D&D 5E Opinions on Current D&D Miniature Sizes

[MGibster]

Back in the day they were made from metal, so it's easy to understand the size limitations. With plastic, they can make them more to scale. However, I agree that almost every mini made in the past 10 years is hard to put into storage containers since they have bits sticking out everywhere now, and are larger in general to boot. Even the PC hero minis.

I will cop to having a similar complaint especially when it comes to some of Games Workshop's miniatures. Look, guys, these models aren't just going to sit on a shelf in my office looking totally sick. I've got to be able to transport them from point A to point B and then actually use them for gaming purposes. On the bright side, those plastic miniatures handle travel a lot better than the older metal ones. The old metal ones, at least larger models, would fall apart if you so much as looked at them funny never mind actually dropping one.

 

[teitan]

I think the size jumps aren’t really a case of limitations with Metal. The Beholder example, the Beholder is 4-6’ in diameter which means a 1” diameter would be fine to represent the Beholder. The Reaper Eye Beast is a perfect size according to Monster Manual descriptions in 1e, which should be the basis. The Nolzur Beholder is fricking HUGE. It’s glorious but HUGE. Giants are about 2x or greater in size than their descriptions. In 25-28 mm scale 5mm represents about a foot. Here is a video showing the size differences in old school miniatures and new school miniatures.


Otherworld & Reaper seem to be able to make really nice minis that work to the sizes in the various MM. one reason I think the scale is so wildly different is the bases. When WOTC went to the standard 1” grid and in square shapes, so a 5’ square is a medium or smaller creature, the 10’ creature became 10x10 square bases. Something like the Beholder would look silly on a big base like that when it is barely bigger than a human in diameter. Similarly with giants and some dragon sizes. Once you get out of medium scale just goes out the window.

I first noticed it with the Hill Giant. a Hill Giant is about ten feet tall, meaning slightly shorter than 2 humans if you stacked them. The Wizkids hill giant is about three humans tall. He could have been reduced by 1/3 and still fit the scale but look danged silly on that massive grid base. Which is weird considering that Wizkids also puts integrated based on their minis.