Do you use miniatures or counters to resolve combat?

[Remus Lupin]

I'd happily vote, but you dont' have my option up there: We use minis for the players' characters and for the big bad guys, and counters for everything else.

 

[just__al]

We use mage night pieces, minis, counters and sometimes dice and also 20 plastic zombies (from a bag of 100) that I've taken the time to number if the party is facing fairly similiar mooks.

Before 3rd edition (and I've been playing for almost 20 years now) we probably tracked combat about 10 times ever. That was for extremely weird terrain and combats that had who was where be an important story driving issue.

With 3rd edition you now have feats and skills that affect combat and how you move and who is near you while you are fighting, shooting, casting, whatever...

It's not fair to somebody who passed up taking alertness, stealthy and nimble fingers for dodge, mobility, and combat reflexes if they don't ever get to use their skills because where they are in battle is probably going to get glossed over more often than not. That's why we use a map so we don't screw over the people who took combat feats other than rapid shot and power attack.

Also, if I maxed out tumble, I'd be pretty upset if I never got to use tumble because where people are on the battle field isn't clear and the battle devolves into one-on-one combats.

With all the options the feats and skills in 3.X provide not having a map limits the options worth taking.

There's plenty in the game I can still use my imagination for but I think it does the players a disservice not to have a battle map or at least some hex paper on a cork board with some pushpins...

 

[Nifft]

Some of my players are talented artists -- we play with painted minis, which are about as high-class as a solid gold d20.

-- N

 

[Dinkeldog]

We use Imagination

Bah! We use imagination and tactics. And miniatures, counters, dice, or whatever is at hand.

 

[Null Boundry]

We use Imagination

Same here. Tried minitures didn't like them so we won't be using them again.

If I want to play a war game I'll play a wargame, there are alot better combat systems than D&D for it.

 

[Imperialus]

I took a page from Arcady's book giveing bonus starting points if a player shows up with his character sheet with a painted miniature that properly represents his character. As a DM and starveing student however most unimportant NPC's and monsters are represented by counters. I just can't afford to shell out 30 or 40 bucks per encounter.

 

[jmucchiello]

The poll needs to be multiple choice.

Ditto. We use a combination of minis (players, major npcs) and dice (red shirts). Dice are better than counters because they are numbered. "DM: The red dice are zombies, the white ones are skeletons." "Player (moves his mini): I swing at skeleton #4."

 

[Psion]

Bah! We use imagination and tactics. And miniatures, counters, dice, or whatever is at hand.

"We use imagination... and tactics. Our two metheds are imagination and tactics... and miniatures. Our three main methods are imaginaiton, tactics, and miniatures... and counters. Our four..."

 

[Wombat]

Tried battleboard a few times, found they just slowed matters down for us and were rather, well, dull. We used hand-painted minis then (I still like painting minis), but the whol situation just felt like I was going back to my Bad Old Days of being a miniatures gamer in the early 1970s.

So now we just play it fast, loose, and heroic, not really worrying about most of the intricacies of the combat system

And we are much, much happier

 

[Arnwyn]

Broken poll. We use miniatures for the PCs and the major bad guys, and different coloured d6's for everyone else.