D&D Miniatures and Randomization

[diaglo]

I've got two Cleric of Corellon and a Dwarven Defender... I might want to keep the DD, but having the extra Cleric is pretty pointless

PM on the way.


i've got like 6 Brass Dragons. like i'd ever use that many except if i was running a DL campaign.

 

[talinthas]

hehe.
i need a cleric of corellan as well, but mainly because the chaotic good faction blows, and needs all the help it can get.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

lol, I have bought goddess knows how many packs of Harbinger and Dragoneye, and i don't mind the random thing. Heck, I trade off more of the "usless rares" than anything else. I have a huge pack of (15)Hellhounds, (7)wolves, (8) Hyenas, (6 Worgs), (18)goblins sneaks and warriors, (9)Kobolds warriors and skerimhers who knows how many zombies skeletons and ghouls.

I will post a list of rares I can trade, I am still looking for more Kobolds and a few other monsters.

I don't collect them for just the RPG mind you, I want to play the other game too but this is how I collect my minis

 

[Wombat]

Pack One:
Common: Hobgoblin Warrior
Common: Baaz Draconian
Common: Human Crossbowman
Common: Stonechild
Uncommon: Chitine
Uncommon: Dwarven Werebear
Uncommon: Urthok the Vicious (hobgoblin)
Rare: Eye of Gruumsh (orc)

Pack Two
Common A: Goblin Warrior
Common B: Abyssal Maw
Common C: Gnome Fighter
Common D: Dwarf Barbarian
Uncommon A: Kerwyn, Human Rogue
Uncommon B: Dwarven Werebear
Uncommon C: Druid of Obad-Hai
Rare: Black Dragon

Okay, let's see...

(Of course this is all based on the kinds of critters usually show up in my games.)

Pack One:
Wanted -- Human Crossbowman, Eye of Gruumsh
Neutral -- Hobgolin Warrior, Dwarven Werebear, Urthok the Vicious
Unwanted -- Baaz Draconian, Stonechild, Chitine

Pack Two:
Wanted -- Goblin Warrior, Gnome Fighter, Dwarf Barbarian, Kerwyn Human Rogue, Durid of Obad-Hai
Neutral -- Dwarven Werebear, Black Dragon
Unwanted -- Abyssal Maw

Of course all of these opinions are based strictly on the concept of the creatures, rather than what they actually look like (I haven't looked these up, but based on what I have generally seen, some of the "wanted" would probably drop to "Neutral" or even "Unwanted" strictly based on the appearance fo the miniature). In any case, pack two would have been the better deal for me.

 

[Arnwyn]

The idea is to get a feel as to how much of a pack people normally find interesting.

Definitely not impressed. I'd have only been interested in:
1st pack: only the crossbowman.
2nd pack: gnome fighter, dwarf barbarian, human rogue, druid, dragon.

I'm happy that I haven't bothered with the minis - I don't do randomization.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Pack One:
Common: Hobgoblin Warrior
Common: Baaz Draconian
Common: Human Crossbowman
Common: Stonechild
Uncommon: Chitine
Uncommon: Dwarven Werebear
Uncommon: Urthok the Vicious (hobgoblin)
Rare: Eye of Gruumsh (orc)

My reaction:
The hobgoblin and the crossbowman are miniatures I might actually use in a game some time. The rest are either never going to be used or will be used as stand-ins for other things.

Pack Two
Common A: Goblin Warrior
Common B: Abyssal Maw
Common C: Gnome Fighter
Common D: Dwarf Barbarian
Uncommon A: Kerwyn, Human Rogue
Uncommon B: Dwarven Werebear
Uncommon C: Druid of Obad-Hai
Rare: Black Dragon

My reaction:
The goblin, gnome and black dragon would be likely to see use. The rest would serve as stand ins for something else. Except the abyssal maw, which would probably end up either traded to someone else or trashed.

All that said, I have almost all the miniatures from both sets because I play the miniatures game. I use the miniatures in my RPG, but only the ones that I can use. And, in that arena, I'm quite disappointed in Hasbro. You see, ogres and trolls are fairly common in my campaign, but I have one ogre miniature and one troll miniature. So, I end up using other large-sized miniatures as ogres or trolls during play. My players don't care all that much, but it would be nice to have the miniatures that I want.

On a positive note, there's a hobby shop near where I work (50 miles from home) that sells the miniatures individually. They also buy miniatures individually (at twice their own sale price). And, I've done several trades online. So, I'm slowly getting the miniatures I want, but I'd MUCH prefer to have gotten them the way I wanted out of the box.

Dave

 

[mearls]

The Zen of D&D Minis

This is what I've learned about the D&D minis:

If you know exactly what you want, then you're probably better off buying metal figures and painting them or finding stores that sell singles.

If you just want lots of miniatures to use in D&D, the randomization works out great. You get a broad range of figures and multiples of a lot of minis.

I definitely fall into the second category. I tend to look through my minis collection and design encounters to fit it. I like buying boosters of D&D minis and sorting out the figures I get. I don't think there's a single figure that I can't eventually get use out of.

 

[Bendris Noulg]

see, as a DL fanboy, i'd be thrilled at getting a draconian...

Oh, don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with a Draconian miniature. What caught me off-guard was the status as a "Common" miniature for a creature that is more or less unique to a setting (one that is licensed to another publisher, to boot).

Heck, if anyone finds a Stage 10 Athasian Dragon, let me know! Even if I got to repaint the thing, I still think it would look cool on my bookcase.

 

[El Ravager]

This is what I've learned about the D&D minis:

If you know exactly what you want, then you're probably better off buying metal figures and painting them or finding stores that sell singles.

If you just want lots of miniatures to use in D&D, the randomization works out great. You get a broad range of figures and multiples of a lot of minis.

I totaly agree with this analysis. I too am finding myself in the sencond category and I think after reading these recent threads I may be picking up a few packs of these minis.

In particular, how do you feel about some of the being "common" or not? I have taken a look at the different series (Harbringer, Dragoneye, the coming Archfiend...) and sometimes I got the feeling that in WotC's opinion common=low-level. But it is really what DMs need? For example, why all those human or dwarf warriors, crossbowmen, archers which seems to be almost in every package? After your campaign is mid- or high- level, do you still face this kind of NPCs? Since also the most common campaign uses good-aligned PCs, it doesn't happen often to fight against other humans or demihumans but rather against evil monsters. Of course it helps that you can simply say the human crossbowman is a 10th level ranger if you want, but at least my players don't like killing humans or dwarves or elves.

I think that what is common in the packs is based on a power distribution that they have created for the Miniatures game, not for DnD. They are not necessarily thinking about a DMs campaign when they determined the randomization but about how it would effect the miniatures game. For me, this happens to work well enough for my DnD game. I use a lot of humanoids as opponents for my PCs. These humanoid warrior and crossbowmen models are perfect for using as random mook models. For those I don't care too much about particulars, but it is nice to have something that somewhat resembles what it is supposed to be.

 

[MerricB]

With the exception of the Ogre and the Troll, I generally think the commonality isn't that bad. Really, how many D&D monsters are "common" - Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, Hobgoblins, Bugbears? That's the main list for me. After that, things turn up in diminishing amounts. (Gnolls probably are also common, and there's a common Gnoll in Archfiends).

That the Ogre and Troll are rare (rather than Uncommon) is an unfortunate side-effect of them being large - but the designers have hinted than a couple of large figures will be made as Uncommons in the future.

I'm extremely happy about the Draconian being common because when you run into Baaz in DL, you run into lots of them.

Consider that by the end of the week, there will be 200 separate miniatures available. (And in July, there will be 272 miniatures). Does your FLGS have the ability to display and stock all of those if packaged individually? How much would you expect to pay for them?

Cheers!