Counter Collection I: The Usual Suspects (Sword Sorcery) (Paperback)

The counters are clear, attractive and (most importantly) comply with 3rd edition statistics on "face" or area taken up on a battlefield. There are a number of common enemies encountered by lowish level adventurers, hence "the usual suspects" moniker. In addition there are some higher level opponents such as the dreaded mind flayer, lich, beholder etc. Finally there are player character counters as well. The latter are nice because they are often overlooked in favour of monsters-not everyone wants to cart metal miniatures around when they travel, and these character counters address that. It is nice to see some horses in the pack, and even a cart too! Overall this is a useful addition to a 3rd edition library.

That said, there are a couple of negative points for me. The adventure provided is nothing to write home about compared to Fiery Dragon's other material. (On the other hand, that is not what this product is really about, of course).

More importantly, the counters might have benefited from some variety in their depictions of, say, an elf warrior. All multiple counters are exactly the same artwork, so when you get 15 male elf warriors they all look exactly the same. Also, arguably, in 3rd edition you are unlikely to need so many of 1 type of monster in a standard encounter. The days of facing 20 orcs in a room are pretty much over with the new rules. And in any case you are not really going to go for the overkill of sending 8 wraiths or 10 wights after your hapless adventurers!Therefore, i would have preferred to see a bit more variety in the artwork for the same type of creature, and perhaps a few less of each type in favour of some extra counter types. The adventurer counters would have been better to have been individually done with a wider variety of class/race combinations. Of course, all this would add to the cost of production, but I feel it would have made a good but slightly disappointing product into a superb one.

Counters included are as follows:-

Dwarves (15 male, 5 female), Elves (15 male, 10 female), Gnomes (10 male, 5 female), Halflings (10 male, 5 female), Half-elves (15 male, 10 female), Half-orcs (10 male, 5 female), Drow (15 male, 10 female), Player character Warriors, Clerics, Wizard, Rogue (5 male of each and 2 female of each), 5 minotaurs, 20 kobolds, 20 goblins, 15 hobgoblins, 20 orcs, 13 bugbears, 5 ogres, 10 trolls, 5 medusae, 15 lizardmen, 15 gnolls, 5 mindflayers, 5 beholders, 5 gargoyles, 5 owlbears, 5 dopplegangers, 10 ghouls, 20 skeletons, 15 zombies, 10 shadows, vampires (2 male, 2 female), 10 wights, 8 wraiths, 5 mummies, 2 liches, 5 spectres, 5 ghosts, 2 black dragons, 2 brass dragons, 2 white dragons, 2 red dragons, 2 gold dragons, 16 horses and 2 carts.