Mini questions

[DizzyWood]

Is this the right place to post this? I hope so because this is where I always post and new things SCARE me.

1. Do you guys use minis? If so just for PCs or for EVERYTHING? If not for everything what else do you use?

2. Where do you guys get yours?

My group makes custom minis for our PCs on Hero Forage and I am thinking of buying some cheap NPCs from Reaper, but I am looking for other suggestions.

3. Do you paint your own? If so did you know that makes you way cool and a tad sexier?

4. I have been browsing but I would like to buy a bulk set of random unpainted bad guys, where can I do this?

They don't need to be great quality my husband wants to get back into paining and we have like a year and a half until I run my campaign so I have time to do most if not all of my mooks in hand painted minis.

5. If you read this far thank you!

[Lombra]

We do use minis for every creature, we got them from physical stores, but we use them more as tokens, in the sense that they do not physically represent what they are supposed to be.
Fun fact is that we use amiibos for large creatures, they perfectly fit in a 2×2 square. Also we play on a grid.
I can't help you on the modelism side tho, I tried once and it's just not my thing xD

[Maxilian]

I don't use minis (but i would like to) -If i were to use, i would most likely use it only for PCs and Bosses (and maybe not even bosses)

For normal mobs, i recommend going with Pawns, Paizo have a couple of sets that work well.

http://dmjason.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/0/8/40088701/6230979_orig.jpg

[DizzyWood]

I don't use minis (but i would like to) -If i were to use, i would most likely use it only for PCs and Bosses (and maybe not even bosses)

For normal mobs, i recommend going with Pawns, Paizo have a couple of sets that work well.

http://dmjason.weebly.com/uploads/4/0/0/8/40088701/6230979_orig.jpg

Cool! those seem super versatile. I will keep an eye out for them! Thank you.

The reason we tend to use minis so much is we only play once a month so strong visuals help us keep everything fresh in our mind and these would work as well.

[Maxilian]

Cool! those seem super versatile. I will keep an eye out for them! Thank you.

The reason we tend to use minis so much is we only play once a month so strong visuals help us keep everything fresh in our mind and these would work as well.

There are also some guides around for making your own Pawns (in case buying them is a pain, or if you find it easier to get the materials to make the pawns) -Great for making cheap boss specific or one-shots character tokens-

[ZorroGames]

For your slightly whimsical approach to monsters you might try http://www.giantitp.com/AMFESSpring.html or if more serious minded unpainted plastic pieces from board games.

[Naanomi]

I have some minis from my Warhammer days, but I also had the board game 'Hero's Quest' and 'Talisman'... those minis are the bulk of what I use

[NinaWu]

I love mini's and maps/tiles. Puts an end to 'positioning' squabbles. I used to just buy a box of 8 including a large/rare each week to build up my collection. I didn't have the time or patience to paint so went for cheap plastics already painted. They worked just fine :)

[Laserlight]

If I were running a long campaign and expected my players to keep the same characters, I might buy Reaper Bones minis for the PCs and paint them. (Don't spray prime them, though).

I've downloaded some of the free pawns from IHeartPrintAndPlay.

Usually I make symbols in 1” circles, print, use a papercraft circle punch, and stick them on a felt disk that the hardware store thinks I use for furniture feet. PCs get their own symbol or name; monsters get numbers and colors. I might say ”black 1-20 are goblins, green 21-27 are hobgoblins, red 30-32 are bugbears, blue 41 is a bugbear caster.”

[CursedRhubarb]

Games I've used minis in we had ones from Reaper that we got at local game stores or bought online. Enemies have been minis when we have them but tend to not be the right race but the sizes we're right. And then we've had odd ball die, spare change, and scraps of paper be enemies, NPCs, shrubbery and the like.

[ZorroGames]

Much as I love Reaper Bones (too much I am beginning to think with several storage cases of the things) the "Nolzdur" (spelling) and "Deep Cut" plastic figures are cheaper.

[ZorroGames]

Look for online sources that discount like "Miniature Market."

[ZorroGames]

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/table-top-miniatures/deep-cuts.html

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=Nolzur

It is weird that two "competitors" make compatible complementary lines of figures but there you are.

[DizzyWood]

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/table-top-miniatures/deep-cuts.html

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=Nolzur

It is weird that two "competitors" make compatible complementary lines of figures but there you are.

Hey thanks. These are great I am spending $30 for 19 minis that is all of my named NPC bad buys and a few mooks. My hubby will love paining these and when i finally get to DM my guys will love getting spanked by these guys lol!

[DivisibleByZero]

Easiest thing to do, IMO, is to find some small cutouts (similar to the ones pictured above).
Then buy a small box of small (3/4 in, or 19 mm) binder clips, put the cutout in it, remove the clasps, and use those for the bases to keep them upright.

[N810]

Reaper's line of plastic "Bones" minis are a pretty good compromise between quality and cost.
If you can get in on one of their kickstarters you can get some ridiculous deals on in bulk minis.

[Azgeroth]

most the players in my group have hero forge minis, otherwise we have a dnd 5e starter box set, which has about 20 random plastic mini's, most are 5" but theres at least 2 10" so it rounds out nicely, if we need more larger creatures we just sit them on the cross section and know that means its 10". otherwise we use dice to placehold spells, denote area's and such. works well.

oh! we also use a paizo felt battle mat, and the starter set comes with various tiles. we alternate depending on the situation.

[DivisibleByZero]

A lot of times, when we don't have/use cutouts on binder clips, we just use dice. Everyone has a crap-ton of dice of different shapes and colors.

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Cool! those seem super versatile. I will keep an eye out for them! Thank you.I use those a fair amount too. I have two copies of the basic Bestiary Box (corresponding to Pathfinder's Monster Manual equivalent) that gives me plenty of goblins, orcs, skeletons and other things I want to use in decent numbers, one copy of the Monster Codex box which gives a lot of more specific individual monsters (like a drow noble or an ogre shaman) and one that's marketed as the NPC codex that has lots of characters from PC races that are often good enough to use as PCs in addition to various guards, bandits, cultists and other NPCs who need minis. I also have a handful of bases I've painted in different colors so I can use multiples of the same pawn without anyone having trouble telling which was which (which is especially helpful for my own note taking regarding how much damage each zombie, kobold or whatever has taken.)

If there's anything I can't get out of those or if I need more of something than I have pawns, I print my own. I'll either print two of a picture I like one on top of the other (and rotated 180) so I can fold it into a tent that fits into a Pathfinder Pawn base or I'll print four of the picture side-by-side so I can fold a little square mini out of it that's visible from every side on the battle mat.

When I first started playing, my group just used a bag of Scrabble tiles. Each PC used a tile for their initial and then each monster would be a tile. For larger monsters, we would use a Chessex dice box lid (about 2x2) with a Scrabble tile in it. It did a good enough job distinguishing characters but wasn't especially visually interesting.

[Jama7301]

I had a friend who had the 4E Dungeon Master Toolkit thing, that came with a few sheets of cardboard tokens. I kinda wished I had picked up one of those kits myself, because I often finding myself wishing for tokens, rather than a hodge-podge of minis I have acquired over the years.

[ko_sct]

In my game we make heavy use of minis.

I generally print the PCs minis with my printer and sometime the big bosses get a mini too.

For the mooks and other monster we actually use metal bottlecaps ! They got the exact right size for our battle map and you can write the dmg they take on them, which is easier to keep track of.

[Brawnspear]

I have graduated to using a 3d printer to print my mook army, total cost so far has been 300 for the printer, tools and filament. Got my 100+ minis and still have plenty of materials to go. It's great for minion making, not as awesome for the Heros since it doesn't have as great detail as HeroForge or the Reapers. More info on that in http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?529959-3d-printer-for-minis

Before that I used bought minis for players and dice for my npcs. I had a brick of mini dice in 6 different colors, so I just used the number/color as designators and then special d6 or other sized tokens for the big baddies. It works out okeedokee if people are paying attention, but if you have a group of 12 wandering players, the minis are more useful indicators of what a certain monster is than the dice.

[coolAlias]

A lot of times, when we don't have/use cutouts on binder clips, we just use dice. Everyone has a crap-ton of dice of different shapes and colors.
That's mostly what we do, too. Dice are also a lot more portable than boxes full of minis, and I no longer have the time nor desire to paint any.

[ZorroGames]

That's mostly what we do, too. Dice are also a lot more portable than boxes full of minis, and I no longer have the time nor desire to paint any.

I do not paint the grunts/mooks but use them bare or primed as they come out of the box. Painting miniatures is something I avoid by paying others to do whenever possible. Such as 25+mm mooks or 3mm aircraft.

I do paint some miniatures such as key PCs when I play or 15/18mm armies or 6mm armies.

Tokens work well but are not as aesthetically pleasing to this old wargamer.