The new set of D&D Miniatures, Player’s Handbook Heroes, has been on store shelves for several days now, and I picked up a complete set yesterday at my friendly local game store—A Hidden Fortress in Simi Valley, California. Overall, I’m very pleased with the eighteen miniatures in this series, though a few lag behind the rest in quality and value.

The good. For prepainted, mass-produced plastic miniatures, these paint jobs meet or exceed expectations. Even the repaints stand out enough from the originals to be worthwhile. The Male Elf Ranger clearly deserves first place as the most original sculpt, and the Male Goliath Barbarian as the most dynamic. The new packaging scheme makes it easy for players to choose exactly the miniatures they want.

The bad. Some players won’t like buying repaints, though I personally like them. The quality of the sculpts, and even of the plastic, is uneven. Some character types remain underrepresented (arcane dragonborn heroes, for example); the line will always probably be “catching up” to the latest new game content. The clamshell packaging can be rough on soft, thin weapons and implements.

The ugly. The Female Dragonborn Rogue. ’nuff said.

For more specific comments about the individual figures and their associated powers, make your Athletics check to follow me across the gap.

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Martial Heroes 1 ★★★

As cliché as an elf archer might be, I judge the Male Elf Ranger to be the strongest entry the series. His active stance marks him as ready for battle, and his beast companion sets him apart from other elf archer sculpts. Strangely, his included power, hunter’s teamwork, doesn’t actually involve his beast companion.

The Male Elf Ranger redeems an otherwise weak set. I don’t much like the color scheme or stiff pose of the Female Dragonborn Rogue, though I’m glad that WotC thought to include a female dragonborn. Probing strike is a very useful at-will, but I don’t know whether it will lure rogues away from their existing favorites. With that flowing blond hair and teal armor, the Male Human Fighter just doesn’t look very masculine to me, and I can’t see myself choosing him to represent my PC. If he actually uses that daring shout, though, I may have to revise that estimate.

Martial Heroes 2 ★★★★

The Male Tiefling Warlord looks good on the table, if a little pale. The Male Dwarf Rogue might want to rethink his light gray armor, if he’s planning to sneak down a dark alley. Do people really play female eladrin fighters? I’ve never seen one in action. I have to confess that although I’m generally a sucker for repaints, I prefer the original Drow Sergeant (Archfiends) paint job to the Female Eladrin Fighter.

Female Eladrin Fighter (Player’s Handbook Heroes)		Drow Sergeant (Archfiends)

To me, rousing assault tastes pretty vanilla (no offense to you vanilla lovers out there). Rogues on the lookout for new ways to gain combat advantage may love or hate hidden blade, depending on their weapon preferences. Knockdown assault gives charge-happy fighters another weapon for their arsenals; it’s worthwhile, but not spectacular.

Arcane Heroes 1 ★★★★

The Aramil repaint gets billed as a Male Half-Elf Bard, but I have to confess that I still recoil a bit from bards without musical instruments. As I said before, I like repaints, but this one differs less from the earlier paint job than any of the other repaints in the set, and thus qualifies for my least favorite of the repaints. I like the Female Eladrin Wizard’s sculpt and paint job, but her translucent wand seemed softer than the rest of the figure, and was a little tricky to wrestle from the clamshell packaging. Like the Male Tiefling Warlord, the Male Tiefling Warlock needs a tan. I was glad to see him wielding a pact blade, but what is up with his height? This fellow towers over the other minis (except the goliath, of course), almost as if he were sculpted to a different scale.

The warlock’s eldritch smite power didn’t inspire me particularly, but the wizard’s repelling shield is a great defensive choice, protecting the wizard and helping him or her get space to lay down more ranged and/or area attacks. Melee-oriented bards may like cutting words, though I would personally lean toward other choices.

Arcane Heroes 2 ★★★★

The power selection for this booster confuses me a bit. The Male Human Wizard has a flame-tipped staff—but his power is chilling cloud. The Female Eladrin Sorcerer, on the other hand, looks like an Iceman wannabe, but her power is arcing fire. They’re both playing against type, I guess. For some reason, my Female Eladrin Sorcerer seems to be molded from a softer plastic than all the other figures in this series. Did anyone else experience this? Is the transparent/translucent plastic just inherently softer than the opaque plastic?

Male Human Wizard (Player’s Handbook Heroes)		Bonded Fire Summoner (War of the Dragon Queen)

The new Male Human Wizard paint job differs quite a bit from the original Bonded Fire Summoner paint job, suggesting completely different personalities—one bright and playful, the other dark and brooding. Also, including this mini synergizes well with Arcane Power‘s introduction of the tome as a new implement type.

Although I don’t think he’s a repaint, the Male Half-Elf Fighter Warlock looks awfully familiar. Mabye it’s just the pose. It’s nice to have a multiclassed character included in the set.

Divine Heroes 1 ★★★★★

The original version of the male human cleric sculpt appeared as a cleric of St. Cuthbert, all the way back in Aberrations. Newer players, or veteran role-players who didn’t buy into the D&D Minis line back then, may find this mini completely new to them. I can’t really decide which paint job I like better, which speaks well of both. If you’re playing your cleric as a battlefield medic, you’ll love walk among the wounded.

Male Human Cleric (Player’s Handbook Heroes)		Cleric of St. Cuthbert (Aberrations)

Gaze of defiance is very useful, especially if you often find yourself in fights where your party can gang up on solo foes. I wasn’t quite as impressed with challenging strike. The minis that correspond to these powers are nice, too. Blond dwarves are in the minority among existing D&D miniatures, and the Male Dwarf Paladin could serve as a fighter or warlord just as easily, giving him some extra value. The Female Halfling Cleric gives us a figure who seems to rely on her holy symbol more than her mace, which remains slung at her waist (compare the old paladin-wannabe Cleric of Yondalla from Harbinger).

Primal Heroes 1 ★★★★

I’m glad that WotC decided to give Player’s Handbook 2 some love in this set, though I’m not sure that I would have chosen two barbarians, if given the power to make that decision. Both of the sculpts are very nice, though, and the Male Goliath Barbarian probably takes the cake as the most dynamic mini in the bunch. The online photographs don’t do justice to the detailing on his sword. The Male Human Barbarian’s fur cloak also looks better in hand than online. Laugh it off gives your barbarian both damage reduction and to-hit bonuses, and you can pull out foe to foe later in a combat sequence to keep your at-will attacks from getting stale (and who doesn’t love to deal extra damage dice?).

To me, the Female Elf Druid’s pose seems stiff, not at all ready for action. (A stiff guardian of nature—insert your preferred Al Gore joke here.) Grasping tide is a sweet power, though, enhacing the druid’s role as a battlefield controller—thought it may have some verisimilitude issues in the depths of a dungeon.

I can’t end this review without a word about the power cards. When you purchase these miniatures, you’re not just getting minis—you’re also getting three powers, each delivered on a power card of the type that recently went on sale. We’ve been using homemade power cards in my ongoing campaign, but handling these cards made me want to buy a whole set. They’re very attractive, and of high production quality. My only complaint about them is the lag time between new book releases and the associated power card releases—but that’s not an issue with the miniatures line.