It's Friday, which means a new raft of previews of the upcoming Legends of Golarion set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures! But first, an update: The Legends of Golarion set's official release date is now OCTOBER 16. The set will formally release well in time for marathon Halloween game sessions, and just in time for you to give out the coolest Halloween treats on the block!
This week I wanted to show off several figures that have never been seen before, either at Gen Con or anywhere else. All five of these beasties are making their world debut here on the Paizo Blog this evening. Buckle up!
We've already shown you the Djinni and Efreeti figures. This week I want to show off the three remaining genies in the set, starting with the gorgeous Marid.
Here she is in all her towering glory. The Marid, associated with the element of water, is the most powerful of the standard genies in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, and she's also the largest. This version is derived from the gorgeous Jesper Ejsing illustration in the Bestiary, which originally adorned a cover for our “Arabian Nights” Adventure Path, Legacy of Fire. WizKids did a great job translating her to three dimensions. This Large figure is slated at the rare rarity.
And here we have the Shaitan, the earth-based genie cousin of the Marid. Again we used a Jesper Ejsing illustration as the basis for the figure, which I'm discovering is a good recipe for a gorgeous miniature. The colors on this one compliment each other perfectly, and her expression is great. Again, the Shaitan is a Large, rare figure, though she's not quite so big as her watery companion.
The lowly Jann are formed of all four elements, and must spend a great deal more time on the material plane than their more powerful relatives in the genie family. In fact, Jann look much like normal humans, which in this case means this figure easily doubles as a human enemy or player character. He's got brass knuckles, but also works as an unarmed combatant such as a monk. Like his cousins, the Janni is a rare, but in this case he's much smaller, coming in at size Medium.
This nasty fellow is the Medium Black Dragon, but don't let the size fool you into thinking he doesn't pack a powerful punch. Based on a great Ben Wootten illustration, this guy ably represents the smallest black dragon statted up in the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. Size wise, he's about the same height as the Young Red Dragon from Rise of the Runelords, which by today's standards would have probably been a Medium. I'll show off the Red Dragon Evolution photos soon (probably next week), and you'll see that we already officially made that change there, with the previously Large Young Red Dragon showing up as a Medium repaint alongside awesome new Large and Huge Red Dragon sculpts. But I am getting ahead of myself. The dastardly Medium Black Dragon is rare, Medium, and extremely awesome.
Speaking of awesome, one of my favorite aspects of the Pathfinder RPG is incorporating monsters from real world mythology. Often this means pulling in creatures from ancient Greece, Egypt, or other Old World sources. Here we have a critter very much from America's side of the pond. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Hodag, menace of Northern Wisconsin. The Hodag got its start in an 1890s hoax, in which a local prankster described the creature to an area newspaper like this: "the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end." I'd say WizKids nailed it. The Hodag appears in Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3. In the Legends of Golarion set, he's a Large, uncommon figure.
And that's it for this week. Look for another big preview next Friday.
Erik Mona
Publisher
