Why bother with a pixie miniature?
I like pixies. These tiny Fey have no attacks- they are completely incapable of causing damage directly, except possibly minimal amounts as part of casting Phantasmal Force, but I don’t play them like that. Pixies are little and mischievous, and that’s how I play them. They may harry your party, but they won’t harm them, and if the party has a good sense of humour about them, they can possibly get some help from the pixies. Pixies, for me, are a fun way to add a little harmless fun chaos to your session. The players, on the other hand, may have other thoughts on why they want pixies to be part of the campaign. I’ll speak more on that a little later, and how I have dealt with it.
What about this mini?
This miniature, like the ochre jelly baby, the cat, the raven, the weasel, the toad, the sprite, the violet fungus, the giant boar, the giant weasel, the giant riding lizard, and the hezrou miniatures, is a bit problematic. This unpainted metal miniature is from Otherworld Miniatures, a company which I have bought many minis from over the years. It has very recently closed due to the owner’s retirement, so minis are no longer available for purchase from them. However, it has closed so recently that Otherworld Miniature products are still available in retail shops and on the internet. As a result, I’m putting a number of videos of their miniatures up now so if you like the mini(s), you can look around for them before they are all gone. Supposedly they were going to sell their molds to another company, but nothing has been heard on that for months, so it’s anyone’s guess who has the molds or if they will be making more of their minis at this point. If you want one of their minis, this is probably the time to look for them. I have quite a few of their miniatures, because I really like them. This particular one is part of a pack of 4 tiny creatures, Lesser faerie folk #WE6. There are other useful fey folk in this pack, and it’s the first of the minis from this pack I have showcased but it won’t be the last. Andrew Rae made all of the sculpts for this pack, and they are of the high calibre that you would expect from him. The base size is tiny, as it is meant to be for a pixie, which makes me happy.
UPDATE: Fenris Games got about 100 of the miniatures from Otherworld Games, and Crooked Dice also got some of their miniatures, so if you are looking for any of their minis, keep an eye on their websites as they add the new (to them) models, which is great news!
How useful is this mini, really?
Pixies are included in 11 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:
- Curse Of Strahd
- Deck Of Many Things
- Eberron: Rising From The Last War
- Ghosts Of Saltmarsh
- Guildmaster’s Guide To Ravnica
- Keys From The Golden Vault
- Monster Manual
- Planescape: Adventures In The Multiverse
- Quests From The Infinite Staircase
- The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
- Xanathar’s Guide To Everything
That’s more than 1/4 of the published material, so you’re likely to need a pixie miniature at some point. Also, your players might want to conjure some pixies via the Conjure Woodland Beings spell, assuming you have either a druid or a ranger in the party. Pixies can break the game through that spell. At 7th level druids and rangers can cast that spell, and if they do, they can conjure 8 pixies. The pixies must follow their commands. Those pixies can’t really do much direct damage, but they can each cast Polymorph once a day. With 8 pixies, they can Polymorph every member of the party into a Tyrannosaurus rex (for example) once the party hit 8th level, making it an unbeatable encounter for the opponents, pretty much. Different dungeon masters have different ways that they deal with that eventuality. The way I deal with it is that I warn my players that pixies are very mischievous, and if you order them to Polymorph you into something, they might ‘mishear’ you and Polymorph you into something else instead- something funnier for the pixies. Maybe a spider, maybe a chicken, maybe something entirely different. Such are the ways of the Fey. Conjure pixies at your peril. Each time they conjure pixies and ask them to Polymorph them, they have to roll to see if they get what they want, and they have no idea how likely it is that they will get what they ask for. You rolls the dice, you takes your chances.
But why are you doing this?
As usual for these videos, my aim is to provide good views of the miniatures featured and sizing information about them. As I already pointed out, the pixie miniature is on a tiny size base and that’s the correct size. I would like to also thank the wildlife artist Sherrie York, expert reduction linocut artist, for kindly allowing me to use one of her reduction linocuts, Shivano Sunset, as the backdrop for my minis in the video.