D&D Miniature Base Sizes: Creature Size to Base Size

Last updated: August 10, 2026. Creature sizes verified against the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2). The size and space rules are unchanged from 2014 5e, so this chart applies to both.

A Medium creature in Dungeons & Dragons occupies a 5-by-5-foot space — one square on a standard battle map. At the usual 1 inch to 5 feet scale, that square is 1 inch across, which is 25.4mm exactly. That single conversion is the whole puzzle, and it is why you will see both 25mm and 1-inch bases sold for the same job.

Quick Reference: Creature Size to Base Size

The Space and Squares columns are the rules. The Base columns are the hobby convention that follows from them at 1 inch to 5 feet.

Creature Size	Space (feet)	Grid Squares	Base (imperial)	Base (metric)	Shop at LITKO
Tiny	2½ by 2½ feet	4 per square	0.5 inch	15mm – 20mm	0.5-inch rounds
Small	5 by 5 feet	1 square	1 inch (or 0.75 inch)	25mm	1-inch · 0.75-inch
Medium	5 by 5 feet	1 square	1 inch	25mm	1-inch · 25mm
Large	10 by 10 feet	4 squares (2 by 2)	2 inch	50mm	2-inch · 50mm
Huge	15 by 15 feet	9 squares (3 by 3)	3 inch	—	3-inch rounds
Gargantuan	20 by 20 feet	16 squares (4 by 4)	4 inch	—	4-inch rounds

What the Rules Actually Say (and Don't)

Search for "official D&D base sizes" and you will find a lot of confident answers. Most of them are wrong in the same way: they present a hobby convention as a rule.

The rules define a creature's space — described as the area it effectively controls in combat and the area it needs to fight effectively. A Medium creature's space is 5 by 5 feet. On a grid, each square represents 5 feet. That is as far as the rulebook goes. There is no passage anywhere in the rules specifying a base diameter in millimetres or inches, because the game does not require miniatures at all — grid play with miniatures or tokens is explicitly optional.

This matters practically. It means:

• A base that is slightly under its square is fine. Nobody measures.
• A base that overhangs its square is the only real problem, because it starts to interfere with adjacent squares and other models.
• You cannot be "illegal" at a table for base size the way you can in a tournament wargame. Your DM's table conventions are the only authority.

So treat the chart above as a fitting guide, not a rules citation. If you want to check the primary source yourself, the size and space table is on page 13 of the System Reference Document 5.2.

25mm or 1 Inch? The 25.4mm Question

One inch is 25.4 millimetres. A 25mm base is therefore 0.4mm smaller than the square it sits in — about the thickness of a business card, across the whole diameter.

That difference does not matter in play, and this is the source of most of the confusion online. Both conventions are in wide use for the same creature:

Nominal size	Exact	Difference from the 1-inch square	Where you see it
1 inch	25.4mm	Exact fit	Battle maps, US-made accessories, most RPG lines
25mm	25.0mm	0.4mm under	The wargaming standard; most European miniature lines
0.75 inch	19.05mm	6.35mm under	Slimmer footprint for Small creatures and crowded encounters

The same logic scales up: 2 inches is 50.8mm against a 50mm base (0.8mm under), 3 inches is 76.2mm, and 4 inches is 101.6mm. In every case the metric base is fractionally smaller than the imperial square, which is the harmless direction to be wrong in — it never overhangs.

Practical rule: if your existing collection is on 25mm and 50mm bases, stay metric and stay consistent. If you are starting fresh and playing on a printed 1-inch grid, imperial bases line up perfectly. Mixing the two within one army looks slightly uneven at the 2-inch size and is invisible at 1 inch.

Why Small and Medium Are the Same Size

A halfling and a goliath occupy exactly the same space: 5 by 5 feet, one square. Small and Medium are different size categories with an identical footprint. This surprises people, and it is worth being precise about, because a lot of published charts get it wrong.

Size category affects other things — what you can grapple, what you can be swallowed by, whether certain effects apply to you. It does not affect the space you occupy on the grid.

So when you see a 0.75-inch base described as "the Small base," that is a miniature-scale convention, not a grid footprint. It exists because a halfling model looks better on a slightly smaller disc, and because a tighter base helps in crowded corridor fights. Both 0.75-inch and 1-inch are correct for a Small creature. Choose on aesthetics, not on rules.

Round or Square on a Square Grid

D&D publishes a square grid, and most official maps are squares. Yet nearly every miniature you can buy — including the official prepainted lines — comes on a round base. That mismatch is deliberate and harmless.

A round base of diameter d fits inside a square of side d with room to spare at the corners. It never overhangs, it rotates without changing footprint, and it reads more naturally for a single creature. Squares are the wargaming convention for ranked formations, which D&D does not use.

Use square bases if you want them — they are equally legal and some players prefer the way they tile on a grid map. LITKO stocks both across the range. Round is the default for RPG play and it is what the Round RPG Figure Bases set is built around.

Flying Creatures and Flight Stands

A flying creature still occupies its normal space — a Huge dragon in the air is still 3 by 3 squares. What changes is that you need to show altitude, and a flight stand does that without changing the footprint.

The LITKO RPG Flight Stands come in the same footprints as the ground bases — 3/4-inch, 1-inch, 2-inch, 3-inch and 4-inch — so a flying Large creature sits on the same 2-inch circle it would occupy on the ground. Pick the stand that matches the creature's size row in the chart above.

Paper Minis, Standees and Slot Bases

Paper miniatures are the fastest way to field a monster you do not own, and they need the same footprints as everything else. There are two different products here and they are easy to confuse.

Paper figure stands are a base with a separate slotted upright that holds a printed figure. These follow the imperial creature grid exactly — 1-inch for Medium, 2-inch for Large, 3-inch for Huge and 4-inch for Gargantuan — and the larger sizes come in both round and square. There is also a taller 1 by 1.5-inch stand for figures that need more height on a Medium footprint.

Slot bases cut the slot directly into the base itself, so there is no separate upright to assemble. These are metric only — 20mm, 25mm, 30mm, 40mm and 50mm rounds plus square and rectangular options, in black or clear 3mm acrylic. They cover Tiny through Large. If you need a Huge or Gargantuan paper figure, use a stand rather than a slot base.

Browse both in Role Playing Game Upgrades.

Choosing a Base Material

Every LITKO base is laser-cut to the exact dimension, so material is a question of look and weight rather than accuracy.

Material	Best for	Notes
Black acrylic (3mm)	The default for RPG play	Clean edge, no painting needed, reads as "shadow" on a map. What the Round RPG Figure Bases set uses.
Clear acrylic	Flying creatures, illusions, map art showing through	Available 0.75-inch through 3-inch. Not available in 0.5-inch or 4-inch.
Plywood	Basing and texturing	Takes glue, flock and paint better than acrylic. Available across the full range including 4-inch.
MDF (offcut)	Budget bulk basing	Currently offered as 1-inch round offcut bases. Paint or seal before use.
Magnetic and steel bottoms	Transport and storage	An adhesive bottom half that pairs with a ferrous vinyl sheet in your case. Available in every base shape and size from 15mm up.

Sizes We Don't Stock: 75mm and Custom

One gap is worth stating plainly. LITKO does not stock a 75mm round base. The Huge footprint is 3 squares, so the stock answer for a Huge creature is the 3-inch base (76.2mm) — and for a model you are basing yourself, that is the right choice.

Where it matters is rebasing a prepainted miniature that already came on a 75mm disc. Manufacturers vary, and some Huge figures are supplied on a base closer to 75mm than to 3 inches. A 3-inch base will read as very slightly larger. If you want an exact match, LITKO BaseMaker cuts any diameter to order, with a 10-piece minimum — that is the route for a true 75mm, and for any oval, hex or irregular shape the standard range does not cover.

The same applies at the top end: 6-inch bases exist for creatures larger than Gargantuan or for scenic display, but they are outside the size chart the rules define.

Pathfinder 2e: What Differs

Pathfinder 2e uses the same six size categories and the same 5-foot square, so the chart above works for both games from Small upward. Two rows differ in wording:

• Tiny is "less than 5 feet" in Pathfinder rather than a fixed 2½ feet, with at least four fitting in a square. The 0.5-inch base serves both.
• Gargantuan is "20 feet or more" in Pathfinder, so genuinely enormous creatures can exceed the 4-by-4 footprint. D&D's 2024 rules give a flat 20 by 20 feet.

Neither game has a Colossal category. Colossal existed in D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1st Edition, and you will still see it on older charts and in some product listings — but both current rulesets stop at Gargantuan. If you are converting a 3.5e or PF1e monster, a 6-inch base is the usual stand-in.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size base does a Medium creature use in D&D?

A Medium creature occupies a 5 by 5 foot space, which is one square on a standard battle map. At the usual scale of 1 inch to 5 feet, that means a 1-inch base, or 25mm if you are working in metric. Both are correct and the 0.4mm difference between them has no effect in play.

Is 25mm or 1 inch the correct D&D base size?

Both are correct. One inch is exactly 25.4mm, so a 25mm base sits 0.4mm inside a 1-inch grid square. That is roughly the thickness of a business card and it never causes a problem, because the base is smaller than the square rather than overhanging it. Choose whichever matches the rest of your collection and stay consistent.

Do the D&D rules specify base sizes?

No. The rules define the space a creature occupies on the grid, never the diameter of the base underneath the model. Grid play with miniatures is itself optional in the 2024 rules. Any base that fits within the creature's space is legal, and base size is a table convention rather than something you can be ruled against.

What base size is a Huge creature?

A Huge creature occupies a 15 by 15 foot space, which is 9 squares in a 3 by 3 block. That works out to a 3-inch base, or 76.2mm. LITKO does not stock a 75mm round, so if you are rebasing a prepainted figure that came on 75mm and want an exact match, BaseMaker will cut one to order with a 10-piece minimum.

Why are Small and Medium creatures the same base size?

Because they occupy the same space. Both Small and Medium creatures take up 5 by 5 feet, or one square. Size category matters for other rules such as grappling, but it does not change the grid footprint. A 0.75-inch base is often sold as the Small option, but that is a miniature-scale convention for how the model looks, not a rules requirement.

Did creature sizes change in the 2024 D&D rules?

No. The size and space table is the same in the 2024 rules as it was in 2014, with one wording trim: the 2014 text described Gargantuan as 20 by 20 feet or larger, and the 2024 text gives a flat 20 by 20 feet. Every other row is identical, so a base chart built for 5e still applies.

Should I use round or square bases for D&D?

Round is the default and it is what nearly every miniature ships on. A round base of a given diameter always fits inside the matching square with room at the corners, so it never overhangs, and it rotates without changing its footprint. Square bases are equally legal and some players prefer how they tile on a grid map. LITKO stocks both.

What base do flying creatures use?

The same footprint as they use on the ground. A flying creature still occupies its normal space, so a flying Large creature is still 2 by 2 squares. A flight stand shows altitude without changing that footprint. LITKO RPG Flight Stands come in 3/4-inch, 1-inch, 2-inch, 3-inch and 4-inch to match the creature size chart, and are assembled with glue.

Where to Go Next

• LITKO Round RPG Figure Bases — the full 0.75-inch to 6-inch range in one listing
• Role Playing Game Upgrades — flight stands, paper figure stands, dungeon markers and more
• Miniature Base Sizes Guide — base sizes across every game system we cover
• How to Base Miniatures — texturing, flock and finishing
• Magnets for Miniatures — magnetising bases for transport
• LITKO BaseMaker — any size or shape, cut to order