Pathfinder Battles Preview: Meetings and Monsters

Friday, November 11, 2011

The Paizo offices are closed for Veterans Day and I’m slammed with more meetings than you can imagine, but those are not good reasons to deprive you guys of awesome preview images from our upcoming Pathfinder Battles Heroes & Monsters set! So I’ve slipped away from my meeting to sneak you this special blog!

First up we have this menacing Ogre, one of my absolute favorite figures from the set. With a heavy heave he’s ready to pound your head into your shoulders with his trusty club. Just don’t ask what he plans to do with your body afterward. It’s nasty.

Next up is the malevolent Minotaur, a wonderful sculpt that towers over your player characters. WizKids did a magnificent job with this miniature, even getting some grisly blood on the bad guy’s blade!

Last up for this week we’ve got the Manticore, a nasty beast of myth and legend. WizKids’ sculptors did a great job translating the image of this creature from the Bestiary into three dimensions, and I’m guessing he will be responsible for the deaths of many player characters in the years to come. Watch out for those tail barbs!

All three of these miniatures are Large, and all three of them are rare. We’re only a few months away from the official Heroes & Monsters release, so these monsters are roaring your way soon!

Happy Veterans Day, and we’ll see you next week. Now I’m headed back to that meeting!

Erik Mona
Publisher

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Liberty's Edge

I like all three, although the Minotaur is a little difficult to making exciting giving all the brown on the paint (inherent to the figure).

I was curious to see seams joinng the Minotaur's arms to the body on both sides, but no such seam is visible on the Ogre.

The Manticore is the best of the three and I am quite impressed with that mini, sculpt and paint both.


The Manticore is quite impressive.

Dark Archive

Thanks for the holiday preview Erik, a slouch you are not!

I wonder wonder what meetings you have lined up.

:)


Steel_Wind wrote:
I was curious to see seams joinng the Minotaur's arms to the body on both sides, but no such seam is visible on the Ogre.

It's the fact the minotaur is reaching around in a circle with both arms to hold the axe -- it's hard to impossible to mold that with injection molding.

The orge is spread out and much easier to mold as a single 'lump' so to speak.


Abraham spalding wrote:
It's the fact the minotaur is reaching around in a circle with both arms to hold the axe -- it's hard to impossible to mold that with injection molding.

Nonsense! You can mold that just fine -- getting it out of the mold is the trick! ;)

Liberty's Edge

My only hesitance are the droopy horns on the minotaur. I realize they match the artwork in the Bestiary, but horns pointing upwards would have looked more cool.


My weekly mini critique:

Ogre:
A good unique sculpt/pose with a decent amount of detail. I had to dig hard to find a critisism on this mini, but the pale-green color is looking like its being a bit over-used on the larges though?

Minotaur:
It is hard to make a "unique" minotaur pose so I'm not really disappointed to see that this was sculpted in a fairly traditional pose. I definately like it a lot better than many of the DDM's minotaurs as several of them looked like they were hunched over to leave a dung deposit. Appearance-wise it looks like the axe handle is far too thin and will splinter apart when he makes his first swing.

Manticore:
Has he been dieting? The body proportions really seem out of whack to me. The head, wings and tail are all good though.

And that's it with my weekly critique. Overall I did really like the minis, and found myself straining at times to find something I didn't like -- but have no fear, I will always find something no matter how silly it is :)

Feel free to drop by the gallery of images:
http://www.pathfinderminis.com


Erik Mona wrote:
We’re only a few months away from the official Heroes & Monsters release, so these monsters are roaring your way soon!

Wait, shouldn't this be weeks and not months? I thought these were being released in December. I'm really, really hoping this wasn't pushed back.


James0235 wrote:
Erik Mona wrote:
We’re only a few months away from the official Heroes & Monsters release, so these monsters are roaring your way soon!
Wait, shouldn't this be weeks and not months? I thought these were being released in December. I'm really, really hoping this wasn't pushed back.

I just noticed that the product page has been updated to say, "Expected approximately January 2012." So, yeah. Pushed back.

ETA: On the bright side, I have longer to save up for it! And yes, I *love* the movie Pollyanna, why do you ask? ;)

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper wrote:

My weekly mini critique:

Ogre:
A good unique sculpt/pose with a decent amount of detail. I had to dig hard to find a critisism on this mini, but the pale-green color is looking like its being a bit over-used on the larges though?

Not sure what you mean by pale green. If you're talking about its skin, that's actually gray.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

James0235 wrote:
Erik Mona wrote:
We’re only a few months away from the official Heroes & Monsters release, so these monsters are roaring your way soon!

Wait, shouldn't this be weeks and not months? I thought these were being released in December. I'm really, really hoping this wasn't pushed back.

Yes, sorry. It should have said weeks. WizKids tells us there is a chance it might slip into the first week of January, but even that is within the "weeks" range.

We'll keep you guys updated on the specific ship date once WizKids has given it to us.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

There's one important fact I forgot to include in the blog (which I literally wrote while slipping out of a meeting for five minutes).

For the first time, the preview photos shown here are the actual, finished product. These are not paint masters. These are the actual final miniatures standing on the actual bases.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Erik Mona wrote:
For the first time, the preview photos shown here are the actual, finished product. These are not paint masters. These are the actual final miniatures standing on the actual bases.

No Feet Pads?.... The decided to go with out them or just a few don't?

Grand Lodge

Thanks Erik for taking the time on a Holiday to post this. I look forward to these previews.

It is nice to see a Minotaur in its proper size category. Looks good.

The Manticore looks like the best ever made for PPMs.

It is looking like the Ogre will be received in time for me to use it at a certain key point in my ROTRL campaign.

Very Cool!

Later,

Mazra


Erik Mona wrote:
Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper wrote:

My weekly mini critique:

Ogre:
A good unique sculpt/pose with a decent amount of detail. I had to dig hard to find a critisism on this mini, but the pale-green color is looking like its being a bit over-used on the larges though?

Not sure what you mean by pale green. If you're talking about its skin, that's actually gray.

Hrmm... either its the photo or my monitor then that's making it look pale-green. Okay, now I have nothing to bash the ogre on.


Nothing to bash the ogre? Don't all orcs carry oversized weapons to compensate?

Anyway, I must say the minotaur looks timid. It's like a cartoon animal with droopy ears. Or one of those anime furries or elves. It looks cute in cartoon chicks, but a fearsome minotaur should rely more on intimidation - and, you know, brutal violence (or violent brutality, if the first thing doesn't work).


KaeYoss wrote:
Anyway, I must say the minotaur looks timid. It's like a cartoon animal with droopy ears. Or one of those anime furries or elves. It looks cute in cartoon chicks, but a fearsome minotaur should rely more on intimidation - and, you know, brutal violence (or violent brutality, if the first thing doesn't work).

You know, now that I think of it... his head looks more like a dairy cow's head than a bull's head.


I feel underexcited...not in general, but by the manticore...and on my screen the ogre is actually light blue-greyish.


Given all the comments about color: What lighting and camera are you using for these photographs, and what editing are you doing to the photos?


Daniel Powell 318 wrote:
Given all the comments about color: What lighting and camera are you using for these photographs, and what editing are you doing to the photos?

I'm guessing they make all photos in the Shed of Doom. Lighting's a bit crazy there, naturally.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I like the minis so far, but I admit I'm a bit put off by the minotaur horns too. I'm not wholey sure how he can gore someone with those things. Seems like he'd need to be willing to ram them with his snout in the process.


Sigh, all three are rares. While I'm only likely to need one manticore minitours and ogres come up a bit more often.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
The Forgotten wrote:
Sigh, all three are rares. While I'm only likely to need one manticore minitours and ogres come up a bit more often.

I expect--and I think either Erik or James has said so before--that the Rise of the Runelords set will contain several Ogres that are *not* rare.

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

The Forgotten wrote:
Sigh, all three are rares. While I'm only likely to need one manticore minitours and ogres come up a bit more often.

All three are large, and we already knew all of the larges are rares in this first set.

Eric has already confirmed an uncommon ogre for Rise of the Runelords.


Vigil wrote:
The Forgotten wrote:
Sigh, all three are rares. While I'm only likely to need one manticore minitours and ogres come up a bit more often.

All three are large, and we already knew all of the larges are rares in this first set.

Eric has already confirmed an uncommon ogre for Rise of the Runelords.

Given that large minis are packaged separately, wouldn't it be better to give them a separate rarity? There's zero chance of getting them in a standard booster, and an equal chance of getting each of them in a large booster...

Sczarni

Daniel Powell 318 wrote:


Given that large minis are packaged separately, wouldn't it be better to give them a separate rarity? There's zero chance of getting them in a standard booster, and an equal chance of getting each of them in a large booster...

These are rares in the amount that are made in the print run. As many larges as other rares will be made, and therefor the larges are rares. if there were 2 rares, and you got 4 of each in a case, they would be commons in the sceme of the print run. Its not about how many you get in a pack, as there is only 1-2 minis per packm the rarity is figured out on a larger scale.


For all intents and purposes, those large H&M figures have no rarity rating. They're all equally rare (or common, or uncommon, or numerous, or whatever you want to call it). So you can basically give them any rarity you like.

So they went with rare. It's a psychological thing. People are happier for getting rares.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

KaeYoss wrote:

For all intents and purposes, those large H&M figures have no rarity rating. They're all equally rare (or common, or uncommon, or numerous, or whatever you want to call it). So you can basically give them any rarity you like.

So they went with rare. It's a psychological thing. People are happier for getting rares.

Cpt_kirstov is correct; it's not arbitrary. The Larges are defined as rare because, when you bust open a case, you'll find that you'll end up with approximately the same number of each of them as you do Medium rares.


Vic Wertz wrote:
KaeYoss wrote:

For all intents and purposes, those large H&M figures have no rarity rating. They're all equally rare (or common, or uncommon, or numerous, or whatever you want to call it). So you can basically give them any rarity you like.

So they went with rare. It's a psychological thing. People are happier for getting rares.

Cpt_kirstov is correct; it's not arbitrary. The Larges are defined as rare because, when you bust open a case, you'll find that you'll end up with approximately the same number of each of them as you do Medium rares.

With seven known large minis and two minis still unknown (7-9 large minis), a case then averages 1.3-1.7 of each rare. Figuring 5-7 medium rares, 7ish to 12 of the standard boosters should be rares. There are more of each uncommon per case- but there are also more uncommons.

Quick estimates point to a half-duplicate set of rares, a full duplicate set of uncommons, and three total sets of commons for 9/18/33 standard boosters, plus four boosters subsumed in rounding. Those numbers have twice the chance of getting a given medium or pair of small commons than getting a given rare. A pack is as likely to contain a (lich or spectre) as it is to contain a skeleton.

In other words, rare doesn't mean all that rare.

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