Focus on a D&D 5E mini: violet fungus

Why bother with a violet fungus miniature?

Violet fungi are good low level creatures which will be hiding among the other mushrooms in that dark cavern that your youthful party has obliviously wandered into while searching for treasure/foes/glory. They aren’t particularly dangerous by themselves, but of course there will be a colony of them, because mushrooms come in groups. In caves, so very many parties are made up of characters with darkvision, which is usually a great strategy, but it also means that you can’t see colour while wandering around in the dark. Now, a group which is walking around with torches lit has the advantage, because they can see the giant purple mushrooms and can stay away from them, or attack them from a safe distance, while the darkvision crew will stumble cluelessly right into the middle of a group of violet fungi and be none the wiser until it is too late. Plus, they are Plants, and there are not all that many different types of Plant creatures out there, so it’s good to throw some in now and then.

What about this mini?

This miniature, like the ochre jelly baby, the hezrou, the pixie, the sprite, the giant weasel, the giant boar, the giant riding lizard, the raven, the toad, the weasel, and the cat 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 violet fungus is from a set of 3 miniatures called Shriekers & violet fungi (3) #DM8. It is on a medium base like it is supposed to be. This set was sculpted by Kev Adams, who is known for his goblins, but I really enjoy his mushrooms. I particularly like that this mushroom is so very large that it has shelf fungi growing off the side of it. I really liked the attention to detail that Otherworld Miniatures put into the minis, and is part of why I got this mini. That, plus I could not find any other violet fungus miniatures for sale back when I bought these.

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?

Violet fungi are included in 9 published Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books:

That’s nearly 1/4 of the published D&D 5E books- not bad for a big ol’ mushroom. These are nice foes for lower level parties to practice with, but in larger numbers are a serious threat. If your players are wandering through caves, toss some of these at them and watch them suddenly become much more paranoid about every mushroom they see in future. These are another of those creatures which has been a part of Dungeons and Dragons since its earliest days.

But why are you doing this?

As is usual for these videos, my aim is to both provide good views of the featured miniatures as well as accurate sizing information about them. As I already pointed out, the violet fungus miniature is on a medium sized base and that’s the correct size. I would like to thank the wildlife artist Sherrie York, the best reduction linocut artist of our time, for kindly allowing me to use one of her reduction linocuts, Shivano Sunset, as the mini backdrop in this video.