IMHO the one I posted earlier did this pretty well -- damage threshold, Bloodied if you don't punch through the DT, and killed with any damage once Bloodied. Temp HP add to DT, so leaders get all their benefits. Brutes can be Minion-ized by increasing their DT; Skirmishers by lowering their DT -- and both of these work similar to how HP and defenses are related to these critter roles.
Yep - and I supported the idea back when it first came up, though I'd suggested it as rules for Grunts, monsters specifically tougher than minions, rather than for all minions.
I worry about tracking damage thresholds for minions getting complicated, but I'm very curious how well it plays. I still hit a wall when I think of, say, Scorching Burst not killing a minion though.
At any rate, temp HP adding to DT means that you're having to track hp of the minion. Which is why I think it's a bad idea - we should only track so much data for minions. Bloodied? Sure. DT? Okay. Add temp into it and I think you're going too far, because now some minions have one value and others have another.
This could get even more complex when a new source of temp hp unbloodies the minion so you're flipping the bloodied bit back and forth, as well as increasing (and lowering back, presumably) the DT.
On that particular aspect, I don't like the idea that a bloodied minion with a DT of 15 might gain 1 temp hp and gain back its full DT. That's a far greater gain than other types of critters. It also makes something like an aura of 'Allies in the aura gain X temporary hit points' very odd with minions.
One bit of information per minion (bloodied or not), plus one integer per minion type (DT). IMHO, it's very easy to track, yet is a rich enough model to encompass pretty much everything you'd possibly want to do with a minion.
Sure - I just don't like the additional temp hp overhead. I also am not big on the idea of saying "Okay, we're ignoring hp for these guys. Except sometimes."
When you put 8 minions out, I want their stats to be the same. The players can mark 'em bloodied and take 'em off, no muss no fuss.
DT thought: Brutes +2, Lurkers/Artillery -2. Damage baseline otherwise set so it's very easily pierced by any full damage attack, but an attack without stat added or just stat (ie, 1W or flat Str) not necessarily. Other than Cleave, are there any powers that seem clearly built for dealing with minions (instead of incidental bonus damage) that DT really screws with?
