The Crimson Binome
Hero
I'll agree that 4E probably went too far in that direction, and made them too weak to serve their purpose. The ability to kill them through auto-hit powers that dealt trivial damage kind of made them feel like a boring exercise in bookkeeping, instead of the one-round distraction they were supposed to serve. And an all-minion fight would definitely be boring, since they have virtually no chance of winning and no real lasting repercussions.I get what you are saying, but the point is that too many Williams and Linda fights are boring. I even upped all minions in my game to "tough minions" (1 hit bloodies, another hit kills, a critical kills, and a massive hit kills) because single hit minions were not only a joke. They were so much of a joke that some players found them to be annoying more than those same players felt victorious wading through a bunch of them.
I guess it's a matter of taste, though. I really like a fight where the possible outcomes are "complete victory" and "victory at a cost" rather than every fight being to the death/capture/unconsciousness.
I've ever run a Double Dragon style of session, as a way to mix things up during a Pathfinder game. (It didn't work as well as I'd intended, because I failed to account for the ludicrous amount of healing they give out in Pathfinder games.)