Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bladesong" data-source="post: 4516682" data-attributes="member: 20800">Let me start by saying that I have not played a 4ed session and to apologize if this is a bit lengthy. We have used the concept of a “minion” for quite a while now. The details of how they work are as follows (and I will try to use some 4ed ideas/terms as I understand them):     The basic concept is that with 1 successful hit they can be killed or destroyed, but there are some easy to follow guidelines they follow:Area attacks: if they make their save, they are unaffected (they look the worse for wear but are basically “ok”). If they fail their save and take enough damage that a normal, average creature of the same type would die, they die (i.e. if a non-minion creature of the same type has 28 hit points and a spell does 30, they die). If they fail their save and the damage is not enough to kill a non-minion of the same type, they are weakened (4ed term I guess would be “bloodied”). Melee/missile attacks: When they are hit for the first time the DM rolls a Fortitude save with a DC 15; if they make it they can take 1 more hit (“bloodied” if you will), and if they fail it they are dead or destroyed. Strangely enough, with corporeal undead (I saw something in this thread earlier that was similar), if they made that Fortitude save but it would have been a successful Will save, they were knocked down and received one last “claw” type attack before being destroyed (we liked this because it was like those movies where the upper-half of skeleton is still crawling, trying to attack its target). Cleave: Basically works as normal. If the first creature was hit and killed (or even knocked down in the case of undead) the character can roll to hit another adjacent creature, if it is hit you roll a Fort save just like the previous one and apply the same result.     We tried just 1 hit and dead, but the players did not like that. They literally felt like if they had used a spell against minions it was a waste of resources and that just wading through in melee without any resistance whatsoever was not “fun.”     Now I will try to briefly (too late) state how I would try to do this in 4ed if I ever actually play it. Remember, having not played, I probably will not be 100% accurate with my terminology. Area attacks: Have the character make all attack rolls as usual and roll damage. If successful and the damage is enough to drop a non-minion creature of the same type, it is dead. If it is not enough, it is bloodied and another damage source will drop it. Misses will have no effect (though I would still have them look the worse for wear for “drama”).Melee/missile attacks: With the first hit I would roll a saving throw for them (I believe I heard you are successful on a 10 or higher, though I would give them a +1 or +2 per tier on the roll) and if successful they are bloodied, and another blow will kill them. If they fail the save, they are dead. I will also probably still give undead a Charisma or Will check to get that one last attack for cinematic purposes.Cleave: Really just the same as the attack although I believe I heard that cleave does damage whether the first foe drops or not; that being the case they would still get the save and you then have the possibility of the “cleaved” creature dropping before the original target (and I have no problem with that).If any of you try this in a 4ed game, I would like to hear how it turns out. Happy gaming!</blockquote>

Verification