Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures: Unhallowed Review
By Steven Creech, Exec. Chairman
Initiative Round
The newest set for Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures is called Unhallowed. Wizards of the Coast has released another 60 figure expansion with a retail price of $14.99 per booster. The theme of this set isn’t undead or evil-oriented as one might think; rather it is a broad spectrum selection. Thirty miniatures are nonevil and thirty are evil.
The Unhallowed set is meant for warbands of 200 or 500 points. Four figures come with both regular and epic stat cards: Van Richten, Count Strahd Von Zarovich – Vampire, Ultraloth, and Thrall of Blackrazor. Of course, epic creatures cannot be used in 200 point formats. In addition, three creatures have stats for 4th-level player characters on the D&D Roleplaying side of the card that are approved for use in the RPGA Xen’drik Expeditions campaign (Changeling Rogue, Halfling Brawler, Wild Elf Warsinger).
There are new abilities/rules with Unhallowed:
• A New Thrall – a creature that fails its save against this ability immediately gives the Thrall of Blackrazor’s controller victory points. The controller of the creature that destroyed the Thrall of Blackrazor still gains victory points for destroying the Thrall of Blackrazor. If the creature affected by A New Thrall is later eliminated, it does not then grant victory points to any player.
• Backbiter – the affected creature makes an attack roll to see if it hits its own AC. If it fails to do so, the creature takes no damage.
• Black Death – a creature hit by the Rat Swarm immediately makes a save. If successful, the creature is not affected by Black Death. If unsuccessful, the creature gets a cumulative -1 penalty each time it activates. At the end of each of the affected creature’s turns, it can attempt a saving throw to stop further penalties, but it still retains the penalty it has accumulated.
• Blood Rock – a creature on blood rock scores a critical hit when its melee attack roll is a natural 19 or 20. The attack automatically hits no matter how high the defender’s AC even if the defender is immune to critical hits. Ranged attacks are not affected by blood rock.
• Body Thief – a player that uses this ability still scores victory points for eliminating the creature that player now controls. If the possessed creature is then destroyed, the opponent scores victory points for eliminating the Intellect Devourer, but not for eliminating the possessed creature.
• Domination – this ability counts as a Dominate effect for the purposes of Imunne Dominate.
• ENERGY Healing – a creature gains the benefit of this ability after any other damage from an attack is applied. Thus, if a creature with Fire Healing 5 has 10 hit points left and is damaged by a Duerger Slaver’s melee attack (10 damage + 5 fire damage), it still dies. The healing ability never activates because the creature dies from the Duerger Slaver’s normal damage first.
• Pseudodragon – the Psuedodragon doesn not have Tiny Reach because it attackswith its long tail.
The set breaks down into 12 Commons, 24 Uncommons and 24 Rares (four of which, are epic). From what I have seen, the collation isn’t terrible. One of the gamers in the store bought a case and was only missing seven Rares and a single Uncommon after opening all of the boxes. The booster I opened contained the Changeling Rogue, Graypeak Goblin Archer, Bugbear Gang Leader, Gravetouched Ghoul (Commons), Pseudodragon, Blood of Vol Divinity Seeker, Caller in Darkness (Uncommons), and Van Richten (Epic Rare).
Critical Hit
The quality of sculpts and level of paint skill is much better than with Blood War. Stand out include the Bugbear Gang Leader, Large Black Dragon, Beholder Lich, Rat Swarm, and Stone Giant Runecarver. I especially like the Large Ice Elemental.
Critical Fumble
It’s hard to get a hold of a lot of good Commons, plain and simple. There are only 12 Commons in the set, yet amassing a horde of Strahd Zombies is a difficult task because of the large number of Uncommons. Uncommons are more numerous than Commons. Why?
Coup de Grace
Unhallowed is a strong set that can provide the foundations for new players or reinforcements for experienced players. Some of the pieces that players have been waiting for are in this set (Large Ice Elemental, Pseudodragon, Beholder Lich, and Intellect Devourer to name a few). It certainly works well for both miniature game players and RPG collectors.
Final Grade: A
