I've started collecting Pathfinder Battles miniatures, the punchout pawns, and also Reaper Bones miniatures. I'm going to be at a point where I have many of certain types of models, such as goblins... but even Ogres. I'm looking for advice on how many of everything to keep.
So, the questions are:
What is a reasonable maximum of each item to keep? As a GM, what's the most of something you'd ever think about putting into an encounter? What's the most you'd find in an adventure path? Does it vary by monster? Maybe Manticores are normally only one per encounter but when you're higher level, maybe a dozen is reasonable? If you have different variants of the monsters, like a regular Ogre and an Ogre fighter, should these count towards your maximum or should you keep a bunch of each?
I'm considering culling anything from 6-12 but really have no idea what is reasonable for a GM to want to keep around.
Thoughts?
Very much monster dependant imo.
I purchased 3 copies of the B1 spend so I have a minimum of 3 of each monster.
Goblins? maybe set the limit at 12.
Ogres / Trolls etc. set the limit at 6.
Stone giants / Manticores / Chulls set the limit at 3
With pawns, because they're relatively cheap, I wouldn't drop below 3 for anything.
Miniatures, on the other hand, are expensive and the limit should be set by your budget!
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It depends on how realizstic you want to make some battles, I've seen published adventures that called for 50 zombies, and another that called for over 100 lizardfolk.... my rule of thumb is if I have more than 5 of a sculpt, I'll be open to trade or sell the others. which means if I have 6 ravenous zombies and 10 regular zombies, I'll only be open to offers on 1 ravenous and 5 regular...
I cross-reference Cost, number of sculpts available, number appearing, and actual numbers in adventures I'm intending to run, and then buy everything I like.
If I like a sculpt, I'll find a way to use it.
Seriously, if something can proxy as multiple things I'll get more and if it is hyper-specific 1 is max.
If I were starting today, I'd get 1 sculpt of everything I liked and them buy up Pawns for the multiples. But it is too late for that.
I have 83 14"x14" drawers of large or smaller, and 11 large bins of huge or larger. Each humanoid type is only allowed 1 drawer max.
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My general rule of thumb is 8 of each figure, though some I have way more of, such as goblins and lizard men. Alot of it depends on how cheaply I can get the figure.
Not much of a fan of pawns though.
I am also guilty of seeing how many figures a certain AP or module will call for at 1 time and then buying that many. Though certain stuff like the Against the Giants series would've bankrupted me if I had done that for those. 60 trolls at 1 time? Really? Oo
I have also kept more then I need if I have a nice mix of sculpts. I might keep a couple of each sculpt. Orcs, Zombies, and other such monsters in my collection are at numbers I will never use in one encounter just because I have different sculpts of the same type of monster.