Wizkids: Monsters of Exandria Set 3

 

Another box I picked up during the Wayland flash sale was the Wizkids "Monsters of Exandria" Set 3. I picked them up because of the look of them, so I didn't realise when I bought them that these are all specific monsters from the first season of Critical Role.

The first season of Critical Role is before I got into it, and a lot of it isn't really my cup of tea. So once I started going through the box, I realised there was a bit more work than just using a pre-published stat block to use these in D&D games.

First up is Symphior. This is a cursed evil Celestial that was designed by Matt Mercer with the results of a viewer poll, which is why you have the weirdness of a tiny evil Celestial. For my use of this, I think that this is far more useful as a malicious fae, either as a summoned generic critter, or as part of an encounter in its own right.

The "abyssal abomination" is another Matt Mercer custom monster, but as a "creepy mutated person", it has a much wider potential for usage. This could easily be used for some kind of far realm incursion or a mad scientist's efforts. I'm also keen to use it as an Eberron creature for the Daelkyr cults of the Dragon Below, for which it's basically perfect.

Next up is a Naga Abomination, the last of the homebrew monsters. It's based on a Spirit Naga but with multiple heads. While it was used as a mutation, the five heads would work quite well as a Tiamat minion. It's definitely in the "boss monster" or highlight fight category, so there's plenty of options to see some use.

Finally we have Ghurrix and and "Servant of Ghurrix". While these are named characters, Ghurrix is a Pit Fiend and the Servant of Ghurrix is an Erinyes. These are high level, powerful devils who are likely to show up in the end game or mid game respectively. There's probably more Pit Fiend models than their Challenge Rating of 20 merits in terms of usability, but both devils are solid staples who can fit into any campaign with hellish forces as antagonists or allies of the antagonists.

All in all, this is a weird set that seems to mostly be aimed at collectors who are fans of the early show, rather than for game utility. That said, with a little thinking, there's plenty of games that these could fit into, although outside Critical Role, they're likely quite different campaigns. If you're not a Critical Role fan and a DM, this set is an assortment of rarely used monsters / homebrew that could easily provide something different for an antagonist - but it's certainly not a good pick for a newer DM who's looking for staples with a lot of reuse potential.

D&D Minis - Monsters of Wildemount Set 2

Recently Wayland Games held a flash sale of pre-painted Wizkids miniatures, so I grabbed a couple of boxes of Critical Role miniatures. First up is the "Monsters of Wildemount Set 2" box. This is populated with models from their second campaign, set on the continent of Wildemount in Exandria.

The Gearkeeper Construct is probably based on an encounter in Season 2 where the players were asked to deal with an out of control construct. There's a stat block for it in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, which places it as a pretty hefty mid level threat for players. It's a pretty horrid stabby monster with a whole bunch of nasty abilities that characters will really dislike when they find out about them.

It might be a bit glossy for my liking, but I'll live, I guess.

The Gloomstalker and Moorbounder are monsters from the area known as Xhorhas. The Moorbounders are used as mounts at times in Xhorhas but both are dangerous predators that are pretty well known to fans of Critical Role, so good signifiers for "you're in the world of Critical Role now". The Moorbounders are suitable at pretty low level, while the Gloomstalkers would need a party to have gained a few levels before facing them.

And now, a whole bunch of aquatic villains and monsters, as there was a significant oceanic theme to a good section of the campaign... The yellow critter is a Swavain Basilisk, a big mid level aquatic monster with a few risks for an appropriately levelled party. This sort of monster makes absolute sense in the world as most "low level" commoners and sailors would be absolutely wrecked by it, making it a believable threat.

The other larger monster at the back is a Merrow Shallowpriest, a powerful spellcaster who can either be an end boss for a lower level party, or an excellent addition to a group of aquatic attackers against higher level characters.

At the front on the right is a Sea Fury, a powerful hag that provides a good higher level threat when a "normal" sea hag isn't a sufficient threat. It's got a bunch of spells and abilities that make it a moderate threat, but doesn't just feel like a skilled combatant, as that wouldn't really fit the "feel" of a hag.

Finally, the front left monsters is a Sahuagin, specifically one intended to be used as a Warlock of Uk'otoa, one of the setting's "big bad" monsters that had a chunk of influence on the story of the second Critical Role campaign. It's pretty comparable in many ways to a PC Warlock at the mid levels, but with quite a few more spells available and a couple of neat tricks easily explained as boons of its patron. I also suspect that as a relatively low hit point caster, it's rarely going to end up using all its spells before PCs take it down, but the "use each of these six spells once each" build is much easier to track than a PC with fewer hard choices for a DM to make when they're trying to focus on delivering a narrative.

This isn't a bad set, but it feels like you'd probably want a whole bunch of Moorbounders, and several Gloomstalkers, while both the Merrow and the Suhuagin Warlock are part of a bigger encounter that needs different models. It's definitely not a good "first box of monsters", but a good expansion of odd stuff that will still see some use and provide some interesting challenges to players.

Realising you've already achieved a life goal (and not noticed)

 

The painting for St Albans Smackdown continues, with some models starting to get finished. Not quite as quick as I'd like, but still getting there. I haven't quite got my photography quite right yet - the models are still ending up a bit darker than I'd want. I might try a darker background and see if that helps the iPhone work it all out.

I was having a little trouble getting going, completely irrationally, so I picked some of the easier models I need to get done to get an early win. First up is this HVT model - he's sold as an "O-12 delegate", but for my Combined Army, he's clearly a Speculo Agent, or maybe a traitor human.

I also got the Defiance Turrets sorted to work as the free defensive turret you get in Countermeasures. They didn't need too many colours to get a perfectly serviceable paint job on.

I had a small revelation this evening while chatting on a Facebook Messenger chat with a bunch of other hobbyists. They were showing the squads they were working on for their 40K armies, and I was reminded one of my "hobby life goals" was working away at an army I was painting all myself for events, picking a few models at a time to paint.

For a moment, I regretted how long it would be until I could get around to that. Then I remembered that while I'd always thought of that in terms of Games Workshop armies, I was actually achieving it, right now, this weekend, with my Shasvastii Infinity army. It was a bit weird to go from wistful looking forward to the future to realising that you're already in the future.

 

I could have really done with more models being finished by now. The Taigha are about a third done now. Still, if I can get a bit of painting done in the evenings this week and have a slightly more productive weekend next weekend, it's all still totally achievable.

I've got a final practice game for Countermeasures this week. Hopefully, it won't throw up anything I need to change for the list as I really don't have time to paint any additional models!

While I was waiting for some contrast to dry I cleaned, assembled and undercoated this Candy figure from the Reaper Chronoscope range. I am exercising a lot of willpower not to paint her while there's still so many Shasvastii needing painting. She should be a fun Contrast paint job once the Shasvastii are done, though.

This weeks arrival in the post fortunately doesn't need painting. The Tal'Dorei Reborn book is a Critical Role D&D book, covering the continent the first campaign was set in. It's not an official D&D book, like the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (the continent of the second campaign), but there is an official Critical Role adventure coming later this year.

I'm reading it as a break when I'm too tired to concentrate on painting, and I'm having a few thoughts about it. I might try and form them into a cohesive blog post once I've finished reading it all, if I can find the time. It might end up being a February article if I do write it. Tournament painting definitely needs to come first!

Work in Progress Wednesday: Oh, that's quite a lot, isn't it?

I've been working through trying to get everything I bought in January assembled this month. First up, we've got the Mighty Nein from Critical Role. It was a bit too windy for undercoating the day I undercoated them, so I might need to redo a couple before painting. They all come re-assembled and are pretty nice figures. I'd say they're high end board game piece in quality.

A friend at the club painted up one of these Humblewood Heroes and I just couldn't not. It was the little owl knight that got me interested, but I have a quiet love for the pigeon wizard at the back.

I grabbed a few Reaper Bones Black models at the same time I got all those Otherworld Miniatures. They should be nice quick and easy paints.

A dear friend got me this Bad Squiddo model for Christmas. He's called David the Cat Warrior. I plan on using him as a Tabaxi - maybe a Paladin or Cleric?

These are Wizkids models again. They're intended to be Doppelgangers in Pathfinder, and the D&D look of Doppelgangers are very different. They'll be useful for random aberration monsters, though.

These Yuan-ti models are moderately annoying me due to the poor quality. There's some really terrible mould lines, and running snakeman on the left's sword is super bent and won't go back, even with hot water. I'm debating a sword swap but the entire reason I get the Wizkids stuff is to minimise my assembly work - I'll probably not buy any in a sulk until I forget again.

Finally, I got the third of the Infamy 54mm models I plan on using for Inquisitor finished and undercoated. They're probably going on the shelf for a bit as I've a few other projects I want to finish first, but they're ready to pick up and paint when I get inspired.