On the flip-side, you appear to miss the point of why people want to unminionize to begin with.
I find both the '1 hit = kill' and the '1 hit = bloodied, 2 = kill' minions unsatisfying.
I don't think I'm misunderstanding, or missing the point. Those that are complaining about minions want something else. I understand that perfectly.
Even if I want something else, that does not invalidate that the
intended design purpose of minions was:
1) to have creatures that remain a challenge at all levels
2) where you can have multitudes of them
3) and not require extensive tracking - are fast to use (run)
There is a
design reason minions don't have powers with options like "Until End of Next Turn", or "Recharge 4", etc. They are meant to be easily trackable and fast. Giving these types of "options" to minions defeats the purpose of being easily trackable and fast.
I'm not misunderstanding. I understand the design expectations of minions. I also understand the desires of those that want something different. But that something different is NOT a minion.
They don't gel with the other creatures in combat precisely because they use a different mechanic from everyone else. Switching them back to a low hit point value resolves that, and DMs like myself don't mind tracking HP for multiple targets.
Correct, but just because you don't mind tracking HP, doesn't mean that tracking HP is still considered overhead work. And overhead work is the type of work that minions are supposed to eliminate if you use them.
I'm not saying that you're wrong in wanting different creatures, what I'm saying is that the type of creature you want, "in the creature design space", is not meant to be a minion. The design expectation is that a minion will "require" no additional overhead work. Even if you don't mind the additional work
Minions may make life easy for the DM, but they do so at the cost of player fun. As a player, I haven't once experience any combat where fighting minions was actually satisfying in any way. Killing creatures in one hit because you rolled well is satisfying. Killing creatures in one hit because that's what they're designed to do is not satisfying. Rolling high damage, and even critical damage should mean something; even against minions.
IME, this is mostly a matter of preference, but more importantly one of in game description.
When I would simply remove minions off the board as characters hit them, the result was unsatisfying. If I mentioned, "these here, they're minions". That was also unsatisfying, and I can agree that as a player I can see that as being unsatisfying.
Instead of changing the design purpose of minions I changed the "excitement of my description."
When the characters waded into combat against the hundreds of undisciplined, and unclean goblins of Moria, led by Grishnak the goblin champion, and Urgrok the cave troll, the stakes were different. Each goblin was a "living" challenge to the characters. They were not simply a "keyword" - minion.
I didn't change the design purpose of minions, I worked with the expected design to create an exciting game world description. I changed my in game description of what was happening. Instead of just having a metagame construct I made it exciting. I didn't leave it to the rules and the metagame construct of minions to provide the excitement.
YMMV, and that is fine. My point originally was to mention that if someone wants to change the design parameters of something they should be aware of the reason those design parameters existed in the first place.
If I got an off-road bicycle that had rugged tires, strong and heavy wheels, a heavy-sturdy frame and comfortable seat, I would want to know what the design specifications and intended purpose of these design parameters was before I changed them. The design of an off-road bike is different than for a Tour-de-France racing bike for a reason. The purpose for their design is different.
A minion, a standard, an elite and a solo monster each have different design parameters exactly because their design purpose is different.
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