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<blockquote data-quote="bbjore" data-source="post: 5217477" data-attributes="member: 27539">I use them all the time as well. My group is 8 players at full strength, and now that they're mid-paragon, the combinations they can pull off are starting to get really powerful. Minions allow me to increase the numbers of threats without making things any more complicated for me to track. My key, is that I mostly use them as fancy kind of hindering terrain. A way to split the party, harass the back line, and ensure that 8 PCs don't suddenly mob and destroy my BBEG in the first or second round.They can really add a thematic element to an encounter. Sure four or five of them isn't all that spectacular. But I make sure if an encounter has minions, they either spawn every round, or there's a ton of them, and it's led to some memorable encounters.Besides I love watching my players faces when they invade a vampire's lair, and suddenly 20 vampire spawn start crawling down from the ceiling, or I throw three or four handfuls of glass counters on a map of a quarry, and tell them their NPC friend is about to be sacrificed in front of a crowd of undead minions. Suddenly, the druid is performing an aerial assault on the group's leader, the fighter is parting the red sea with boulder charge, and the wizard and morninglord can't stop laughing as they nuke 10x10 squares clear of zombies. Five rounds later, the group gets to feel like the biggest heroes ever because they've assaulted over 100 bad guys and won.The key to using them, is like fanboy2000 said, as salt and paper, a way to add flavor to the encounter, and not as carefully calculated XP fodder.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bbjore, post: 5217477, member: 27539"] I use them all the time as well. My group is 8 players at full strength, and now that they're mid-paragon, the combinations they can pull off are starting to get really powerful. Minions allow me to increase the numbers of threats without making things any more complicated for me to track. My key, is that I mostly use them as fancy kind of hindering terrain. A way to split the party, harass the back line, and ensure that 8 PCs don't suddenly mob and destroy my BBEG in the first or second round. They can really add a thematic element to an encounter. Sure four or five of them isn't all that spectacular. But I make sure if an encounter has minions, they either spawn every round, or there's a ton of them, and it's led to some memorable encounters. Besides I love watching my players faces when they invade a vampire's lair, and suddenly 20 vampire spawn start crawling down from the ceiling, or I throw three or four handfuls of glass counters on a map of a quarry, and tell them their NPC friend is about to be sacrificed in front of a crowd of undead minions. Suddenly, the druid is performing an aerial assault on the group's leader, the fighter is parting the red sea with boulder charge, and the wizard and morninglord can't stop laughing as they nuke 10x10 squares clear of zombies. Five rounds later, the group gets to feel like the biggest heroes ever because they've assaulted over 100 bad guys and won. The key to using them, is like fanboy2000 said, as salt and paper, a way to add flavor to the encounter, and not as carefully calculated XP fodder. [/QUOTE]

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