Disclaimer: My use of miniatures is as a general term for anything that you use that is a 2d or 3d artistic rendering of the PC/NPC/Enemy you are trying to represent.
I am fairly new to DMing (2 sessions in!) and so far people are loving the minis that I purchased and brought to the table. I personally enjoy 3d miniatures but we've used 2d pictures on stands before to great success.
My main issue is, being new, I have no collection to fall back on. Random encounters and rolling on tables results in me having to use dice for placeholders. I don't mind it, and it works, but I am always asked "what does this really look like" and need to bust out the Monster Manual to show the players.
What miniatures would you recommend acquiring over time as sort of a "base collection" that will catch most situations? I am a proponent of the 80/20 rule, so for this I'd want to be able to cover 80% of my encounters with appropriate miniatures on-hand, and leave 20% as "purchase when necessary or as situations arise". Also to that end, what miniatures would you recommend acquiring now as their cost/availability is coming into question in the future?
10ish Orc minis with at least two of them being different from the rest (some sort of "shaman" type orc and a more mean looking "warchief" figurine too).
10ish Goblin minis, again with two being "leader" types.
A mix of 10 undead minis that are mostly zombies and skeletons.
5ish Kobold minis.
10ish "Cultist" minis with two "leader" figures (either priestly or muscle-bound and brutish).
1 larger Dragon mini (and color, though Red is classic and Black looks cool too).
1 larger Demon mini of some kind.
From there you have covered the most basic things people run into. You can supplement this pile with whatever tickles your fancy from there.
EDIT: As a quick example, you could fill out your cult quota with a Deathpriest of Orcus and a handful of Orcus Cultists while also picking up some Blood of Vol Cultists and Blood of Vol Fanatics to give your cultist pile a little more diversity. Then this happy band can be whatever cult you need it to be. Toss in an Immolith as your demon mini and you've even got the monster the party has to stop them from summoning with their dark rituals.
They're more on the expensive side, but if you want some great-looking minis, the classic is always Games Workshop. Skim through Warhammer: Age of Sigmar for boxes of boys (orcs) and grots (goblins), and skeletons, all of which will see plenty of use and come with extra gear to kit out a leader, banner-bearer, and musician. It can be a bit hard to find what you're looking for (everything got strange names back in their "just ask the lawyers what to do" days) but the company reputation has been rebounding lately.
Not as cool as proper minis but the Pathfinder Pawns are imo an excellent deal and get the job done just fine. If you were to buy the NPC codex box and the first bestiary box you're set for the vast majority of encounters you'll ever run.
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DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder) Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
Here's what I usually recommend when starting out: - 6 PC stereotypes (wizard, cleric, halfling rogue, Dwarf w/axe, elven archer, sword wielder in plate) - 6 identical small sized humanoids (goblins if possible) - 4 identical small sized creatures - 6 identical medium sized humanoids (armored if possible) - 6 identical medium sized humanoid undead (zombies if possible) - 6 identical medium sized creatures (wolves if possible) - 4 identical large sized humanoids (ogres if possible) - 4 identical large sized creatures - One dragon - One huge miniature - A chunk of gray clay which can be used to: improvise a miniature improvise a piece of scenery elevate a miniature (i.e. as a flight base) attach a miniature to another miniature (or to a piece of scenery) mark a miniature (as a leader, or as under a condition)
I highly recommend the D&D adventure system board games. Each comes with about 40 minis and cost about $40.00, sometimes on sale for far less. You get a great variety of heroes and monsters with each set having a theme. Also the Arena of the planeswalkers board games come with a good number of minis and those games can be had for super cheap. All of the minis in all of these are unpainted plastic so if you want to get into painting minis you have a ton to start with.
As far as what to get:
Bunch of Orcs, goblins, kobolds, skeletons and zombies
Various PC/NPC types for heros
Humans in various types of gear, mostly thugs which can be about anything
I've been thinking about doing exactly this, though I wonder a.) what is the quality of the plastic, and b.) how well do they take the paint? (Also, are the games themselves worthwhile beyond for the minis?)
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DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder) Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
I've been thinking about doing exactly this, though I wonder a.) what is the quality of the plastic, and b.) how well do they take the paint? (Also, are the games themselves worthwhile beyond for the minis?)
For the Arena of the planeswalkers board games:
a) The plastic for the unpainted minis is rigid but not fragile. The bases are a bit too large though.
b) I dry-brushed them without issue, but I'd still recommend priming them before painting (the 'dip' process didn't work very well without primer)
I haven't tried the board-game (I have too many others to play), but it seems a lot like Heroscape (with MtG cards). The terrain boards provided in it are definitely designed to be Heroscape compatible.
I moved to 3d minis because I like to paint them (which also takes time) and also found that the D&D board games (Wrath of Ashardalon, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc) have great minis that can be played as is or if you wash them, and then spray on some primer, they can be painted. Another option is the D&D unpainted minis from wizkids. I can pick these up in my local board game store for about $4 (single larger mini, 3 smaller minis).
I've been thinking about doing exactly this, though I wonder a.) what is the quality of the plastic, and b.) how well do they take the paint? (Also, are the games themselves worthwhile beyond for the minis?)
The quality seems decent enough, I've had no issues painting them. I do prime them first but they've taken paint really well. I do also use the dip method and haven't had an issues there. As for how good the games are the Adventure System games are a lot of fun and the replay value is pretty decent, it's based on 4th edition D&D though so keep that in mind. The Duel of the Planeswalkers games are not as good IMO, as another poster said it's pretty much Heroscape (awesome game) with magic cards added in as an extra mechanic.
Not as cool as proper minis but the Pathfinder Pawns are imo an excellent deal and get the job done just fine. If you were to buy the NPC codex box and the first bestiary box you're set for the vast majority of encounters you'll ever run.
Totally agree, I went even cheaper and bought the Pathfinder Beginner Box to get reusable flip mat and pawns (lots) with bases.
I've been using over and over for years. I don't see the need to have pictures on pawns match what group is tangling with at the moment, they are there more to make positions clear etc.
I've been tempted to get an additional box though just to get some more size L creatures (and bigger), I think beginner box had only 3 size L.
Look to your adventure for a best fit. For example, the first session my players set out on took place in an abandoned Dwarven Mine that had been taken over by a group of Goblins (very small piece of a MUCH larger story). For this adventure I got about 8 Goblins, 2 Worgs, and a Hobgoblin (leader). Per most research material all 3 of these types can been seen together so it made sense to use them in this setting. I really depends on the adventure. You don't want your adventurers going to the top of a mountain and then fighting something from the Underdark. Likewise, you don't want them going in to a swamp and fighting something like a Frost Giant. One of the biggest tricks is to dispell disbelief. :) Hope this helps, even a little.
Admin on MeWe's Conservative D&D Players group, but I believe that no matter what our differences are, our love of D&D is something that should bring us together. So, if you don't start something I won't either. Fair enough?
Method Actor, Storyteller, Tactician type who plays peacemaker at the table. This fall will be my 39th year playing D&D, Gamma World, Car Wars, Talisman, Serenity and Traveller.
I find humanoid minis much more useful than monstrous minis at most times. I run a lot of cityscape adventures though so lots of town cards and detailed PC minis have been my go to. I've used RPG Locker for a recent purchase because of their great prices, my only issue with RPG Locker is that their prices are so good, they often run low on stock pretty quickly.
I like Arcknight for mini. They are flat and make it easy to store. They look good and i dont have to worry about them fading with me touching them as if i printed them out on stock paper.
Probably the most important miniatures to have are a variety of humanoids for PCs and NPCs. Players are generally happier when they have their own mini.
For monsters, I'd recommend using tokens of some kind, as they're inexpensive. If you want to get fancy, you can print off small images of monsters and paste them on to an appropriately sized base.
For actual minis, the posters above already mentioned a lot of great places. One other recommendation I'd make is to check the secondary market. You can get a large amount of minis cheaply by buying them used from somewhere like eBay.
If you're into board games, there are a lot of modern board games that come with very good minis that are usually the appropriate size. A couple that spring to mind are games like Blood Rage and Zombicide: Black Plague. The former has some very cool vikings and mythical monsters. The latter has a lot of great undead figures and appropriately medieval humanoids. These are just two examples, but if you look you'll find many others. This isn't necessarily inexpensive, but it might be cheaper than buying the minis individually, and you get the added benefit of having a cool board game for when you're bored of playing D&D.
You can buy already printed and primed minis that you can paint instead of getting them prepainted. I get them from here https://something-to-bragg-about-miniatures.square.site/ , he is new so stuffs pretty cheap but quality is great. Maune try etsy too
Disclaimer: My use of miniatures is as a general term for anything that you use that is a 2d or 3d artistic rendering of the PC/NPC/Enemy you are trying to represent.
I am fairly new to DMing (2 sessions in!) and so far people are loving the minis that I purchased and brought to the table. I personally enjoy 3d miniatures but we've used 2d pictures on stands before to great success.
My main issue is, being new, I have no collection to fall back on. Random encounters and rolling on tables results in me having to use dice for placeholders. I don't mind it, and it works, but I am always asked "what does this really look like" and need to bust out the Monster Manual to show the players.
What miniatures would you recommend acquiring over time as sort of a "base collection" that will catch most situations? I am a proponent of the 80/20 rule, so for this I'd want to be able to cover 80% of my encounters with appropriate miniatures on-hand, and leave 20% as "purchase when necessary or as situations arise". Also to that end, what miniatures would you recommend acquiring now as their cost/availability is coming into question in the future?
I'd stock up on:
From there you have covered the most basic things people run into. You can supplement this pile with whatever tickles your fancy from there.
Troll and Toad is a good online store for minis.
EDIT: As a quick example, you could fill out your cult quota with a Deathpriest of Orcus and a handful of Orcus Cultists while also picking up some Blood of Vol Cultists and Blood of Vol Fanatics to give your cultist pile a little more diversity. Then this happy band can be whatever cult you need it to be. Toss in an Immolith as your demon mini and you've even got the monster the party has to stop them from summoning with their dark rituals.
They're more on the expensive side, but if you want some great-looking minis, the classic is always Games Workshop. Skim through Warhammer: Age of Sigmar for boxes of boys (orcs) and grots (goblins), and skeletons, all of which will see plenty of use and come with extra gear to kit out a leader, banner-bearer, and musician. It can be a bit hard to find what you're looking for (everything got strange names back in their "just ask the lawyers what to do" days) but the company reputation has been rebounding lately.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Not as cool as proper minis but the Pathfinder Pawns are imo an excellent deal and get the job done just fine. If you were to buy the NPC codex box and the first bestiary box you're set for the vast majority of encounters you'll ever run.
DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder)
Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
Here's what I usually recommend when starting out:
- 6 PC stereotypes (wizard, cleric, halfling rogue, Dwarf w/axe, elven archer, sword wielder in plate)
- 6 identical small sized humanoids (goblins if possible)
- 4 identical small sized creatures
- 6 identical medium sized humanoids (armored if possible)
- 6 identical medium sized humanoid undead (zombies if possible)
- 6 identical medium sized creatures (wolves if possible)
- 4 identical large sized humanoids (ogres if possible)
- 4 identical large sized creatures
- One dragon
- One huge miniature
- A chunk of gray clay which can be used to:
improvise a miniature
improvise a piece of scenery
elevate a miniature (i.e. as a flight base)
attach a miniature to another miniature (or to a piece of scenery)
mark a miniature (as a leader, or as under a condition)
I highly recommend the D&D adventure system board games. Each comes with about 40 minis and cost about $40.00, sometimes on sale for far less. You get a great variety of heroes and monsters with each set having a theme. Also the Arena of the planeswalkers board games come with a good number of minis and those games can be had for super cheap. All of the minis in all of these are unpainted plastic so if you want to get into painting minis you have a ton to start with.
As far as what to get:
Bunch of Orcs, goblins, kobolds, skeletons and zombies
Various PC/NPC types for heros
Humans in various types of gear, mostly thugs which can be about anything
Wolves, bears, spiders, snakes
Ogre, giant
Lizardfolk
I've been thinking about doing exactly this, though I wonder a.) what is the quality of the plastic, and b.) how well do they take the paint? (Also, are the games themselves worthwhile beyond for the minis?)
DM: The Cult of the Crystal Spider (Currently playing Storm King's Thunder)
Player: The Knuckles of Arth - Lemire (Tiefling Rogue 5/Fighter 1)
I started with print/2d minis because they were cheap but they do take some work. Here are two of my favorite resources:
https://printableheroes.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWWu9Ny8cW8
I moved to 3d minis because I like to paint them (which also takes time) and also found that the D&D board games (Wrath of Ashardalon, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc) have great minis that can be played as is or if you wash them, and then spray on some primer, they can be painted. Another option is the D&D unpainted minis from wizkids. I can pick these up in my local board game store for about $4 (single larger mini, 3 smaller minis).
Good luck with the minis!
Look to your adventure for a best fit. For example, the first session my players set out on took place in an abandoned Dwarven Mine that had been taken over by a group of Goblins (very small piece of a MUCH larger story). For this adventure I got about 8 Goblins, 2 Worgs, and a Hobgoblin (leader). Per most research material all 3 of these types can been seen together so it made sense to use them in this setting. I really depends on the adventure. You don't want your adventurers going to the top of a mountain and then fighting something from the Underdark. Likewise, you don't want them going in to a swamp and fighting something like a Frost Giant. One of the biggest tricks is to dispell disbelief. :) Hope this helps, even a little.
https://gothixpnk.wixsite.com/advanceyourdungeons/tome/miniature-collections-or-giant-hordes
I'm passing these on, please take a look:
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4250857/ericwalls
https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4250856/ericwalls
Admin on MeWe's Conservative D&D Players group, but I believe that no matter what our differences are, our love of D&D is something that should bring us together. So, if you don't start something I won't either. Fair enough?
Method Actor, Storyteller, Tactician type who plays peacemaker at the table. This fall will be my 39th year playing D&D, Gamma World, Car Wars, Talisman, Serenity and Traveller.
I find humanoid minis much more useful than monstrous minis at most times. I run a lot of cityscape adventures though so lots of town cards and detailed PC minis have been my go to. I've used RPG Locker for a recent purchase because of their great prices, my only issue with RPG Locker is that their prices are so good, they often run low on stock pretty quickly.
I like Arcknight for mini. They are flat and make it easy to store. They look good and i dont have to worry about them fading with me touching them as if i printed them out on stock paper.
Probably the most important miniatures to have are a variety of humanoids for PCs and NPCs. Players are generally happier when they have their own mini.
For monsters, I'd recommend using tokens of some kind, as they're inexpensive. If you want to get fancy, you can print off small images of monsters and paste them on to an appropriately sized base.
For actual minis, the posters above already mentioned a lot of great places. One other recommendation I'd make is to check the secondary market. You can get a large amount of minis cheaply by buying them used from somewhere like eBay.
If you're into board games, there are a lot of modern board games that come with very good minis that are usually the appropriate size. A couple that spring to mind are games like Blood Rage and Zombicide: Black Plague. The former has some very cool vikings and mythical monsters. The latter has a lot of great undead figures and appropriately medieval humanoids. These are just two examples, but if you look you'll find many others. This isn't necessarily inexpensive, but it might be cheaper than buying the minis individually, and you get the added benefit of having a cool board game for when you're bored of playing D&D.
You can buy already printed and primed minis that you can paint instead of getting them prepainted. I get them from here https://something-to-bragg-about-miniatures.square.site/ , he is new so stuffs pretty cheap but quality is great. Maune try etsy too
legos work too...this troll has made a few appearances in our D&D universe...even popped straight up out of the yawning portal: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61TmmP7tzDL._SL1500_.jpg
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Thanks