Run D&D? Need minis? The answer is almost always yes, even if you have an enviable collection. If you’re looking for a quick solution, Wizards of the Coast now sells a D&D miniatures starter set of 64 tokens that can be customized with the included, reusable decals. Let’s take a closer look, as well as examine some other options for populating the miniature battle field.

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.

D&D Miniatures Starter Set

Attention, brave adventurers! Prepare to meet your pixel-perfect counterparts as we dive into the realm of D&D token miniatures. It’s time to bring your tabletop battles to life in epic, bite-sized glory with a tokenized D&D miniatures starter set from Wizards of the Coast. Click the link if you want to get right to it. Otherwise, keep scrolling for an overview of D&D miniature options as a whole, with pros and cons for the different options.

D&D Tokens Versus 3D Minis: Pros and Cons

Theater of the mind is all fine and good for combat, but there are times when we want that tactical grid to really elevate a combat scenario and challenge our players to the max. There are a few different options for presenting physical miniatures on this play space.

Purchasing Injection Molded Miniatures

Purchasing individual miniatures is a costly endeavor over time but there are some advantages to this way of acquiring physical monster pieces.

You can purchase just a few at a time as finances allow, or set up a sort of system where you’re only “permitted” to get a new miniature if you’ve already painted what you have. There’s lots of ways people choose to build their collection.

Before we switched to 3D printing, we got most of our minis through giant board game purchases. Zombicide and its jillions of expansions (one mini is pictured above), Folklore: The Affliction + Expansions (1st edition only; 2nd edition does not come with minis), and Nemesis all loaded us up with tons of injection molded creatures. These figures do present additional challenges for a Dungeon Master: When will you paint them? Where will you store them? How will you organize them? What if your players are clumsy and they tend to break them?

Then we discovered 3D printing and it got even worse.

3D Printing Resin Miniatures

3D printing resin miniatures nets some of the coolest, most elaborate figures the hobby has ever seen. We particularly enjoy the models from Cast n’ Play, Archvillain, Epic Miniatures, and Titan Forge, amongst a few others. But the startup cost for that is significant. Here’s a link to the smaller printer we use. It’s an excellent, reliable printer and we’ve been using two of them for years. We also recently upsized to a larger model. With all our resin printers, we use this ELEGOO water washable resin.

We justified the cost, as one of the smaller printers costs about one-two large board games. We have easily printed 10 times that included quantity with the smaller printer. The pictures here are just a very small sample of the unpainted minis we have squirreled away in our “studio.”

And now, with an unlimited supply of miniatures, the painting, storing, and organizing becomes even more challenging. (It is pretty cool, though.)

Token Miniatures

Tokens are a great way to solve these problems. While they are not as visually exciting as a painted, custom 3D miniature, they are easy to utilize, store, and customize.

There are a myriad of Patreons that sell artwork for token use, where you simply print off the images yourself and place them in a plastic sleeve for standees. Kickstarters run from time to time selling more elaborate 2D versions of printed, vinyl characters that stand nicely for combat, too.

Wizards of the Coast D&D Token Set

Wizards of the Coast has also created a functional set with official artwork on static cling decals. This means they are reusable on the included plastic chips. The chips come in three sizes for different sized creatures: 40 medium sized creature tokens, 20 large sized creature tokens and 4 huge sized creature tokens, for a total of 64 plastic discs included.

The main con, aside from not being as spectacular visually, is the packaging on this product. The buyer must completely destroy the outer packaging in order to access the contents. In addition, the interior storage trays are a bit flimsy. If this would bother you, then I’d say stay away from this particular set.

If you don’t mind the packaging being less than perfect, then this is an excellent purchase to quickly acquire dozens of monsters at roughly $1 each (as of this writing).

The D&D token set features the following:

• 64 plastic discs in 3 sizes and 4 colors: blue, red, black, and white
• 5 sheets of illustrated reusable creature static clings
• 2 removable token storage trays
• 1 folder for creature clings
• 1 magnetic storage case with a rope handle
• 1 outer box with all-new art (this will be destroyed when you open it)

Closing Thoughts

If you’re looking to level up your tabletop adventures without sacrificing your gold reserves, this D&D miniatures starter set is reusable and cost effective. It works out to about $1 per monster token. Featuring official artwork from Wizards of the Coast, it may be just what you’re looking for if you need a quick, easy set of minis that don’t require a huge financial investment or time commitment to paint them.

Do you prefer tokens, digital assets, or 3D miniatures? I’d love to read about your preferences in the comments below.

Thanks for reading this today. If you enjoyed your time here, please consider subscribing to our newsletter. You’ll get a free Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition compatible character sheet inspired by the Druid class to download and print out, and a notification in your inbox when we publish a new article. Spammers are fed to the false hydra!