by QorDaq » June 2nd, 2022, 6:09 pm
One (possibly) interesting take on the more generic "Abomination" designation of the Fimir replacing monsters, is that "Abomination" isn't really a species descriptor--to me I mean.
My first thoughts when the Pulse campaign started, was, "Calling these monsters Abominations means I can swap a variety of enemies in and out of a given Quest if I want to. Cool."
Having a very long history with TTRPGs (over 45 years now,), and a lot of experience with board game Dungeon Crawlers in general, to me the term "Abomination" could be synonymous with old school "Monstrous Humanoids" or even the somewhat newer "Monstrosities" kinds of classifications that cover an assortment of different species.
A very modern example would be in Zombicide (with it's multitudes of iterations), where an Abomination is an enemy type rather than a specific sort of Zombie (though they started out as big zombies).
To me, the thing I liked least about HQ21's Abomination miniatures, is that they feel very Lovecraftian to me, which is fine but slightly jarring in design style. However for certain homebrew adventures, they could be quite thematic for unique Quest environments. As an aside, for those of us with a copy of FFGs' 'Unfathomable', the Deep Ones figures are very similar in design aesthetic to the HQ Abominations, and are slightly smaller giving them some interesting potential as a "Weaker" sub-type. Though I have not thought deeply about how I'd stat them yet.
Other possible substitutions, to lean in to the swampy Lizardfolk ideas for minis could be D&D Sahuagin, (Which share some of the Fishfolk look of HQ Abominations), or for more typical looking Lizardfolk, Massive Darkness' Reptisaurians. An advantage to the Massive Darkness minis, is that you can snag the box set which includes a variety of sculpts to cover different Boss and Specialist roles, in addition to Minions in Melee and Ranged variants.
Regardless, for my table, the term Abomination is a not a species designation, but rather is a creature type that could cover several different species. Maybe, just maybe, AH could lean into that as well and provide variants in the future? Unlikely, but fun to consider.
Unfortunately, I cannot add much to the direct question posed in the OP, which is the best direct substitute for Fimir minis. I too had looked at the Etsy offerings longingly, but was worried about scale. However, they do have the advantage of offering a variety of pretty cool sculpts.
maj! = Klingon word for "Good". Used in the context of "I approve".
- vay' DaneHbogh yIchargh!