D&D: Inexpensive Miniatures options

Whether you are new to Dungeons & Dragons or coming back into the hobby after many, many years, you will probably want to add various play aids and accessories for your game. Right at the top of the list are miniatures. Whether you play old school or new school D&D or other similar fantasy TTRPG, maps and miniatures are an integral part of the hobby... but they are so expensive that it takes some quite time to build up a collection and then you have to paint them all. 

Fear not! There are inexpensive alternatives to unpainted plastic.

At the top of the list are Pathfinder Pawns. These are stand-up cardstock miniatures and they are pretty inexpensive for what you get. The Monster Core Pawn Box contains over 450 creature pawns. This is a huge assortment for just about any game. While $75 isn't terribly cheap, the volume of creatures included is worth the price tag.

There are generally only one copy of a lot of monsters, but common monster groups are represented with multiple copies such as goblins, orcs, skeletons, zombies, etc. A full list of the box contents are on the Pathfinder Wiki.

After the Monster Core box, the NPC Core Pawn Box should also be right at at the top of the list. Coming in at around 350 pawns, this contains a huge allotment of regular townsfolk as well as various adventurer NPCs and humanoids. You'll get Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, Goblins, Orcs, Lizardfolk, Kobolds, Ratfolk, Catfolk, anything-you-like-folk. The variety is impressive and the full list is also available at the Pathfinder Wiki.

If you think you want to start out with a smaller collection, Gamemastery Guide NPC Pawn Collection is a a very inexpensive (approx $25) collection of townsfolk, adventurers and ne'er-do-wells. This is a small overlap of pawns with the larger NPC core box, but there are also many different varieties of similar NPCs, so both NPC boxes together give a massive variety of humanoids. 

There are also several smaller pawn sets for specific Pathfinder adventure paths which can work for most games. The Giantslayer Pawn Collections contains a large variety of giants (obviously), but also some trolls, orcs, a few dragons, and a variety of other large and huge beasts. The smaller collections run about $20, so they are often a good supplement for the larger boxes.

Lest you think I'm just a Pathfinder shill, there are also other cool options. The ArcKnight miniatures company has an awesome line of flat acrylic miniatures as well as maps, and terrain details to accompany.

The ArcKnight DM Starter Set is the place you'll want to start. With over 160 beautiful acrylic standees, this collection is a great starting point for miniatures. The acrylics have front and backside art and the starter set has an awesome variety of icon foes for any D&D campaign. 

If you need more monsters in a specific category, ArcKnight sells "Horde" packs for humanoids, undead, wilderness, and dungeon dwellers. Their products are a great way to expand an existing miniature collection when you need foes that fit a particular theme.

Lastly, if you still crave 3D plastic miniatures, there are ways to expand you collection that are cheaper than others. The Dungeons & Dragons board games as a somewhat inexpensive way to source specific miniatures. Wrath of Ashardalon comes with an awesome dragon, otyoughs, bears, orcs and cultists while Castle Ravenloft has an array of different undead - skeletons, wraiths, zombies as well as kobolds, wolves, and undead dragons. 

Each of the board games comes with a party of adventurers - Fighters, Rogues, Clerics, Wizards, etc.  As board games, they aren't that bad either, but the miniatures are the main attraction. Note that they come unpainted, so you may want to spruce them up yourself.