Harbinger, the first set of official Wizards of the Coast licensed Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, was released in October of 2003.
The third edition of Dungeons and Dragons is geared much more so then prior editions to the use of miniatures. When your characters are in combat, the rules are set to be much easier when using miniatures on a grid-map.
Prior to these official miniatures being created, most gamers were using tokens, lead miniatures (which the player would need to paint), dice, and many bought heavily into WizKids miniature fantasy game MageKnight, as the figures were approximately the size one would need for Dungeons and Dragons and were pre-painted plastic, so therefore cheaper then metal minis.
But, not only were these miniatures created for use in the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, they also had the added benefit of being part of a separate, but similar, miniatures game unto themselves! This is called the Skirmish game.
The skirmish game uses a tweaked and watered down version of the Dungeons and Dragons rules to create small scale battles between opposing forces. Each player chooses miniatures to fill there warband, then they pit them against each other in battle. Each miniature is worth a certain number of points, based on its powers and abilities.
The initial set was a mixed blessing. While the desire for this type of product was there, the execution wasn’t the greatest. The paint jobs were dark and unexciting on most figures, and the sculpting went from really good, to many that were horrible. The release of 80 figures made collecting the entire set pretty tough, as there are several rarity levels of figures: Rare, Uncommon, and Common. With only one rare in a pack, and all packaging random, it takes the purchase of many packs to be able to collect them all.
Each pre-painted plastic miniature comes with a two-sided statistics card, printed in black and white. One side shows that stats for playing the miniature in Dungeons and Dragons, and the other side for Skirmish play (the game created for D&D miniatures, basically a watered down version of D&D rules designed to be for battles only).
Highlights include:
Some really nice classic monsters
A lot to choose from (but unfortunately, not many that great)
Fills in many of the standard use characters and creatures for a D&D game.
Low-lights (mostly by RPG standards):
Many poor sculpts
Poor, muddied paint jobs
Many minis are bent and smashed.
Fun mini-tips #1 Luckily, 30 seconds or so in boiling water will straighten out even your most mangled of minis!
There are 80 miniatures in Harbinger: 27 rare minis, 33 uncommon minis and 20 common minis:
Name # in set Rarity Notes (from the role-playing perspective)
Cleric of Order (1/80) U: Decent sculpt/paint. Nice for clerics.
Cleric of Yondalla (2/80) U: Good for use if you have a halfling with platemail.
Dwarf Axefighter (3/80) C: Great sculpt! Still one of my favorite Dwarf minis to date.
Ember, Human Monk (4/80) U: Nice representation of the iconic human monk.
Evoker's Apprentice (5/80) U: Silly looking magical character.
Halfling Veteran (6/80) U: Decent body sculpt, horrible face
Hound Archon (7/80) R: Mediocre sculpt. Nice for Planar type adventures.
Human Commoner (8/80) C: Possibly the worst figure out of any set. Horrible sculpt, has problems with scale, and has a bad paint job. This begins, and rules, the Halls of Shame.
Large Earth Elemental (9/80) R: The nicest of the elementals.
Man at Arms (10/80) C: Nice sculpt/pain. Good for guards, villains, plate-mail clad heroes.
Sun Soul Initiate (11/80) U: Mediocre sculpt, paint, and pose.
Sword of Heironeous (12/80) R: Decent plate-mailed female figure
Tordek, Dwarf Fighter (13/80) U: Nice sculpt, Iconic Dwarf Figther. Looks good with the Dwarf Axefighter
Jozan, Cleric of Pelor (14/80) U: Mediocre at best
Arcane Archer (15/80) R: Horrible rare. Bad pose, bad sculpt, ugly paint job
Axe Sister (16/80) U: Horrible pose, sculpt and pain.
Centaur (17/80) R: Mediocre sculpt and a drab paint job.
Cleric of Corellon Larethian (18/80) R: Nice elf cleric sculpt and paint.
Crested Felldrake (19/80) C: Poor sculpt and paint job make this one of the worst figures in any set
Devis, Half-Elf Bard (20/80) U: Iconic Half-Elf Bard, ugly sculpt, almost no face!
Elf Archer (21/80) C: Poor sculpt, ugly pain
Elf Pyromancer (22/80) R: Decent sulpt and pain. Can also make a nice elf ranger, rogue, or fighter.
Elf Ranger (23/80) U: Ugly sculpt, poor paint job
Gnome Recruit (24/80) C: Horrible sculpt, poor pain job
Human Wanderer (25/80) U: One of my favorite minis! Nice sculpt! Can be used for a two-weapon fighting ranger, or a really cool villain!
Krusk, Half-Orc Barbarian (26/80) U: Ugly sculpt, bad paint job. This is a shame for what should be a great iconic character!
Lidda. Halfling Rogue (27/80) U: Another mediocre iconic character. Can be used to fill out groups of halflings, though.
Nebin, Gnome Illusionist (28/80) U: And yet, another mediocre iconic character.
Vadania, Half-Elf Druid (29/80) R: What makes a mediocre iconic character miniature worse? Make it a rare! This doesn’t even look like the drawing in the Player's Handbook that it is based on.
Wild Elf Barbarian (30/80) U: Nice idea, poor execution. Ugly.
Wood Elf Skirmisher (31/80) U: Even worse. Next!
Azer Raider (32/80) U: Decent sculpt and paint job.
Half Orc Monk (33/80) U: Ugly enough to win a lifetime in the Halls of Shame
Dire Boar (34/80) R: Really nice figure! Nice size, sculpt, and the muddied paint of this set works on this monster!
Lizardfolk (35/80) U: Great paint job! Probably the nicest colors in this set. This mini stands out compared to the rest in the set. Well worth collecting multiples for that great looking lizardfolk army!
Shambling Mound (36/80) R: Horrible sculpt for a classic monster. Shame!
Wolf (37/80) C: Nice sculpt for a commonly encounter wilderness animal
Thri-kreen Ranger (38/80) R: Decent sculpt, boring paint job.
Barghest (39/80) R: Decent sculpt on this Forgotten Realms classic.
Bearded Devil (40/80) R: Decent sculpt, but kind of a silly face
Displacer Beast (41/80) R: Great sculpt on this classic monster!
Goblin Sneak (42/80) C: Passable goblin
Half Orc Fighter (43/80) C: Poor sculpt, poor paint job
Hellhound (44/80) C: Poor sculpt and a poor choice for a common figure. Not many adventures include hellhounds.
Human Blackguard (45/80) R: A rather silly sculpt. Could make a nice villain giving a speech. 'Alas, poor Yorik...'
Human Executioner (46/80) U: Odd choice for a mini. Pretty ugly, too.
Human Thug (47/80) U: Decent sculpt, ugly paint
Kobold Warrior (48/80) C: Decent sculpt, looks great in a large group! You can never have too many kobolds!
Medusa (49/80) R: Poor sculpt and paint on the classic monster
Mind Flayer (50/80) R: One of the better looking figures in the set! A nice job on this classic monster!
Mummy (51/80) R: Good job on this great undead creature!
Wight (52/80) U: Uggghh, horrible, horrible sculpt and paint.
Wraith (53/80) R: Good looking classic undead
Owlbear (54/80) R: One of the best sculpts! Great mini!
Skeleton (55/80) C: Good sculpt on this common mini! Many come flattened or bent over. Dropping them for 30 seconds or so in boiling water will fix this problem.
Troglodyte Zombie (56/80) U: A decent paint job and sculpt
Wolf Skeleton (57/80) C: Fun undead mini
Zombie (58/80) C: Another poorly done min
Cleric of Gruumsh (59/80) R: Nicely done Orc cleric!
Drow Archer (60/80) U: Poorly done classic
Drow Cleric of Lolth (61/80) R: Nicely done classic
Drow Fighter (62/80) U: Not the best mini, but good to have multiples of for an Underdark campaign.
Ghoul (63/80) C: Not bad, not good, but not bad
Gnoll (64/80) U: Decent gnoll sculpt.
Half Orc Assassin (65/80) U: Mediocre sculpt and paint job
Human Bandit (66/80) C: In case you thought the Human Thug wasn’t an ugly enough mini…we present you the Human Bandit! Take the few things that weren't bad about the Human Thug, and make them worse!
Hyena (67/80) C: Decent animal. Can also be used to fill out your wolf ranks if needed.
Kua-Toa (68/80) C: Nice sculpt, nice paint! Still, one of my favorite common figures to-date!
large Fire Elemental (69/80) R: It's a shame that they couldn't use translucent plastic on most of the elementals. They just don’t look good.
Minotaur (70/80) R: Well, maybe the runt minotaur of the litter with a silly mouth. Could have been much better.
Ogre (71/80) R: Bleh…just not good. Not bad, but not good.
Orc Archer (72/80) U: Decent enough archer for the orcs
Orc Berserker (73/80) U: Body sculpt isn’t bad, but the face has to go.
Orc Spearfighter (74/80) C: Decent for the core of any orc battalion
Orc Warrior (75/80) C: Not quite as nice as the spearfighter, but does the job
Tiefling Captain (76/80) U: Good for planar adventures, but I wouldn't place it in a spot of honor on my display shelf.
Troll (77/80) R: Another of my favorites from this set. Good sculpt, good creepy muted colors. This is another case where the muted colors of this set work well.
Umber Hulk (78/80) R: Ahhh...the Umber Hulk. There is a reason why you get the place of honor on packaging and promotion for this set. You set the high bar; the hopes and dreams of every player of Dungeons and Dragons for great sculpts of their favorite monsters and characters in the game... 'tis a shame that the cold slap of reality hits us in the face on the majority of the other minis.
Werewolf (79/80) U: Looks more likely to do the 'Twist' then to attack my characters!
Worg (80/80) U: Decent enough, if redundant in this set with the great wolf sculpt.
Each expansion pack contains eight random figures: 1 Rare, 3 Uncommon and 4 common minis along with a checklist for the set.
Buying three cases of booster packs (12 packs per case) will give you enough packs to ensure that you have enough rares to be able to complete a set through trading. Since the product is random, it would take 4-5 cases of purchasing to complete a set without trading (unless you are very lucky).
Harbinger is currently out of print, with no known plans to reprint any of the set, although several figures have been re-sculpted in later sets.
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Game: D&D Miniatures or Dungeons & Dragons
Set: Harbinger
Format: Random in boosters
Price: $9.95 (out of print)
Required products for D&D Roleplaying:
Dungeon Master's Guide v3.5
Player's Handbook v3.5
Monster Manual v3.5
Other products in the D&D miniatures line:
Harbinger Entry Pack
Harbinger Booster Pack
Dragoneye Booster Pack
Archfiends Booster Pack
Miniatures Handbook
Recommended:
