a proxy (like for Totenmaskes). Weird.. I don't actually remember them in the AP except as a possible wandering monster. Might this mean that they're featured in an encounter??

I'm still holding out for an Annis Hag. :)

Yeah it would be awesome to get one in the set

Rakshaka wrote:

Faceless Stalker: A good looking minature, and I can honestly see other uses of this mini as a proxy (like for Totenmaskes). Weird.. I don't actually remember them in the AP except as a possible wandering monster. Might this mean that they're featured in an encounter??

** spoiler omitted **

Also

And to address your last hope, the remaining figures are a mixture of campaign-specific and "generic" miniatures, probably about half-and-half.

Erik, thanks for the detailed response to my concerns. I'm looking forward to the rest of the previews and to the set!

Desperately juggling between this and Rappan Athuk to try to make budget meet.