Pathfinder Battles Preview: Rounding Third, Heading for Home

Friday, January 18, 2013

We’re less than a week away from the January 23rd official release date for the Shattered Star set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy figures! But with all the crazy Kickstarter stuff going on over the last month, we’ve still got a few figures left to reveal from the set.

So without further ado, let’s jump right into it!

Here we have Portioque, a wily subterranean wizard who likes to hang out with his buddy, Caedimus. Like that erstwhile companion, Portioque is a common figure.

The ancient Runelords of Thassilon often employed clockwork servants, and this Clockwork Soldier, culled straight from the pages of Bestiary 3 makes a compelling member of an ancient Thassilonian fighting force. He’s also at the common rarity, so you can work up a whole party of them to menace your player characters.

And here we have the Tower Girl, a cunning rogue from an all-girl gang that plays an important role in the first adventure of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Shards of Sin. She’s common as well, and also makes a nice double for a player character rogue.

Here’s another ancient underground dweller we like to call a Xulgath. This guy is also common, which would be a problem if he smelled as bad as his Pathfinder RPG counterpart, but which is awesome for building whole hordes of anthropomorphic subterranean lizard people. Wait until you see the paint detail on this guy’s scales. You won’t believe he’s a common, but he is!

Here we have a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon, who appears in the Adventure Path as a not-altogether-unfriendly evil cleric named Gein Kafog. We knew we wanted to depict this cleric with a chain weapon, which can be very difficult with plastic miniatures. Our compromise was to wrap much of the chain around his body, which certainly fits in well with a follower of a god dedicated to pain. The Cleric of Zon-Kuthon is at the uncommon rarity.

This slavering spiderlike critter is a Shriezyx, a horrific aberration cooked up by the ancient Runelords. A bunch of them still dwell in the city of Magnimar (and their stats appear in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Magnimar, City of Monuments). It’s probably difficult to tell from this photo, but I assure you that the face on this little bugger is GROSS. This Medium figure is at the uncommon rarity.

Believe it or not, there’s an old elf under this evil-looking armor. I’d tell you whether your Shattered Star players will consider him a friend or foe, but that’s spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that Ardathanatus, a rare figure, works great as any kind of black-armored figure you might need in any campaign. And he’s got a huge axe, too!

Last up this week we’ve got Sheila Heidmarch, the Venture-Captain of the Pathfinder Society’s lodge in the city of Magnimar and a patron to the player characters throughout the Shattered Star Adventure Path. With a design based on a cover illustration by Wayne Reynolds and a history that goes deep into the history of Pathfinder products, this is a fun figure I’m happy to include in the set not only because it’s beautiful, but because it will work great for just about any female spellcaster you might need. Sheila is a rare figure.

That’s it for this week. Next week the set will actually be out and you’ll be able to view the figures yourselves. I’ll do one more Shattered Star blog with high-quality images a few more figures that changed paint schemes late in the set (and hence still need to be photographed here at Paizo HQ), as well as quality images of a few figures from much earlier that had to make do with my shoddy iPhone camera shots for one reason or another.

And then it’s time to start talking about the NEXT set. And the one after that. And the one after that, and the one after that, and the one…

Erik Mona
Publisher

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Tags: Miniatures Pathfinder Adventure Path Pathfinder Battles Shattered Star
Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I probably won't be running Shattered Star soon, but I'll be using these minis. I see a lot of things I'll use here. Awesome stuff.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Well done guys. Rounds out an awesome set - can't wait to see the next if its even better than this one (hard ask). Leaves me with a hard decision. When the anniversary edition of RUnelords came out I was going to run it next. Now I really want to run shattered star. Ah so many AP's to run, so little time - damn you time, stop moving so fast (well wait until next week when my shattered star minis cases arive of course)

Portioque: Common! Awesome! two derro means more fun (for the DM). This one looks better than the first.

Clockwork Soldier: Waiting to see the color scheme on this since the KS reveal. Looks good. Will need a few of these.

Tower Girl: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Female rogue, common, beautiful sculpt. Great mini.

Xulgath: Trglodyte? Matches the art and what I expect form a trog. Pose is very dynamic and the colors work well.

Cleric of Zon-Kuthon: Interesting choice. uncommon rarity is good since it means a few but not a lot.

:
He only appears once and then as a non combat encounter
. Any insight into why you included him over some other choices? Or was it just to round out the clerics. I really like him, the art he's based on was great and he's a good representation.

Shriezyx: This I love. Wasn't sure ti would make the set so had some spiders ready to sub for it. Looks creepy enough in this pic, can't wait to get it hand. Great colour scheme.

Ardathanatus: Very nice indeed. Was hoping he'd appear without helmet since he has a unique face and backstory but like this one a lot. And a villanous mini with a polearm! Really good pose, great choice of color. Other pics I saw on a not to be mentioned german site made the polearmlook very bendy. Is it as flimsy as it highlady athroxis from RR?

Sheila Heidmarch: Very nice mini. Will make the females at my table happy, at long last a female wizard, and a great one.

Look forward with interest to see the ones that changed paint scheme.

What about the air elementals? Don't they get no love?


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Love the Tower Girl. I can totally see myself using her as a PC. Not like when my brother-in-law would spend 10 minutes digging through his piles of WotC minis and say, "This one is a girl, I think," and I'd just end up using a d12 as a marker. :P

Grand Lodge

Thanks Erik for everything.

I see that my case has shipped. It looks like I will get it near release date. This is very much appreciated.

Fantastic looking set. I look forward to the next set, and then the next set after that, and then the next set, and then...

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

Cat-thulhu wrote:
Any insight into why you included him over some other choices?

Yes. We set the set list waaaaaay before the AP was even fully outlined.

Much hilarity followed, including some changes in development that changed how certain characters were to be used in the Adventure Path.

This is one of the things I mean when I say that there are some challenges to creating a set of miniatures to release concurrent to the publication of the Adventure Path itself.

But anyway, cool mini, so no harm done.


These all look awesome! Your descriptions are a huge help for me, especially with the Shriezyx and the Xulgath.

I am unsure about the clockwork soldier. He may be useful, but I need to see him in hand first. I am looking forward to all of the other minis in this preview.

The Cleric of Zon-Kuthon stands out to me. I like the look of the chain wrapped around him.

The derro and Sheila tie for second best in this bunch.

Great work!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, PF Special Edition Subscriber

I was going to say I was hoping we would see the air elementals but apparently pathfinderminis.com has pictures of them, as well as a headless horseman:

http://pathfinderminis.com/gallery5.htm

Did I miss a blog post somewhere? When did they get revealed?

Anyway, awesome set. Looking forward to my shipment!

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

They haven't been officially revealed, though a case leaked early in Germany and someone posted pictures.

The air elementals changed paint schemes late in the process, and the final versions are scheduled for quality photography next week.

I'll have them up next week with a general roundup, set checklist, and other final thoughts and images on the set.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

I noticed on another site you said you had received feedback from several people that people wanted less NPC's? I for one really think you nailed the balance for shattered star, and the quality of the NPC's is great anyway. NPC's are always welcome and I've been a long time collector, to the point where I recently handed over about 500+ minis to a friend to make more room in my collection.

And thank you again for the female rogue. I really hope we get a second fire giant and hill giant sometime in the next sets, especially if they are females (and therefore a female frost and stone, just to round it out of course).


Where is the xulgath from?

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I've always pictured Sheila Heidmarch as a big-boned viking type. Guess I was a bit off.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Nick O'Connell wrote:
Where is the xulgath from?

It's the Troglodyte name for Troglodytes


Thanks for the info


This set finished strong. And as far as NPCs / Characters go, the mix has been fine. If everything keeps up like this, I'll be purchasing the next set and the next and the next... Well done!


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The mix of pc's to monsters has been pretty good in this set! No complaints, although you can't argue that monsters do have a bit of a plus! Erik, you really have been doing a fantastic job in not only the minis but:

Your communication with the fans on here as well as other boards.

Your simple transparency as to why decisions have been made.

Your explanation as to why certain things have been chosen.

Your acceptance of criticism.

Your open, honest opinion on what needs to improve and what could have been done better.

Your push to perfection in the miniatures as a GAMER, not as a businessman.

Your simple excitement at getting and seeing the miniatures like all of us (except you get them sooner)!

Listening to what we have to say and doing that in future sets.

OK, enough compliments. You are going to get too big of a head!!

Thanks a million! You know you are the biigest name in the industry right now! Well you and Lisa!!

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I agree that set looks great, and is the first of the Pathfinder minis I am seriously investing in.

Also, I'd like to thank you for including some great and flavorful female miniatures. I regularly game with female players and finding miniatures for their PCs (and for NPCs) that aren't hackneyed stereotypes or pin-up models is tough. This set alone has a number of awesome ladies that can cover most archetypes, have dynamic poses, and are well painted. Heck, even Sorshen looks unique with a lot of personality and doesn't look the typical bimbo evil sorceress.

Keep up the good work!

Liberty's Edge

O_O The Tower Girl mini seriously looks like my ex-Tower Girl Shattered Star PC, circa level 1. Like, just like her. She doesn't use a dagger so much these days, and she has better armor, but since I can *never* find a mini that at all resembles my characters, male or female, I kind of need this.

Dark Archive

These are all really great minis... and you're doing a terrific work, Erik! :)

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

That clockwork soldier alone is going to make these worthwhile for me. I think I'm buying some minis.


Has the name of the next set been released?

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Shalafi2412 wrote:
Has the name of the next set been released?

Not yet. Erik wants Shattered Star to have a couple of weeks in the spotlight before we all more on. The earliest we can expect it is the blog on the 2nd, and quite likely it'll be a week or two on from that.

Grand Lodge

Shouldn't the Shattered Star miniatures be the lead attraction when someone goes to paizo.com's home page? Just saying!


Just got my blue dragon in the mail! So excited!

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

Cat-thulhu wrote:

I noticed on another site you said you had received feedback from several people that people wanted less NPC's? I for one really think you nailed the balance for shattered star, and the quality of the NPC's is great anyway. NPC's are always welcome and I've been a long time collector, to the point where I recently handed over about 500+ minis to a friend to make more room in my collection.

And thank you again for the female rogue. I really hope we get a second fire giant and hill giant sometime in the next sets, especially if they are females (and therefore a female frost and stone, just to round it out of course).

Thanks for the kind words.

It's my goal to do at least one male and female of every giant race, so consider your suggestion duly noted and greatly in line with what we already have planned! It will take several sets to get everything, but I am working hard to get male and female giants, all Bestiary dragons at all sizes, and all elementals at all sizes as major goals for the Pathfinder Battles line.

We're on it! :)

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

Enlight_Bystand wrote:
Shalafi2412 wrote:
Has the name of the next set been released?
Not yet. Erik wants Shattered Star to have a couple of weeks in the spotlight before we all more on. The earliest we can expect it is the blog on the 2nd, and quite likely it'll be a week or two on from that.

I suspect it will be sooner than that, actually.

I don't know if we'll be able to release the name of the next big set, but we've got some non-set "interesting stuff" in the works I expect to be able to announce very shortly.

DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

How shortly? Excitment overload!!


RIGHT NOW!?

WHAT ABOUT NOW.

CMOOOOOoooooon Erik <3


Erik Mona wrote:

I don't know if we'll be able to release the name of the next big set, but we've got some non-set "interesting stuff" in the works I expect to be able to announce very shortly.

DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Ouch, this post is down right cruel.

[Looking forward to it.]

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Erik Mona wrote:

I suspect it will be sooner than that, actually.

I don't know if we'll be able to release the name of the next big set, but we've got some non-set "interesting stuff" in the works I expect to be able to announce very shortly.

DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

Like … encounter packs? ;)

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