Have minions been reverse-engineered?

[drquestion]

I wouldn't try to "minionize" non-minion monsters. Too many special abilities to take into account, specials which would take up too much time on minions. If I wanted to make a minion monster, I'd just use the DMG guidelines for monster design and stat it up from scratch.

In most cases, I think it works fine if the base monster is already relatively simple. Just follow Mengu's formula (1 hp, min damage, dump encounters or recharges unless they're really important to the theme), and you'll end up with a pretty reasonable minion.

As far as reverse-engineering goes, looking at the Goblin Cutter, he's pretty much just a "minionized" version of the Goblin Blackblade. His defenses are the same, his attack bonus is the same. He's got an extra +1 over the minimum damage (maybe to make up for the fact that he only gets 1 extra point from combat advantage, or for loosing "sneaky")

He looses Sneaky, but keeps Goblin Tactics (which all Goblins get). He's at -5 to both skills, because he's untrained - he's just got a base +3 dex, and the +2 Goblin racial.

You could arrive at pretty much the same point at making the Goblin as a pseudo-NPC (this is probably how they got the Blackblade), and then minionizing him.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

As far as reverse-engineering goes, looking at the Goblin Cutter, he's pretty much just a "minionized" version of the Goblin Blackblade. His defenses are the same, his attack bonus is the same. He's got an extra +1 over the minimum damage (maybe to make up for the fact that he only gets 1 extra point from combat advantage, or for loosing "sneaky")

He looses Sneaky, but keeps Goblin Tactics (which all Goblins get). He's at -5 to both skills, because he's untrained - he's just got a base +3 dex, and the +2 Goblin racial.

You could arrive at pretty much the same point at making the Goblin as a pseudo-NPC (this is probably how they got the Blackblade), and then minionizing him.

What do you think about the Human Rabble? See I want to make my Hounds of the Iron Ring (B10 Night's Dark Terror conversion) starting with the Rabble but modifying them, but I'm not sure that the Rabble is correct with its stats.

 

[drquestion]

What do you think about the Human Rabble? See I want to make my Hounds of the Iron Ring (B10 Night's Dark Terror conversion) starting with the Rabble but modifying them, but I'm not sure that the Rabble is correct with its stats.

Well, the Rabble's stat bonuses are definitely an error - they're missing the +1 they should get from being level 2.

Other than that, he looks closest to a level 2 skirmisher, only he's taking a -1 penalty to attack and Fort, and a -2 to Init, Ref, and Will because he's got low stats (the average for a character of his level would be 17 in Str, and 14 in Dex and Wis and he's got 14, 10, and 10). By that calculation, his AC should be 14, so he's got a random +1 to that, probably just to keep it reasonable despite his low stats.

His damage is probably min of 1d6+3, which is the low damage for a 2nd level character.

The Mob Rule power makes up for his low stats by raising his defenses, but only if his buddies are around.

So, all in all, looks pretty reasonable for a level 2 mook. Why skirmisher seems to be the best fit, I can't say, other than that it's stats are probably the closest to the average of the monster roles.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

I've posted builds for Hounds of the Iron Ring (brainwashed human warriors) in the House Rules thread. The reason I was asking questions about minion-building was because I wanted guidance in creating these guys. If anyone wants to take a look and comment on balance I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[hamishspence]

do minions get level stat bonuses?

might have to see analysis of all the minions, and clear view of ones that do not fit properly.