None currently, though I haven't ruled it out. I think at this point it's more important to establish a wide base of humanoids - it's less jarring to mix Battle! minis with existing monsters than with existing humanoids.
Don't care for the lighthearted, colorful, cartoonish style of Battle! Studio Paper Miniatures? Presenting a set of paper minis that you're guaranteed to not like!
Unfortunately, monster packs are kind of a low priority for me, since monsters make the vast majority of the paper mini market - I kind of carved out player characters as a niche, since they were under-served. I do have a friend working on a set of fey creatures in a similar style, which Battle! Studio's going to publish if she finishes it, so keep an eye open for that. It'll be a part of a different "line" of miniatures and probably have a different price point.
Also, as for your previous question on "normal" haired gnomes - since I'm going to have a halfling set coming out in the future, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the long view to make the gnomes double for halflings. However, as always, the black and white lineart will be included so you can color them yourself!
With Human Adventurers 2 out somewhat prematurely (that is, before the other racial sets are finished) and with my current living situation finally becoming somewhat stabilized (don't worry, I'm doing fine!), I've decided to take a crack at the Gnome set again!
I think I've finally settled on a good aesthetic for gnomes - you can find a preview on my Tumblr. I really wanted to capture their zany otherworldlyness, which meant making them rather cartoony, even when compared to the already fairly cartoonish style of the rest of my paper mini line. As usual, a good chunk of the minis are going to be androgynous, but I think I'm going to skew female/feminine in this one (in contrast to the dwarf set, which is skewed to male/masculine characters).
I said I was working on gnomes last time, but that was before I noticed I had 12 commissioned human characters I could use, and only had to draw 8 more for a full set!
So, most likely gnomes. I did a few but got discouraged when I wasn't able to get the right look I wanted for them. I've gotten better at drawing since then, though, so I'm just about ready to take another crack at them!
Thanks for the review! You can get in touch with me at Tim (at) battlestudio (dot) com and we can work out the free promotional mini!
By the way, the "Dr. Horrible" elf is female, and the syringe spear is actually an item in the game, just so you know ;D
Yeah, I had seen the syringe spear before, I just hadn't imagined it so literally.
I realize it's been almost 2 weeks (college+work+personal life=insanity) but is it still okay if I e-mail you about the promo mini? I understand if you've taken on other projects already and don't have time.
Go for it! There's not really a time limit on this sort of thing.
Yeah, I thought that since not everyone uses Pathfinder elves exactly (with the irises filling the entire eye), I thought that having the irises fill only most of the eye was a good compromise.
Also, promotion is still going! First three to buy the minis and leave a review get one free custom paper mini commission! (Unfortunately, it doesn't count if you have benefited from this promotion before. I'd still appreciate a review!)
Sorry for the lack of cover photography. It was the only thing not done yet and I figured I could always go back in and add it later. Until then, enjoy some hasty Photoshop.
I may end up doing gnomes before halflings. Half-elves are last because they aren't too terribly distinct from humans or elves, and someone playing a half-elf could easily pick from the human set.
I'm available to contact at Tim (at) battlestudio (dot) com for commissions at pretty much any time! They are not expensive.
Sorry for the delay on this, everyone - I haven't made as much progress on elves as I would have liked. Real life stuff and other projects are interfering somewhat. That being said, I'm going to take the initiative to get these done within the next few weeks.
And SpaceMonkeyDM jumps in outta nowhere and takes the last free review mini! Shoot me an e-mail at Tim (at) battlestudio (dot) com with the details to claim your prize!
Unfortunately this set is off to a slow start, but I'm getting out of the art funk I've been in since I finished the dwarf set, so it should start picking up speed soon!
Sorry, no tokens for animal companions in this set! It's gonna be elves only.
Also I tend to avoid having the classes of the characters in these sets be explicitly clear when I can (though some classes, like druid and alchemist, are pretty much instantly recognizable). That being said, there should be an even enough spread to where there should be a mini that can be used for every class.
That being said, I'll definitely make sure that there's an Arcane Archer in there, as well as a whip-using priestess.
Unfortunately they're only in standard American letter size right now.
They're meant to be printed out and shaped. It's not difficult or expensive - a print shop like Kinko's or an office supply store charges less than a dollar per page of full color cardstock, and a full page of minis only takes about 15 minutes to put together.
The Human set actually has a "lorekeeper" character who carries a big book, if you look in the bottom right of the central photo on the Human set cover. Actually, I'm not sure if the book is visible!
Hey, everyone! I just started work on the next set of my line of paper minis, which is going to be Elven adventurers. This is in keeping with the "by race" theme that I'm doing; two sets have already been completed, being Humans and Dwarves.
I just thought I might come on here to get some feedback while I work on the Elven set - are tehre any character designs or archetypes that you think would be essential to a set of Elven adventurers? That is, of course, besides the obvious, like archers and such. Conversely, are there any interesting or "out there" character concepts you think would stand out?
I'm not short on ideas of my own, but I am very interested to hear what kind of elves you would expect or like to see!
Another thing I was thinking of doing was releasing a pack supplementary to this, using the same miniatures but colored with dark skin and light hair, like drow. Since they would be using the same base artwork as the elven set, it would likely be a whole set of "pure hearted rebels seeking to throw of the reputation of their murderous kin" drow - though I think that archetype may be common enough to warrant such a thing! In any case, I'm not sure if it would be appreciated as much in the main set. It would probably be only 99 cents, but would not contain the uncolored lineart or any alternate colored versions.
A quick note - the cover character is, in fact, a mini in the set. She's doing a different pose in the miniature artwork, in the middle of leaping or running, sword held high with her off hand crackling with magic energy. I believe she appears on the third page.
She's actually a character I made for a home game and never got to use.
First free mini goes to Crispy3ed! Contact me at Tim (at) battlestudio (dot) com, and we'll get you taken care of.
Any dwarf without a beard is meant to be female. A lot of them look a bit mannish because I imagine that that's how dwarves in general tend to look. I normally like to include a lot of gender-ambiguous characters in the sets, so that players can use them as being either male or female, but that wasn't really possible here (with the exception of the one with the polearm, who is so covered up that the gender can go either way).
There's still a lot of debate on whether or not female dwarves have beards - as a compromise, I often gave them sideburns instead. I imagine you can have sideburns and still look feminine.
The distribution is definitely skewed male here, I will admit. I did this simply because, in my experience, many more people tend to play male dwarves than female ones. The balance might be skewed in the opposite direction when I get to gnomes.
Dwarves set is finally done! (Sorry for the sloppy coloring on the cover illustration. Deadline panic.)
And, as a special promotion, the first three to purchase and leave a review on these minis (who didn't do so for the human set) will receive a free paper mini drawn by me!
Yeah, that's basically the idea. Someone can commission me to draw their character, Cedric the Copyrighted, and opt for the cheaper "include in set" price - they still own the character of Cedric the Copyrighted and his design, but I get the rights to sell that particular image of him in a PDF of paper minis.
Also, I'm uploading the Dwarves set now; they should be available by tomorrow!
They're double front, though the characters are typically drawn facing the side (or at least looking to the side). I considered drawing the backs of the characters, too, but I figured that people would rather have 30 different characters than the fronts and backs of 15 characters.
The initial drawings for the dwarf set are almost done. I'm also going to be redoing the cover for this, since I've made a better design in the interim (what's up there is something I just sort of threw together just to get it up).
Next set coming up is Dwarven Adventurers - It'll contain 20 minis and cost 1.49. I've already sketched and inked five of them - they should be done and available for sale within the next couple of weeks!
I suppose it'd be no problem including commissioned minis so long as I can get the commissioner to agree beforehand that the mini will go into the set (and that they keep the copyright to the character designs).
I've done some thinking about mini commissions, but I don't have anything set in stone yet - I was thinking I would offer to do them, but I would do them for cheaper if the commissioner allowed me to include them as part of a later set for sale (though that may have some messy copyright implications, and if that's the case I should probably not do that!)
Also, I'm gonna start work on the first set of demi-humans right away. The next set was going to be Dwarven Adventurers, unless people would much rather I do a different race first!
Also, gigglestick, I'm interested to know which mini your player picked!
About Markhet
5th level Druid (PFRPG)
N small humanoid (Gnome)
Init +2; Senses low light vision, Perception +13
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AC 17, t 14, ff 15
hp 53
Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +10
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Spd 20 ft (4 squares)
Melee Sickle +1 (1d4-3)
Ranged sling +6 (1d3-3)
Base Atk +3 CMB -1 CMD +11
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Str 5
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 12
Wis 17 (19)
Cha 14
Age 76 Height 3' Weight 32lbs
Eyes Green Hair Light green Skin light yellow
Appearance Markhet is a slight girl, even by gnomish standards, but otherwise healthy and well formed. She has a large smile and large doe like eyes. Her teeth are surprisingly white and straight considering her slave upbringing and her insizers are slightly larger and longer then normal giving her a mischievous catlike grin. Her hair is usually kept in a thick mane that goes almost to the small of her back, but on occasion, likely when pressured to do so, she has been known to braid it. She now wears her fancy magic leather armour (salvaged from a goblin) but when armour is inappropriate she wears her thread bare peasant smock. She seldom wears shoes but has wrappings should she need to traverse sharp rocks or the like. Although Markhet's skin is yellow in the desert sun, at nights, or when Markhet is lounging in the shade a distinct greenish tinge can be detected.
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Gnome Racial traits:
Spoiler:
+2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, –2 Strength: Gnomes are physically weak but surprisingly hardy, and their attitude makes them naturally agreeable.
Small: Gnomes are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Slow Speed: Gnomes have a base speed of 20 feet.
Low-Light Vision: Gnomes can see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. See Additional Rules.
Defensive Training: Gnomes get a +4 dodge bonus to AC against monsters of the giant type.
Gnome Magic: Gnomes add +1 to the DC of any saving throws against illusion spells that they cast. Gnomes with a Charisma of 11 or higher also gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, and speak with animals. The caster level for these effects is equal to the gnome's level. The DC for these spells is equal to 10 + the spell's level + the gnome's Charisma modifier.
Eternal Hope: Gnomes rarely loose hope and are always confident even in a hopeless situation. Gnomes with this trait revive a +2 on saving throws vs fear and despair effects. In addition, once per day after rolling a 1 on a d20, a gnome can re-roll and use the second result.
Illusion Resistance: Gnomes get a +2 racial saving throw bonus against illusion spells or effects.
Keen Senses: Gnomes receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception skill checks.
Obsessive: Gnomes receive a +2 racial bonus on a Craft or Profession skill of their choice.
Weapon Familiarity: Gnomes treat any weapon with the word “gnome” in its name as a martial weapon.
Languages: Gnomes begin play speaking Common, Gnome, and Sylvan. Gnomes with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, and Orc.
Spontaneous Casting: A druid can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn't prepared ahead of time. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast any summon nature's ally spell of the same level or lower.
Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A druid can't cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity's (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Orisons: Druids can prepare a number of orisons, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Druid under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.
Bonus Languages: A druid's bonus language options include Sylvan, the language of woodland creatures. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
A druid also knows Druidic, a secret language known only to druids, which she learns upon becoming a 1st-level druid. Druidic is a free language for a druid; that is, she knows it in addition to her regular allotment of languages and it doesn't take up a language slot. Druids are forbidden to teach this language to nondruids.
Druidic has its own alphabet.
Nature Bond (Ex): At 1st level, a druid forms a bond with nature. This bond can take one of two forms. The first is a close tie to the natural world, granting the druid one of the following cleric domains: Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant, Water, or Weather. When determining the powers and bonus spells granted by this domain, the druid's effective cleric level is equal to her druid level. A druid that selects this option also receives additional domain spell slots, just like a cleric. She must prepare the spell from her domain in this slot and this spell cannot be used to cast a spell spontaneously.
The second option is to form a close bond with an animal companion. A druid may begin play with any of the animals listed in Animal Choices. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the druid on her adventures.
Unlike normal animals of its kind, an animal companion's Hit Dice, abilities, skills, and feats advance as the druid advances in level. If a character receives an animal companion from more than one source, her effective druid levels stack for the purposes of determining the statistics and abilities of the companion. Most animal companions increase in size when their druid reaches 4th or 7th level, depending on the companion. If a druid releases her companion from service, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer in the environment where the new companion typically lives. This ceremony can also replace an animal companion that has perished.
Nature Sense (Ex): A druid gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.
Wild Empathy (Ex): A druid can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person (see Using Skills). The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
A druid can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.
Woodland Stride (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a druid may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at her normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment. Thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion, however, still affect her.
Trackless Step (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a druid leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. She may choose to leave a trail if so desired.
Resist Nature's Lure (Ex): Starting at 4th level, a druid gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against the spell-like and supernatural abilities of fey. This bonus also applies to spells and effects that utilize or target plants, such as blight, entangle, spike growth, and warp wood.
Wild Shape (Su): At 4th level, a druid gains the ability to turn herself into any Small or Medium animal and back again once per day. Her options for new forms include all creatures with the animal type. This ability functions like the beast shape I spell, except as noted here. The effect lasts for 1 hour per druid level, or until she changes back. Changing form (to animal or back) is a standard action and doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. The form chosen must be that of an animal with which the druid is familiar.
A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)
A druid can use this ability an additional time per day at 6th level and every two levels thereafter, for a total of eight times at 18th level. At 20th level, a druid can use wild shape at will. As a druid gains levels, this ability allows the druid to take on the form of larger and smaller animals, elementals, and plants. Each form expends one daily use of this ability, regardless of the form taken.
At 6th level, a druid can also use wild shape to change into a Large or Tiny animal or a Small elemental. When taking the form of an animal, a druid's wild shape now functions as beast shape II. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid's wild shape functions as elemental body I.
At 8th level, a druid can also use wild shape to change into a Huge or Diminutive animal, a Medium elemental, or a Small or Medium plant creature. When taking the form of animals, a druid's wild shape now functions as beast shape III. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid's wild shape now functions as elemental body II. When taking the form of a plant creature, the druid's wild shape functions as plant shape I.
At 10th level, a druid can also use wild shape to change into a Large elemental or a Large plant creature. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid's wild shape now functions as elemental body III. When taking the form of a plant, the druid's wild shape now functions as plant shape II.
At 12th level, a druid can also use wild shape to change into a Huge elemental or a Huge plant creature. When taking the form of an elemental, the druid's wild shape now functions as elemental body IV. When taking the form of a plant, the druid's wild shape now functions as plant shape III.
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Feats Spell Focus: Conjuration, augmented summoning, natural spell
Traits Animal friend (Gnome): +1 trait bonus to will when within 30ft of an animal, Earning your freedom: +1 trait bonus to reflex save
Skills
..Fly + 7
..Handle Animal + 11
..Heal + 11
..Perception + 13
..Ride + 8
..Stealth + 16
..Survival + 13
Languages
Gnomish, Common, Sylvan, Druidic, Giant
Possessions
Green Faith cash: 1gp
Personality Markhet is extremely friendly and laid back. She doesn't believe in doing any more then absolutely necessary, some would call her lazy, but MArket knows what she's good at and simply refuses to toil at anything outside of her skillset. The only time Markhet seems to give genuine effort is when she's taking care of animals or plants left in her care. Then she's a seemingly tireless bundle of energy. Markhet generally speaks in the 3rd person. Markhet is also a bit of a magpie. She's quite fond of grabbing buttons, beads, string, and ribbons to add to her ever growing collection. She seems to have no use for the items, but she does like to look over her collection whenever the opportunity presents itself.
History
Spoiler:
Markhet never knew her family. As long as she could remember she'd been a slave. Her early days had been a blur, she spent long hours of work for a pittance of food and water, then she huddled with the other children on a cold stone floor waiting for a new day of labors. Then she was sent to the merchant's house, a wealthy fat man had one of his slaves teach her numbers and letters because gnomes, he had heard, were gifted with such things. Then something happened and the fat merchant disappeared and Markhet was sold to a new master.
Markhet was bought and sold many times over the years, some masters were cruel, others almost kind, but it wasn't until she was bought by the shouter that Markhet found her true calling. The shouter, Markhet never bothered to learn his name, kept many wild and dangerous animals in his home and he liked using them to maim or kill. The beasts needed to be fed and their cages would need to be cleaned, he had proper animal handlers for that task, but occasionally, usually for a sadistic chuckle he would send a slave for that task. Markhet was bought for just such amusement but when the lions failed to eat or even maul her he reluctantly turned her over to one of his animal handlers as an assistant. Over the next few years Markhet found herself doing something she actually cared about. For the first time in her life she felt alive.
As masters go the shouter was particularly cruel, but for most of her stay she managed to avoid his ire, but one day Markhet caught him whipping the great cats and Markhet didn't think twice about confronting him. Markhet had never once spoken out of turn to a master before but she suddenly found herself telling the shouter to stop abusing his animals. The shouter didn't even blink at her words though, and he turned to use the cruel whip on Markhet, but something curious happened. The lions, which had been cowering, terrified of the shouters' whip, suddenly sprang to life as he turned to attack their favorite care taker. The chains, which had held them fast for years, didn't even slow them down and within seconds the shouter would shout no more.
The Lions were deemed too fine to be destroyed over what could only be described as an unfortunate accident, and in the estate sale Markhet found herself being sold along with the animals. Someone in the shouter's house understood Markhet's value.
Animal Companion
Larrs "Lion" Catington
N Medium Animal
Init +4, Senses Low Light Vision, Sent, Perception +2
AC 21, t 14, ff 17 (+4 Dex. +3 natural armour, +2 leather armour)
HP 34 (5d8+10)
Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +3
Speed 40 ft (8 squares)
Attack bite +6 (1d6+3), 2 claws +6 (1d4+2)
Spoiler:
[dice]1d20+6;1d6+3[dice][dice]1d20+6;1d4+2[dice]
Space5', Reach 5'
Special Attacks rake (1d4+2)
Ability ScoresStr 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 10;
BAB+3; CMB+5; CMD+19 (+21 Vs Trip)
Feats Dodge, mobility, armor proficiency (light)
Tricks Larrs has been trained to serve as a combat mount.
Bonus Tricks Track, Attack
Skills Acrobatics +13, Climb +5, stealth +7 (+11 in undergrowth)
Special Qualities low-light vision, scent, evasion.
