Personally, I don't think it's _bad_ to go with the fantasy classics. Especially if you're just getting into DnD. Orcs, Skeletons, Zombies, Giant Rats, etc. These are both the meat and potatoes of any good adventure, they're also the touchstones that people new to DnD are likely to be familiar with through cultural osmosis. No one whose experiences with the genre are limited to Tolkien and Adventure Time is going to know what a Rust Monster or Rakshasa is. Orcs, Goblins, and Skeletons, tho? Now that's very familiar. And there's value in "comfort food" fantasy monsters. Plus, it's how the DM _uses_ their monsters that actually matters.
I like it when you show miniatures from the past examples like grenadier ,Heritage as well as wiz kids 5e I'VE been collecting miniatures and playing D&D since the late 70s early 80s . You are the one who got me checking out dollar stores and building my own terrain . Thanks for all you do 😎
There was some great pics in here. Coming at it as a DM, I would invest in more “townspeople”, “village folk”-type miniatures; human bandits, towns, farm animals, farm dwellings are omnipresent in D&D. They will be in your first and last game. I also think a single extraordinary critter like a unicorn or a dragon wyrmling would have a lot of natural storytelling and plot building…will the party let Klerk take Uni’s horn? Can a chromatic wyrmling change its ways if reared by the heroes and a metallic? Third on the list would be a big bad I could build or kitbash a proxy…ahhh, hindsight is 100%! Thank you for the video!
If you can find it, Village Attacks had some great townsfolk in it. It was recently acquired by Scoundrel Game Labs so hopefully they will re-release it.
I nearly TPK'd my 3rd/4th level 2e party with some skeletons. PCs had gone with a couple NPCs (the ones with the map to the lair) into an ancient necromancer's lair, doing no research in advance. There were already some hobgoblins exploring the place when they arrived. So there was a hobgoblin skirmish before they even descended into the ruins (Ranger PC had hobs as his favored enemy). Another skirmish within the entry chamber, with an underground river between the groups. When they finally got into the complex, they found the old guard barracks. There were the skeletons of 4 guardsmen sitting around a table where they'd died while gambling. The wizard was obsessed with getting as much loot as possible, so she swiped the pot and the yellowed ivory dice -- and thus animated the skeletons. The skeletons grew as they stood up, becoming ~12' tall each, with flames in their pelvic bones (recognize them?). About every other round, one would reach in, scoop out a ball of fire, and drop it. Between already being beat up by the hobs, then doing only half-damage on the bones with edged weapons, and the damage from the little fireballs, the party and NPCs nearly died in that room. An upgraded skeleton can be wicked fun. :D
If you want cheap miniatures. Buy mage knight stuff... you can generally find them for $1-$1.50 a piece and you can rebase them rather easily. I know I did and they turned out wonderfully.
@@Blandco I managed to buy a bunch here in my town just a few months back for 50 cents each. I got all the good ones, and then someone unloaded a bunch of incredibly detailed monster figs there. The bases look the same with the #s on them, but the detail is way better, and now they go for 1.50 each or more.
If someone's starting out they **need** those meat and potato figures. My first goblins were the ceasar's 25mm ones, swarms of weak-ass little gobo boys. These days I more use the board game ones though. Most of my classic D&D minis are from the 2003 parker bros. board game.
I haven't run or played a face-to-face game since March 2020 because of the damnpenic. However, prior to that I actually stopped using minis for bad guys other than special monsters and bosses. I just use 26 half-inch and 26 1-inch wooden blocks for all run-of-the-mill monsters and minions. The blocks have letters on them from A-Z so players can identify their targets. And the blocks are painted differently on each side (White, Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, and Black) so I can differentiate between types of monsters and/or combat conditions (stunned, held, on fire, frozen, etc.). Don't get me wrong, I love minis and have a decent collection that goes back to the actual real lead figurines of the 1980s. But over the years I discovered it's faster, easier, and more playable to just use the blocks. When I want to introduce something unique, THAT'S when I pull out the specially bought, hand-painted baddies. It helps ramp up the special-ness of the more important foes.
Live Commentary: -Skellies are great, I use them as 1 hit fodder as I have SO MANY of them. They infest every graveyard, tomb, or cursed area. They are the necro's henchmen. Set a bounty, 1 gp (gold penny in my campaign) per head. Fun times. -Orcs and other beastmen are great too. I kinda treat them all the same. They raid your caravan, ambush you, run and hide in a dungeon, and they have a big chief riding a war pig or dire wolf. And the boss has a treasure chest, of course. Sometimes a great warchief unites the clans, and they march on the king's fortress. In a living world, beastmen tribes causing a ruckus and roaming about are a must. Many fun times are had. -Goblins I lump in with my beastman hordes. I use them as like intro level beastmen, scouts and thieves and cowards. Capture one, force it to tell you stuff. Orcs are bigger and badder. Kobolds are more shooty. -Bugbears are another beastman, often guards and chiefs. -Ghouls and Zombies are fun too. I've not used them much, but I should. Do a plague scenario. -Giant Rats and Bats are great, but I mostly use them for wandering monsters underground. In swears too. Along with other sewer creatures like giant crocks, giant octopus maybe. -Cultists haven't hit my table much, but I do like how they can be secret. Like, the local head priest could secretly being trying to bring some sort of twisted ancient god into the our reality. -Magic Users. The classic evil wizard, necromancer, fallen cleric, etc...I have a recurring Warlock and his Witch Mothers in my current game. He teleports all over so he's hard to defeat. They got one of his mothers last summer, and he's vowed revenge. -Mind Flayers. I picked up 5 different ones over Christmas and painted them. They haven't hit the table yet, but I expect them to be in league with the big bad of my campaign. -Gelatinous cubes as dungeons cleaners are awesome, but I've yet to get one out yet. I'm not sure I even have one, I'd have to look for it. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of slimes and mouthers...I have some giant dice I can use for a cube. -Wolves, bears, panthers...I use them all. And owl bears. -Lizard Men, the ones I have are jungle type. So they are the beastmen of the jungle. -Gnolls are another beastman tribe. They can run long distances, beasts of the plains. -That last image has a pirate guy. We have a viking in our group, so soon enough we'll have a seaborn adventure. I need to get a set of pirates, as I only have maybe 1 or 2. I have plenty of scrubs and bandits that can double, but for a big adventure you need at least one cool looking captain guy.
A decent place I recommend for DnD minis is Twlight Creations. They do the Zombies! series of board games, among other games, but have opened up their miniatures backlog for individual sale. They've got Skeleton, Goblin, Cultist, Zombie Dog (as well as a few different other zombie animals), and Demon (multiple kinds) minis. Each variety thereof only comes in the one pose, but it's good for filling out a horde. The one thing they have in abundance, the Zombies, is ironically what is least usable for a DM. Because they're all _modern_ style zombies. Less the thralls of a vampire or necromancer, and more the Romero-style zombie apocalypse zombies. Moreover, most of said zombies are extremely thematic, joke characters. Things like office drones, construction workers, dudes with skateboards in their heads, pro wrestlers, an entire group of Las Vegas themed zombies, etc. Good for a laugh, but immersion breaking for any players running through a DnD campaign that isn't set in a modern-ish setting. (Which, if that's your jam, go nuts. But it's not really on-genre.) You'd need to do a bit of kitbashing to make the zombies work, in all but a few places. Not unless you were really creative. Which is a shame, because they're _really_ cheap per model.
When are you gonna go thru your collection? Real quick down and dirty. Show us your classics, rare and unbelievable minis. Let's see crafted, kit bashed and nightmares pulled from your mind. Please?
Personally, I don't think it's _bad_ to go with the fantasy classics. Especially if you're just getting into DnD. Orcs, Skeletons, Zombies, Giant Rats, etc. These are both the meat and potatoes of any good adventure, they're also the touchstones that people new to DnD are likely to be familiar with through cultural osmosis. No one whose experiences with the genre are limited to Tolkien and Adventure Time is going to know what a Rust Monster or Rakshasa is. Orcs, Goblins, and Skeletons, tho? Now that's very familiar. And there's value in "comfort food" fantasy monsters.
Plus, it's how the DM _uses_ their monsters that actually matters.
I like it when you show miniatures from the past examples like grenadier ,Heritage as well as wiz kids 5e I'VE been collecting miniatures and playing D&D since the late 70s early 80s . You are the one who got me checking out dollar stores and building my own terrain . Thanks for all you do 😎
Kringle snapped! Holy smokes, I have never seen that side of him. Oh yeah, and fun video. well done! :-)
Very interesting and nice to see non-gws minis!
It's very interesting to see that most people are still interested in what I consider to be standard D&D miniatures.
Billy clubs as an example. Great point about the stealth weapons. It's something to remember.
At 0:33 you remind me of the Hound from Game of Thrones. Sorry if you heard that one before.
Loved the Caesar shoutout. Underrated as a cheap way to make your initial mistakes in painting.
I like the WizKids DND goblins and bugbears. And the WizKids orcs are good as well. Their skeletons are good but I wish they had a different pose.
There was some great pics in here. Coming at it as a DM, I would invest in more “townspeople”, “village folk”-type miniatures; human bandits, towns, farm animals, farm dwellings are omnipresent in D&D. They will be in your first and last game. I also think a single extraordinary critter like a unicorn or a dragon wyrmling would have a lot of natural storytelling and plot building…will the party let Klerk take Uni’s horn? Can a chromatic wyrmling change its ways if reared by the heroes and a metallic? Third on the list would be a big bad I could build or kitbash a proxy…ahhh, hindsight is 100%! Thank you for the video!
Kelek auto-corrected to Klerk…perhaps an even more terrifying wizard! 😂
If you can find it, Village Attacks had some great townsfolk in it. It was recently acquired by Scoundrel Game Labs so hopefully they will re-release it.
Bugbears definitely do not get enough love in DnD campaigns.
I nearly TPK'd my 3rd/4th level 2e party with some skeletons. PCs had gone with a couple NPCs (the ones with the map to the lair) into an ancient necromancer's lair, doing no research in advance. There were already some hobgoblins exploring the place when they arrived. So there was a hobgoblin skirmish before they even descended into the ruins (Ranger PC had hobs as his favored enemy). Another skirmish within the entry chamber, with an underground river between the groups. When they finally got into the complex, they found the old guard barracks. There were the skeletons of 4 guardsmen sitting around a table where they'd died while gambling.
The wizard was obsessed with getting as much loot as possible, so she swiped the pot and the yellowed ivory dice -- and thus animated the skeletons. The skeletons grew as they stood up, becoming ~12' tall each, with flames in their pelvic bones (recognize them?). About every other round, one would reach in, scoop out a ball of fire, and drop it. Between already being beat up by the hobs, then doing only half-damage on the bones with edged weapons, and the damage from the little fireballs, the party and NPCs nearly died in that room. An upgraded skeleton can be wicked fun. :D
Man love your vídeos. Your Channel is such a HUGE inspiration for mine. Please do more tou conversions, I love those!
I used to love TAB cola as a kid. Don't see it in the stores anymore. Nice setting for the scuffle with Kringle -- funny!
Top notch video, great work
That intro was amazing
If you want cheap miniatures. Buy mage knight stuff... you can generally find them for $1-$1.50 a piece and you can rebase them rather easily.
I know I did and they turned out wonderfully.
Oh the days when Mage Knight minis were .10 cents each!
@@Blandco I managed to buy a bunch here in my town just a few months back for 50 cents each. I got all the good ones, and then someone unloaded a bunch of incredibly detailed monster figs there. The bases look the same with the #s on them, but the detail is way better, and now they go for 1.50 each or more.
If someone's starting out they **need** those meat and potato figures. My first goblins were the ceasar's 25mm ones, swarms of weak-ass little gobo boys. These days I more use the board game ones though.
Most of my classic D&D minis are from the 2003 parker bros. board game.
I haven't run or played a face-to-face game since March 2020 because of the damnpenic. However, prior to that I actually stopped using minis for bad guys other than special monsters and bosses. I just use 26 half-inch and 26 1-inch wooden blocks for all run-of-the-mill monsters and minions. The blocks have letters on them from A-Z so players can identify their targets. And the blocks are painted differently on each side (White, Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, and Black) so I can differentiate between types of monsters and/or combat conditions (stunned, held, on fire, frozen, etc.).
Don't get me wrong, I love minis and have a decent collection that goes back to the actual real lead figurines of the 1980s. But over the years I discovered it's faster, easier, and more playable to just use the blocks. When I want to introduce something unique, THAT'S when I pull out the specially bought, hand-painted baddies. It helps ramp up the special-ness of the more important foes.
I'm rather surprised at the scale difference of your orcs. But you do have a nice collection of miniatures.
Live Commentary:
-Skellies are great, I use them as 1 hit fodder as I have SO MANY of them. They infest every graveyard, tomb, or cursed area. They are the necro's henchmen. Set a bounty, 1 gp (gold penny in my campaign) per head. Fun times.
-Orcs and other beastmen are great too. I kinda treat them all the same. They raid your caravan, ambush you, run and hide in a dungeon, and they have a big chief riding a war pig or dire wolf. And the boss has a treasure chest, of course. Sometimes a great warchief unites the clans, and they march on the king's fortress. In a living world, beastmen tribes causing a ruckus and roaming about are a must. Many fun times are had.
-Goblins I lump in with my beastman hordes. I use them as like intro level beastmen, scouts and thieves and cowards. Capture one, force it to tell you stuff. Orcs are bigger and badder. Kobolds are more shooty.
-Bugbears are another beastman, often guards and chiefs.
-Ghouls and Zombies are fun too. I've not used them much, but I should. Do a plague scenario.
-Giant Rats and Bats are great, but I mostly use them for wandering monsters underground. In swears too. Along with other sewer creatures like giant crocks, giant octopus maybe.
-Cultists haven't hit my table much, but I do like how they can be secret. Like, the local head priest could secretly being trying to bring some sort of twisted ancient god into the our reality.
-Magic Users. The classic evil wizard, necromancer, fallen cleric, etc...I have a recurring Warlock and his Witch Mothers in my current game. He teleports all over so he's hard to defeat. They got one of his mothers last summer, and he's vowed revenge.
-Mind Flayers. I picked up 5 different ones over Christmas and painted them. They haven't hit the table yet, but I expect them to be in league with the big bad of my campaign.
-Gelatinous cubes as dungeons cleaners are awesome, but I've yet to get one out yet. I'm not sure I even have one, I'd have to look for it. I'm pretty sure I have a couple of slimes and mouthers...I have some giant dice I can use for a cube.
-Wolves, bears, panthers...I use them all. And owl bears.
-Lizard Men, the ones I have are jungle type. So they are the beastmen of the jungle.
-Gnolls are another beastman tribe. They can run long distances, beasts of the plains.
-That last image has a pirate guy. We have a viking in our group, so soon enough we'll have a seaborn adventure. I need to get a set of pirates, as I only have maybe 1 or 2. I have plenty of scrubs and bandits that can double, but for a big adventure you need at least one cool looking captain guy.
👏👏👏! That good stuff. Thank you
Let's face it, if Harley Quinn can be very stealthy with her mallet, bugbears can be stealthy with their morningstars and axes and mauls.
I use wolves a lot
I missed the original video
Did you show Dragons?
A decent place I recommend for DnD minis is Twlight Creations. They do the Zombies! series of board games, among other games, but have opened up their miniatures backlog for individual sale.
They've got Skeleton, Goblin, Cultist, Zombie Dog (as well as a few different other zombie animals), and Demon (multiple kinds) minis. Each variety thereof only comes in the one pose, but it's good for filling out a horde.
The one thing they have in abundance, the Zombies, is ironically what is least usable for a DM. Because they're all _modern_ style zombies. Less the thralls of a vampire or necromancer, and more the Romero-style zombie apocalypse zombies.
Moreover, most of said zombies are extremely thematic, joke characters. Things like office drones, construction workers, dudes with skateboards in their heads, pro wrestlers, an entire group of Las Vegas themed zombies, etc. Good for a laugh, but immersion breaking for any players running through a DnD campaign that isn't set in a modern-ish setting. (Which, if that's your jam, go nuts. But it's not really on-genre.)
You'd need to do a bit of kitbashing to make the zombies work, in all but a few places. Not unless you were really creative. Which is a shame, because they're _really_ cheap per model.
Very entertaining video.
When are you gonna go thru your collection? Real quick down and dirty. Show us your classics, rare and unbelievable minis. Let's see crafted, kit bashed and nightmares pulled from your mind. Please?
Another collection video should be upcoming. I have a lot of interesting stuff!
@@Blandco awesome, Ty.
Kobolds!!!!!
Yaaaay minis... gotta love the abuse from kringle
xyvarts are way more fun than goblins haha
:)