Minions and Temporary HPs

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sheibeck

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #31

From the official excerpt at www.dndinsider.com

"A minion is destroyed when it takes any amount of damage. Damage from an attack or from a source that doesn’t require an attack roll (such as the paladin’s divine challenge or the fighter’s cleave) also destroys a minion. However, if a minion is missed by an attack that normally deals damage on a miss, it takes no damage."

Regardless of how many hitpoints or temporary hitpoints or any other kind of hitpoints, Damage from an attack or from a srouce that doesn't require an attack roll destroys the minion. THey could have 100 hitpoints and they still get destroyed since the rule never states anything about hit points at all, only that they are destroyed.

 

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Mercule

Adventurer

• May 20, 2008

• #32

Well, we seem to have a couple of conflicting official positions -- or maybe not, I'm inclined to take the word of the WotC staffer who has actually seen/played 4e.

Still, the best I'm inclined to grant a minion is a "bloodied" marker. First hit = bloodied. Second hit = good bye. I'm either buying into the minion rules or I'm not. If I am, I ain't ever writing down hit points for a minion.

 

Mort_Q

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #33

sheibeck said:

Regardless of how many hitpoints or temporary hitpoints or any other kind of hitpoints, Damage from an attack or from a srouce that doesn't require an attack roll destroys the minion. THey could have 100 hitpoints and they still get destroyed since the rule never states anything about hit points at all, only that they are destroyed.

Click to expand...

I suspect the excerpt is over simplified to describe the purpose of minions.

'Cause Khur here is a designer, and disagrees.

Khur said:

Fantastic question! Minions interact normally with temporary hp rules (that's one reason why they have 1 hp). So, yes, the wyrmpriest makes the minions a little bit badder.

Click to expand...

 

S

Stalker0

Legend

• May 20, 2008

• #34

From what little we know about temp hitpoints and minions, it does seem the temp hitpoints would work with a minion.

That said, I think that negates the "convenience" of the minion idea, which is no tracking of hitpoints, simply 1 shot = 1 kill.

With that in mind, I would rule that the wyrmpriest's aura provides +1 to defenses for the minions. That simulates the increased endurance given by the aura, without causing needless extra work.

 

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RigaMortus2

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #35

I know this is treading on house rule territory, but what about instead of tracking hit points, you just track hits for minions. So a regualr minion is 1 hit to kill, if they get some how buffed up by temp hit points, make it so they need 2 hits to kill.

I was actually thinking about something like this for the higher tier minions. A level 20 minion might need 2 or 3 hits to kill, which is bookkeeping, but not a lot. It's a heck of a lot less than keeping track of every single 1 point of hit point damage.

Anyway, just a thought

 

77IM

Explorer!!!

Supporter

• May 20, 2008

• #36

Consider a minion with Resist Fire 5. What happens when he gets hit with 5 points of fire damage? I imagine he would be fine (not destroyed) since, even though the damaging attack hit, the actual damage gets sucked up by the resistance.

I would apply the same logic to temporary hit points.

-- 77IM

 

malraux

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #37

RigaMortus2 said:

I know this is treading on house rule territory, but what about instead of tracking hit points, you just track hits for minions. So a regualr minion is 1 hit to kill, if they get some how buffed up by temp hit points, make it so they need 2 hits to kill.

Click to expand...

I was just going to suggest the same thing. Rather than worry it, the point of the temp hp buffer is that it makes the surrounding creatures a bit tougher. The only way to simulate that with a minion is a 2 hit minion. It also helps keep the players on their toes some, as it makes it harder to figure out what's a minion or not.

 

MindWanderer

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #38

It makes for a significant boost in minion power, though. If the ranger deals 20 points of damage to a 1+5 HP minion, letting it stay alive is pretty potent.

Optional variant: if a minion takes damage equal to its HP total, it dies. If it takes damage less than its HP total, it loses all temporary HP.

 

J

Jhaelen

First Post

• May 20, 2008

• #39

I have to admit, I'm a little bit surprised that minions can be buffed with temporary hitpoints. That doesn't seem to mesh well with the rest of the minion rules. I think I'd rather modify the wyrmpriest's ability in some way. I DON'T want to keep track of minion hitpoints!

 

Last edited: May 21, 2008

malraux

First Post

• May 21, 2008

• #40

MindWanderer said:

It makes for a significant boost in minion power, though. If the ranger deals 20 points of damage to a 1+5 HP minion, letting it stay alive is pretty potent.

Optional variant: if a minion takes damage equal to its HP total, it dies. If it takes damage less than its HP total, it loses all temporary HP.

Click to expand...

That sounds ok, depending on what the damage totals look like. My concern with it is that if the damage output of a single hit is more than 5, its not like the temp hp really help, which takes away power from the leader. IE not doing it makes leader + minions relatively weak.