D&D 5E To what degree will you use (or are you using) miniatures and a battlemap for D&D Next?

[Storminator]

I only ran one session of Next. I did the first combat sans grid/minis, and the players were hopelessly confused. Few of them were veteran RPGers, and couldn't keep track of where everyone was (I was right in front of the dwarf! But he charged, remember? So now he's in front of you . . . )

We started with minis before we started D&D (1980ish), so minis is my default.

PS

 

[Starfox]

Serious minis addict here - it is not a matter of whether I'd use mini's in 5E, it is a matter of whether Id use 5E with my minis.

Note that minis do not need exacting combat rules, positioning can be much more generic than that. My homebrew has no AoOs or other formation rules, but we still use minis.

 

[Dausuul]

The answer depends on who's running. Our current DM is all about the minis and battlemat; we use them for every combat. I plan to use minis only for big set-piece battles when I return to DMing. (This isn't a criticism of our current DM, just a difference in style.) Overall I'd say it averages out to "heavy."

 

[Iosue]

If it's just me, I'd like to just break out the minis for big set pieces where there is lots of room to maneuver. In reality, though, it's going to depend on the group. If I'm playing with my family, with whom I grew up playing mini-less BECMI, they'd prefer no maps or minis. OTOH, I'm currently DMing B/X for a group that is made up of regular 3e and 4e players. They like having maps and minis for virtually any kind of encounter, even one that doesn't develop into combat.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

Been using minis from early on (pre 1E), and I think that battlemats are the greatest thing since sliced bread! Never could stand freeform combats. Too many arguments about who's where, mostly.

 

[KiloGex]

My table only uses minis 1/3-1/2 the time anyway, and I don't think that's going to be changing with Next.