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Everything you want to know about the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures game produced by Wizards of the Coast!If you have any news about the game, please e-mail me at merricb@yahoo.co.uk. A good place to gain further information - especially from Rob Heinsoo and Mike Donais, two of the designers of the game - is the D&D Miniatures Forum on the WotC boards. Merric's Law of Miniatures: Non-Random Packaging, Cheap Prices, and a Large Range of Figures: Choose two. What are D&D Miniatures? | Recent News: |
News Evaluating Chaotic Evil Jason Phillips has posted the first of a new series of articles on the Strategy Page: an Evaluation of the Chaotic Evil faction. I'd like to thank Jason for volunteering to write these articles, and we hope you find them enjoyable and informative!
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Aberrations Preview IX Steel Regent, Dark Master is the title of the ninth !
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More point costs Aasimar Favored Soul - 20 pts
Taer - 8 pts
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Green Dragon mini According to Freakin Canadian on the Wizards boards, the Green Dragon is 28 points.
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Aberrations Gallery posted I've uploaded the gallery of all figures in Aberrations, based on the promotional poster, pictures from the Wizards website and other sources around the web. Not all the pictures are of high quality and they're definitely not all to scale, but it should give you an idea of what's coming in a few weeks.
Thanks are due to zqk, Amurayi, Darkfather and ktatroe for their work on assembling the pictures.
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Complete Aberrations set list! If you slide over to the Aberrations page, you can find the complete list of miniatures in Set 5!
A few surprises...
* No Mina, Dark Cleric - she must be coming in a later set.
* An Ogre Zombie!
* A Wyvern!
Thanks to zqk on the maxminis.com boards for first posting the list!
There are still a few errors in the list (I think there's an uncommon that should be a rare), but we'll work to correct them ASAP.
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Aberrations Preview VIII The eighth Aberrations preview has been posted: . It looks at the Bladebearer Hobgoblin, Longtooth Barbarian, Valenar Commander and Warforged Hero.
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Upcoming Dragonlance miniatures? The following is a snippet of chat log from the EN World moderated chat on #dnd3e with Sovereign Press. Planchet and Bnaa ask: I'd like to ask if there are any future DL minis planned for the D&D line of minatures other than Mina. Specifically, I'd like to ask if there will be any more draconians? No clue. Sorry. You need to ask WoTC that
one!
I've been told that they're going to be doing all the Heroes of the Lance, but I haven't heard when or where.
SP_Margaret is, of course, Margaret Weis. (Thanks to Jukka "NiTessine" Särkijärvi for the news!) ()
Designer posts updated The Wizards boards have a search function again, so I've used it to gather together some posts by Mike and Rob that I'd missed.
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Mina, Dark Cleric stats Mina, Dark Cleric
LE, 55 pts
Commander 6?
LVL 8; SPD 4; AC 21; HP 65
Melee Attack: +11/+6 (10 magic + Death Kiss)
Commander Effect: Followers gain melee attack +4 and damage +5 against enemies affected by bestow curse. WARBAND BUILDING: CE Dragons are legal in your warband.
Special Abilities: Unique. Death Kiss (Whenever Mina's melee attack destroys a living enemy, replace it with an Undead creature under your control with cost 5 or less, and Mina heals 5 hp).
Spells: 3rd-bestow curse [][][] (sight; attack -4, save -4; DC 15); 4th-castigate [][] (radius 2, centered on caster; 10 damage to other creatures, or 20 damage to CG creatures, can cast when adjacent to enemy; DC 16)
 
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Giants of Legend, Huge Figures and Aspect of Tiamat From PatEllis: "I spoke with Mike Donais about the success of GoL at GenCon. He made it clear that they would be doing another Huge set (that yes, GoL WAS a success, despite all the naysaying...). He also indicated that they hadn't begun ANY design work for it. This means that it is likely not to show up before set 9. With their current release scedule, that means I won't be subjected to the Aspect of Tiamat for about 15 months!" ()
Set 7: Angelfire! According to this , Set 7 is named Angelfire and will be released in June 2005. (Thanks muchly to Murmel Beutelleer for this information).
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The News according to Rob Heinsoo Rob Heinsoo has posted a fascinating article on in the world of D&D Miniatures. The topics he covers are...
1. GenCon Championship Results
2. The On-Line Rulebook
3. Terrain Initiative Change In Aberrations
4. Ongoing Web Previews
5. Deathknell
6. Beyond Deathknell: Set 7 TBA
7. Minis You Want: Aspect of Tiamat
8. Minis You Want: Gelatinous Cube
9. Minis You Want: Mounted Minis
10. The New Scenario: Assault
11. A Healthy Game
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Aberrations Preview VII The looks at 4 common figures: Mongrelfolk, Gnoll, Gnoll Skeleton and Mountain Orc
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Warband generator Bmutha Supreme has created an Excel spreadsheet Warband Generator which is downloadable from - although it's a fairly big file (3.1 Mb!)
The spreadsheet allows importing of the Maxminis.com Have/Want lists for easy setup.
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Frostburn terrain tiles Mike Donais has this to say of the Chasm tile in the Frostburn supplement for D&D: "We don't have rules for elevation or bridges in D&D minis. This is one of the reasons this particular tile is not usable for organized play. Also the tile has a space where a large creature cannot pass. The person who designed the tile intended the rocks to be impassible. Probably the simplest thing to say is that all the terrain at the lower height is just impassible. That is, you can not enter the chasm."
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Colour Coding Aberrations According to Rob Heinsoo, the colours used for each faction in Aberrations (and future sets) is:
LG - Yellow
CG - Green
LE - Red
CE - Black
cross factional figures use the icons of more than one faction, of course (and Any has all four!)
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Designer posts updated I've just updated the designer posts page with posts by Mike Donais and Andy Collins on the subject of the new tournament scenarios and the possibilities of 'adventure packs'.
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Promotional Mina, Dark Cleric I have a report that on the Margaret Weis book tour, people have received a Mina miniature given out especially for the tour. No stat card was included, although Margaret said that it would be posted on dragonlance.com as a web enhancement.
The bottom of the mini reads: DL 9/04, LE 55 Mina, Dark Cleric
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Guenhwyvar promotional miniature? "Guenhwyvar", "Mina, Dark Cleric" and "Medium Silver Dragon" are listed in the the new Floor Rules for D&D Miniatures tournaments as promotional figures. The Medium Silver Dragon is a promotion for the Knights of the Silver Dragon line of books; Mina may have a similar purpose for a Dragonlance novel or game product. Does anyone know the details for Guenhwyvar, Drizzt's loyal black panther companion?
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September previews posted Wizards have posted Mat Smith's latest column. It previews the Destrachan, Mad Slasher, Rhek, Alusair Obaskyr, Warforged Hero and the Ice Troll.
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Aberrations prerelease tournaments Wizards have posted information on the for Aberrations, which will be held on October 9th, 2004.
Aberrations will be officially released on the 15th October, 2004.
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New OP Floor rules are posted! The latest Floor Rules for D&D Miniatures tournaments have been posted on the .
The formats have undergone some changes.
Sanctioned Tournament Play:
100-Point Assault
200-Point Assault
100-Point Triad
200-Point Triad
Triad Format:
1st round: Assault; 2nd round: Cave of Pain; 3rd round: Plunder.
The new Assault and Plunder scenarios give bonus points for occupying terrain tiles on the opponent's side of the battlefield.
Extreme Format:
The 500 point format now has a maximum limit of 8 figures rather than 12.
There is also spoiler information for upcoming sets:
Set 6: Death Knell is a 200 point Limited play set.
Set 7 (name to be announced) will be 200 point in Limited play.
New Terrain Tiles in Aberrations:
Assembly Tile 3
Assembly Tile 4
Burial Chamber
Torture Chamber
Aftermath
Ancient Temple
Spike Stones Cave
Blood Rock Cave
New Terrain Tiles in Frostburn (a D&D RPG Terrain book)
Crevasse, Ebony Lake, Razor Drifts, Ice Palace. (not legal in sanctioned play)
New Terrain Tiles in Sandstorm (a D&D RPG Terrain book)
Mummy’s Crypt, Jagged Wasteland, Sun Temple, Oasis. (legal in sanctioned play!)
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Speculation on the Aberrations ad in Toyfair From Beware of Kobold and the other folks on the Wizards boards:
(thanks to Ultrarant)
(thanks to Sulaco)
1. Ryld Argrith (100% sure)
2. Sahaugin Ranger (100% sure)
3. Gibbering Mouther (100% sure)
4. Skeletal Gnoll (100% sure)
5. Some sort of Hobgoblin (not sure)
6. A unique Orc of some kind (not sure)
7. Mind Flayer Telepath (100% sure)
8. Flesh Golem (100% sure)
9. Warforged Hero (100% sure)
10. Yuan-ti Abomination (100% sure)
11. Cleric of St. Cuthbert (100% sure)
12. A buff dude holding a sword? (no idea)
13. A bald guy holding up one arm? (no idea)
14. Half-Illithid Lizardfolk (100% sure)
15. Might be a Devourer's head? (25% sure)
16. Another bugbear or a hobgoblin (not sure)
17. Adventuring Wizard (100% sure)
18. Crow Shaman (100% sure)
19. Sharn Cutthroat (100% sure)
20. A Valenar elf from the Ebberon Campaign Setting as someone metioned above (50% sure)21. Soveliss, Elven Ranger (100% sure)
22. Some kind of dwarf (not sure)
23. A male human wielding a large axe or club (not sure)
24. Exorcist of the Silver Flame (100% sure)
25. Frenzied Berserker (100% sure)
26. A guy wearing a metal cap? (no idea)
27. A Bariaur or a Satyr (50% sure)
28. Mina from Ashes and Amber? (not sure)
29. Not a figure. it's actually the frenzied berserkers upraised hands, holding a two-handed sword (might have a buckler on one hand, or the "buckler" could be part of #31) (100% sure)
30. Chuul (100% sure)
31. A human (maybe a cleric) brandishing a mace and possibly holding up a shield (from #29) (not sure)
Also you will notice Rhek's axe sticking up behind the mindflayer's hand on the far left.
Further speculation can be found .
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No Chainmail figures in Aberrations Rob Heinsoo has revealed that there will be no figures from Chainmail redone in Aberrations, however, there are further Chainmail figures to come in upcoming sets. (You can find more on my Designer Posts page)
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Aberrations Preview VI - Apartment 3-CG The latest Aberrations preview is up on the Wizards site: .
Adventuring Wizard, Frenzied Berserker and Crow Shaman are the previewed figures.
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Designer posts Just added a post from Mike Donais that reveals a little about balance issues and Aberrations.
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23 Rares in Aberrations Rob Heinsoo has confirmed that Aberrations has 23 rares, 21 uncommons and 16 commons.
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Aberrations ad in toyfair An advertisement for Aberrations has been discovered in the latest issue of Toyfair. Ultrarant of the Wizards boards has kindly scanned it for our perusal.
As you might imagine, there is a lot of speculation about what the figures are...
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Tournament format changes are coming! Mike Donais has let us know that some changes to the tournament rules should be posted in the next few days. Read his full comment on my designer posts page.
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Eight Kings... Not D&D Miniatures news, but more personal:
Eight Kings, the final part of Robert J. Kuntz's Maze of Zayene series, has been published. I was involved in the d20 System conversion of the module, and so it has my name in it. I'm rather proud of this, as you might imagine.
Eight Kings details a strange demi-plane in which the rightful king of the land is imprisoned by a powerful wizard. Within, you'll find strange outerplanar creatures, fabulous artefacts, unusual (and deadly) tricks and traps and hopefully even the king himself!
Although it is the final part of a series, it does stand alone rather well. A little tinkering with the set-up, and you have an exciting (dangerous) adventure for your players! ;-)
Interested? Go and visit the Different Worlds product page for !
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D&D Basic game Mike Donais has confirmed that the miniatures in the D&D Basic game come with their stat cards.
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Just a reminder... (not much news) G'day!
I've been spending a bit of time redoing the forums recently, as the webmaster of that site has also been doing a lot of work upgrading the trading functions (allowing Star Wars trading to proceed, etc.) So, if you're interested in either discussing or trading Wizards miniatures, you might want to give another look. (I still recommend the Wizards boards as well).
Also, I just want to give some praise to Amurayi's site, with its frequent scoops on upcoming miniatures - occasionally getting them far in advance of myself. Thanks, Amurayi!
I'll see if there's any news that I haven't posted yet - although it has been an eventful weekend, that was mostly for non-miniatures reasons (unfortunately). If you see something miniatures-related that I have reported on (new tiles, figures, fan-created scenarios, battle reports, etc.) please e-mail me at merricb@3rdedition.org andI'll post the details.
Cheers!
Merric Blackman
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Aberrations Preview V; GoL Random encounters Two articles have been posted at the Wizards site:
Figures previewed: Sahuagin Ranger, Yuan-ti Halfblood, Yuan-ti Abomination
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September 2004 Retailer Kit contents From the :
12 Rubble Room Tiles
7 Displacer Serpent Promo Minis
3 Alternate Fire Cone Templates
3 Copies of "Book Knowledge" for Legacy of the Green Regent adventure
2 Season Posters
1 D&D Campaigns "Play Here" Window Decal
Tournament, League, and Roleplaying Paperwork
A D&D Campaigns Newsletter
Event Reporting Forms
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Resculpts policy : When *I* use the word resculpt, I'm using a technical term we found useful here in the R&D minis team. By "resculpt," I mean "new sculpt of a creature that uses the exact same stats as the creature was previously published with." There are two resculpts in Aberrations.
Now that we're a bit farther along, so far as I can tell, there are no resculpts in set 6 or set 7.
Mike Donais used the term resculpt more loosely in a previous post on this board. He was using it in this sense: "new mini that has a similar name and a similar look to a creature we've already published."
In practice, here in R&D, we don't refer to those as resculpts. They've got all new stats to go with their spiffy new sculpts. Often they accomplish very different things than earlier creatures of the same general type. Obviously we prefer the new-mini approach to the resculpt approach, and hopefully most of you will too.
As to large and cool uncommons, I don't think anyone will be disappointed with sets beyond set 5.
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The Gnoll card in Aberrations Thanks to David Weiss:
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