At what point do players know they're fighting Minions?

[Klaus]

At what point do players know they're fighting Minions?

Is it after they've attacked and taken one down (1 hp)? Do they then know which other minions are on the field?

In my games usually the first one drops and then everyone knows which ones are minions. Is there any official ruling on this?

It has been suggested in a Dragon article devoted to Game Transparency that the DM describes minions as wielding subpar equipment, hesitating and overall being less self-assured than non-minion enemy.

 

[Iron Sky]

In our games, generally people can figure out which are minions just based on numbers. I.E. "This is the dragonborn mage you guys have been chasing and the two lizardmen next to him look like bodyguards of some type in platemail with long spears. And these ten are kobolds."

If we're not totally sure, then usually someone drops an AoE as the minion litmus test. I don't think anyone's wasted a single-target daily on a minion, though people have used up single-target encounter powers once-in-a-while on what they though was a regular monster and turned out to be a minion.

 

[Flipguarder]

In my head, saying "these are minions, these aren't" takes a huge amount of strategy out of the combat.

 

[Nifft]

Players know they're dealing with minions when:
- They notice more than 6 critters of the same type on the board.
- They hit, or are hit by, one of the minion critters.
- The enemy Leader shouts out, "GET THEM, MY MINIONS!"

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nytmare]

In general, my players are able to easily discern who is and who isn't a minion. But, I can also easily imagine a half dozen scenarios where figuring out who is and who isn't a minion is a big part of the encounter.

 

[Obryn]

IME, it's pretty obvious when there's a few big guys and eight identical monsters without numbers.

I change minions up on my players, though. I use twice as many, or else give them a "bloodied" condition.

-O

 

[KarinsDad]

In my head, saying "these are minions, these aren't" takes a huge amount of strategy out of the combat.

Agreed.

My take on it is, if you are going to tell the players everything important about their foes, you might as well just tell them which powers to use and where to move, and a bunch of other lamo spoon feeding suggestions every round as well.

I have no issue with a player using a Daily on a minion or minions. Players are generally smart enough to save Dailies for foes that really require them and part of that is watching the foes for a round or two to see which foes are tough and/or threatening enough to warrant a Daily.

Using this DMing strategy, I have never seen a player use a Daily versus a minion outside of an area Daily like Flaming Sphere which is also used against the BBEG as well. I consider this an unfounded concern (and it's not much of a concern for Encounter powers either). Sure, it might happen once in a while, but that's part of the fun of the game. For example, my home group would have a blast for months good naturedly ragging on the player of the Fighter if she used Lasting Threat on a minion. When it comes to combat, some of the most memorable parts of the game are when a player either succeeds spectacularly or fails spectacularly.

 

[Artoomis]

In our game, it's usually obvious - when the DM pulls out 5 or 10 figures that are identical, well, you can safely bet they are minions.

Knowing they are minions helps with strategy.

 

[Nytmare]

You guys are both wrong.

It's not binary, knowing whether things are minions are not changes strategies.

 

[Infiniti2000]

My take on it is, if you are going to tell the players everything important about their foes, you might as well just tell them which powers to use and where to move, and a bunch of other lamo spoon feeding suggestions every round as well.

As a counterpoint, if you don't tell them anything important about their foes, you might as well not even tell them what they face, how many there are, or where they are. Just roll damage dice every once in a while and then after a while announce that the heroes win, or have some other pre-canned lamo result.

I mean, as long as we're using reductio ad ridiculum...

KD, please point out where someone actually recommended we spoon feed players.