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<blockquote data-quote="Cernor" data-source="post: 6534556" data-attributes="member: 6780066">Instead of making 1HP minions and throwing lots of them at the party, why not make a &quot;Swarm of [minion]&quot;? Say you have a group of 30 kobolds; instead of keeping track of all 30, it could be a Gargantuan swarm of Small creatures, that has a CR of 7 (30 kobolds times 25XP each times the mob multiplier of 4 makes 3000 XP, round down to 2900). Using the rules in the DMG, we can build that REALLY easily!So it would have AC 12, 150 HP (sum of the kobolds' HP), and resistance to bludgeoning/slashing/piercing (for being a swarm), giving us a defensive CR of 9. An offensive CR of 5 makes up the difference, so if we make its attacks +7 to hit and two attacks for 19 (6d4+4) damage (11 [3d4+4] when below half HP), we're perfectly in the CR 7 range.And why did I show off my epic (okay, not really) monster-building skills? Because building &quot;minions&quot; in this way has a few benefits over the 4e style. First, it speeds up play. Instead of having 30 enemies to keep track of initiative, HP, positioning, etc. you have 1. And who'd rather track 30 enemies than 1? Secondly, you balance the XP of the group of enemies vs the threat they pose: in some cases not having given XP the same as effective XP makes sense, but not when using large (&gt;20 members) groups. Third, it provides better internal consistency: it makes almost no sense that an enemy powerful enough to deal the same amount of damage as a dragon would only have 1 HP.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cernor, post: 6534556, member: 6780066"] Instead of making 1HP minions and throwing lots of them at the party, why not make a "Swarm of [minion]"? Say you have a group of 30 kobolds; instead of keeping track of all 30, it could be a Gargantuan swarm of Small creatures, that has a CR of 7 (30 kobolds times 25XP each times the mob multiplier of 4 makes 3000 XP, round down to 2900). Using the rules in the DMG, we can build that REALLY easily! So it would have AC 12, 150 HP (sum of the kobolds' HP), and resistance to bludgeoning/slashing/piercing (for being a swarm), giving us a defensive CR of 9. An offensive CR of 5 makes up the difference, so if we make its attacks +7 to hit and two attacks for 19 (6d4+4) damage (11 [3d4+4] when below half HP), we're perfectly in the CR 7 range. And why did I show off my epic (okay, not really) monster-building skills? Because building "minions" in this way has a few benefits over the 4e style. First, it speeds up play. Instead of having 30 enemies to keep track of initiative, HP, positioning, etc. you have 1. And who'd rather track 30 enemies than 1? Secondly, you balance the XP of the group of enemies vs the threat they pose: in some cases not having given XP the same as effective XP makes sense, but not when using large (>20 members) groups. Third, it provides better internal consistency: it makes almost no sense that an enemy powerful enough to deal the same amount of damage as a dragon would only have 1 HP. [/QUOTE]

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