Zone on fire kills minions?

[Bumbles]

Sorry to jack the thread but does the same idea apply to falling damage? I assumed it did for an earlier session

It would depend on the minion. Evil flying monkey minions...no. Evil monkey ninjas...no. Robot monkey minions...yes. They just don't fall well.

 

[LuckyAdrastus]

So long as the giant minions are forced to move (or tricked in some way) through areas of campfires or caltrops.

BTW, have caltrops been stated out for 4e? And campfires?

And Nail hits it on the head. (Sorry, too easy?)

Minions have 1 hp because that makes sense during fights with PCs of similar levels. Outside of combat with PCs they can have as many hp or whatever as the DM wants (assuming what they are doing outside of combat matters to the game session).

 

[Regicide]

Minions have 1 hp because that makes sense during fights with PCs of similar levels.

Minions have 1 HP because high level characters make high level camp fires.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I also kind of like to think of the 1 hp a minion has as morale as much as toughness. Their hearts just aren't in the fight as much as real monsters. One good hit and they play dead, get knocked out, or go running off into the night and not alerting allies. As anything with hps, its an abstraction.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Minions have 1 HP because high level characters make high level camp fires.

And carry enormous caltrops.

Mind you, even in 3e, plenty of peasants would be killed from stepping on caltrops.

 

[Tipop]

Mind you, even in 3e, plenty of peasants would be killed from stepping on caltrops.

Even in real life, people could be killed by stepping on caltrops. (The pain from the first one causes the person to fall onto others, possibly face-first.)

Even if they aren't killed, stepping on a caltrop is almost certainly going to be a debilitating wound (those things could be as much as 6" high!) A minion with a debilitating wound is effectively removed from the combat, same as killing them.

 

[mikebr99]

Thanks all.

Mike

 

[James McMurray]

And carry enormous caltrops.

Artificers can make a swarm of living caltrops at 27th level.

Other than that, the kobold mentioned above, and the Wicked Fang Keeper from Dungeon magazine, there are no caltrops in the compendium.

Caltrops (Minor, encounter)
The gnoll keeper can designate a 1-square burst area within 5 squares; that area is filled with caltrops. Until the end of the encounter, any creature that enters a square filled with caltrops without treating it as difficult terrain takes 1d6 + 4 damage.

 

[Nail]

I also kind of like to think of the 1 hp a minion has as morale as much as toughness. Their hearts just aren't in the fight as much as real monsters. One good hit and they play dead, get knocked out, or go running off into the night and not alerting allies. As anything with hps, its an abstraction.

That's my interpretation too, especially the part about "not alerting allies". ....Although at low heroic levels, minions just die, rather than go running off.