How many hits can a mook take?

GMMichael

Guide of Modos

• Sep 17, 2020

• #1

When I want a skirmish to go quickly, I skip the combat rules and just use a simple conflict - a few rolls from each player to decide what happens. The PCs usually win this because the opponents are mooks and the PCs have better things to do.

Skipping combat rules means skipping damage rules, for the most part. So how many successful attacks/actions does a PC need to make to drop/defeat a mook? "Just one" could mean the skirmish feels like swatting flies, and "until the opponent runs out of hit points" means the combat rules are back in effect.

 

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ninjayeti

Hero

• Sep 17, 2020

• #2

How many hits must an NPC take before we call him a mook? The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

 

hawkeyefan

Legend

• Sep 17, 2020

• #3

I think it depends largely on the game system being used.

If you wanted to take a more traditional system like D&D which has HP and AC and so on, and then abstract it even further to kind of fit your example above where you want combat resolved quickly, then I think using something akin to the Minion rules from 4E likely makes sense. You can kind of keep most of the combat rules in place, or as many as you like, but the foes are dispatched with one hit.

But in a game that doesn't really use HP or similar mechanics, this may not be necessary. In Blades in the Dark, this is all part of the core mechanic. Typical foes are defeated with one successful roll on the part of a player. If the player instead gets only a partial success, then perhaps an enemy may linger and only be wounded or similar. It kind of depends on the fiction and what the GM thinks would be best. But if a PC says "I'm going to stab this ornery guard in his neck for him" and then makes a Skirmish roll and gets a full success......then very likely that guard just got stabbed in the neck, and is either dead, or likely rapidly bleeding out. The position and effect set by the GM can influence this, but assuming a normal level of risk, then it plays out as above.

So I really think it depends on the system and how much of a departure what you're describing is from that system.

 

ccs

41st lv DM

• Sep 17, 2020

• #4

In my games it would depend upon how many HD the creature has.
So a 4hd mook could take 4 hits.
Crits = 2 hits.

 

Blackrat

He Who Lurks Beyond The Veil

• Sep 17, 2020

• #5

Minion = 1 hit.
Elite = 3 hits.
Big Ones = 5 hits.
Bosses use normal combat rules

If a pc is a ”heavy hitter” they do two hits worth of damage, and crits double.

This has been my ”quicker combat” formula since 3e

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2020

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing

• Sep 17, 2020

• #6

@ccs does it the same way I do it.

 

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)

• Sep 17, 2020

• #7

DMMike said:

When I want a skirmish to go quickly, I skip the combat rules and just use a simple conflict - a few rolls from each player to decide what happens. The PCs usually win this because the opponents are mooks and the PCs have better things to do.

Skipping combat rules means skipping damage rules, for the most part. So how many successful attacks/actions does a PC need to make to drop/defeat a mook? "Just one" could mean the skirmish feels like swatting flies, and "until the opponent runs out of hit points" means the combat rules are back in effect.

Click to expand...

If you want to make it somewhat variable - could be 1 hit, could be more - maybe look at something like first edition Fung Shui where mooks went down if you hit them sufficiently well (I think 5 over the target number) or Mutants and Masterminds where mooks go down if they fail a damage save at any level.

 

Fenris-77

Small God of the Dozens

Supporter

• Sep 17, 2020

• #8

One, maybe two. Usually one, but in the case of especially weak characters where it's appropriate I might go to two.

 

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

• Sep 17, 2020

• #9

Back in 4e, minions were generally one hit, maybe two if you're unlucky. They were fun for padding combat, but it was both frustrating and amusing to see people waste their dailies and encounters on them, before they knew that they were minions.

 

Doug McCrae

Legend

• Sep 17, 2020

• #10

In the British superhero rpg Golden Heroes (Games Workshop version 1984), mooks are knocked out if they are hit once by any type of super or highly skilled attack, or stunned if struck by a non-super/skilled attack. This rule only applies when mooks accompany a supervillain, otherwise they have normal 'hit points'.