Bandits or random fighting dudes are always a good investment. Also it's worth getting a large group of humanoid monsters, whatever type, just what you can get cheap, around one or two dozen of the same general type. These can then stand in for any kind of vaguely humanoid monster or bad guy you want. Just having them all the same type makes everything nice and clear during play.
At our table we use dice to represent mass mobs with 12 or fewer hp. That way individual units take correct damage without me taking psychic damage keeping track
I might add some sort of evil sorcerer looking mini, with a handful of skeletons. I also like wolves and bears, as they can be an encounter as well as pets. I'm also quite fond of all manner of tentacled horrors, floating eyes, etc.
Surely everyone needs the "a farmer holding a pig" miniature? Also, to add to the bandits as a scouting thug type, I recommend em4's Criminal Gladiator miniature, he'd be perfect!
If you're new to mini painting, skeletons are a great place to start. Basecoat, drybrush/wash, and weapons. Good way to build confidence. Furry animals are good, too - wolves, bears, etc.
I like lots of scatter terrain. I don't build dungeons when I play, I set up a scene really quick when appropriate, like if a battle starts, so I like to have a bunch of bits on hand. You'd be surprised how few things you really need. A couple of rocks, a pool, 2-3 trees, and you've got a decent forest encounter. I glue Jenga pieces together and paint them grey for low walls, doors, etc. 3 bucks at the dollar store will get you all the pieces you'll ever need. Paint them brown for chairs, tables, book shelves, etc.
An easy way to get some workable rocks and trees is to look at the cheap, plastic zoo, farm, dinosaur, and similar sets in the cheaper parts of places like walmart. Get a small thing of washers to glue them to and the trees and rocks in the set work well, at least until you've started getting past the basics...and many of the trees and rocks paint up relatively well when you're ready for an upgrade.
Holy damn that intro! Holy smokes, that outro! lol. That was intense. Also, I use more terrain than I do monster miniatures, but my top used monster miniatures would be the Gelatinous Cube and Skeletons.
Random beasts are helpful as well. I seem to always play with a druid in my groups and having their wildshapes for representation always makes them supper happy.
I'll say CMON board games are definitely worth keeping an eye on, especially for new collectors, as their games often go on sale & tend to be slam packed with decently sculpted minis. Massive Darkness will probably give new collectors the most bang for their buck, with loads of orcs, goblins, dwarves, a handful of varied player characters, & some nice large boss monsters. Then there's Rum & Bones considering nautical/pirate campaigns are always popular. You'll get plenty of human pirates in a variety of sculpts, plus tons of aquatic humanoids (especially useful for sahuagins). Then there's the nice fold out ship tiles with a top down view of the decks, so you don't have to blow an absorbent amount on actual ship miniatures
Amen to CMON minis. It’s a big investment, but they are very flexible and high quality, doubly so if you get the stretch goal minis from Kickstarter that only kinda fit in the base game theming. The medieval Zombicide games do gangbusters for undead hordes especially, but then again I just love using undead.
I personally love a good set of skellyboys, best undead by far
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Wow! Great minis! I believe that, within one's possibilities, it's great to have at least six to ten pieces of different creatures, depending greatly on the type of creature, of course. Having a little bit of everything allows DMs to be ready for any encounter. Personally, I felt in love with the Hasbro miniatures when I started in D&D, from there I've amassed a decent (so to speak) collection of miniatures, including the ones from Hasbro, Nolzur's, Mage Knight, the D&D Board games, and more recently, 3D resin miniatures.
Dude I was gifted a huge tub of 860 mage knight minis. So my collection is way over 1000 now. I should count them...
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@@josephbradshaw6985 Nice! Now that's what I call a collection. You should man, I keep an inventory of the minis I have, including D&D, Mage Knight, Star Wars, Heroclix, and Axis & Allies. And yes, there's no such thing as "too many miniatures".
I have a grand total of 1300 minis. About 900 prepainted. About 200 painted by me, and another 200 waiting to be painted. I won't buy more until they are painted. This wasn't frivolous money spent either, it's all cheap. I had about 900 gifted to me, mostly mage knight from a garage sale. I bought 100+ from Impact Minis, resin, so a bit brittle, but they are my best looking minis. Then a bunch of stuff from the dollar store, giant snakes, dragons, dinosaurs and such. All the Walmart metal minis. Then I bought all of the Monster Protectors stuff off Amazon, and those monster/fantasy tubes that this channel has featured. Then this Christmas I got a bunch of Reapers tuff, maybe 60 minis, including a bunch of animals/pets/familiars.
My additions, with emphasis on lower level encounters: 1) Orcs. One of the most common low level monsters, and you can use them for hobgoblins too. 2) Zombies. As above, and can do double duty as ghouls. 3) Doors. These really help when drawing out a dungeon. Having a door mini cuts out confusion and looks better. 4) Bats. Not giant bats, just bats. These are mostly because they're readily available and can be used as striges, imps or whatever small flying monster you need. Bird minis also work great. 5) Skeletons. It's D&D, there will be skeletons at some point. But more importantly, they are super easy to paint and are great to learn things like dry brushing and highlighting without worrying about "ruining" your mini. It's a skeleton, it's supposed to look bad. 6) Wolves.. either as monsters or animal companions, these are a must.
Just got my first minis today! I got a boneyard mystery box that had a lich, a zombie ogre, and a specter, I also got a boneclaw that I’m gonna paint later
I a lot of times go for human-ish villains, so I end up using minis designed (primarily) for pcs as the villain. Which of course comes with his minions/henchmen, so goblins, bandits, skeletons, kobolds and stuff like that are always extremely useful.
I loved listening to your thoughts and even seeing some of the incredible paint jobs you’ve put on the game miniatures. Well done indeed. For me as a DM I think that my most used are: Kobolds, Undead, Gnolls, Orcs, Lizardfolk, Bandits/Thugs, Townsfolk, Chests, Spiders and Wolves. These are really easy encounters where you can have either a rogue creature or a pack of them - either way they can be challenging and I get to set up a bunch of terrain (great call on the chests - I totally wouldn’t have considered them). So definitely some similarities between our lists which is always comforting.
Same, but with undead I almost always do skeletons because I have several giant ones from 'army man' style sets, double size, so I have boss skellies. I need more zombies.
I have found that the good ol classics orcs skeleton zombies bandits and goblins were my best shot when I started still use all of them regularly on my table and of course my dire rats lol
Most of the monsters you showed were very good for low level groups of PCs. As the characters gain levels, some miniatures I've found handy to have around include: demons/devils/assorted fiends, higher level undead (such as vampires, specters, and liches), a purple worm, drow, and evil PC types.
Must haves- Goblins Orcs Zombies any giant bugs swamp monsters (any) and the npc's/ farmers/ beggers/ other adventurers. My top of the line figures, hands down- Otherworld Minis. Reaper is my go to mass figures, and you can't beat the price of the WOTC d and d figs.
I have used the heck out of a handful of 3d printed rocks to my board (yes..I know, I could use regular rocks, but now I dont have to worry as much about the real rocks scratching/damaging any other minis) Anyways, trees and rocks - really change up an open scatter-style encounter
I am liking this one in advance! I believe I spy some excellent minis from “Castle Ravenloft”, “Legend of Drizzt”, and maybe “Wrath of Ashardalon”. I liked the “Dungeon of the Mad Mage” and “Temple of Elemental Evil” batches too; haven’t gotten “Tomb of Annhilation”; the last three never seem to be in the $35 to $45 sweet spot. “The Ghosts of Saltmarsh” one is super unappealing to me. From what I can tell, you get 6-8 smells and a bunch of add-to-the-game-you don’t play stuff for about $35. Yikes! Your paint job on these guys looks excellent!
Yeah. I think the old Hasbro D&D board games are great! (Ravenloft, Drizzt and Wrath) The newer ones just abandoned translucent material and just just not great unless you really want those minis. I didn't really realize that Saltmarsh only had a few minis.
Dude, that shoutout took me by surprise! Thank you so much! :D Great video! I agree with so much of your choices here. A point of note for the treasure chest is that it's also great for introducing mimics. Love having a treasure chest AND a mimic based on the same design! :D Man, now I think I'll have to make a "spin off"/"reply" video of this, with my choices... but the number one will always be: Kobolds! Kobolds forever!! :D
Yes to almost all of them. I also find quite useful to have undead hordes (zombies, skeletons), cultists (a good source for cultist and other abominable creatures is "Cthulu: Death may die" -bought it, never played it, just in for the miniatures, some of them are exquisite, the game is not cheap thou). I also share your love for dragons, but they tend to be on the expensive side, generally... also, I've had quite some difficulties to find some Ettercap miniatures (is a creature that I love -even if I'm arachnopobe, and that goes very well with spiders)
I always try to keep some goblins, orcs, and kobolds ready for the game. I'd like to get some more bandits. I like your list of required miniatures. It's a good start.
I had the same problem with my bendy Reaper dragon. I solved it by sticking pins in the legs, which worked, but in retrospect I should have propped him up. I recommend putting some treasure under his lower arm. I did a similar thing with some floppy centaurs and it worked very well.
Came from the follow up video, and have to say good solid choices in both. I tend to feature a lot of orcs gobbos , bugbears , and goals, as well as Wolves, bandits, and cloakers, so nice to see the various sculpts.
I've only just started my collection but the way I'm going about it is to look up the creature list for the RPG I play most often (in this case Shadowdark) and purchase miniatures in alphabetically in order of power level. Since players don't usually stick with a campaign long enough to deal with more difficult opponents you can be rest assured you'll have enough.
If you have access to a 3D printer I wonder if that changes how you think about D&D encounters? Would you base it less off tradition adventures or would that allow you to consider more unique scenarios? I have seen 3D prints of both styles being popular.
I'd also suggest if you're a DM to buy the monsters which can be summoned via spell, starting with the lowest spell level. You can get a lot of mileage out of using minis for players and their allies but use bulk dice for monsters. It also helps keep the two sides visually separated.
For a DM just starting out? My top recommendation would be the old Grenadier boxed set Orc's Lair, which Mirliton currently sells. It's got nine orcs in 25mm that really don't look like the modern orc.... or the modern goblin... or the modern hobgoblin... but they have that generic "monstrous humanoid" feel to them so between that and their smaller scale sculpting, they can just work as your orc encounter or your goblin encounter or your hobgoblin encounter or whatever monstrous humanoid your game has on the table.
I did a whole video about that miniature. It's a really nice 3D sculpt! But limited in it's use. Well worth it for a shelf piece though. ua-cam.com/video/ECRXDmKyZLs/v-deo.html
The current edition of D&D does not require Miniatures. You can have them and they are fun to collect and use in the game but you don't NEED them. You can always substitute anything for a token. Basically for D&D 5e (current edition) it's helpful to have the basic books which you can get on Amazon for around $25 each. Basic books are the players handbook, the dungeon master's guide and the monster manual. If your daughter is just playing all she needs is the player's manual. Link amzn.to/3AvYdeg If she already has the main book then Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is a fun book for players. amzn.to/3OpVgS5 For Miniatures it depends on how old your daughter is. Generally speaking if she isn't interested in painting miniatures you can get prepainted miniatures on sale at Coolstuffinc every once in awhile (Click the ON SALE table on the right and see if there are any miniatures on sale. Also at Miniatures Market. The "Icons of the Realms" are the current sets and they are all official D&D miniatures. I would stay away from the Spelljammer sets because that is a lot of space stuff and I am assuming she is more focused on fantasy stuff like Critical Role. Most prepainted miniatures are sold in blind boxes except for some sets where you can see what you are getting. There are no cheap prepainted miniatures around except for the metal nano sets at Walmart and those are kind of interesting but not really in scale with most miniatures. Again if your daughter is just playing and not running games she doesn't need many miniatures. If she does use miniatures she can use anything for tokens when she is starting out. If your daughter is really young maybe you could find some stuff at the local game store? They should be able to help you find some stuff that won't be on sale but hopefully be stuff your daughter would like. They also sell flat tokens sets ect. Talk to your daughter and see what aspect of D&D she is interested in. She might just be interested in the creative side of it so she might need some writing stuff like notebooks? Again the current edition of D&D is a game that can be played with nothing but the free rules or you can spend a LOT of money on miniatures that just sit on a shelf.
What I've ended up using the most are goblins, undead, crystal worms (from ICRPG), and cultists. Not the most creative mix, but I've found in my games that having cultists or goblins worshiping some larger threat is a theme that pops up regularly. For cultists I just try to hoard minis who are wearing hoods. I've never actually used a dragon or an ogre in one of my games. But as someone who has very little money to put into this, I'll usually dig through the "minis" I already have for ideas. Cheap plastic dinosaur with a decent paint job? What if there's a pissed off stegosaurus between my party and where they need to go? Completely out of scale but hyper realistic chicken? Beware the Dire Hen who has been terrorizing our poor village! I also usually find making weird minis is more fun than buying minis (although not terribly time efficient). My players don't seem to mind that my monsters are often a bit odd.
4:00 This never made sense to me. In my games the miniatures only come out for combat. There’s no guessing because the only purpose to miniatures is to track combat. I’m not setting up a combat environment until in roleplay combat actually begins. Players can’t anticipate combat any more than anything else. This only makes sense if, for some reason, you’re setting up the scene before combat actually begins, which has no discernible benefit, as again, the main advantage of minis is to track the location of the parties involved in combat. I find doing such a thing to be superfluous. Come to think of it, even if I did set up the scene at encounter… that doesn’t mean the parties involved are hostile or that parley is out of the question. I would only assume that from a GM who makes every encounter an unavoidable combat.
Bandits, rats, skeletons, orcs, goblins, zombies, spiders, hobgoblins, bugbears, ogres and an owl bear. Maybe throw in some lizardfolk, kuotoa/sahuagin, or bullywug/grung. That should cover a wide variety for your first three to five levels. Then pull your giants, elementals, aberrations, and large sized dragons.
That is a tough question. There really are limited prepainted minis out there. You can look for websites like Coolstuffinc that have sales on figures and booster boxes of Wizkids stuff. Miniature market has sales on prepainted stuff from smaller companies but those are like a handful of products. Sometimes the best prices are at local stores that are having a sale. Maybe they will be selling some of the older Hasbro stuff too. Ebay lots are VERY expensive for prepainted stuff now.
Go to any store that sells toys and you can pick up some normal animals - wolves, bears, lions, alligators, dinosaurs.... These are incredibly useful. They can appear at any time in wilderness adventures and you don't need to come up with a special justification for why they attack the party.
I think the most useful miniature would be the most universal, so generic people; your bandits, your armored men, your robed figures. People are arguably the most numerous type of being your run into in most fantasy worlds. Kobolds and Orcs and Goblins and others you’ll find in spades are a close second. Skeletons and maybe at least one dragon also couldn’t hurt but yeah people definitely take the top spot. Like if you wanted to run a game with every encounter having a miniature you’ll almost invariably need people. As an added bonus, players may easily be able to use these as stand ins for their characters in lieu of a specially procured one. My first ever game we used a bucket of medieval themed green army men, and we used these for just about everything humanoid, including kobolds and orcs and what have you.
The best miniature i got was a Playmobile pirate ship for $3.50 at goodwill. If you want spiders or small/medium sized animals. The best I feel are the like 15 or so you get in the packet at dollar tree
I'm not into any specific type of Monster or company. I pick up the Minis I like the most. (Recently: D&D is my excuse to by a few Miniatures, I have no real reason for buying them.) Of course I got a few Minis via Kickstarter, which are more or less the basic canon-fodder, like the Goblins from First Legion, but most of the time it is "O I like this Miniature!". (So: Of course there are a lot of Reapure-Sculpts in my collection, which are in most Cases cast out of Metal.)
Need skeletons, Zombies, Undead creatures. Enemy mages to go with that. from Hag to lich. Maybe a few wolves to run by themselves or tamed. but otherwise a good starting point. I also suggest gettinhg the mini's for LMoP as that is very genneric and reusable.
If Dungeons & Dragons were a miniature war gaming experience like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, it would be an exciting and unpredictable adventure! Here's a potential concept: Title: "Dungeons & Battles: The Miniature Quest" Story: - Four players are transported into a fantastical world, finding themselves shrunk down to miniature size. - They discover a mysterious game board, featuring a map of a fantasy realm. - To survive and return to the real world, they must navigate the board, battling monsters, completing quests, and solving puzzles. Gameplay: - Players use miniature figures to represent their characters, moving them around the board and engaging in combat. - Each character has unique abilities and strengths, reflected in their miniature's design and gameplay abilities. - The game includes a variety of scenarios, from dungeon crawls to open battles, each with unique objectives and challenges. Miniatures: - Characters and monsters would be represented by detailed, painted miniatures, each with its own unique design and abilities. - Players could customize their miniatures with different weapons, armor, and accessories. This concept combines the excitement of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with the strategic gameplay of miniature war gaming and the storytelling of Dungeons & Dragons. The result is a thrilling adventure that's full of surprises!
Goblins and orcs and a rust monster or mimic oozes and jellies and mold, wizard or sage wizard zombies and skeletons and one bad guy that keeps getting away til party can actually do damage
Kobolds are cool, but I kinda lump in all my beast men into the same horde. A bunch of 1 hit goblins, lizard men, etc. With an ogre as their chief/boss.
Townsfolk, skeletons and minions in general (orcs goblins etc). Lots of dressing/scatter pieces terrain/decor. So.... My top ?five? Townsfolk, minions/monsters in general, terrain, dragons, and I dunno what my fifth spot would be
Doors!, other scatter terrain (trees, rocks, walls, etc.) For creatures; wolves, hyena, gnoll, goblins, skeletons, zombies, earth elemental, person in full-plate (can be construct/animated armour or living warrior, etc.), stirdge, giant rat, snake, scorpion, etc. You can use toys too! Animal toys. Easy to get great ‘giant’ versions of animals that way. Look near Halloween for bulk packs of bugs, rats bats, skeletons and webs, etc. You can get amazing model train various trees cheap just look, I got some on Amazon (wait for price drops if it’s too high right now). Then get air dry clay from the dollar store and make bases and push the trees into the base then dry the. Paint. Get moss to use from the dollar store, and use thick cardstock. Also you can use glass cabochons and wooden circles! You can use acrylic paint to paint and glue moss into wooden (or even thick Bristol/cardstock) circles for scatter terrain bushes! 1 inch = med or small and 2 inch circles are large. You can even just get construction paper (better to use higher grade coloured cardstock) cut shapes out for quick scatter terrain Such as but not limited too; water, mud, pit, tar, lava, sand, oil slick, webs, acid pools, carpets, magic circle, Remember to use cut out templates to help with area of effect for spells and creature abilities. You can also use a glue gun and silicone mat to make lines and craft. Most useful; fireball circle, Leomunds tiny hut circle, various cones for spells and monster breath weapons. Also get a measuring tape for long distance. You can pre cut and park off on a flexible long paper the length of lightning bolt if a PC uses it, etc Make the spell effects your players have and your NPCs and monsters use! More is more. Use similar miniatures as ‘good enough’ ensure the base is the correct size in the battle map! Size is most important. Better to just use a 2 inch circle to represent a large foe than a ‘too small’ but accurate miniature. Better put that mini on the larger circle! If your Gargantuan mini is too small. Cut out the proper base size from a larger paper and put the mini on that and move them together focusing in the paper base position most! Recent discovery; modern wrapping paper can have a 1 inch grid on the reverse! Check the rolls invest in cheap dollar store 1 inch grid papers! Also some monsters are easy to craft. Glue guns and using a silicone Matt; can easily make; oozes, slimes, elementals,etc. Using air dry clay and styrofoam balls/other balls you can make beholders. Filling with cardboard toons, stones aluminum foil, etc then air dry clay it’s easy to make huge worms! Craft what you can, buy what is hard to craft! Most of all I say doors! Doors are ALWAYS USEFUL and harder to craft!
skeletons, zombies, bandits, wolves, spiders and one or two of each enemy NPC archetypes - fighter, ranger, rogue, cleric, mage will cover 80-90% of low level D&D play.
I go from game store to game store my carrying case I have goblin zombie Skeletons Ghost Human Dwarf Elf’s Some large monsters What would you guys bring to carry’s everywhere ?
Kobolds and goblins are like pringles you can't stop at one.
Facts
You need at LEAST 5
@@Basementdwellers-ci2cs Because any thing less is going to get absolutely demolished by your party, right?
@@johnpatrick1647 This is me on a different account but yes
I literally have like 79 different kobolds
My first miniature I ever bought for DND was the Gargantuan Kraken. Dunno why but I dont regret it.
My first was an Ancient Black Dragon. I bought it cause it was cool.
Bandits or random fighting dudes are always a good investment. Also it's worth getting a large group of humanoid monsters, whatever type, just what you can get cheap, around one or two dozen of the same general type. These can then stand in for any kind of vaguely humanoid monster or bad guy you want. Just having them all the same type makes everything nice and clear during play.
At our table we use dice to represent mass mobs with 12 or fewer hp. That way individual units take correct damage without me taking psychic damage keeping track
I might add some sort of evil sorcerer looking mini, with a handful of skeletons. I also like wolves and bears, as they can be an encounter as well as pets. I'm also quite fond of all manner of tentacled horrors, floating eyes, etc.
U need orcs
Same
Having 8-10 skeletons or zombies/ghouls is always useful for those undead encounters, which I feel are very common.
A good gelatinous cube,ooze and mimic are always needed.
Surely everyone needs the "a farmer holding a pig" miniature?
Also, to add to the bandits as a scouting thug type, I recommend em4's Criminal Gladiator miniature, he'd be perfect!
If you're new to mini painting, skeletons are a great place to start. Basecoat, drybrush/wash, and weapons. Good way to build confidence.
Furry animals are good, too - wolves, bears, etc.
Thanks for the tips. I might actually start out with those if I feel like it anytime soon. A bit scared to mess it up though.
@@Nubbletech You can never mess up a mini!
Just prime it again and start over. People successfully repaint minis that are decades old!
I like lots of scatter terrain. I don't build dungeons when I play, I set up a scene really quick when appropriate, like if a battle starts, so I like to have a bunch of bits on hand. You'd be surprised how few things you really need. A couple of rocks, a pool, 2-3 trees, and you've got a decent forest encounter.
I glue Jenga pieces together and paint them grey for low walls, doors, etc. 3 bucks at the dollar store will get you all the pieces you'll ever need. Paint them brown for chairs, tables, book shelves, etc.
An easy way to get some workable rocks and trees is to look at the cheap, plastic zoo, farm, dinosaur, and similar sets in the cheaper parts of places like walmart. Get a small thing of washers to glue them to and the trees and rocks in the set work well, at least until you've started getting past the basics...and many of the trees and rocks paint up relatively well when you're ready for an upgrade.
How do you make a bookcase with jenga?
Holy damn that intro! Holy smokes, that outro! lol. That was intense. Also, I use more terrain than I do monster miniatures, but my top used monster miniatures would be the Gelatinous Cube and Skeletons.
Thanks for noticing!
Skeletons. So many skeletons. I need to get some gelatinous cubes
Yes! Great intro and outro!
Random beasts are helpful as well. I seem to always play with a druid in my groups and having their wildshapes for representation always makes them supper happy.
That was probably the most unhinged opening to a video I’ve ever seen, love the vibe already
0:48 that is my current favorite mini. The Dunkeldorf girl with crossbow.
Sadly I don't have the space for minis and terrain but gosh darn it I just love seeing all those cool things.
Commoners are awful handy, and not always easy to find!
Undead are always making the way to my table.
Same. Skeletons by the wagon load.
I'll say CMON board games are definitely worth keeping an eye on, especially for new collectors, as their games often go on sale & tend to be slam packed with decently sculpted minis.
Massive Darkness will probably give new collectors the most bang for their buck, with loads of orcs, goblins, dwarves, a handful of varied player characters, & some nice large boss monsters.
Then there's Rum & Bones considering nautical/pirate campaigns are always popular. You'll get plenty of human pirates in a variety of sculpts, plus tons of aquatic humanoids (especially useful for sahuagins). Then there's the nice fold out ship tiles with a top down view of the decks, so you don't have to blow an absorbent amount on actual ship miniatures
Amen to CMON minis. It’s a big investment, but they are very flexible and high quality, doubly so if you get the stretch goal minis from Kickstarter that only kinda fit in the base game theming. The medieval Zombicide games do gangbusters for undead hordes especially, but then again I just love using undead.
Massive Darkness, Black Plague, and the ASOIAF starter set will provide enough minis for a year's worth of adventures easily.
Song of Ice and Fire minis were just getting blown out by Miniature Market for $15 a box. Lots of bandits, barbarians, guards, knights, etc.
Lots of chances at getting super cheap deals on CMON. I already got a bunch of Black Plague minis for cheap.
I personally love a good set of skellyboys, best undead by far
Wow! Great minis! I believe that, within one's possibilities, it's great to have at least six to ten pieces of different creatures, depending greatly on the type of creature, of course. Having a little bit of everything allows DMs to be ready for any encounter. Personally, I felt in love with the Hasbro miniatures when I started in D&D, from there I've amassed a decent (so to speak) collection of miniatures, including the ones from Hasbro, Nolzur's, Mage Knight, the D&D Board games, and more recently, 3D resin miniatures.
Dude I was gifted a huge tub of 860 mage knight minis. So my collection is way over 1000 now. I should count them...
@@josephbradshaw6985 Nice! Now that's what I call a collection. You should man, I keep an inventory of the minis I have, including D&D, Mage Knight, Star Wars, Heroclix, and Axis & Allies. And yes, there's no such thing as "too many miniatures".
I have a grand total of 1300 minis. About 900 prepainted. About 200 painted by me, and another 200 waiting to be painted. I won't buy more until they are painted. This wasn't frivolous money spent either, it's all cheap. I had about 900 gifted to me, mostly mage knight from a garage sale. I bought 100+ from Impact Minis, resin, so a bit brittle, but they are my best looking minis. Then a bunch of stuff from the dollar store, giant snakes, dragons, dinosaurs and such. All the Walmart metal minis. Then I bought all of the Monster Protectors stuff off Amazon, and those monster/fantasy tubes that this channel has featured. Then this Christmas I got a bunch of Reapers tuff, maybe 60 minis, including a bunch of animals/pets/familiars.
My additions, with emphasis on lower level encounters:
1) Orcs. One of the most common low level monsters, and you can use them for hobgoblins too.
2) Zombies. As above, and can do double duty as ghouls.
3) Doors. These really help when drawing out a dungeon. Having a door mini cuts out confusion and looks better.
4) Bats. Not giant bats, just bats.
These are mostly because they're readily available and can be used as striges, imps or whatever small flying monster you need. Bird minis also work great.
5) Skeletons. It's D&D, there will be skeletons at some point. But more importantly, they are super easy to paint and are great to learn things like dry brushing and highlighting without worrying about "ruining" your mini. It's a skeleton, it's supposed to look bad.
6) Wolves.. either as monsters or animal companions, these are a must.
Just got my first minis today! I got a boneyard mystery box that had a lich, a zombie ogre, and a specter, I also got a boneclaw that I’m gonna paint later
Neat! Sounds like a good haul of minis for a Halloween style game.
I a lot of times go for human-ish villains, so I end up using minis designed (primarily) for pcs as the villain.
Which of course comes with his minions/henchmen, so goblins, bandits, skeletons, kobolds and stuff like that are always extremely useful.
I loved listening to your thoughts and even seeing some of the incredible paint jobs you’ve put on the game miniatures. Well done indeed.
For me as a DM I think that my most used are:
Kobolds, Undead, Gnolls, Orcs, Lizardfolk, Bandits/Thugs, Townsfolk, Chests, Spiders and Wolves.
These are really easy encounters where you can have either a rogue creature or a pack of them - either way they can be challenging and I get to set up a bunch of terrain (great call on the chests - I totally wouldn’t have considered them). So definitely some similarities between our lists which is always comforting.
Same, but with undead I almost always do skeletons because I have several giant ones from 'army man' style sets, double size, so I have boss skellies. I need more zombies.
I have found that the good ol classics orcs skeleton zombies bandits and goblins were my best shot when I started still use all of them regularly on my table and of course my dire rats lol
Rule one of kobolds: there’s never one kobold.
Most of the monsters you showed were very good for low level groups of PCs. As the characters gain levels, some miniatures I've found handy to have around include: demons/devils/assorted fiends, higher level undead (such as vampires, specters, and liches), a purple worm, drow, and evil PC types.
Must haves-
Goblins
Orcs
Zombies
any giant bugs
swamp monsters (any)
and the npc's/ farmers/ beggers/ other adventurers.
My top of the line figures, hands down- Otherworld Minis. Reaper is my go to mass figures, and you can't beat the price of the WOTC d and d figs.
That intro got me, well done.
I have used the heck out of a handful of 3d printed rocks to my board (yes..I know, I could use regular rocks, but now I dont have to worry as much about the real rocks scratching/damaging any other minis)
Anyways, trees and rocks - really change up an open scatter-style encounter
Yup. Scatter is half my mini game.
I am liking this one in advance! I believe I spy some excellent minis from “Castle Ravenloft”, “Legend of Drizzt”, and maybe “Wrath of Ashardalon”. I liked the “Dungeon of the Mad Mage” and “Temple of Elemental Evil” batches too; haven’t gotten “Tomb of Annhilation”; the last three never seem to be in the $35 to $45 sweet spot. “The Ghosts of Saltmarsh” one is super unappealing to me. From what I can tell, you get 6-8 smells and a bunch of add-to-the-game-you don’t play stuff for about $35. Yikes! Your paint job on these guys looks excellent!
I meant to say “smalls” but “smells” is appropriate when you are trying to do your fan base dirty, WOTC! 😆
Yeah. I think the old Hasbro D&D board games are great! (Ravenloft, Drizzt and Wrath) The newer ones just abandoned translucent material and just just not great unless you really want those minis. I didn't really realize that Saltmarsh only had a few minis.
Goblins, Skeletons, bandits, Orcs
Dude, that shoutout took me by surprise! Thank you so much! :D
Great video! I agree with so much of your choices here. A point of note for the treasure chest is that it's also great for introducing mimics. Love having a treasure chest AND a mimic based on the same design! :D
Man, now I think I'll have to make a "spin off"/"reply" video of this, with my choices... but the number one will always be: Kobolds! Kobolds forever!! :D
Kobolds are just really versatile! They are a great start to any collection.
Oh, absolutely! They can be used in so many ways! And they're just really fun to play, both as a DM and a player. :D
Great work these look amazing!
Yes to almost all of them. I also find quite useful to have undead hordes (zombies, skeletons), cultists (a good source for cultist and other abominable creatures is "Cthulu: Death may die" -bought it, never played it, just in for the miniatures, some of them are exquisite, the game is not cheap thou). I also share your love for dragons, but they tend to be on the expensive side, generally... also, I've had quite some difficulties to find some Ettercap miniatures (is a creature that I love -even if I'm arachnopobe, and that goes very well with spiders)
I always try to keep some goblins, orcs, and kobolds ready for the game. I'd like to get some more bandits. I like your list of required miniatures. It's a good start.
More to come!
Great video! Such a fun collection.Oh ya skeletons skeletons. loved every minute.
I had the same problem with my bendy Reaper dragon.
I solved it by sticking pins in the legs, which worked, but in retrospect I should have propped him up.
I recommend putting some treasure under his lower arm.
I did a similar thing with some floppy centaurs and it worked very well.
Came from the follow up video, and have to say good solid choices in both. I tend to feature a lot of orcs gobbos , bugbears , and goals, as well as Wolves, bandits, and cloakers, so nice to see the various sculpts.
I've only just started my collection but the way I'm going about it is to look up the creature list for the RPG I play most often (in this case Shadowdark) and purchase miniatures in alphabetically in order of power level. Since players don't usually stick with a campaign long enough to deal with more difficult opponents you can be rest assured you'll have enough.
This intro... was amazing
Thanks! I really felt that this miniature deserved it.
Good stuff, also this reminded me I need to pick up some townsfolk mini's for an important encounter so thank you
Funny and helpful video for people starting out. We do minis but love to 3D print and paint our scatter and show on our channel.
If you have access to a 3D printer I wonder if that changes how you think about D&D encounters? Would you base it less off tradition adventures or would that allow you to consider more unique scenarios? I have seen 3D prints of both styles being popular.
That Tia-Duck in the thumbnail is amazing.
Goose Hydra Honkdra! I did a whole video about it. ua-cam.com/video/ECRXDmKyZLs/v-deo.html
I'd also suggest if you're a DM to buy the monsters which can be summoned via spell, starting with the lowest spell level. You can get a lot of mileage out of using minis for players and their allies but use bulk dice for monsters. It also helps keep the two sides visually separated.
For a DM just starting out? My top recommendation would be the old Grenadier boxed set Orc's Lair, which Mirliton currently sells. It's got nine orcs in 25mm that really don't look like the modern orc.... or the modern goblin... or the modern hobgoblin... but they have that generic "monstrous humanoid" feel to them so between that and their smaller scale sculpting, they can just work as your orc encounter or your goblin encounter or your hobgoblin encounter or whatever monstrous humanoid your game has on the table.
Great video keep them coming.
Where's the goose hydra? :(
It was just clickbait!
What about the duck hydra thing from the video tumbnail?
I did a whole video about that miniature. It's a really nice 3D sculpt! But limited in it's use. Well worth it for a shelf piece though. ua-cam.com/video/ECRXDmKyZLs/v-deo.html
5:55 "Miniatures that are not PC's or Monsters"
Me- "I'm pretty sure at least one of those is a mimic"
That intro was gold lmao
Just got my first 2 pack and I’m already an addict. I’ve bought 40 dollars worth of paint and have painted one
My daughters just got into D&D so buying the bits she needs to start. I have no idea about any if this, what sort of miniatures should I get?
The current edition of D&D does not require Miniatures. You can have them and they are fun to collect and use in the game but you don't NEED them. You can always substitute anything for a token.
Basically for D&D 5e (current edition) it's helpful to have the basic books which you can get on Amazon for around $25 each.
Basic books are the players handbook, the dungeon master's guide and the monster manual. If your daughter is just playing all she needs is the player's manual. Link amzn.to/3AvYdeg
If she already has the main book then Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is a fun book for players. amzn.to/3OpVgS5
For Miniatures it depends on how old your daughter is. Generally speaking if she isn't interested in painting miniatures you can get prepainted miniatures on sale at Coolstuffinc every once in awhile (Click the ON SALE table on the right and see if there are any miniatures on sale. Also at Miniatures Market. The "Icons of the Realms" are the current sets and they are all official D&D miniatures. I would stay away from the Spelljammer sets because that is a lot of space stuff and I am assuming she is more focused on fantasy stuff like Critical Role.
Most prepainted miniatures are sold in blind boxes except for some sets where you can see what you are getting.
There are no cheap prepainted miniatures around except for the metal nano sets at Walmart and those are kind of interesting but not really in scale with most miniatures.
Again if your daughter is just playing and not running games she doesn't need many miniatures. If she does use miniatures she can use anything for tokens when she is starting out.
If your daughter is really young maybe you could find some stuff at the local game store? They should be able to help you find some stuff that won't be on sale but hopefully be stuff your daughter would like. They also sell flat tokens sets ect.
Talk to your daughter and see what aspect of D&D she is interested in. She might just be interested in the creative side of it so she might need some writing stuff like notebooks?
Again the current edition of D&D is a game that can be played with nothing but the free rules or you can spend a LOT of money on miniatures that just sit on a shelf.
Wizkids has a nice un-painted townsfolk and a painted set if you don’t want to paint awsome video!!
What I've ended up using the most are goblins, undead, crystal worms (from ICRPG), and cultists. Not the most creative mix, but I've found in my games that having cultists or goblins worshiping some larger threat is a theme that pops up regularly. For cultists I just try to hoard minis who are wearing hoods.
I've never actually used a dragon or an ogre in one of my games. But as someone who has very little money to put into this, I'll usually dig through the "minis" I already have for ideas. Cheap plastic dinosaur with a decent paint job? What if there's a pissed off stegosaurus between my party and where they need to go? Completely out of scale but hyper realistic chicken? Beware the Dire Hen who has been terrorizing our poor village! I also usually find making weird minis is more fun than buying minis (although not terribly time efficient). My players don't seem to mind that my monsters are often a bit odd.
I was not ready for that intro
Fun times with the green screen.
Ok, everyone's thinking it. Where did the hydra goose in the thumbnail come from and where can I get it???
I did a whole video on that ua-cam.com/video/ECRXDmKyZLs/v-deo.html
Undead ! zombies...skeletons...are always useful.
skeletons, zombies and vampires, gotta have em!
love your channel
How dare you! Oh wait. Sorry I am not used to compliments.
Does anyone know the name of the five headed goose in the thumbnail?
Goose Hydra by MZ4250 also known as Honkdra. It's a 3D printed mini.
An extra you might need, goose hydra😊
Hordes of undead work well with any level of adventuring, zombies, skeletons and ghosts!
4:00 This never made sense to me. In my games the miniatures only come out for combat. There’s no guessing because the only purpose to miniatures is to track combat. I’m not setting up a combat environment until in roleplay combat actually begins. Players can’t anticipate combat any more than anything else. This only makes sense if, for some reason, you’re setting up the scene before combat actually begins, which has no discernible benefit, as again, the main advantage of minis is to track the location of the parties involved in combat. I find doing such a thing to be superfluous.
Come to think of it, even if I did set up the scene at encounter… that doesn’t mean the parties involved are hostile or that parley is out of the question. I would only assume that from a GM who makes every encounter an unavoidable combat.
That intro was kinda... uh. Interesting lol
*thumbs up*
Bandits, rats, skeletons, orcs, goblins, zombies, spiders, hobgoblins, bugbears, ogres and an owl bear. Maybe throw in some lizardfolk, kuotoa/sahuagin, or bullywug/grung. That should cover a wide variety for your first three to five levels. Then pull your giants, elementals, aberrations, and large sized dragons.
Spiders are not my bag. Ankhegs, Wasps hives, and Giant Stirges! Those I will use the most.
Stirges! Now I really should have considered those. What great specific D&D monster.
I am always looking for evil spell casters for my BBEG.
check your FLGS and scrub boxes for cheap minis.
Trades and sales work, as well.
Where can I find painted minis
That is a tough question. There really are limited prepainted minis out there. You can look for websites like Coolstuffinc that have sales on figures and booster boxes of Wizkids stuff. Miniature market has sales on prepainted stuff from smaller companies but those are like a handful of products. Sometimes the best prices are at local stores that are having a sale. Maybe they will be selling some of the older Hasbro stuff too. Ebay lots are VERY expensive for prepainted stuff now.
Go to any store that sells toys and you can pick up some normal animals - wolves, bears, lions, alligators, dinosaurs....
These are incredibly useful. They can appear at any time in wilderness adventures and you don't need to come up with a special justification for why they attack the party.
I think the most useful miniature would be the most universal, so generic people; your bandits, your armored men, your robed figures. People are arguably the most numerous type of being your run into in most fantasy worlds. Kobolds and Orcs and Goblins and others you’ll find in spades are a close second. Skeletons and maybe at least one dragon also couldn’t hurt
but yeah people definitely take the top spot. Like if you wanted to run a game with every encounter having a miniature you’ll almost invariably need people. As an added bonus, players may easily be able to use these as stand ins for their characters in lieu of a specially procured one.
My first ever game we used a bucket of medieval themed green army men, and we used these for just about everything humanoid, including kobolds and orcs and what have you.
Skeletons are a must have for me
I just got done painting my reaper kobolds
Agreed on Bandits. However, I think they're only the 2nd most useful minis to have. Top place goes to the classic, and my fave enemy, ORCS!
Surprised you didnt mention any undead Blandco my man! Those find my table so much...
The best miniature i got was a Playmobile pirate ship for $3.50 at goodwill.
If you want spiders or small/medium sized animals. The best I feel are the like 15 or so you get in the packet at dollar tree
Lmao, love the little spiel about tieflings
Thanks for sharing
Kobolds, Goblins, and Orcs, Oh My!
Hello where get ur figure?
Great opening
I'm not into any specific type of Monster or company. I pick up the Minis I like the most. (Recently: D&D is my excuse to by a few Miniatures, I have no real reason for buying them.)
Of course I got a few Minis via Kickstarter, which are more or less the basic canon-fodder, like the Goblins from First Legion, but most of the time it is "O I like this Miniature!". (So: Of course there are a lot of Reapure-Sculpts in my collection, which are in most Cases cast out of Metal.)
What kind of goose is that?
Goose Hydra AKA honkra from creator mz4250
A review on the quality of the casting would be beneficial. I seem to have an excessive issue with breakage,
Generally when i review miniatures specifically I talk about durability. It's the biggest drawback with most 3D prints.
What? No goblins or orcs?? I don't think I could run a game without them. Some skeletons never go unused either.
Uncle Johnnnnnnn? What are you doing in my tent :/
Need skeletons, Zombies, Undead creatures. Enemy mages to go with that. from Hag to lich. Maybe a few wolves to run by themselves or tamed. but otherwise a good starting point. I also suggest gettinhg the mini's for LMoP as that is very genneric and reusable.
If Dungeons & Dragons were a miniature war gaming experience like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, it would be an exciting and unpredictable adventure! Here's a potential concept:
Title: "Dungeons & Battles: The Miniature Quest"
Story:
- Four players are transported into a fantastical world, finding themselves shrunk down to miniature size.
- They discover a mysterious game board, featuring a map of a fantasy realm.
- To survive and return to the real world, they must navigate the board, battling monsters, completing quests, and solving puzzles.
Gameplay:
- Players use miniature figures to represent their characters, moving them around the board and engaging in combat.
- Each character has unique abilities and strengths, reflected in their miniature's design and gameplay abilities.
- The game includes a variety of scenarios, from dungeon crawls to open battles, each with unique objectives and challenges.
Miniatures:
- Characters and monsters would be represented by detailed, painted miniatures, each with its own unique design and abilities.
- Players could customize their miniatures with different weapons, armor, and accessories.
This concept combines the excitement of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with the strategic gameplay of miniature war gaming and the storytelling of Dungeons & Dragons. The result is a thrilling adventure that's full of surprises!
a gelatinous cude and oozes are a must have mini
Goblins and orcs and a rust monster or mimic oozes and jellies and mold, wizard or sage wizard zombies and skeletons and one bad guy that keeps getting away til party can actually do damage
Kobolds are cool, but I kinda lump in all my beast men into the same horde. A bunch of 1 hit goblins, lizard men, etc. With an ogre as their chief/boss.
Townsfolk, skeletons and minions in general (orcs goblins etc).
Lots of dressing/scatter pieces terrain/decor.
So.... My top ?five?
Townsfolk, minions/monsters in general, terrain, dragons, and I dunno what my fifth spot would be
I have over 2000 figs dating back to the early 1970's, but have where to play... Alas...
Doors!, other scatter terrain (trees, rocks, walls, etc.)
For creatures; wolves, hyena, gnoll, goblins, skeletons, zombies, earth elemental, person in full-plate (can be construct/animated armour or living warrior, etc.), stirdge, giant rat, snake, scorpion, etc.
You can use toys too! Animal toys. Easy to get great ‘giant’ versions of animals that way. Look near Halloween for bulk packs of bugs, rats bats, skeletons and webs, etc.
You can get amazing model train various trees cheap just look, I got some on Amazon (wait for price drops if it’s too high right now). Then get air dry clay from the dollar store and make bases and push the trees into the base then dry the. Paint.
Get moss to use from the dollar store, and use thick cardstock. Also you can use glass cabochons and wooden circles!
You can use acrylic paint to paint and glue moss into wooden (or even thick Bristol/cardstock) circles for scatter terrain bushes! 1 inch = med or small and 2 inch circles are large.
You can even just get construction paper (better to use higher grade coloured cardstock) cut shapes out for quick scatter terrain
Such as but not limited too; water, mud, pit, tar, lava, sand, oil slick, webs, acid pools, carpets, magic circle,
Remember to use cut out templates to help with area of effect for spells and creature abilities. You can also use a glue gun and silicone mat to make lines and craft.
Most useful; fireball circle, Leomunds tiny hut circle, various cones for spells and monster breath weapons.
Also get a measuring tape for long distance. You can pre cut and park off on a flexible long paper the length of lightning bolt if a PC uses it, etc
Make the spell effects your players have and your NPCs and monsters use!
More is more. Use similar miniatures as ‘good enough’ ensure the base is the correct size in the battle map! Size is most important. Better to just use a 2 inch circle to represent a large foe than a ‘too small’ but accurate miniature. Better put that mini on the larger circle!
If your Gargantuan mini is too small. Cut out the proper base size from a larger paper and put the mini on that and move them together focusing in the paper base position most!
Recent discovery; modern wrapping paper can have a 1 inch grid on the reverse! Check the rolls invest in cheap dollar store 1 inch grid papers!
Also some monsters are easy to craft. Glue guns and using a silicone Matt; can easily make; oozes, slimes, elementals,etc.
Using air dry clay and styrofoam balls/other balls you can make beholders.
Filling with cardboard toons, stones aluminum foil, etc then air dry clay it’s easy to make huge worms!
Craft what you can, buy what is hard to craft!
Most of all I say doors! Doors are ALWAYS USEFUL and harder to craft!
skeletons, zombies, bandits, wolves, spiders and one or two of each enemy NPC archetypes - fighter, ranger, rogue, cleric, mage will cover 80-90% of low level D&D play.
Yo, is that a TrendMasters' Biolante I spy?
Wow! Very sharp eyes! Yes I have a Biolante that is missing an "arm" that I found at the Goodwill by the Pound.
@@Blandco Thanks! 😄That's awesome. I hope I can find one someday, my Trendmaster Godzilla is lonely.
First 8 seconds I’m already subscribing
Minis are like dice
Always need more
thanks
Its all fun and games until you party goes on AUTO loot >.< Also, never forget the always useful Goblin!
I go from game store to game store my carrying case I have
goblin
zombie
Skeletons
Ghost
Human
Dwarf
Elf’s
Some large monsters
What would you guys bring to carry’s everywhere ?