D&D General Non-standard Miniatures

[jgsugden]

Out of curiosity, what have DMs used to represent monsters at the gaming table that are not standard miniatures from one of the miniatures lines like Hero Forge, Wizkids, etc...For example, I use some Schleich and Safari Ltd dinosaurs, dragons and mythological creatures. I'm particularly interested in alternatives to the really big and expensive ones.

A few kids toys have subbed in for a Tarrasque type creature over the years:

(9" tall)

(Classic)

I've also picked up tubes of plastic ants, bees, etc... to use as huge swarms of giant bugs, of course.

What else are people using?

 

[Imaculata]

On regular occasions I've printed out cardboard tiles with pictures of monsters. I also bought a few bags of cheap plastic standees, that provide a base for numerous npc's that I've printed onto cardboard.

 

[el-remmen]

I have picked up a ton of plastic animals and dinosaurs from Michael's.

1. I now have representations for the most common forms the druid in my party adopts (including painting a plastic leopard into a black panther).

2. My games should really be referred to as D&D&D, since I almost always have dinosaurs show up at some point in my games.

 

[Stormonu]

I have a lot of MageKnight figures that I use for D&D, especially the monsters. Many of the figures will fit right in an Eberron campaign, might look out of place in other official campaign worlds.

I also do some wargaming, so I have Warhammer/Sigmar/Runewars minis I occasionally use in my games (currently, I'm using a Sauran on Cold One to represent my Dragonborn paladin on his Allosaurus, Diana).

I too, use dinosaurs from hobby lobby/michaels for my games, and the tubes of animals work decently well for "natural" critters.

Alas, my dimestore Owlbear, Rust Monster and Bullette have all been retired, but I still see them being sold in dino/caveman packs at places like Walmart.

 

[el-remmen]

Oh and I have definitely ripped some heroclix off their bases and painted/re-based them

 

[Voadam]

I used to use dice, bottle caps, poker chips, and torn pieces of paper with a monster name written on it.

In college we used my roommate's legos. A couple years ago running a Pathfinder 1e game where they went into the Fey First World for a few sessions and I switched to 1e AD&D rules to represent that more primal reality with esoteric reality rules I swapped in legos instead of miniatures for everybody for those sessions.

In 3e/Pathfinder era I often printed my own counters getting an image off the internet and sizing to a 1" square on a word file. Usually everything I would generally expect to need for a night's adventure (including duplicates) would fit on one page. Print then scissors. This meant I could do things like use lots of Heat Miser and Cold Miser images for a summer versus winter fey confrontation, have counter images to match my fantasy American Indian centaurs, use cool nature photos for enemy rangers' eagle animal companions. Lots of flexibility for specific weird concepts that even a big collection of minis can not match.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I am a big fan of using Warhammer Age of Sigmar miniatures, either as stand-ins for existing D&D monsters, or to homebrew entirely new monsters to surprise my knowledgeable players.

So for example, I have a few of these "Ossiarch Bonereapers" and homebrewed some "Bone Golems" to represent them, to surprise my players who don't know what this monster is or they're weaknesses/strengths (is it undead? a construct?)

And another example, I'm planning on using these new orcs to represent hobgoblins by painting them with red skin. They make the setting feel a bit different than the standard D&D.

 

[Lanefan]

In the less-directly-representative direction, I get a lot of use out of game pawns - the kind you can buy ten-for-a-buck at the dollar store - for representing generic foes.

Coloured glass beads also work for representing small low-to-the-ground foes e.g. giant rats or some oozes.

 

[Sacrosanct]

In the early 80s? dice, popcorn, candy, hand drawn paper minis, basically anything less than an inch big.

Then legos

Then I made sure I had a ton of minis. collecting them has become my sickness

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

 

[Warforged DK]

I've totally reused my kids toys for larger monsters. He had a crap ton of Skylanders figures that worked well for giants of all sorts.

We also had this Parallax toy from the Green Lantern movie that I used as an end game big bad boss. The chest claw thing could easily grab a normal "large" sized mini, maybe a Huge mini.

I also used this guy as a "friendly" tarrasque but actually a meanie. for a 20th's level one-shot.
He's probably 12" tall. a normal medium sized mini would be about half the height of his club.

I also repurposed Moana's Te Kaa as an elemental queen

Base is maybe 4-5" across, so it's huge, but not as unwieldy as the other two.

 

[kolya]

I once used this origami dragon as an . . . origami dragon the players were fighting (inside a dream).

 

[MoonSong]

Things I've find interesting as minis

• Playmobil.- bigger than normal, but not by much, still way cheaper than Legos.
• Pokemon toys.- These are actually kind of the right size for miniatures.
• Dinosaurs and animal figures.
• Plasticine / foamy clay figures.
• Magic/Yu-gi-oh cards. And of course, I'm planing to turn all of my fifth copies of AFR into tokens.
• Plushies!

 

[el-remmen]

I have about six or eight sahuagin - but am planning an adventure with an assault on a sahuagin fortress that will have so many that 6 to 8 won't cut it - short of just buying more sahuagin or using dice - anyone have a recommendation for cheap stand-ins for the footsoldier types so I can save the actual minis for lieutenants and other special combatants?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I have about six or eight sahuagin - but am planning an adventure with an assault on a sahuagin fortress that will have so many that 6 to 8 won't cut it - short of just buying more sahuagin or using dice - anyone have a recommendation for cheap stand-ins for the footsoldier types so I can save the actual minis for lieutenants and other special combatants?

No joke, 100 soldiers for $15.

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[aco175]

What is that ad for buying minis featuring the PCs on a grid fighting a 'dragon' that is canned ham. The next page showed the same PCs fighting a large dragon mini. I think it was early 2000's

 

[el-remmen]

What is that ad for buying minis featuring the PCs on a grid fighting a 'dragon' that is canned ham. The next page showed the same PCs fighting a large dragon mini. I think it was early 2000's

I forgot about that ad! I think it was in Dragon mag - but I'd need to go through my collection to find it.

 

[Voadam]

I have about six or eight sahuagin - but am planning an adventure with an assault on a sahuagin fortress that will have so many that 6 to 8 won't cut it - short of just buying more sahuagin or using dice - anyone have a recommendation for cheap stand-ins for the footsoldier types so I can save the actual minis for lieutenants and other special combatants?

Paper counters are quick and cheap to make lots of.

A one inch square image repeated on a word document then printed and cut out lays flat leaving the PCs and big bad guys standing taller visually.

A fold over style one brings them in visual size of the miniatures, but takes a little more effort to individually fold and tape the base so they stand up.

 

[Dausuul]

For the Tarrasque, an American McGee's Jabberwocky:

 

[jgsugden]

For the Tarrasque, an American McGee's Jabberwocky:

View attachment 137736

Ohhh - nice, but expensive. I keep expecting to walk into some cheap toy store (like good old KB Toys) and find a $25 toy that is perfect....