Urgent - Help me learn D&D minis

[RangerWickett]

I'm supposed to give a lecture of sorts to the sci-fi club of the college I attended, discussing the differences between D&D and D&D minis. Sadly, um, I don't own any D&D minis. So I need help knowing what the differences are. *sheepish grin* Care to help? I need this ready by Thursday afternoon.

 

[CM]

The Miniatures game is a skirmish game played as player vs. player, with each player controlling multiple figures. Usually it simulates a general melee, but sometimes there can be a specific scenario or goal to achieve. Each player chooses a specific faction (either LG, CG, LE, or CE), which limits the types of figures he can choose for his warband. Each warband is limited to a maximum number of figures, total point value of those figures, and the maximum value of a single figure in the warband. These rules vary by scenario. Within those restrictions, each player is free to choose which figures he wishes to play in his warband.

Before the game begins, each player alternates placing terrain tiles on the game board. These have special effects that apply to figures fighting on them. All of a player's figures are placed on his starting tile, except for wandering monster figures which can usually be placed on terrain tiles.

Players roll initiative, and each player alternates activating two of his units, until they have all had one turn. Commander units and morale are very important to gameplay, unlike in regular D&D. The vast majority of units in the skirmish game simulate characters and monsters of CR 1 through 10. In general, only some of the huge monsters surpass that, and they can't be used in normal scenarios.

Many of the unit statistics automatically include feats, spells, and magic items that are considered to be active for the entire battle. In some cases, a special ability of the D&D version of a character or monster doesn't translate directly to the skirmish game, so it is given a different ability instead. For example, there are no rules for being prone in the skirmish game, so wolves gain a stun attack instead of trip.

 

[Gez]

Big rule differences:

♦ Spells and ranged attacks must affect the nearest target. So a single dire rat may prevent you from aiming your lightning bolt at your enemy, since you'll have to include the rat, your nearest enemy, in the bolt's area of effect. Likewise, if you have a ranged healing spell, you'll have to cast it at the nearest ally creatures, even if said creature hasn't lost any hp...
♦ Level=save (with a few exceptions)
♦ Unlimited AoOs, but only on adjacent enemies (no reach AoO).
♦ Morale rules! When your hp get reduced below half their max, you must make a save at DC 20 or become panicked. (DDM's technical term is "rooting".) Contrarily to all other saves, you can add your commander's rating as a bonus to that save.
♦ Four factions. All creatures are categorized in the four combined alignment (LG, CG, LE, CE). Some may belong to two alignment (so you don't have "NG", instead you have "LG/CG") or all (so you don't have "N", but "Any"). As a result, slaad are CE (rather than CG/CE), myconids are LE (instead of LG/LE), dire lions LG/CG (rather than Any), and celestial dire badgers too (instead of CG). In other words, D&D alignments may not correspond to DDM alignment.
♦ You only ever roll a d20. For attack, saves, concealment, etc. You don't roll damage.
♦ All damage are lethal, of course. So regeneration and fast healing are one and the same.
♦ You can't be prone or crouching. You can't be on higher ground. You can't climb atop a statue, for example, in order to shoot enemies with a crossbow while there.
♦ No Five Foot Step! Except for the few units who have the Sidestep special quality, a 5-foot step qualifies as a full fledged move.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Your best bet is to read the miniatures rulebook (not the miniatures handbook). It can be downloaded here

In a nutshell: It's basically simplefied D&D combat with some changes and additions (commanders and morale being the two biggest).

 

[RangerWickett]

Do you know where I can find a list of what the existing minis do? I checked the WotC site, but could find nothing. This seems odd to me, because all the Magic sets are listed online, and you can browse cards to see what they do, so why isn't there something similar for D&D Minis?

 

[Nightfall]

Ranger Man,

Best bet for details (at least for skirmishing) would be Merric's site.

http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/mini.htm

Find the link titled "Spoilers" You'll get what you need.

 

[RangerWickett]

Thanks!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I recommend the KB Warband Generator. You can download it here. It's a scripted excel file. Has all minis with all stats, and the pictures, too. And you can use it to build warbands to bood (it has all the special features like minions and warband building effects).