Wandering Wednesday: Hippo-Lot-Amus

Greetings, fellow dungeon divers. Today, we’re exploring the twisting turns of an underground hideout, home to a foe you probably don’t run into often in your DnD game. Let’s begin!

Apologies for being dark yesterday. Dwarven Forge released their highly anticipated Perilous Frontiers Kickstarter, which included all-new sculpts and two themes after two years in the making. Like many gamers, we’re avid fans of their pre-painted terrain, so it took a while to map it out and place our pledge. Even better, 3D-printer hobbyists can make plenty of complementary scatter and miniatures to bring it all home. We’re only on day two on Gamefound, and they’re nearly at $900k, so bring on all those juicy stretch goals!

Speaking of miniatures, we’ve got some pretty awesome guards and soldiers of the mightiest kind. We often seek out unique races beyond the Monster Manual classics, since DM Ben loves to surprise his players with unexpected clans. Chances are your adventurers haven’t run into these powerhouses quite yet. Fair warning to all the dungeon masters – they just bore easily, is all.

We’ll start with what might be one of our favorite poses for a classic dungeon guard. This unamused Bonebraker is from their slick City Guards set. You’re gonna love the variety of races and stances in this group. Throw it in your MMF wish list and then buy it with one of those generous holiday codes come Christmas time.

Resident Painter Kimmy Utah did the majority of today’s colors, with Sunrise Sven doing our lighter-skinned hippo for an alternate take. We don’t usually get to send the same model to two different artists (since they’re usually grouped together), so this was super interesting to see. Which skin tone do you like best here? We’re partial to the darker black shade, as we think it makes their mighty armor and slick leather really pop.

Next up are these Hippo Warriors we accidentally found in the free STL section of Epic Miniatures’ website. Like many creators, free models come and go fast, so a wise hobbyist should subscribe to their e-newsletter and check back on their sites occasionally to score ’em. We’re going to highlight two of the four models today.

Kimmy Utah did both, and this time she went with more traditional grey skin tones, with slight variations. We have the same conundrum here as we like ’em both. However, if we had to pick one, we are leaning towards the slightly darker grey on the left. We lost our mace weapon on the return shipping, but no big whoop.

Now, if you search for a Hippo Warrior stat block, you won’t find exactly what you need, numbers-wise. These big mouths officially go by the “Giff” title, with an entry in both Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse books.

Here are their stats at a glance:

• AC: 16 | HP: 60 | Spd: 30 ft | CR 3
• Headfirst Charge: DC 14 Strength | Firearms Knowledge
• Multiattack of any weapon type.
• Melee Longsword: +6/1d8+4.
• Musket: +4/1d12+2. | Pistol: +4/1d10+2.
• Frag Grenade (1/day): 20 ft radius. DC 15 Dex | 5d6 piercing | sv for half.

Now, all that’s left is to update our free DnD table!

Until next time!