Minions and Automatic Damage.
I'm going to house rule that where a character or environmental effect that does automatic damage is of a lower Tier than the Minion, then an attack roll will normally be required to kill the Minion. So for instance Epic Tier legion devils don't automatically die from falling 10', Paragon Tier ogre minions don't automatically die from standing next to a small fire. Rain of Steel would automatically kill Heroic Tier minions, but require a to-hit roll vs Minions of 11th+ level, unless the PC was himself 11th+.
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This is the simplest way I could think of to deal with this problem. Unlike giving minions hit points it doesn't require any extra book-keeping. It only comes into play with Paragon and Epic Tier minions, and should not detract from PC awesomess since it only applies when they're 'punching above their weight' in fighting foes of a higher Tier: Heroic PCs fighting Paragon or Epic minions, Paragon PCs fighting Epic minions. And I think the appearance of minions that don't auto-die is a good "We're not in Kansas anymore" indicator - either the PCs are outclassed, or they're approaching the borders of the next tier and exceeding their prior limitations. If you use a lot of 14th level ogre minions vs 10th level PCs, then having them finally start auto-dying when the PCs hit Paragon should be a nice reward for the players.
Edit: Falling and other Environment Damage
Looking at the DMG page 42, I think I'll generally count a 10' fall as sub-Heroic (all minions have a chance to survive), 20'-30' fall as Heroic, 40'-60' fall as Paragon and 80'+ as Epic for minion-squishing purposes.
Minion Attack roll vs Fort is +5 per 10' fallen, so:
Sub-Heroic: 10' fall, +5 attack
Heroic: 20'-30' fall, +10 or +15 attack
Paragon: 40'-70' fall, +20, +25,+30 or +35 attack
Epic: 80'+ fall, kills any minion
For non-falling environmental effects, attack roll is +1 per point of damage (or per d10 rounded down).
Sub-Heroic: Average damage 1-9
Heroic: Average damage 10-19
Paragon: Average damage 20-39
Epic: Average damage 40+
This only applies to non-character effects, character effects always count as the character's Tier. So eg Rain of Steel will be an Heroic, Paragon or Epic effect depending on the level of the Fighter, not on the average damage.
I'm going to house rule that where a character or environmental effect that does automatic damage is of a lower Tier than the Minion, then an attack roll will normally be required to kill the Minion. So for instance Epic Tier legion devils don't automatically die from falling 10', Paragon Tier ogre minions don't automatically die from standing next to a small fire. Rain of Steel would automatically kill Heroic Tier minions, but require a to-hit roll vs Minions of 11th+ level, unless the PC was himself 11th+.
_______________
This is the simplest way I could think of to deal with this problem. Unlike giving minions hit points it doesn't require any extra book-keeping. It only comes into play with Paragon and Epic Tier minions, and should not detract from PC awesomess since it only applies when they're 'punching above their weight' in fighting foes of a higher Tier: Heroic PCs fighting Paragon or Epic minions, Paragon PCs fighting Epic minions. And I think the appearance of minions that don't auto-die is a good "We're not in Kansas anymore" indicator - either the PCs are outclassed, or they're approaching the borders of the next tier and exceeding their prior limitations. If you use a lot of 14th level ogre minions vs 10th level PCs, then having them finally start auto-dying when the PCs hit Paragon should be a nice reward for the players.
Edit: Falling and other Environment Damage
Looking at the DMG page 42, I think I'll generally count a 10' fall as sub-Heroic (all minions have a chance to survive), 20'-30' fall as Heroic, 40'-60' fall as Paragon and 80'+ as Epic for minion-squishing purposes.
Minion Attack roll vs Fort is +5 per 10' fallen, so:
Sub-Heroic: 10' fall, +5 attack
Heroic: 20'-30' fall, +10 or +15 attack
Paragon: 40'-70' fall, +20, +25,+30 or +35 attack
Epic: 80'+ fall, kills any minion
For non-falling environmental effects, attack roll is +1 per point of damage (or per d10 rounded down).
Sub-Heroic: Average damage 1-9
Heroic: Average damage 10-19
Paragon: Average damage 20-39
Epic: Average damage 40+
This only applies to non-character effects, character effects always count as the character's Tier. So eg Rain of Steel will be an Heroic, Paragon or Epic effect depending on the level of the Fighter, not on the average damage.
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