How many mini sets do you need to make them a useful part of your game?

[Davelozzi]

I have 264 of them (1 starter pack of 16, 31 boosters), or roughly 1 pack per week since they came out. Previously, we used metal minis (painted) for characters, and whatever we had for monsters, which often meant counters or unpainted minis.

They've been useful since the git go, but more so the more I get. For example, in tonight's session, I should have a good, painted mini for every single opponent my players face (unless the bearded devil summons some lemures - I'll need to use counters for them), and without having to choose opponents based on minis.

I'm pretty happy with them. My players and I can find the time to paint up some metal minis for characters, animal companions, and familiars when a new campaign starts up, but it's way too much for me to keep it up with the opponents as time goes on. Occasionally I might take the time with a major opponent (I'm painting a nice dragon now -Deathsleet from Reaper), but by and large, the D&D minis let me have most of what I need. There's no doubt that plunking down a painted vrock or bone devil mini has a better effect on the players that the equivalent counter.

So I'd say the more the merrier, but 8 or so packs is a good starting point at which you'll probably start feeling like you have the basics covered.

 

[jerichothebard]

The D&D minis are based on a 25mm (1:60) scale, which is pretty much the industry standard. All of Games Workshop's Warhammer and related lines are produced at that scale, as is their Lord of the Rings line. I believe the HeroClix and Mage-Knight lines from WizKids are also at that scale, but I'm not sure. So they're all reasonably compatible, and I mix and match freely in my games....

Convieniently, so are Lego men and green army men (roughly, at least)...

and if you haven't been there, go to www.bricklink.com for your legos... pretty cool clearinghouse of lego retailers from all over. I strongly recommend getting some 2x3 plates to serve as bases for your minifigs - they will fall over a lot less often!



jtb

 

[diaglo]

uh, so why did you purchase 800 of them, Diaglo?

same reason i have 14000+ dice.

same reason i bought any edition after OD&D...

same reason i have thousands of lead minis...


i'm addicted.


actually i always buy something when i go to the hobby store. and i started buying minis instead of dice. just to see if i could get them all.


60 Harbinger and 40 Dragoneye packs later.... i still didn't have them all.

 

[Estlor]

I've never tried to represent all of my NPCs/PCs with minis. I would think that if you wanted to do that, you would need hundreds if not thousands of minis, considering that common critters like orcs, goblins, and kobolds like to attack in large groups.

The way I approach WotC's D&D minis is I just buy a number of boosters for each set type and take things where they fall. I'm not trying to complete an entire set (although I'll admit to having some minis I really want). I'm not going into the second-hand marketplace to pick up minis I can't seem to score in a booster. I look at my small collection of WotC minis as a toolbox. If I happen to have a mini that I can use for an NPC, I'll pull it out and use it. Otherwise I'll use my paper counters to fill in the blanks. It offers some variety to the gaming table without becoming an obsession or a passionate hobby.

Now, since WotC was nice enough to include skirmish rules with each mini, my secondary goal is to piece together warbands for at least two different factions so I can play the minis game when I'm not in the mood for full-fledged D&D. But, again, I take what I get. I'm not going to go broke trying to get a single mini.

 

[Barcode]

actually i always buy something when i go to the hobby store. and i started buying minis instead of dice. just to see if i could get them all.


60 Harbinger and 40 Dragoneye packs later.... i still didn't have them all.

A result that a simple probability exercise would have predicted...

Spreadsheet for Dragoneye/Archfiends attached. Point of rapidly diminishing returns reached around 8-12 packs (8 if having lots of commons is not your thing, 12 if the commons are cool in large groups). Buy singles after that.

 

[Barcode]

I don't have complete collections. I bought a case of Archfiends when they came out, and got 50 of the 60 minis. I'll probably buy a few individual minis so I can get every mini I want (some I simply don't care for. It's not about having them all for me).

Slightly better than average. I believe 48/60 is the probable result, missing 3 uncommons and 9 rares.

 

[MerricB]

The D&D minis are based on a 25mm (1:60) scale, which is pretty much the industry standard.

The scale of the D&D Miniatures is 30mm = 6 feet. (5 mm = 1 foot). (You can actually find that value in the 3.5E SRD!)

That's 5 mm : 304.8mm or close to 1:60 scale.

Unfortunately, sets 1-3 have various scaling problems. The miniatures are generally in scale with each other, but there are a few notable exceptions. (For instance, the Ogre is about 10% too big). This will be fixed in set 4 (Giants of Legend).

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

uh, so why did you purchase 800 of them, Diaglo?

He has more than I do. Sad, huh?

As to how many you need - well, it really depends on what sort of campaign you're running. If all the PCs run into are variants of orcs, well about 6-10 boosters of Harbinger would do it.

The greater the range of creatures encountered, the bigger the collection must be. There are various lists around the 'net of what miniatures can be found in each set. Take note of the commonality of the miniatures you want. If the only miniatures from a set that you need are a pair of rare figures, don't bother.

Actually, there's more to the rarity of a figure than just "common" or "uncommon". See this article

As of the current time, there aren't that many good figures in the D&D Miniatures line for really high-level campaigns (although there's a couple in Archfiends). There are some figures that could easily do double duty - the Bright Naga from Dragoneye works as any sort of naga; the Aspect of Bane fills the need of a Large Giant as well.

Last session I was running a combat and moving the flat counters did become a pain. It might have been nice to have standup minis.

I think you've hit on the reason I prefer miniatures to counters, though I often don't use anything but descriptions. I also find it easier to find the proper miniature in a box than a counter. I have a bunch of counters from Dungeon magazine, but I find them too annoying to use often.

Cheers!

 

[Iron Sheep]

My wife and I have 4 starter packs (they were on sale at Amazon a few months ago, so I grabbed a bunch) and 1 each of the Harbinger and Dragoneye packs. So that's 80 figures, I think.

My wife enjoys painting minis, so we have a reasonable collection of (mainly Reaper) metal miniatures, and we were using those before the D&D minis came out.

We use the plastic minis fairly often: mainly the humanoid figures though, since those are the most common sorts of opponents. We have 3 or 4 of the hyaenas from Harbinger that I'm not likely to ever use. On the other hand, there are a bunch that we haven't used yet (like the shambling mound) that I'm sure will come in useful one day.

Although I can see the attraction in collecting them all, it isn't worth the expense for me. I can see the attraction in having lots of cheap figures; but once you start spending hundreds of dollars on them, it stops being cheap.

I'll probably by an expansion pack or two from each set in the future.

We haven't ever played the skirmish game. These minis are only ever used for D&D. We still use metal minis for the PCs, though, since custom painted metal still looks better. For large battles, when we run out of miniatures which look vaguely right, we use glass beads for counters.

So to answer the question: even a small collection can be useful for roleplaying, particularly if it is part of a larger collection of miniatures, or in conjunction with lots of counters.

Corran

 

[johnsemlak]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Now, if you are only interested in making a mini collection for D&D purposes, what are some other practical and cheap options?

I don't plan on painting minis. OTOH, mono-color plastic/metel minis are OK as well.

I would want minis to be sized appropriately. Would that mean trying to buy Giant's of Legend pack and other packs containing huge or larger minis, and relying on other sources for the medium sized minis?