Pathfinder Battles Preview: Short Blog, Big Dragon

Wow, not based on the artwork I was hoping for, but a very impressive pose (as long as it is well balanced).

Very cool!

Holy s&@!.

Holy s~~+.

I'll say it again... Holy S#~~

That might possibly be the best looking dragon out of all the DDM minis and PF ones combined. I was skeptical about this being a good choice for the limited Gargantuan incentive spot, but the sculpt, pose and paint job have made me want one, even with me already having Icingdeath. This looks way better. Now if we can just get a Red...

I love this model, I just wish it's head was angled down. Who is he supposed to be looking at? Are they just really far away?

Or also flying?

I love this one!!!!!

We need to set a reminder on Mona's calendar for every Friday.

I'm usually aware of it, but unfortunately my day-to-day meeting schedule is so tight that if some emergency happens I'm basically writing these blogs over lunch or while waiting for other people to show up to meetings.

Oh, well. There are worse problems to have than being busy!

Man these incentives just seem to be getting better. It looks really dynamic and has some great detail. Best do far? I think it may well be, in fact I think its the best gargantuan PPM to date. You are going to have your work cut out topping this dragon (c'mon awesome black or red!). I'm looking forward to this one. Curious on the wing design, the wings almost look like 3 sets of wings. Like the OP I kind of hpe it well balanced, it looks really top heavy, with a fair bulk toward the rear of the base. I'd assume it is well balanced of course, since I can't imagine it would get past you otherwise.

So does this mean we get the weird ones next week?

First reaction: WOW! I am very pleased.

This does look cool. Is it shipped in pieces or will it come fully assembled?

It's a must-have!

After the gargantuan Chromatics are done I'm really Really REALLY hoping for some gargantuan Metallics! Seriously, they've received so little love via artwork (barely any artwork of ancient Metallics) and stats (no mythic Metallics) that I really wish they'd get at least a decent gargantuan miniature (especially either the Silver or Gold).

Dragons are cool but I'd like to see other gargantuan models too. Just my opinion. I really like this one but it looks a little top heavy for the table.

Is it just the picture or did you decide go with a different colour scheme than in the evolution box set? It looks like white on black rather than the white on icy blue from the box.

Hadn't noticed that Isil-aha. I hope it matches the dragons from the evolution set, minor colour variations aside.

Wow, this one is going to be a popular one!

Same painter, so it'll be quite similar.

The next Gargantuan is NOT A DRAGON.

I haven't decided what the one after that will be, yet.

Feel free to provide suggestions. Assume that the theme of the set is pretty straightforward dungeon adventuring, as a thought experiment.

Colossal Advanced Rust Monster.

The next Gargantuan is NOT A DRAGON.

I haven't decided what the one after that will be, yet.

Feel free to provide suggestions. Assume that the theme of the set is pretty straightforward dungeon adventuring, as a thought experiment.

Hrm. After gazing through my Bestiary quickly ...

• Crag Linnorm: Linnorms are pretty iconic (in no small part thanks to your contribution in the form of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings). It would be nice to get a miniature of one.
  
• Neothelid: Pretty appropriate for a dungeon crawl, plus its a good example of a "renaissance monster." You could almost call it the first redeemed misfit monster. You'd have to figure out something else to call it, I guess. Don't think neothelid is open-source.
  
• Phoenix: You need more Good-aligned miniatures. /drool
  
• Purple Worm: I fought a purple worm in my first dungeon crawl in Pathfinder. Fun times. Almost died, but I was a reality-warping sorcerer, so I defeated it with my Bulhmanian Powers of Awesome-itude. (AKA Ran away like a little girl.) I'd love a miniature as a trophy.
  
• Shoggoth: Sure, its a Huge creature, but c'mon! You can't deny me my shoggoth forever, Erik!
  

Second the Neothelid. We still don't have a proper proxy for a purple worm from any of the old mini sets (The one WotC made was huge), so a neothelid could double as one as well (or as a Nightcrawler. Let the worms crawl up!!

The next Gargantuan is NOT A DRAGON.

I haven't decided what the one after that will be, yet.

Feel free to provide suggestions. Assume that the theme of the set is pretty straightforward dungeon adventuring, as a thought experiment.

So we'll have to wait for the red. Oh well. As for future gargantuans, a quick (?) scan through the bestiaries, and Suitably dungeon oriented, I'd would love to see (in order)

Shemazian - yeah I know we've just had.a tonne of demons but this would look so good. Probably not dungeons enough but it is crying out to be made.

Nightshade, nightcrawler: might be a little plain unless it's semitransparent and the head is suitably alien. Could proxy for a lot of other things.

Zomok! Hell yes. The artwork is awesome. Again may not be dungeony enough

Neothelid or purple worm. Bit too soon after the first worm?

Bodythief: first gargantuan plant, plus you could use pod-spawned in the set.

Warsworn: hard to sculpt, very niche

Surprisingly there aren't that many gargantuan creatures. I think I'd be happy to get some huge minis as incentives, especially if you could finesse a double.

Nice! I love that mini.

Looks good, well posed. As others have stated above, I hope it's reasonably well balanced.

As to suggestions for a Dungeon themed Gargantuan figure:

An advanced Gelatinous Cube. Sure, there is the 'Large' version from the DDM line from years ago, but having one that could engulf (nearly) any other figure from any line would rock. Sure, it's basically a transparent box, but that would keep production costs down. Somewhat niche though. (Set name, number, and symbol could be painted or molded directly onto the inside of the top to avoid needing a base.)

A Mu Spore. Also a Plant and a high level threat.

A Lurker Below/Trapper in the form of a 20 ft (4 inch) square section of floor, possibly with (detachable) treasure chest in the center. Could be combined with the Cube above for a double-Gargantuan pack.

Perhaps a 20ft square room. It could have one or two moveable / removable wall sections to simulate doors or secret doors.

Possibly a small, one story building with detachable base and opening door(s).

For that matter, how about a rowboat that can hold three or four figures? Many dungeons have rivers / streams that have to be traversed. Would also cross well with the Skull & Shackles set.

Advanced treant?

Very neat! Quick question though-

This is the beat incentive piece yet! The quality has been on the rise lately. The WoR locust is amazing in detail and feel, unfortunately it is tight cast as hell. This dragon looks amazing! As an added bonus it will work well with the evolution pack from last year. So when are we rolling out a red that looks this menacing? Nice work folks!

Very neat! Quick question though- ** spoiler omitted **

There is not

I second the phoenix and shemazian. Mostly because I know of Paizo adventures involving them. If we ever get a colossal figure, it better be the tarrasque. We've been waiting quite a while for that one.

i was hoping that the case incentive figure was going to be the hut itself, but my disappointment in that is softened by how gorgeous that dragon looks.

I love this model, I just wish it's head was angled down. Who is he supposed to be looking at? Are they just really far away?

Or also flying?

I had the very same thought. Just: wow! Cool dragon! Awesome to see it in flight as if it just took off the ground or as if it was coming down. Would have been perfect if it's head was tilted toward the ground where terrified players would be.

As for suggestions for future biggies (in order of preference) :

Jabberwock!
Aboleth
+1 Linnorm

I second the phoenix and shemazian. Mostly because I know of Paizo adventures involving them. If we ever get a colossal figure, it better be the tarrasque. We've been waiting quite a while for that one.

Look up phoenix force in the heroclix range if you wants perfectly adequate phoenix, just about the right size. I rebased one recently for my game.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Holy s~~+.

I'll say it again... Holy S!!$

I was also going to say the same thing. This is by far the awesomest dragon I've seen

Look up phoenix force in the heroclix range if you wants perfectly adequate phoenix, just about the right size. I rebased one recently for my game.

Already have, but it is a little on the small side for gargantuan. :)

I thought the next set would be MUMMY´S MASK and include the CAIRN LINNORM...
The one after that, IRON GODS would have to include a ANNIHILATOR ROBOT!

Neothelid and Shoggoth seem like great ideas to me. I would also love to see a Gargantuan ooze, like a black pudding, although I know that that probably seems like something too non-descript to be a case incentive. But if you made a Gargantuan ooze modular, such that you could pull it apart into smaller pieces, each of which would look fine as a stand-alone smaller ooze, that would be AWESOME.

I also would love to see an Ulgurstata (massive skeleton-spewing undead worm), though that might be off-limits IP.

Gargantuan, dungeon-themed with existing art and a name to get around the OGL... How about the Moldering Emperor, a black-blooded neothelid from Descent Into Midnight (Second Darkness book 6).

What I would like to see is something I see a lot of but don't have a lot of minis for.

Gargantuan vermin or Gargantuan construct.

I know that they aren't exactly a dungeon type creature, but a Roc is a good choice for a gargantuan monster. They show up in several APs IIRC, and are not so high of CR as to hardly ever be used.

The next Gargantuan is NOT A DRAGON.

I haven't decided what the one after that will be, yet.

Feel free to provide suggestions. Assume that the theme of the set is pretty straightforward dungeon adventuring, as a thought experiment.

Could we get a Gargantuan Nocticula?

Pretty pleease?

If I had to vote for one of the ideas so far I would go for the Shoggoth, but I am sure what ever you end up doing will be fun.

The gargantuan white in the preview looks amazing, though i might have to pass because i already have Icingdeath from D&D.

It would be great if we could get more bizarre gargantuans like Deskari from WotR because, in my opinion, there already are enough generic dragon miniatures to choose from.

From gargantuan demons, a Shemhazian or an Ulkreth would look amazing in plastic.
Fitting the next theme's dungeon crawl the Shoggoth is another great idea as well as the Neothelid, though i believe there would be a lot of fragility issues with a gargantuan Neothelid in plastic.

Dear Lord, that dragon is beautiful!!

As for gargantuan candidates, I'd vote for the annihlator robot from the inner sea bestiary, or perhaps the quantium golem. Ooh, or a kraken.

Annihilator robot would be so very cool, but given the lack of enthusiasm about the inclusion of a few clockwork creatures or some modern Russian material and I'm not sure how popular it would be. Is the quantium golem gargantuan? There's only 1 in golarion so you could say its a little niche - nice advanced gargantuan [appropriate metal] golem though. As for the Kraken, I'd be all for this if I weren't waiting on my kickstarter one from DCM. That said a good enough sculpt will pretty well sell itself. And given this white I'm pretty sure they can pull of anything now (gonna need me two of these)

While I would love to see a neothelid and a purple worm I'm not sure they work with the current art. My concern with a purple worm is the bursting from the ground look, aside form colour and some minor details it may just look to close to the ice worm huge just released (An awesome mini by the way that I'd encourage anyone to buy). We also still have what is a very nice, if not ideal sized, version from the old DDM line. The neothelid coiled upon his base as he is in the artwork may just look very underwhelming as a lump of coiled purple/black plastic with a cool head poking out. Now if it looks like the mouldering Emperor, sans wings, it would be very cool indeed. I'm still holding out for, and have been since the announcement of the first gargantuans, the Shemhazian - it's a unique paizo creature and the art is exceptionally cool. I like the idea of the linnorns as a creature but the art needs an upgrade if the mini is to look truly fightening, then these two would be an great iconic monster for plasticizing. Monster Iconics...hmmmmmm...that sounds like a cool idea.

Good points, Cat. The shemhazian would definitely be awesome.

I'm not sold on linnorns, though...they're not different enough from dragons...

I second the phoenix and shemazian. Mostly because I know of Paizo adventures involving them. If we ever get a colossal figure, it better be the tarrasque. We've been waiting quite a while for that one.

Reaper had the tarrasque as one of the crown jewels of its Bones 2 Kickstarter, so I imagine that would have fulfilled most of the market demand for a fairly niche creature. Granted, its no PPM, but just under 15,000 people had the option to buy it for $25 with free shipping in the states...

You can see pics here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-ii- the-return-of-mr-bones/posts/641823

How about a bandersnatch? A classic and whimsical monster that has not been done before. Plus, an animalistic gargantuan would be great too, as demons and dragons have been done well covered at this point.