CREATING MINIONS FROM STANDARD MONSTERS
If you need a minion quickly, oftentimes the easiest thing to do is to simply “minionize” a standard monster, which takes only a few quick steps. While this process lacks the precision of ground-up design, it will work just fine in most cases when time is of the essence.
1. Change Role. Change the monster’s role to “minion”.
2. Calculate XP. Reduce the monster’s XP value according to its current role.
Original Role - Minion XP
Standard - 1/4
Elite - 1/8
Solo - 1/20
3. Change Hit Points. Change the monster’s hit points to 1. If you find it helpful, don’t forget to add the notation that “a missed attack never damages a minion”.
4. Remove Qualities. Standard creatures generally have a handful of unique attacks and other qualities, whereas minions generally have only a few. Because minions don’t last very long on the battlemat, additional qualities are superfluous and serve only to complicate what should otherwise be a simple statblock. Accordingly, you should remove several qualities from the standard creature, so only a few useful ones remain. When removing qualities, you should almost certainly remove (a) daily powers, (b) powers that trigger or are recharged when bloodied, (c) third or fourth attacks, or (d) qualities that are otherwise only relevant if the creature lasts most or all of the battle.
