Two from the Codex

Friday, April 10, 2015

We've already revealed a ton of cool monsters and dungeon dressing from June's Dungeons Deep set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic miniatures, and there are more to come in the weeks between now and the set's release. But Dungeons Deep has more than just creepy crawlies, and this week I'd like to focus on two figures from the set that are drawn from the fantastic art in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: NPC Codex.

Do you have the NPC Codex? I absolutely adore this book. Using the ready-made stats provided there has cut my prep time considerably in my own games, and it's great to have a whole army of classed characters at my fingertips. The book's excellent art is also a great resource for Pathfinder Battles.

As I travel around the country from convention to convention, I always enjoy chatting with hobby retailers and with folks selling our minis at their booths. And they almost always tell me the same thing: "We need more player character minis!"

It's unusual feedback, from a certain perspective. Hard-core minis collectors are often in the opposite camp. Over the years, they've already got a ton of humans, dwarves, and elves, and would much prefer that we focus our efforts on monsters, particularly monsters than have never before been made in prepainted plastic. Unfortunately, you can't run a successful miniatures business catering only to the hard-core collectors, as a set filled with nothing but catoblepases and flail snails is unlikely to impress the more casual collectors, who outnumber the hard-cores by at least an order of magnitude. And yet those hard-core collectors are the heart of the line, the folks who keep me always seeking out new and fun things to do with the minis line, and who support us release after release.

Customers at retail stores, generally speaking, come in looking for a figure to represent their character (a tough job for a catoblepas). The new Iconic Heroes boxed sets are a good answer to that type of customer, but the fact of the matter is that the mainline Pathfinder Battles sets need to serve both constituencies, which means I've got my job cut out for me when deciding which player character figures to include in a set. Too many, and I lose the hard-core collectors. Too few, and I lose the retailers.

In this environment, the NPC Codex is a godsend. Filled with awesome images of awesome characters, it gives me a great chance to pick and choose the figures I think will have the most appeal to just about everyone.

Here are a couple of my selections for Dungeons Deep.

This dashing gentleman is the Paladin of Abadar, Golarion's god of commerce and law. I've been looking for an excuse to include a "super good guy" mini in the line for a long time, and when I saw this guy's art on page 126 of the NPC Codex, I knew I'd found my man. He's perfect for any paladin or armored crusader in your campaign, whether as a player character or a haughty, annoying NPC. The Paladin of Abadar is a Medium, rare figure.

The imposing Dragon Smiter is also a paladin, but you wouldn't know that from looking at her. In fact, she's so covered in armor that it's difficult to tell much about her at all, except that you definitely don't want to get on her bad side. (Honestly, the figure is so heavily armored that it works as a male or female, and probably could be a human, elf, or half-elf with no one batting an eye.) The Dragon Smiter appears on page 120 of the NPC Codex, where she's a lawful good human paladin. For my money, she could just as easily be a villain. Either way, she looks cooool. The Dragon Smiter is a Medium, uncommon figure.

And here's a shot of both final figures together, haunting a plant in my office. I think they came out great!

See you next week for another look at upcoming figures from the Pathfinder Battles line!

Erik Mona
Publisher