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The dragon hovers 2 squares over the paladin, the ranger is perched 5 squares up in a tree, and the fighter is magically flying 3 squares off the ground. Aerial minions soar all about.

In tactically heavy games like 4e, knowing the exact position of all creatures is crucial to being effective in combat. What clean, effective ways are there to represent these complex 3-D combat situations with miniatures?

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Something similar to what you want: penny-arcade.com/2009/8/3/#my-dd-game – Adriano Varoli Piazza Mar 31 '11 at 19:43
@Adriano That is awesome. Maybe I'll build something similar with adjustable platforms for variable heights... – dpatchery Apr 1 '11 at 12:58
I didn't submit it as an answer because it's not actually usable for representing combat relative height, but it's just so cool. – Adriano Varoli Piazza Apr 1 '11 at 13:17

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up vote 8 down vote accepted

The easiest way is with dice. Every group I've played in does this. We put a die (usually a d12, because what else are they good for?) next to the mini. The value of the die represents the elevation of the character.

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Does each number corespond to the square they are in aproximately? – wax eagle Mar 31 '11 at 13:31
How do you handle minis that are in the same horizontal square at different heights? – dpatchery Mar 31 '11 at 13:31
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@wax, yes. @dpatch, the plastic box dice come in is the right size for a mini to fit under while supporting one on top. It wouldn't work so well for stacks of more than two characters, but in my 16 years of gaming, I've never seen that happen. – valadil Mar 31 '11 at 16:05
up vote 2 down vote

How about a lab stand? You can get them surplus for not much money (in context of gaming and gaming accessories).

Some clamps and screens would allow you to create multiple vertical planes to put minis on. A ruler and a sharpie would let you put a grid on those screens...

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up vote 2 down vote

Another suggestion would be to keep a stack of 10x1 sheets that are laminated. These could be used to represent a column of space in a given square. You can denote with the miniature where on the board the character is, but then use a counter to denote where in space the character is on the 10x1 square (you could even fill in starting height at the bottom of the card for distances over 50').

The only thing that this method does not address is dual occupancy, although in the even of dual occupancy I would denote where on the battle map the character is and place the character onto the 10x1 strip.

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