D&D Essentials: Dwarf Slayer

At some point, if I get the chance to play a fighter-type again, I'd like to use D&D Essentials to play a Dwarf Slayer. No, not a guy who slays dwarfs, but rather, a Dwarven Fighter following the Slayer path as laid out in the Essentials Heroes of the Fallen Lands. Don't confuse this with Dwarf Slayers from Warhammer--any race in D&D can take up the mantle of Slayer.

D&D Slayers specialize in 2H weapons, not the sword and shield of the standard fighter.

Anyway, I picked up a dynamite Reaper dwarf to use for him, Thorvald Clawhelm, from the Dark Heaven Legends line. Great name, but I am calling him Ulli Firebeard, for reasons that should be obvious!







And a nice comp shot with my Dragonborn Druid:



Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

D&D Essentials: Tiefling Paladin!

The early morning D&D Essentials campaign could contain a Tiefling Paladin, so I had to come up with a mini for him, and Reaper once again has delivered! Their "Hellborn" make perfect Tieflings, and this guy is no exception.









Taejas, the guy playing this character, asked that he have a trumpet; it's part of his back-story, so I obliged by adding a horn from the Bretonian Men-At-Arms sprue:



A simple conversion, but it works well. Here's a comp shot with my own Dragonborn Druid:



I picked up the Essentials DM's kit boxed set on Friday and it is really excellent. A great way to re-experience 4th ed. D&D.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

D&D Essentials: Dragonborn Druid Animal Companion!

Finally got my pack of Reaper figures in to do my Dragonborn Druid's animal companion. In Essentials, the Druid can choose the Spring or Summer aspects. Spring gets a wolf, Summer gets a bear. I chose Summer because it better reflects the fact that my Druid is armed with a staff/shillelagh. I didn't want to use an actual bear model, so to better reflect the Dragonborn race of my Druid, I chose a lizard-like animal companion.

The Lizard Hunting Pack was perfect for this. I picked one of the two lizards in the pack and went to town, sticking to my white scheme. Here's what I ended up with:









And here's a shot of the pair:



I may do some additional blending and touch-ups, but I am now ready for my first Essentials game.

Thanks checking out the blog!

--Scott

Halfling Wizard

At some point we're going to try the new D&D Essentials RPG material from Wizards, and I have been thinking about what sort of character I might want to play. One of the options I wanted to try was a Halfling Wizard. Finding suitable halflings for traditional D&D is pretty easy, and now since halflings got a little larger from 3.5 to 4E, many of the old D&D Minis gnomes also fit the bill.

Here's a Gnome I've re-painted to act as a Halfling Spellcaster.





This is a total re-paint, starting with a light brush primer of black, and going from there. I added the knife from my bits box--it's a GW knife I sliced off of a Mordheim figure. The moon wand is also kit-bashed from something, the source of which I cannot remember, but the bit looked good, so I used it.

Anyway, I've also got some interest in the Slayer version of the Essentials Fighter, so that may be an option as well.

This weekend, Gamma World!

--Scott