The Ultimate Guide to Miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons

along side the dice pencil and paper miniatures have been a big part of Dungeons and Dragons since the very earliest days of the Hobby they're getting into collecting minis can be just as daunting as getting into the Hobby itself so welcome to our ultimate guide to miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop role-playing games [Music] greetings my name is Monte Martin and I'm Kelley McLaughlin and we are the dungeon dudes and today we're talking about miniatures miniatures are my favorite game aid for Dungeons & Dragons they can be used to help you position yourself in a complex battle or to just plant the seeds for your imagination for your great heroes your incredible monsters or amazing locations there are wonderful visual representation to use on the tabletop and a fantastic hobby on their own as both collectibles and a creative outlet if you're interested in painting miniatures yourself well miniatures have been part of Dungeons & Dragons since the very beginning of the game they are an optional accessory they're not necessary for playing D&D in fact you don't even need miniatures to have the quote-unquote definitive Dungeons & Dragons experience most brand new D&D players will often settle for a pencil paper and imagination before diving into the miniature collection even though Kelly and I have been collecting miniatures for years and we have a pretty big collection we don't use miniatures all the time in our games and we certainly don't use them for every single conceivable scene miniatures are great for combat encounters and set-piece battles and complex dungeons but many scenes such as role-playing or exploration or puzzles are best kept to the theater of the mind where your imagination can create everything for you there's no reason to lay out an elaborate set piece for a shop that the players are going to go into to go shopping with an interesting NPC that they've met this is all something that can happen in your imagination miniatures are excellent for a tactical combat experience and if you enjoy thinking about positioning and strategy there are a really rewarding element of the gameplay miniatures can also really help out if you're a DM who has a lot of things going on on the table during a epic battle this is where it might be useful to know exactly how far away people are from each other how many people are in the 20 foot radius of a fireball spell if we look at the board here we can see exactly how these things are going to play out we also enjoy creating setups involving our miniatures terrain and other props which create a beautiful and evocative setup for our set piece battles and epic encounters we often take photographs of these setups and they make a great archive and record of the awesome memories that we had playing in those games collecting miniatures can be a very rewarding hobby but it can also be a very time-consuming and expensive hobby so how do you get started there are so many awesome options out there from the classic hand-painted metal figures that have been with us from the beginning to the newer pre painted plastic miniatures as well as great alternatives such as paper miniatures or 3d printed figures we're going to give you an overview of some of the most prominent options that are available so you can choose the right one for you that fits within your style time and budget we're gonna look at how much these options cost how durable they are and how good they look and where you might be able to pick them up we're gonna cover a little bit of everything but this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the miniatures manufacturers and makers that are out there there's hundreds of them but we're gonna look at some of the most prominent options and if we have missed one of your favorites please give us your recommendations in the comments below so let's get rolling we're gonna start off with probably the biggest part of our collections and that is pre painted plastic miniatures these are the official Dungeons & Dragons miniatures that are commissioned by Wizards of the coast and manufactured by a company called whiz kids Paizo also has a line that is made by whiz kids too for the Pathfinder game and the miniatures are in the same scale they're pretty similar and I use them side-by-side all the time they're called the icons of the realms line for D&D and Pathfinder battles for Pathfinder these miniatures are available at most local game stores and they come in these little booster packs that contain four minis per box and are randomized each box will always contain three medium sized or small sized creatures as well as one large or huge figure wizard the coast releases these miniatures in sets of 44 miniatures and each set has been themed around one of the adventures that has been released for 5th edition D&D so we have sets for two of Annihilation sets for storm Kings thunder and sets for water deep dragon heist and dungeon of the mad mage the miniatures are based on the official 5th edition artwork so there's even miniatures in the set to represent the non player characters in the modules like straud ass Iraq and even Volo this can be really helpful because if you're planning to run a particular campaign you can go out and get a whole bunch of booster packs from that specific module now keep in mind that these are sorted by rarity so you're more likely to get things like bandits cobol's goblins and the low-level creatures then you are to get some of the very prominent NPCs or the beholders or dragons that you're looking for this isn't necessarily a bad thing because everybody could use more bandits and basically cannon fodder enemies however if you are looking for the specific NPC that you want for that module it's gonna be a little bit harder to get this is where the secondary market comes into play because there's many great websites such as miniature market meeple mart troll and toad and others that will actually sell single figures from opened up booster packs oftentimes these have a little bit of a higher price tag than if you'd bought a bunch of booster packs but the advantages that you're going to get the figure that you're looking for so if you have your heart set on that beholder or strawed or otherwise check out these websites we'll have the links in the description below and you could actually find the figures that you're looking for there's a really great website called miniatures gallery that has a list of all the figures in all the sets organized by so you can figure out exactly which figures you might want to get and plan around that if you just want to get a big stock of common and uncommon figures like the orcs and bandits those are usually only about three or four dollars per miniatures sometimes less whereas the rarer figures like straud and a serac and player characters can often be around ten to twenty and then there's really rare premium figures like Dragons and B holders that can be much more that said if you've got your heart set on something it is worth it there is another option if you're setting out to run a particular module and you want a whole bunch of minis from that module you can buy an entire case of the booster packs it's going to come with 32 booster packs inside and 128 minis and you're guaranteed to get at least one of every mini in the set you're also gonna end up with five or six of the common miniatures in the set so you're gonna get the really nice figures that are in it as well as a bunch of the figures that you actually want to have multiples of getting a full case is usually around 350 to 400 dollars u.s. so it is an expensive option it's what I do personally because I'm a fanatic and I love collecting miniatures and that way I get every single figure in the set and often times I'll trade or give away the extras that I don't need to my friends it's a little bit more of an upfront cost but it really reduces the randomization of buying individual booster packs and hoping for the best every set of miniatures also includes what's called the case incentive figure which is thrown in when you order a full case but you can also get it separately this figure is usually a premium huge or gargantuan figure that it's really something special so this is where I was able to get my Kraken figure or my ancient red dragon or mine if visit figure these figures are usually 40 or 50 dollars on their own but when i preorder my case of miniatures it's thrown in as a bonus on top as far as quality's concerned the pre painted plastic miniatures are pretty durable and pretty well painted the larger figures and the rarer figures in particular often have paint jobs that are comparable to what you'd expect from a plastic collectible or an action figure but there had been some pretty forgettable paint jobs in there occasionally I will get a little mini that has what I call the crazy eyes I'd say the smaller figures and the ones that are more common sometimes you can count on a few bad paint jobs in there but it saves you the time and energy of having to paint it yourself yeah I think by and large the pre painted plastic figures are always better looking than most beginner paint jobs if you're painting them yourself but they are always gonna pale in comparison to an expert level paint job the icons of the realms lines contain some really unique scalps there's some of the best giant miniatures out there there's some of the few places where you can find a miniature like a beholder or many of the unique demons and undead creatures that are part of the Dungeons & Dragons Canon and so I've actually seen many talented miniature painters repaint the miniatures themselves because when you compare the pricing of the pre painted plastic figures to several of the higher-end miniatures that are out there the sculpts are often as good quality as those and with your own elbow grease you can get a really gorgeous looking figure one thing to be aware of if you're buying pre painted plastic miniatures is that they can be prone to bendy sword syndrome the pre painted plastic miniatures are made of pretty cheap plastic which does make them durable but it does mean that some details particularly swords and spears are prone to droop egde another quick tip for those of you looking to get a lot of miniatures really quickly is to check a bay oftentimes people that are getting out of the Hobby will have a huge yard sale the we're just gonna try to dump all their miniatures for pennies on the dollar once in a while I get lucky and I'm able to expand my collection by an entire table full for only $100 pre painted plastic miniatures is an excellent option if you're not into painting your own minis the cost that you put into buying pre painted miniatures saves you a lot of time and it is worth that extra if you have no interest in painting yourself Wizards of the coast and Paizo have also made packs of player character figures such as these ones here which are the epic level heroes that are based on the premades from the starter set I have bought entire boxes of these just because I saw many in there that I thought would represent my character that I had made very well and for me it's honestly worth it to have a mini that that represents your character so some of these are excellent minis to represent those player characters those heroes and adventurers yeah the paint job on these ones tend to be pretty good and they often also include things like spell effects and other bits of pizzazz to them so I really have enjoyed these pre-painted little packs for player characters and NPCs as well one thing I do notice is some of these minis that have the spell effects or the electricity or magic just spewing out of them actually look cooler than anything you would get from trying to paint it yourself yeah like I really love like the a serac figure that has that looks exactly like a stock on the cover of the Dungeon Master's guide or the beholder that's right out of the front of the Monster Manual like that these are modeled off of the official artwork actually makes it really satisfying to collect and they're instantly recognizable when you put them down on the table if you're excited about diving into the deep end of miniature collecting you may want to look at unpainted miniatures as they even plies these are miniatures that you have to paint yourself they come as bare plastic or metal and it's on you to pick up a brush and fill them with color there are so many options for unpainted miniatures and a lot of different companies that make these options for you one of the most prominent manufacturers of miniatures for tabletop role-playing games has been Reaper over the years Reaper have made hundreds and hundreds of awesome miniatures for both player characters and monsters alike now not only do we have these metal miniatures but they also have the bones series of plastic minis which you can paint yourself as well these got a lot of notoriety because Reaper does an almost annual Kickstarter for their bones line where you can get miniatures for less than dollar they're basically made of the same plastic as the pre painted miniatures but they come completely unpainted with no packaging when you get the kick starter or then they come in their own packages when you buy them in store once you paint them up though they look really really great just as good as a metal figure although they do suffer from the same bendy sword syndrome as the unpainted well the Reaper line has been a mainstay for many years Wiz Kids has started creating their own unpainted miniatures these are the nosers marvelous miniatures line and they also do a similar line for a pathfinder called the deep cuts and these are really well priced and awesomely detailed figures you get these two packs for about three to four dollars I think they're five dollars Canadian which I guess is like two cents u.s. and I really like these because the in the pack that they come in you get a low level version and a high level version of the same character so if this is your player character you can just level them up yeah and of course they do fantastic miniatures well as well including an awesome beholder that is only five dollars assuming you can get your hands on one one of the biggest issues with unpainted miniatures is that there's simply a massive selection and it can be so hard to find the right figure for your NPC monster or player character although it does remove the randomization of the pre painted mini so you can actually browse and look for the minis that you do want yeah Reaper miniatures actually has a fantasy figure finder on their website where you can search in that you're looking for a male or female figure if they're an elf or a dwarf what kind of weapon they're wielding even a rough search by class and then they'll show you a couple recommendations within their own range so that can help you find the right figure but then at that point it's on you to paint it there's also a large array of other manufacturers who make unpainted minis as well you may be familiar with Games Workshop and their Citadel miniatures line that are used in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 lines and buying a box of Warhammer orcs or skeletons can be a great way to get a lot of awesome MOOCs for your table the games workshop figures are a little bit on the pricey side for unpainted figures often being about five to ten dollars on average even just for like a trooper figure and their character miniatures are really expensive these days because they cast them in plastic and resin that are pretty pricey actually there's still a lot of other manufacturers out there like steam Forge games who make the guild ball game as well as private to your press who make war machine and hordes and many of these companies make lines of miniatures for role-playing games as well or just have great miniatures for their other games that you can really really easily use for D&D no matter where you go an orc is an orc if you are the kind of person who really enjoys painting this is an excellent way to get into miniature collecting because now you get to paint your minis the way that you want them to look and it's another added hobby for you to spend your time and energy to actually put into making your minis look perfect painting miniatures is fun and rewarding and it's a fantastic way to relax I love sitting down in front of my miniature painting station turning on a TV show on Netflix or putting on a podcast or some music opening up a drink and just painting it's a great way to online and I really really love doing it but it is a hobby on its own and I don't recommend picking up painting miniatures as just a way to get a great collection of miniatures for your D&D game a lot of people look at the unpainted minis and they see the price tag on them and compare those to the pre painted minis and think that they're getting an amazing deal yes they are more cost effective but you need to keep in mind that painting minis being a hobby in itself is much more time consuming and also you do need to buy all the paints and brushes and workstation required to paint your minis the way that you want them this means that it can really ramp up the costs nobody's going to break down your door for using unpainted miniatures at your Dungeons & drag table however if you're gonna buy unpainted miniatures to use in your game because you think that there are a cheaper option I'm gonna show you a whole bunch of alternatives that are even cheaper and look way better than bare plastic and metal at your table it also just looks silly I have a few unpainted minis that I probably will never paint and I don't even like busting them out anymore because it looks kind of weird when I have all these beautiful pre painted minis and then I have my shopkeep who's a little white brick as many people in the miniature collecting hobby will tell you it actually creates a very strange vortex over your wallet which mysteriously replaces all of your money with hordes of paint pots brushes specialized tools air brushes and boxes and boxes of unpainted miniatures sitting in your basement that will never see the light of day don't make the mistake of thinking that unpainted miniatures are going to save you money it is an expensive and time-consuming hobby a rewarding and fun one yes but it is not cheap we've collected a short list in the description below of some awesome other youtubers who have fantastic instructional videos for beginners on getting into miniature painting a newer option for collecting minis is actually looking at 3d printing 3d printers have gotten really amazing and they are super cool and there have been a lot of hobbyists makers and creators which have been exploring using 3d printing as a way of creating figures for tabletop role-playing games and the results have been really impressive one of the benefits of being able to 3d print your models is that you get ultimate customization if you're looking for the perfect player character to represent your character that you've spent a lot of time designing and imagining in your head 3d printing is an excellent way to go now you don't have to go out and buy your own 3d printer and get tons of filament to take advantage of the revolution that 3d printing is creating because there's a great company called hero Forge which has an awesome online character builder that you can use to customize your own 3d printed miniature which will then ship to you and you can then paint it up yourself the cost for these is a little bit higher than some of the other options but for me personally it's oddly important to have a miniature that represents the character I'm going to play and spending that little bit of extra money to get a completely customized character is well worth it to me yeah we ordered some miniatures from hero forge for our bundles of Drakon hime campaign for the player characters and we were really really happy with them they're made of a really high quality plastic that took paint really really beautifully and it only took me about an hour to paint each of the figures and had a lot of fun doing it and we get figures that look perfect for the player characters they all came out really really well yeah though that's also a testament to the painter I'm a pretty rubbish painter but these ones came out okay the hero Forge miniatures if you get them in the premium plastic they're about twenty-five dollars each plus shipping they do have a cheaper plastic as well that I can't vouch for I think you lose a lot of the detail with those ones and you can also get metal and brass ones that don't take paint as well but are much more durable and kind of look great as a set-piece hero forge is the perfect option for an individual player character that wants to get their perfect miniature but it's not as good an option for a dungeon master that needs a big huge collection for monsters and non-player characters I think the pre painted and unpainted miniatures are better for that there's probably not many DMS out there who want to dish out twenty to forty dollars per many to get an army of Orcs that said if you are a dungeon master that does want to 3d print your own army of Orcs you could get your own 3d printer and check out the awesome miniatures that have been created by miguel Zavala who has made a 3d printable model that you can download for virtually every single monster in the monster manual we're gonna include links in the description below to Miguel's work it's really really amazing and he has made 3d printable sculptures for basically everything in 5th edition now obviously if you're setting out to buy your own 3d printer the upfront costs are going to be pretty high but now you have the option of printing out whatever miniatures you want well 3d printing does have some high upfront costs and the filament can range in price and quality depending on how much detail you want in your figures there is a lot of great knowledge out there and we encourage you to do your research carefully 3d printing does have some unexpected costs and can be surprisingly time-consuming to print a lot of figures out so measure this very very carefully before you go out and order a 3d printer only to print 5 orcs that you never end up painting because again the 3d printer is not gonna paint the figure for you you still have to paint it yourself so make sure that you factor that into the whole equation and be really really wary of the cheap 3d printers because the results from molds can be really disappointing so really this option is for the ultimate hobbyist who's willing to dish out money to get a quality 3d printer and also is interested in diving into the hobby of painting miniatures I think 3d printing is a really exciting hobby and it's poised to change the world in some really amazing ways but do your research really really carefully to decide if getting a 3d printer for your miniatures collection is the right choice for you we've looked at some pretty premium options so far whether you're going with unpainted miniatures pre painted plastic figures or you're gonna try 3d printing them yourself you're probably on the hook for a good amount of time or money or both so what about cheaper options for those that are just interested in something to use for tactical combat yeah if you're not interested in putting out all that money but you still want to jump into the game of D&D and you want your battle map down and you want something to represent the heroes and villains on your table there's a lot of cost-effective ways that you can jump into that one of the simplest and oldest ways is to just use coins or bottle caps and color them in with some colored marker or even glass beads or something simple like that others have used things like chess pieces or board game pieces or even Lego as stand-ins for monsters player characters and non player characters I know a lot of people that already have a large collection of Lego no Lego isn't necessarily a cost-effective method because Lego can be pretty expensive but if you're like me and you grew up with it I have a whole tub of Lego at home I don't use it anymore but if I were to bust that out I could probably build some pretty cool sets and use all of the many figures to represent some pretty awesome things on the table it's not gonna look as amazing as a giant red dragon but the Lego dragon can still get the job done so if you're looking for a really cost-effective option for getting a lot of miniatures just to have a great battle map that's suitable for tactical play you might want to look at the Pathfinder Hans box sets these retail for around $40 Canadian about $30 US and they contain in them 300 roughly pawns these are paper miniatures on punch-out cardboard and then they include the bases to mount them onto so that they're appropriate for tactical combat and the Pathfinder pawns actually you look really really great they use official art from the Pathfinder role-playing game rule books and beasty Ares and they have medium large and even huge and gargantuan size pawns if you want to talk about cost-effective being able to drop $40 to get 300 miniatures is really incredible if you're just getting into the game of D&D or Pathfinder and you want to really bolster your collection fast this is the one of the best ways to dive in drop a little bit of money and basically have representation for almost monster you can conceivably think of right away well the artwork is Pathfinder specific they work equally well for Dungeons and Dragons cuz there's still lots of ponds for things like giant spiders and trolls and banshees in all the sets all the set sucks we have a full list of what's in them on the back and you do get multiples of each of them although they don't give you 300 bases you only get about 30 or 40 bases so you do have to switch out which ones are there each time but who cares you're getting 300 different pieces of artwork represent tons of creatures just switching out your bases that's just part of the prep work before your game as a DM because there punch out cards from a pretty durable cardstock it's very easy to transport a lot of them at a time one of the really big problems of regular miniatures is that if you're a DM on the go it's really hard to bring them to game night if you're not running the game out of your own home but with Pathfinder ponds you just stack them up and put them in a binder or a briefcase and you're ready to go so if $40 for a bunch of Pathfinder pawns is still a little too expensive for you perhaps you only want to get the exact miniatures that you want to represent it's pretty easy to make your own paper miniature pawns at home all you need is a printer and some glue and paper for the cost of paper and ink you can basically go online print out some minis and in what 22 seconds cut it out and slap it on a little base or even just a paper base and you have a mini ready to go at your game table I've actually slapped some of these on binder clips before and it works just great printable Heroes has an awesome patreon page with tons of full-color artwork for lots of different miniatures that are in the monster manual tons and tons of different creatures I was able to print these out on photo paper so they're nice and glossy and they look really good this is one that he did that's on the dungeon masters guild for the Zanna thar from water deep dragon heist you just print that off attach it to a base or some sort of stand you can even just fold the paper and put on a paper clip and it will stand up just fine and there you go you've got a full-color piece of artwork used as a miniature on your table and it takes 30 seconds of work to cut it out of the piece of paper and less than a minute to download online so if all you have is a printer and some paper you're pretty good to go if for any reason none of these options work if you have a collection of board games at home usually there's enough little pieces in those board games to represent things at your table I actually know a group that just got started and they are using monopoly pieces to represent their player characters yeah Wizards of the coast has actually made a bunch of board games using the whiz kids miniatures which can be a really awesome way to pick up a bunch of the miniatures that are in the pre painted sets if you there's a tomb of annihilation board game that uses unpainted and painted versions of the tomb of annihilation miniatures and you can pick one of those up and that just use that at your tabletop and it works perfectly fine in some cases I've seen people use old board games like Warhammer Quest and other board games that have really great miniatures to them and either using those unpainted because they're color coded or painting them up yourself and using them in your game it's a great cost-effective way to find actual 3d miniatures one high-tech option for those who have the ability to do it is to use a digital tabletop this has been increasingly popular and is a fantastic alternative to miniatures many digital tabletops such as roll20 and fantasy grounds have an awesome tactical battle map built into the app and if you have a television set or a projector it's really easy to set this up at your game table and use this as your battle map in the game session I've seen some really phenomenal tables that have been built with TVs built into them or projectors mounted over top of the tabletop and then these have been used alongside real miniatures as well it's really really cool although a little bit of an expensive and fancy DIY option there's some cheap projectors out there but I think this is a lot of work to set up like that if you have the ability to do it it's a pretty cool yeah there's also a lot of great artwork on those sites that you can just print off and glue onto a bottle cap or a little token from a craft store and just use those as flat pieces on your table just using the art as well the only thing with paper miniatures and tokens is that they tend to fly away if somebody sneezes or coughs really really hard so just be aware of that I've seen many a tactical battle ruined by an erstwhile sneeze that's our guide to miniatures for tabletop role-playing games that's just it's this is just a small snippet of everything that's out there they're some of the most prominent and accessible options and it's really up to you to decide which one is going to be right for your playgroup well miniatures can be time-consuming and expensive it is a rewarding and fun hobby and especially if you get into it as a group of people splitting the cost or sharing the expenses or even getting together as an entire group and painting your miniatures together can be a really fun way to expand your enjoyment of Dungeons and Dragons we hope that this guide was able to shine some light on the options that you have to get into collecting miniatures for your game table and we hope that with all of these different options there's one out there that really stood out to you and can really heighten the immersion at your next game and the number one piece of advice I have regardless of which solution you choose for your game is to start small I have a really big collection of miniatures terrain and other props that I use to enhance my game but I didn't have these things when I started playing Dungeons & Dragons rather my collection is something that has built up over 15 years of playing the game sometimes in fits and starts and sometimes I've made a big addition to my collection start small get a few miniatures hand-painted for your next group of player characters and use pawns for the monsters then maybe you might want to add a prominent miniature like a dragon or a lich to represent the villain of your campaign over time you might want to add a few miniatures here and there to represent key NPCs or use in memorable battles in your campaign after a few years of collecting one day you'll be able to open up the Monster Manual to a random page and say oh yeah I've got a miniature for that I should use that one in my next game session and find that there's great inspiration in your collection because you can dust off a figure that you haven't used for a few days weeks or months and use that in your next game night so this has been our ultimate guide to miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons we've mentioned a lot of different places to grab minis and we'll put them all in the links down below if we've missed any of your favorites we're personally interested in hearing about them so let us know in the comments and these were just our personal favorites none of the manufacturers or companies we mentioned it in this video sponsored this video or asked us to include them in any way we've just picked the ones that we have personally used in our games over the years if you're enjoying the show and are interested in supporting the channel consider becoming a patron of our work you can find out how in the links below and if you want to see us using some of these amazing minis in our own game you can check out our live play dungeons of dragon hime which airs Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. eastern time on Twitch if you want to catch up with previous episodes we have a link to those right up over here we've also got plenty more tips for new dungeon masters for Dungeons and Dragons right up over here please subscribe to our channel so that you never miss an episode thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time in the dungeon

Channel: Dungeon Dudes

Views: 197,331

Rating: 4.9045267 out of 5

Keywords: dungeons, dragons, tabletop, gaming, roleplaying, games, accessories, rules, rule, gameplay, play, game, rpg, d20, player, character, D&D, 5e, DM, PC, tips, advice, guide, guides, review, dice, books, book

Id: 5wDRPAae3HQ

Length: 35min 8sec (2108 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2019