Reddit reviews Pathfinder Pawns: Bestiary Box

For the DM: If you don't have the money or space for enemy minis for every encounter, consider getting your DM a set of Pathfinder Pawns. It's technically for another system but comes with over 300 cardstock pawns (full color, same image front and back) along with a pile of bases for a wide variety of creatures and sizes. There are several collections (I have the Bestiary Box and the NPC Codex) but you can get away with subbing in something that resembles your enemy instead of buying them all.

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Pathfinder Pawns might be a good start.

Monster Codex Pawns

Beastiary Box Pawns

If you're playing 5E they won't match up exactly, but $30 for 300 "minis" ain't bad. Otherwise start dropping $120 a brick for the official minis or check ebay for the occasional lot of prepainted plastics. They seem to be around $1-2 each at the moment.

Pathfinder Pawns!! I just got some for my campaign!

NPC's- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601254725/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A few Monsters- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601255616/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Monster Codex- http://paizo.com/products/btpy9g25?Pathfinder-Pawns-Monster-Codex-Box

The NPC one is perfect for Player Characters and Villagers n stuff. And the Monster Codex would hook you up with monsters. And the Bestairy Box is just more monsters and devils and stuff.

They are pretty freaking dope my players love em

Similar to the MtG cutout idea, Pathfinder uses some nice looking printed stock pawns. Amazon link for example

If you’re looking for low cost I would recommend reaper bones or wizkids deep cuts/nolzurs marvelus miniatures. Depending on the size /set it’ll run you $4-$100. $4 being an individual Meduim sized mini $100 being a boxed set of a lot of them or a single large set piece like a huge dragon. Both of these options are unpainted and you should be able to find whatever you’re looking for. If you just want best bang for your buck I would recommend pathfinder pawns they’re card stock minis and usually get a couple hundred for around $15-$40 depending on the set you get. Another option is to find board games that use minis like zombiecide or some of the d&d board games

Buy a couple of Pathfinder Pawns boxes. You are done. haha

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishng-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485202736&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+pawns

Prefer of paper with a character's picture? I've also seen people download pictures and make sandwich boards with character art on them.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=pathfinder+pawns&qid=1562347695&s=gateway&sprefix=pathfinder&sr=8-1

Would that work for you?

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=pd_aw_sim_21_2/133-7432255-0356119?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1601255616&pd_rd_r=35b2487c-6cfe-11e9-9ffd-03efec45caec&pd_rd_w=VLUug&pd_rd_wg=B8Cvs&pf_rd_p=469620d9-3e90-496d-9dc8-b19f900ba5fe&pf_rd_r=7CYTFFC8JZMCXA8G012B&psc=1&refRID=7CYTFFC8JZMCXA8G012B

2d minis, contain several hundred. One of my most used purchases.

Chessex battlemaps and Pathfinder flip map are two of the common maps.

As for miniatures, Pathfinder paws are the biggest bang for your buck. They are thick card stock and fairly durable and would be the easiest buy. If you want miniatures, sites like miniature market has around 160 for $2 or less for each miniature, the cost can add up quickly, but are pre-painted.

I found the cheapest, yet still very nice solution are the Pathfinder tokens (monsters and NPCs). There so many to chose from, all in one box and very reasonably priced: https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

• Chessex Pound of Dice
  
• Artisan Dice
  
• Game Mastery Combat Pad
  
• Nice quality wet or dry erase markers, whichever your GM's battle mat uses
  
• Pathfinder Pawns Bestiary and/or NPC Codex
  
• Tact Tiles gaming map
  
• Tinkered Tactics Combat Tiers
  
• Commissioned artwork
  
  Could give better suggestions if I knew your budget

I have a box of Pathfinder pawns and they are pretty great. You get a selection of bases. I got one of the evil races boxes but the Bestiary Box 1 seems to have a pretty good overlap with 5e's MM.
https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522671422&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+pawns

The heavy stock "pawns" from Pathfinder and similar "standees" are a really nice and much cheaper alternative to minis. You can store and transport so many more so much easier. Great art.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=pathfinder+miniature&qid=1566055384&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Your best bet is to combine Pathfinder Pawns with D&D Dungeon Tiles Reincarnated.

While not explicitly Minis I found the Paizo Bestiary boxes a great budget way to get a broad set of creatures realized on my matt for cheap. I encourage most new DMs to check them out. Believe there are six general ones and some campaign/theme specific ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

I have a 3d printer so i just make them now (and never paint them), but I also use Paizo Pawns to fill in the gaps - there's like 300 monsters/NPCs in each box in a series of at least 6, and pathfinder has a ton of overlap with DnD. It's amazingly cost-efficient if you have that upfront money.

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Alternatively, you can check the local thrift stores for old games - there's chess and occasionally Zombies!!!, but if you're lucky you can find Arena of the Planeswalkers and get a pretty nice set of minis for $5.

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Alternatively alternatively, there are printable monsters on DriveThruRPG for hella cheap too (example)

I would say go for a Grid and markers. You're looking at $30 from a FLGS, tops.

Then I suggest maybe having your PC's look at the Reaper Bones and Wizkids miniatures. Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures has a TON of different Player Character minis to pick from, and they're great. Reaper Bones does as well.

Have everyone get their own mini. That's <$5 per person.

Then just use tokens.

If you decide you want to expand your portfolio a bit, consider getting the Pathfinder Pawns boxes. You'll get ~300 heavy cardboard minis of a wide array of monsters.

I found minis to be pretty expensive, which has been a major deterrent for me. However, I purchased three sets of Pathfinder Pawns like this one

I now have the NPC, bestiary, and summoned creature sets - and that gave me a ton to work with.

Are you doing a remote game, with players that can't get together? Cause if not, I'd go with a mat, preferably double sided with both grid and hexes, so you can support multiple games and modes. You don't need proper minis (though those are particularly nice for players to have something for there character), when I first got a mat, we used chess pieces. You can also find free printable paper minis that look pretty good. If you want something a bit more durable, I'm like Pathfinder Pawns, the stands in it are great for paper minis too.

Overall, my group has greatly preferred grid combat. Since everyone knows the distances and sizes of everything, it makes the game feel more tactical and less arbitrary. And it is just cool to see everything laid out.

I always recommend this: https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

They aren't minis but it the cheapest way to get something on the table while you work on a larger collection.

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Reaper Bones is a solid set of minis that you can pick and choose.

See when this goes on sale for tons of monsters from the Monster Manual.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

Depends, are you looking for actual miniatures, or are you just looking for representations of monsters? Because Pathfinder makes a decent box set of bulk monsters for $50. They're called Pathfinder Pawns, and they're basically cardboard standees. This box is less than $50 for 300 paper miniatures, and is as cheap as you're likely to find, especially if you value your time.

As for bulk miniatures, the D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardladon, Castle Ravenloft, and Legend of Drizzt are all fairly good sources of actual 3d miniatures, but they are unpainted. Aside from that, Reaperminiatures.com does have some cheap packs of unpainted miniatures, but overall, no miniature company truly sells in "bulk" that I've noticed.

For throwaway undead, I use these while I wait for actual undead miniatures to paint. They're a bit smaller, but you can't beat that value.

Aside from that, if you're looking for actual painted miniatures, good luck! The only pre-painted ones I really see are either on E-bay as second hand, or the random "loot box" style of package such as here.

I love painting miniatures, and do some quality work depending on how detailed you want to commission. I am actually in the process of updating my Etsy shop with prepainted "sets" of miniatures. Any questions, ask away!

I traded for all the W&D board games to use as miniatures. They are terrific.

Did you know that paizo makes pawns specifically for that purpose? I use them for my 5e game. Bestiary 1 box has a lot of cross over with D&D but some of the other ones I would check the contents. Paizo can get a bit weird.

Just a heads up for anyone that wants to buy these after viewing the link. Here is a cheaper one of what I think is the same thing

Paizo (the Pathfinder publisher) puts out Bestiary Boxes that have loads of cardboard tokens and pawns for characters and monsters and such.

The Angry GM did a very good article recently on metagaming. (If you're unfamiliar with Angry, he has a very different style than most gaming writers. If you're able to get past his "f&%$s" and "s@#&s," you'll find some very well researched and reasoned advice, and some good humor as well.)

I've been actively DMing for about four or five months now, and one of my players is the group's original DM and a DM for a Roll20 group. She uses the more prevalent definition of "metagaming," while I use Angry's, and it's been an interesting transition in the group.

Essentially, if the players are able to come to the correct conclusion about a major part of the storyline, while circumventing all of the deflections and delays I had put in their path (as happened recently), I don't see any reason to punish that. I rewarded that player with additional XP for clever thinking, even if I had to jump well passed what I had planned. If the bard knows a monster's weakness, they probably heard about it in some ballad. If one player acts on information on another player that they haven't formally discussed in character at the table, well, they've been traveling together for the better part of a year in game; the characters must have talked about it in the would-be-boring travel scenes that I gloss over.

As far as the monster inventory situation is concerned, I recommend getting some Pathfinder Pawns (I've linked to the two boxes I have on Amazon). They let you surprise your players with a huge variety of them. If you go on Paizo's website, you can buy printable versions for cheaper. The art is pretty good, and it's hard to beat the variety you get for your dollar.

In the end, everyone has a different playing style. I prefer to resolve differences when I can. Encourage some frank, open discussion at the table and away from it. If you can't resolve your different styles with your roommate, it might be best if they don't continue with the group. The overall group's fun level is really the deciding factor.

Pathfinder pawns work well for D&D... you get 300 cardboard pawns for under $50.

You can also buy pathfinder pawns or flat plastic miniatures (or the new KS)

Did you consider buying Pathfinder pawns? I use them a lot. The first box has the most common monsters.

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Then,e every time I need more in number or variety I simply create them using Gimp, print them, glue them to cardboard and stick them to the the bases that come with the pathfinder pawns. Im pretty happy with this approach. hope it helps

Chessex Role Playing Play Mat: Battlemat Double-Sided Reversible Mat for RPGs and Miniature Figure Games (26 in x 23 1/2 in) Squares/Hexes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015IQO2O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5CxOCbSK7ND37

EXPO 16078 Vis-A-Vis Wet-Erase Overhead Transparency Markers, Fine Point, Assorted Colors, 8-Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006IFGW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wDxOCbB3WHT45

If I don't have a mini for the monster I need I use a cheap, solid color dice from a big set I bought. Looks like the one I got is no longer being made but this is similar:
Yellow Mountain Imports 42 Polyhedral Dice, 6 Colors with Complete Set of D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20, and D% https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07586H7KJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1ExOCbK31AJD9

Pathfinders Bestiary Box 1 goes on sale for 20 something dollars sometimes, tons of monsters from the Monster Manual at a decent price:
Pathfinder Pawns: Bestiary Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nGxOCbJB02KBK

I wouldn't worry too much about having minis, and terrain, and everything as dnd is more about the imagination and sometimes too much detail at the table can detract from that. My friend runs his campaign mostly "theater of mind" style but has a little tiny dry erase board he draws on to show relative positions and obstacles and it works great.

Hope this helps!

I rarely care for the monster menagerie minis, they thend to have awful quality and paint jobs. Which for mass produced painted minis, I guess its to be expected.

If you want some minis that aren't bad at all, while not painted the Reaper Bones minis and the Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures are two really nice lines for their prices, and for the most part are quite durable. Overall though they can be more expensive than the random box minis, but they tend to me quite worth it.

One thing that you might be interested in is Hero Forge while they are not cheap, you can custom make your own humanoid minis, which is always a nice surprise for PCs. I don't recommend their $15 plastic though, like I said it can be kinda pricey for minis.

EDIT: I almost forgot! Pathfinder Beastiary Box is great for bulk cheap figures. There not minis, but it can sure beat paying $30 bucks for that one monster.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

Not quite models

Don't overdo it. I'd save buying most stuff until you have a feel for how you want to actually run the game. Most of us have piles of unused crap we bought because it sounded good. It's really easy to get caught up in the ephemera and make a game that is way too daunting to new players.

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I'd buy the starter set, some dice, notepads (assuming your kids are the type to take notes) and leave it at that. The only other thing I might consider would be a box of monster tokens, like this. There are tokens in there for everything in the manuals and plenty of options that can be used for player characters. I wouldn't worry about whiteboards, grids, playmats and such. Just treat the base as 5' and let your players 'hop' the pieces to count distance.

Well if you're interested here's the link to the first one on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishing-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

> min bekanta! I started filling this in but when I got to question 4 I realized something was wrong. Smallest storage option of 200 miniatures? That box would be huge! Not to speak of a 1000! What am I missing?

It's for papper pawns
https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

A lot of people use Pathfinder Pawns as a less expensive alternative. They don't match up 100%, but the Bestiary Box gives you most of the basic monsters. I've built up a collection of 3D minis now, but I still use mine to supplement. And if there's a specific monster I'm still missing, I can print out the artwork and carefully tape it over the right size pawn to improvise.

Play around with the tiles a bit to see if you like them! You can go as deep down the rabbit hole as you want, to be honest. The common consensus is that simple eraserboard tiles/maps work great as the workhorse for drawing out combat areas. These kinds of tiles are really useful because you can simulate line of sight/closed doors/etc by not placing down your tiles until your players advance further in. And you can draw features on the tiles to represent things in the area that are important.

I like to incorporate these blank tiles with other terrain that I've made or purchased as a way to make "filler" tiles. Say you have some city tiles that work for an encounter, but you need a walkway between two buildings or you need an alley between two buildings or something. You can place the blank tiles down, then place your city tiles on top and tell your players "the white space is an alley between these two buildings." Or in a recent game I had a small shrine in the wilderness where the party was attacked by a predator that was stalking them. I set up my blank tiles and put the terrain that represented the shrine on the table. Now the blank tiles represented the forest around the shrine.

I think it's better to start with stuff like this than it is to spend a bunch of money/time on Dwarven Forge or Hirst Arts specially made terrain. Over time, if you have the money and interest, you can eventually build up a collection of whatever kind of terrain you want. But for now, start with things that will be useful almost all of the time and are relatively cheap.

If you're looking to go three dimensional with your terrain/accessories, I can't recommend papercraft terrain like Fat Dragon Games makes enough.

As far as minis go, you have a LOT of options. WotC sells blind-box miniatures boxes that have decent quality, prepainted minis. And there are sites like Miniature Market and Troll & Toad where you can buy the specific miniatures you want. You also have a massive variety of unpainted miniatures you can use. The D&D officially branded Nolzur's miniatures are high quality and well-regarded. I also highly recommend the Reaper Bones line of minis. The quality is slightly worse than the Nolzur line, but the variety and price are difficult to argue with.

One option I don't see mentioned enough are "flat" miniatures. Pathfinder has a box set of popular monsters printed on cardstock that you put on stands to represent what the players are fighting. I've also seen plastic versions of these which I have never purchased, but Sly Flourish speaks highly of. If you do some googling I'm sure you can find tons more resources for printable "paper miniatures."

Hope this helps!

The Chessex Wet Erase mat is the one I use and all my DM friends use (in various sizes). that being said, you'll want a pack of these bad boys, because the fine point really does help.

For minis, they're pretty expensive off that bat so everyone advises to buy them slowly as you need them. Reaper bones have a lot of cheaper mini sets for starting out which are great. Personally I buy a few of the most common enemy and the main bad guy for each campaign. A good and cheaper alternative are pawns that you can use while you build your collection. Or, just print small pictures of monsters and tape them to a coin or washer to make fast minis that have colored pictures.

For cheap/fast 2d terrain, check out papercraft. A lot of people fold and draw on paper or cardboard to make terrain, or you can print out pictures of stuff and add it to terrain. Here is an example from u/cardboard-DM (who makes awesome stuff).

Best of luck!

I have found that the [Pathfinder Bestiary Box] (https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishng-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns/dp/1601255616) offers great value for monster miniatures.

It might be worthwhile to spend a little more on player miniatures, as they are used more frequently. Reaper and some other sites offer a pretty good selection. (Players often buy these for themselves)

A battle mat is a great investment, although you can also use paper.

Sound like you already have the core rule books.

The rest of the game comes from the mental creativity of the players and the DM. Don't worry too much about the physical supplies. You could spend $10,000 and still run a terrible game. You could have nothing but pencil and paper and run an amazing game. I recommend that you just dive in and start playing. Not everything will be perfect, but you will figure things out as they come up.

I fully expect to hear about the flourishing Jeddah D&D scene in the coming months. Good luck and happy gaming.

You could get the Pathfinder Pawns boxes

Pathfinder Pawns are a very good alternative to plastic minis. They won't have some of the more iconic D&D baddies like Beholders, but that is a minor complaint. I also use the Paizo battle mats but that is just because I got them for free somewhere. I lay a piece of plexi-glass over the map and just use a dry erase marker on the plexi. Way easier to clean up than the maps.

Tome of Beasts is a great supplement full of 5e monsters.

I like using the Dungeon Crawl Classics dice set. It is a simple, fun way to have "unique" monsters or abilties that roll odd dice to hit or for damage. Players always get a kick out of using something like a D30 when they roll to attack.

Something cheap would be the Pathfinder Pawns. There's the Bestiary Box 1-5, NPC Codex, and Monster Codex. They don't take up much space and are easy to store. They pretty much have a large variety of everything.

If you're looking for 3D minis I would recommend Bones minis.

I used 1"x1" paper squares I cut out myself with numbers on them at first. Then when I had some money, I bought the Pathfinder Pawns for minis. I use them for 5e so they don't match up perfectly, but it's enough to just tell my players "This is X monster" or whatever. Someone else is probably going to mention this too, but if you want miniatures for characters or whatever, boardgames like Talisman or the DnD ones are your best bet for cheap-ish minis. You get a bunch (For example, Talisman comes with ~14 minis your players can use) for relatively less than you'd pay to get them individually.

Maps wise, if you have access to Photoshop (never used GIMP) you can make grid lines overlay on whatever you draw. You can also find these online or in stores. 1" square graph paper is good if you don't want to buy a Chessex Battlemat, though I'd highly recommend it and some wet-erase markers. Those things last for years and they're super useful if you don't mind wiping off the map a few times a session.

There are Starter Kit - Miniatures for sale, but it would better to purchase a complete box set of Fantasy Pawns or print your own paper miniatures from an online RPG resource .

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Good luck!

Chessex mega-mat or similar is a very worthy purchase for quickly drawing battle scenes.

I used LEGO figures but I had a huge collection. I'd save your money until you're ready to buy proper figurines for everyone -- find a cheap or free solution in the meantime. Getting proper miniatures is a huge plunge.

You can also check out Pathfinder pawns.

Wow! This looks awesome. http://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishing-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451672278&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+pawns This box looks great - it says it has 300 monsters.

Btw. This is what I'm talking about. https://www.amazon.de/dp/1601255616/?coliid=I100DD699K3IJL&colid=GWEI9E04HT3K&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Mini's can get pretty expensive depending on your budget. If you're looking to drop a couple hundred dollars you can get a pretty decent setup, but if you're like me and want to go cheap you can check out these [guys] (https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Publishng-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478136158&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+pawns)
They're super high quality for cardboard cutouts and the set brings a lot.
I use those for generic monsters and then I am going to attempt to 3d print the PC's and the important boss monsters.

Pathfinder pawns sets are great too if you can find them. There's an Npc set and a few bestiary sets. Also, there's purpose build grid maps for this sort of thing that you can draw on with whiteboard marker. Those things for me make the experience a little better as a dm. I'm sure my players appreciate the immersion it provides too.

pathfinder pawns bestiary box 1

grid map

I would reccomend this Pathfinder Pawns: Bestiary Box
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0XRIBb8E1M0TX they are card board cut outs of a bunch of monsters. 300 if i remember correctly. Lower level creatures typically come with multiples. I loved that the creatures have numbers which on the back of the box correspond to a list with its name. It made it easy for organising into ziplock bags to easily pull out later. They have several different box sets so if you want more humanoid monsters they have those as well. This box set was more than enough. Keep in mind though that wizards has certain creatures names under copyright aka the beholder. So the creature is a beholder but goes by eye monster instead.

If you want to go all out I'd recommend these books:

https://www.amazon.com/Dungeons-Dragons-Monster-Rulebook-Roleplaying/dp/0786965614/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840456&sr=8-6&keywords=dungeons+and+dragons

https://www.amazon.com/Xanathars-Guide-Everything-Wizards-Team/dp/0786966114/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840456&sr=8-10&keywords=dungeons+and+dragons

https://www.amazon.com/Volos-Guide-Monsters-Wizards-Team/dp/0786966017/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840456&sr=8-14&keywords=dungeons+and+dragons

Enough dice for you and whoever you're playing with:

https://www.amazon.com/Wiz-Dice-Pack-Random-Polyhedral/dp/B01KN7REWQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840537&sr=8-4&keywords=1+pound+of+dice

If you want minis:

https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Codex-Pawns/dp/1601254725/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840982&sr=8-4&keywords=monster+codex+box

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1601255616&pd_rd_r=d89745e3-2d8a-11e9-bc59-4fcf3b72f982&pd_rd_w=Ip8Jz&pd_rd_wg=d87AF&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=CQ2TM4MZQSVKFXX2GYRS&psc=1&refRID=CQ2TM4MZQSVKFXX2GYRS

https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Pawns-Villain-Codex-Box/dp/1601259255/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549840982&sr=8-3&keywords=monster+codex+box

Miniatures weren't sold in a set that covered you. Even when they work with WizKids and have a set of the same name... they're still random blind boosters that have SOME of the stuff in it. It isn't a kit you can just buy.

For the WizKids lines here are the galleries:

• D&D Brand: https://www.minisgallery.com/dnd/icons/index.html
  
• Pathfinder Brand: http://www.pathfinderminis.com/pfb/index.html
  
  There is NOTHING wrong with the Pathfinder ones. They're just extra variations (Pathfinder IS D&D 3e revised etc etc).
  
  Anyway, what I would do is look at those galleries and note the set and creature you want.
  
  Then go to eBay and check out sellers like Miniature Market, Noble Knight Games, etc etc and find the place that has what you want in the quantities you want. You're going to spend a pretty penny to get a workable set going.
  
  Another option that I suggest is get the Pathfinder Pawns. You can spend $30ish per box (so about $100 for like 1,000 miniatures).
  
  
• The Bestiary I box has representation for almost everything in the main Monster Manuals (like its the same basic guys for 3e, Pathfinder, 5e, etc).
  
• The Monster Box has multiples for common enemies (goblins, orcs, undead, etc). And I highly recommend it. (It looks like it is out of print but they often bring them back)
  
• The NPC Codex Box has all kinds useable for PCs and NPCs alike.
  
• The Villain Codex Box has similar but more bad NPC types.
  
  They are the cheapest way to get into it. Far cheaper than the pre-painted miniatures or investing in paints, brushes, and metal figures.
  
  Then you can feel better splurging $30-50 on a cool dragon rare or go to Hero Forge and get a custom mini, etc.

If you're ok with Paper minis then Printable Heroes are the best cheap solution that I've found.

I usually print them onto cardstock, cut out the silhouettes and "laminate" them with clear packing tape. They're not as great as plastic minis but they are considerably cheaper and still less labor intensive than unpainted minis, plus you get to pick which monsters and how many you need.

Paizo's Pathfinder Pawns are also pretty good. They're technically for Pathfinder, not D&D but the styles of the monsters are similar enough that it usually doesn't matter and the pawns are really nice for cardboard minis.

I do this too - if your printer has a straight-feed slot, where you can manually feed in sheets of paper and have them go straight through, you should consider getting some very heavy weight paper (CARD STOCK) or if you don't have manual feed, cover stock paper, which is thicker and more rigid. It will make this look a lot better.

For ease of storage, I also just do two sided or single sided pawns, making it a breeze to store a ton of them in a small space.

If you do ever have 36 dollars and you want to get like 300 professionally printed cardboard pawns with plastic bases to put them on, I highly recommend the pathfinder bestiary box. https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616

I was also in this boat recently, and I went with the Bestiary Box from Paizo. Basically, they're picture of monsters on sturdy cardboard that are held in these plastic holders. They feel a little cheap compared to actually 3D minis, but I feel they are the perfect balance between a large selection of monsters and affordability.

All the rules and supplements can be found online for free, as a lot of other answers says.
For the 'essential' I'd say a set of die per players, and some extra D20 for you. Additionnal die are nice, a small box of ~ 10 D6 is cheap and always usefull.
Character sheet (find the pdf for free and print it), pen and eraser (one for each players) are obvious.

For the extra stuff that is really nice to have but not essential : something to draw map and something that can be used as miniatures.
There is a lot of choice for this, depending on your budget. You can either draw the map on a paper every time you need it, but I highly recommend buying a battlemat (you can find them on a lot stores), you could also build one yourself.

For the miniatures, the 'real' 3D one are pretty expensive. It's something that I only use as a player for a long campaign (I just buy one mini that look like my character).
The pawn box are a cheaper alternative : monster , npc but it's still pricey. You can just use some stuff that you print, or build your own with some cardboard. Just be careful on the scale if you plan to use it with an 'official' map.

1. You can use pretty much anything for figures. You don't need actual minis to play. If you still want tot go that route, there's a couple options. The first option is to grab a box of Paizo's Pawns. They're meant for Pathfinder, but they're just pictures of monsters printed on card stock slotted into a plastic base. The Beastiary box is $36 on Amazon right now. The other option is to buy miniatures for creatures as you need them. There's no real "complete" set of minis and they are much more expensive than pawns or flat tokens for obvious reasons. If your players really want models of their characters, they can opt to have them made or find ones that are "close enough" for their taste. For maps/boards, you can draw your own on paper. Get a pad of 1" grid paper and draw your dungeons on that. Most pre-made D&D modules will have gridded maps that you can replicate on your own paper. A slightly more expensive option in the short term is to get a dry/wet erase battle mat. Use vis-a-vis markers to draw your map, then a damp paper towel to wipe the lines away when you want to put down a new dungeon. Battle mats are expensive on Amazon. Maybe try to find one in your local game shop?
   
2. The core rulebook has options for this. Basically there's three ways to do stats: Array, Point Buy, and Roll. In Array, you are given a specific spread of stats from the book and you decide what attributes to put those values into. In point buy, you have a set number of points (27) that can be dropped into stats, but it isn't always a 1:1 increase. As stats get higher they cost more points to buy. You can use a Point Buy Calculator to plan characters. For Rolling, you roll a number of dice and that determines your stats. What dice you roll is up to you, but the two most common ways are 3d6 per stat with no re-rolling or 4d6 keep highest 3 with no re-rolling. For beginners, I would recommend the Array option for stats.
   
3. Ok, so it sounds like you have nothing invested in the system so far, so here's the stuff you absolutely will need: The D&D 5th Edition Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide. These three books have everything you and your players need to play a full game. However, none of these have pre-made adventures for you. You will either have to make it up as you go along, or buy pre-made adventure modules. If you're worried about being able to tell a story on your own, I heartily recommend grabbing a pre-made adventure module and running that before you try anything homebrew (homebrew meaning made entirely by you) The two that are widely regarded as the best out so far are Storm King's Thunder and Curse of Strahd. Read their synopses and pick one to run.
   
4. No, but a "Session 0" where you create characters and set the tone/expectations for the campaign is a very good idea, especially when you're just starting out. If you can, make the Player's Handbook available to all of your players before you begin the game, so that they can start getting an idea of what kind of character they want to play. Then, during Session 0, make your characters together as a group and talk about what each person wants from the game. What kinds of things interest them and what stories do they want to tell, that sort of thing. Pay *close* attention to what they say. As the DM, it's your job to help them tell their stories and explore topics they're interested in. Most players, however, will not tell you exactly what they want, instead they'll tell you something related to it. For example, if a player says that their character is descended from an ancient tradition of spellcasters and takes proficiency in the history skill, then they're probably interested in the history of the world even if they never told you that's what they're interested in. This is what game masters will typically refer to as a flag.
   
5. Generally speaking, all of the classes in D&D are pretty well balanced, especially before you start adding extra supplements. The Dungeon Master's Guide has rules for awarding treasure to players. Use them. Keep in mind every player and their class when awarding magic items. For example, a +1 sword is a great, useful upgrade to a Fighter, but is nearly worthless to a Wizard. There's tables for awarding magic items in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Those are great guidelines to help you think of how to give out magical equipment, which will be the deciding factor of if a player gets overpowered or not. If you only hand out magic weapons and armor and one player in your group is a fighter, then they will naturally be overpowered. It's also really easy to fall into the trap of just handing out stuff that is really useful in combat but isn't very useful elsewhere. Keep utility items in mind and hand those out just as often if not more so than magical weapons. Give players utility items and support them using those items in weird situations.
   
6. The Player's Handbook gives you a guideline for each class's starting equipment. After that, players may spend their gold in towns to buy additional gear (but not magic items!) As for quest rewards and other loot, the Dungeon Master's Guide has rules and tables for that sort of thing.
   
   As for #7, I've got a whole list for you.
   
   

• Read the player's hadnbook and the dungeon master's guide cover to cover. Make notes in them, bookmark them. If you're making up your own scenario, read the monster manual too.
  
• Read adventures cover to cover before running them. Important advice for them may be further back than you might think. Read the adventure several times.
  
• During play, if there's a rules question, make a judgement call on it, then make a note to look it up later. Ruining the momentum and pacing for something just to make sure you're following the rules isn't fun for anyone.
  
• You are the final arbiter of the rules. If a rule in the adventure or rulebook is ruining your fun, toss it out. This is an RPG where you can just ignore encumbrance rules.
  
• Buy a Pound o' Dice. You'd be amazed how often having extra dice is useful. By buying one of these 100-die packs, you get at least one full set (1 each of 4/6/8/10/12/20) for each person in your group and extras for higher level rolls.
  
• Don't discount online tabletop services, even for in-person games. Having big maps is just not feasible in my apartment, but setting up a map to display on a TV works great.

I bought pathfinder pawns. You have to be flexible about some of the monsters, but you get about 300 in a box for 40 bucks. https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536690155&sr=8-1&keywords=pathfinder+pawns

Pathfinder also has a flat card miniatures equivalent to this, they can be found cheaply if you look around.

Most of the battle mats I've seen are wet erase, and dry erase markers tend to stain them. If you want to use dry erase, I'd just get a basic whiteboard (which I did).

Figures can be kinda expensive, especially if you're looking for a lot of them. Back in the old days, we used to play with spare dice and coins. Each player tosses in a die they aren't using to represent themselves (easier to recognize the d12 that looks like the d20 you're rolling) and the DM either uses a bunch of random spare dice or pennies or something for the baddies.

If you really want to get into minis though, I'd suggest picking up things like this. They aren't "regulation" size or whatever. But they are cheaper than the real things. Considering you can buy this tube of 100 for the price of a single Reaper mini.

Or there are kits for some of the other games like Pathfinder, which is really just a generic store brand of 3.5e and the tokens work just fine.

You can buy minis to represent specific characters from adventure paths, like this one to represent Shalelu Andosana from Rise of the Runelords.

Other than that? An orc is an orc, of course, of course.

The cheapest way to get a bunch of minis is to get the Pathfinder starter box which comes with over 80 cardboard characters and monsters and the stands to use them. (You also get a dry erase, two sided map and some dice!) You can get even more cardboard minis for monsters and such here.

The 3D minis can be expensive. If you don't mind getting random tokens, you can get booster packs for under $20. You'll get 1 large creature and several medium/small creatures, all prepainted. If you want something more specific, you can try ebay or you can make your own at HeroForge. If you really don't mind, you can use anything from coins to rocks to legos.

The dice linked will be good enough as each person will probably have two sets and you can roll and add up but if you need to make large rolls I use a dice rolling app named “Dice Ex Machina” it’s on IOS and I believe android and google store.

Regarding minis the 2d cutouts are quite nice and easy to use there is also a kinda blandish minifigure collection

SCS Direct Fantasy Creatures Action Figure Playset - 90pc Monster Battle Toy Collection (Includes Dragons, Wizards, Orcs, and More) - Perfect for Roleplaying and D&D Gaming https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0746TKNSL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_n8apDb6TPTRBB

And the cutouts

Pathfinder Pawns: Bestiary Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_h-apDbW0DB1MW

The mats you’re talking about sound great, I would probably just buy those

And the monster stats can be found on the website I linked, they can be printed or just used from the site and I would go out and got a pack of coloured markers to draw on the mats

This website has almost all monster and spell stats

I looked into a couple of options.
First are the DnD Board games. These are about the cheapest pre-made minis I found. Here

The second option was 3D printing. You can definitely get more bang for your buck, but there's a larger up front cost. You can get a low end 3D printer for something like $200-$300.

Third option was the Pathfinder Pawns. Not great, but they're cheap for a lot of them. Someone linked some printables elsewhere in the thread. These are nice because it's good art and a fairly high quality print. Downside is you're probably going to want two boxes. There's not quite enough of anything to cover large groups of mooks. Here

Fourth option I've seen is LEGO. Check out /r/legodnd for more ideas. If you have a bunch of stuff laying around, that can give you some ideas for stuff to do.

Overall, I think 3D printing is the way to go in the long run. It just requires a larger initial investment. It's also dependant on you finding or making your own patterns. The upside is it's fairly cheap and it's the most flexible option. You can 3D print pretty much anything you want. You also have the benefit of making scenery in addition to minis.

Pathfinder Pawns: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.oWyDb5SHR1A7

I use "pawns" from Pathfinder like these:


Pathfinder Pawns: Bestiary Box https://www.amazon.com/dp/1601255616/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_7K7kDbE4HHMK6

Pathfinder Pawns is probably the largest amount of pieces you'll get for your money. They aren't actually miniatures. just 2d pictures on stands, but they do work well for combat.

If you want a bunch of actual minis in bulk you can try to find a good set on ebay, people are always getting out of a mini hobby and selling their miniatures all at once. Just search "miniature lot" and see what you get. The other option is to just build up a big cart on an online retailer like Reaper Miniatures and get free shipping on it. The advantage there is that you'll pick everything you get and won't have as many unused minitures as you might with other bulk sets. If you're looking to build up a large collection of actual miniatures expect to spend a lot of money. It's not a cheap hobby.

https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-Pathfinder-Pawns-Bestiary/dp/1601255616