by Ed Fortune
Critical Role is the multi-media phenomenon that showed the world what TTRPGs actually are and how much fun it can be to get some friends, dice and snacks together in order to tell each other stories. Set in the highly detailed fantasy world of Exandria, it has various beasties and horrors for players to face.
As the name suggests, WizKids’ Monsters of Exandria 3 is the third box of ‘big name’ monsters in D&D-scale miniature format to come from WizKids. These are pre-painted pieces designed to be used straight away. We get five models in the box; they are robust and reasonably well-painted in all cases. (WizKids’ models are typically easy to paint over without losing much detail if you’re that sort of hobbyist, but broadly the quality of the paint jobs is above average.)
Symphior is a withered angel-like being who appeared in the Vox Machina campaign. The miniature is a little bit gruesome; it’s a flying zombie cupid-like thing that looks like it will bite you. The sort of model you didn’t know you needed until you saw it.
Ghurrix is a huge devil-like creature dragging a very fancy axe behind him. Another foe that the Vox Machina team faced, this is a very well-done pit-fiend and would work in any miniatures game that uses demons or as a way to scare players in a game of D&D. It’s also very red. It’s accompanied by the rather generically named Servant of Ghurrix, a sword-wielding angel with black wings and a goth attitude. This is a fun piece and very useful for various games of D&D.
We also get an Abyssal Abomination, a large monster that is mostly tentacles. Great for horror games and those looking for something gory in a fantasy gamer. Finally, we get the Naga Abomination, five snakeheads in one large snake monster. The different heads are different colours, making it a sort of wingless Tiamat. It’s a great model, and though not that useful for normal games, entertaining to use when you do.
A good boxed set.
