Minions - do you tell players who are minions and who are not in-game?

Do you show players who are minions at the gametable?


Another important point is for those who dislike aspects of daily and even encounter powers, that it sucks when the PC misses. If you (or the player) thinks it sucks when they miss, IME it sucks even more when the effect was targeted on a minion..
Agreed.

In the early days of one of my groups, a player blew his daily on a minion...and neither the DM nor I said anything about it to this player. It was too painful.

Next meeting, I (as a player) talked to everyone at the table about what "minions" were. The next comment I heard was "I can't wait to fight some!" :)
 

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I can't really see how someone blow a daily in a minion. My players only spend then with the most dire circumstances, with or the fight great advanced, or a very big fight ahead.

Then, even if I don't say, I hint enough. Always fixed damage, the description of being an inferior combatant, die with one hit. And knowledge tests can be used to find their true nature easily.
 

I have explained what they are to my players.

They have seen them in action.

I have never used minions without non-minions. They get mixed in.

But... I give my players a chance to notice non minions by way of perception or similar. Once they notice it, I point out who isn't a minion.

One of the battles of my last session, for instance, had 19 minion skeletons and 2 skeleton brutes. The party was three characters large, level two. The brutes were level 3. (Minions level 1)

At the end of it, they had exhausted most their resources, but it was a GREAT battle. My players really felt like they accomplished something.

During the battle at one point, I told them. "While most of these skeletons eye you with careless, uncalculated movements, these two you notice are watching and anticipating your every move." It was all the hint they needed. The ranger picked off the minions while the fighter moved in to lock down the two non-minions...
 

I don't always announce it, but I don't much try to hide it either.

If there are 18 bad guys in the fight, my players know right off that a bunch of their opponents are minions, and it's seldom difficult to guess which ones. In this case, although I won't say the word "minion" when describing the encounter, I'll openly refer to them as minions once the battle starts. Why try to hide it when the players obviously already know?

If there are 6 bad guys in the fight, I won't announce right off which ones are minions, or whether any of them are; and I won't refer to them as "minions" until the PCs kill one. Let them sweat a bit. As soon as something goes down in one hit, however, the cat's out of the bag and I'll go ahead and refer to them as "minions."

Halfway bright players who know of the existence of the minion mechanic can identify minions pretty easily. I don't see the point of trying to cover it up.
 
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I announced it after a player wanted to use his daily on the kobold minion he was facing. I think I said something along the lines of "Your keen combat senses tell you this would be extreme overkill." And everyone laughed and I don't think it decreased the enjoyment of it. So at least for now, my rule is that the PCs can tell that a creature is a minion if they're adjacent to it, or once it attacks, or once they attack it, or if they're about to use a daily power and I'm feeling generous.
 

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