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D&D Minis: What's missing most?
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
DamionW said:
You're not alone.
Here's the thing: that sort of collection is alien to D&D 3.5e. (And mostly D&D in general).
D&D isn't a big wargame. Especially in 3e, 12 is pretty much the most you'll encounter of any one creature. Instead, D&D thrives on having a variety of creatures, providing you with new challenges each time.
(It is well worth reading this Design and Development column on monster roles; there's a few insights there that are very useful when running D&D).
For those of us who would like massive collections of orcs, zombies and giants, the DDM model doesn't help that much. Surely, there should be a company out there that can just create cheap, non-random minis with a small range?
One possible spoiler to this plan may be the cost of common D&D figures on the secondary market. Is it possible to make orcs that can be sold for the prices DDM orcs go for?
Cheers!
Green Knight
First Post
Kae'Yoss said:Every Paladin of Torm worth his salt uses the Greatsword
I'll split the difference with you. He uses a longsword and shield when he's mounted, but pulls out his greatsword when he's on foot.
You son of a... how DARE you claim that the Githyanki and Githzerai figures are interchangeable!
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MerricB said:
Well the thing is, it's not just a lack of utility to war-gaming style DnD players with mass battles. It's a lack of utility to a starting gamer period. Let's look at the new RPG DM/player, and how they have to face an introduction to DnD. Let's say they played an RPG once or twice and liked what they saw, but they're still new to it and don't have a regular experienced group to break them in. A friend game master they know recommends they pick up a Dungeons and Dragons core set of rule books to get a feel for RPGs and play it out with their friends. So buy a 3.5 set and see all of the illustrations and references to the 1inch/5foot battlespace where combats are fought in. They think, "Ok, this is like that role-playing stuff I did, but they have little figures so it's part board game. Cool, this will help me cross the gap from stuff I know." So they go and pick up a set of DnD minis and what do they find?
A box with a whole bunch of obscure monsters/races and maybe one/two figures they could use to make up an average adventuring party. Also included are a whole bunch of stat cards which have some familiar looking terminology, but some alien terminology too. He wants to run a basic RPG adventure with his friends vs. some low CR adversaries, but he still confused as to what good the cards serve him as a DM and how to incorporate his Ethereal Filcher and Half-Illithid Lizardfolk figures. All he wants is to try a battle between the Human cleric, Hafling Rogue, Elf wizard, and Dwarf fighter his players made up vs. some orcs like from the LotR movie he saw, but he's too busy trying to buy some spare boxes of DnD minis and figuring out the skirmishing rules and how they relate to the RPG rules to make up his adventure. He's not as well versed as us ENWorlders, so he may not be very well aware of the secondary market yet.
Now if he could just pick up off the shelf a product made by WotC such as: "DnD RPG 1 inch props: Adventuring Party 1" which has a non random wizard figure, fighter figure, rogue figure and cleric figure, they might not be the exact image his players have for their characters, but it's a start. If right next to it he saw: "Orc war party" with 4 standardized orc figures and a orc war chief figure, he could just take the battlemat from the back of the DMG and just start playing the RPG rather than trying to get both into the hobby of DMing a role-playing game AND collecting miniatures. That could only help DnD RPG sales, I can't imagine a way it could go so horribly wrong as to not be worth it for WotC. As it stands right now, new role-players have to dump money into two hobbies at once and try and distinguish between two rulesets that are unrelated and without an experienced DM to walk them through the process, it could turn them off from DnD as a whole.
zoroaster100
First Post
I think WOTC could make sets of nonrandom, limited variety "basic" miniatures for roleplaying separately from their DDM line, but I don't see them doing it for fear it might be self-competition with their current DDM line of minis. However, what I do think they could and should do is put out a set of nonrandom minis separate from the DDM line that might never be produced in the DDM line, with a few "townfolk" minis of nobles, commoners, merchants, etc. and another with spell effects, like flaming sphere, spiritual weapon, Bigby's Crushing Hand, Wall of Fire, etc.
Nellisir
Hero
Kae'Yoss said:
That's what I thought, but I'm pretty certain one of my (3) Underdark boxes didn't have a large. I'm 3 for 3 with Medium spiders, though, plus a really cool Iron Golem (and I did get 2 larges in the first box -- a spider swarm and a loyal earth elemental).
The Wizard Tactician is a very nice non-cheesecake female mini.
Nellisir said:
The distribution of Underdark has 8 large uncommons - but not all in the same slot. On average, you'll get one large uncommon per booster, but that's not guaranteed.
Wardrums doesn't have 8 large uncommons (AFAIK), but instead has a guaranteed commander in every booster.
Cheers!
DamionW said:
Not at all. The current generation has well learnt about CCGs. Yugi-Oh and Pokemon, anyone?
The D&D Basic Game gives a basic adventuring party + basic monsters in a non-random form.
Boosters of DDM are most likely to give several standard monsters. Stores sell singles of DDM figures as well, allowing gaps to be filled (particularly of the basics).
Smart youngsters use proxies. Other smart youngsters, who want the exact minis, instead construct adventures based on what minis they have rather than just pulling them out of the MM. And then there are the smart youngsters who trade online for the minis they need.
All of this does not prevent people from buying miniatures in the traditional way: from Reaper or similar companies, and painting them themselves.
Wizards planned to produce a Orc Warparty and a Bandit Warparty in the very beginning. Why were they dropped? Because (a) you could get them cheaper on the secondary market, and (b) distributors weren't interested.
Look, Wizards have said they are investigating other ways of making adventures (with minis, etc.) You might get what you want in the future, but I don't think not having the right mini is going to deter people from D&D, when it hasn't stopped them in the previous 30+ years.
Cheers!
zoroaster100
First Post
In my post above I forgot to answer the quesion that started the thread. My thoughs: what is missing most right now are huge elementals, a chimera (which apparently will be in the next set), a bird mini (celestial eagle, hawk, giant owl, or something of this sort), a hydra, a cockatrice, a hag (nighthag, green hag, annis or sea hag), a sprite/nixie/pixie type, and the missing large and huge chromatic dragons (large white, black and green, huge white, black, green and blue). Those miniatures would go a long way to completing the coverage of the most common miniatures used in typical published adventures (and I bet also typical homebrewed adventures).
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