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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Puggins" data-source="post: 5007749" data-attributes="member: 12386">I absolutely LOVE the concept of a minion, and I think the implementation is great on paper.  But in practice, minions sorta fall flat in terms of player excitement.    (1) Minions seem too weak for their xp.  Four minions don't come close to matching a standard creature of that level.    (2) Making the damage roll meaningless takes away some of the fun of combat for a lot of players.    (3) Ignoring miss effects is a novel mechanic, but in practice it leads to some loss of verisimilitude.  Not all that much, mind you, but a minion can- in theory- take more damage than a standard creature under very rare circumstances.My aim in creating a new monster class (is that the right word?) is to correct these problems and keep all of the neat advantages of minions.  Specifically, I want them to require little to no paperwork or DM reference, allowing him to run 12+ minions without heinously slowing down the combat.And so, I present the underling:Build an underling using minions as templates.  Keep all statistics identical with the following exception:Hit Points: Con + Level/2 (Any damage inflicted automatically bloodies an underling or kills an underling that is already bloodied)That's it!(1) A minimum of bookkeeping is added.  Now you just need to mark underlings that have been bloodied.  No need to remember damage taken.(2) The damage roll when hitting a minion matters now.  An above-average hit by a striker or a lucky shot by one of the other character roles will kill an underling.(3) Miss effects now matter.  It takes two of them to down an underling, but no more than two- an underling will never take more damage than a standard monster under any circumstance.(4) Despite (3), underlings are a step up in power compared to minions, and are worth the xp assigned to them.  Four underlings will be easier than a standard monster under some circumstances and tougher than one in others.I'd love some feedback on this.  I'm considering modifying them so they're worth one third the xp of a normal monster, but otherwise I think they function admirably as cannon fodder that feels more "meaty" than minions.  I think this makes controllers or characters with area attacks slightly more valuable, but I consider that a minor benefit.  The improvement in feelings of accomplishment for characters would be the main goal here.</blockquote>

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