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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7137338" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Not very much, no. There are a few spells that conjure up basically minions, but its not exactly a theme. Certainly seems workable. Make them mostly Encounter powers, so every fight the character drops his minions onto the board, usually early on, and then uses his other powers to do 'stuff' with them. </p><p></p><p>Lets see....</p><p></p><p></p><p>You could have minion popping that grants benefits to allies, or damages enemies.</p><p></p><p>You could have minion fortifying that makes them actually tough.</p><p></p><p>Attacks made via minions.</p><p></p><p>Minion sacrifice for defensive benefits.</p><p></p><p>Obvious utility uses of minions.</p><p></p><p>It certainly seems like a rich vein of viable mechanical concepts. I have a bit harder time with the story/flavor aspects. I mean, what are these minions? They almost MUST be supernatural, since they logically need to be able to pop up pretty much anywhere regardless of circumstances. </p><p></p><p>Beyond that, I start to see this sort of mechanical construction as "powers that replace story". I feel like getting a bunch of NPCs to serve you and be your 'minions' (in the non-game-technical sense of the word) is a job for role-play and just turning it into the exercise of a few powers seems like not the ideal way to go.</p><p></p><p>I like the idea of 'companions' mechanically. Its more of a level of some mechanics to support what you actually wanted to do. So the Beast Master ranger is cool, he wants to have an animal sidekick and now its afforded a mechanical basis. If it dies the character can get another one, but its somewhat non-trivial and works by a story type of mechanism. The Fey Beast Tamer is pretty much in the same boat, though the "your beast vanishes into the Feywild and you have to summon it back" is a BIT gamist it still basically works.</p><p></p><p>Now, I think there's definitely room for a class that is flavored to work with minion summoning. I'm not sure its a Warlord though. Some variation of a Shaman or Warlock really comes to mind, though several other possibilities are pretty easy to come up with. They all share the same central concept though, the minions are some form of spirit, magical creature, etc. </p><p></p><p>Finally, for a specific sort of NPC this could work fine. An NPC 'warlord' who is literally a warlord, a guy with 100's of faceless soldier minions that he can bring into play whenever needed works fine as long as the NPC is in his context where logically these minions are around. OTOH there's little reason to go to those lengths with an NPC, you can simply build encounters so that minions show up when called for. So its not like its a really deep tool there. </p><p></p><p>Still, the mechanical viability of the whole concept is high, so it does beg for some sort of use!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7137338, member: 82106"] Not very much, no. There are a few spells that conjure up basically minions, but its not exactly a theme. Certainly seems workable. Make them mostly Encounter powers, so every fight the character drops his minions onto the board, usually early on, and then uses his other powers to do 'stuff' with them. Lets see.... You could have minion popping that grants benefits to allies, or damages enemies. You could have minion fortifying that makes them actually tough. Attacks made via minions. Minion sacrifice for defensive benefits. Obvious utility uses of minions. It certainly seems like a rich vein of viable mechanical concepts. I have a bit harder time with the story/flavor aspects. I mean, what are these minions? They almost MUST be supernatural, since they logically need to be able to pop up pretty much anywhere regardless of circumstances. Beyond that, I start to see this sort of mechanical construction as "powers that replace story". I feel like getting a bunch of NPCs to serve you and be your 'minions' (in the non-game-technical sense of the word) is a job for role-play and just turning it into the exercise of a few powers seems like not the ideal way to go. I like the idea of 'companions' mechanically. Its more of a level of some mechanics to support what you actually wanted to do. So the Beast Master ranger is cool, he wants to have an animal sidekick and now its afforded a mechanical basis. If it dies the character can get another one, but its somewhat non-trivial and works by a story type of mechanism. The Fey Beast Tamer is pretty much in the same boat, though the "your beast vanishes into the Feywild and you have to summon it back" is a BIT gamist it still basically works. Now, I think there's definitely room for a class that is flavored to work with minion summoning. I'm not sure its a Warlord though. Some variation of a Shaman or Warlock really comes to mind, though several other possibilities are pretty easy to come up with. They all share the same central concept though, the minions are some form of spirit, magical creature, etc. Finally, for a specific sort of NPC this could work fine. An NPC 'warlord' who is literally a warlord, a guy with 100's of faceless soldier minions that he can bring into play whenever needed works fine as long as the NPC is in his context where logically these minions are around. OTOH there's little reason to go to those lengths with an NPC, you can simply build encounters so that minions show up when called for. So its not like its a really deep tool there. Still, the mechanical viability of the whole concept is high, so it does beg for some sort of use! [/QUOTE]
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