Minions - tell the PCs?

[On Puget Sound]

There are rules for monster ID based on knowledge skills; you can use the passive (take 10) levels of knowledge if you don't want an extra die roll from everyone in each encounter. Anyone with enough knowledge gets "Those are goblin cutters...they are scruffy-looking, their swords look rusty, and their armor is patched together from old parts. That one is a goblin hexer; he seems to be in charge and is casting a spell." Anyone without the knowledge gets "you see a bunch of goblins". They can take actions to study them for more details about armament, behavior, etc.

Most of the time someone in the group will make the knowledge check, and since talking is a free action, everyone knows.

 

[James McMurray]

Why would you need to pass a knowledge check to know that they're scruffy, have rusty swords, and piecemeal armor?

 

[On Puget Sound]

gamer's reason: because monster ID is part of the value of having knowledge skills, and players who put resources into those skills should occasionally be rewarded for it.

simulationist reason: no knowledge: "By Pelor's codpiece, those are GOBLINS! I've heard of them but never seen them. Wow, they sure are ugly...and I've heard they eat people and their bite is poisonous. Or was that kobolds? YIKES one is heading my way..." head too full of wonder, fear and confusion to note details and interpret their meaning, until they spend an action to specifically pay attention to such.


In practice I don't usually do this, but the OP asked whether there were rules about revealing a minion's miniosity, and the monster ID rules do fit this, if you want to use them that way.

 

[James McMurray]

I'm not talking about using monster knowledge rules to recognize minions, but rather to get an accurate description of the creatures in front of you. It sounded like if the player didn't make his check he'd not be able to see the rusty weapons and bad armor. As if perception requires knowledge.

 

[Regicide]

Just for frame of reference, 1 HP doesn't necessarily mean 'dead'. Various other minion 'defeating' could include:

Disarmed or weapon shatters.
Resolve is broken, flees the field.
Injured in a way that causes it to stop fighting (broken limb, damaged eye).
Spell of mental control is broken.

Simply put, the minion is no longer a combatant, and that can be represented a few ways beyond death.

The player chooses when they're taken to 0 what happens to them. Almost always that will be death because rarely are those examples you give appropriate. The players would not want them left alive to wander off and get help. The evil baddies the heroic players fight are not just going to sit in the corner with their hands over their eyes promising to be good and not eat any more babies or burn any more towns. And when it comes right down to it my players are so greedy they want to loot corpses, any resistance to robbing everything blind will be met with death anyway.

 

[Meeki]

In my games it all depends on what the minions are. I never say THIS is a minion until they attack it and figure it out. I will describe minions as they are, scruffy and what have you, but if the minions look like non-minions (such as zombie minions) then I make it a bit more difficult to figure out.

I have been considering using passive insight to figure out minions from non-minions but I haven't came up with anything solid yet.

 

[Rechan]

The player chooses when they're taken to 0 what happens to them.

Maybe for you.

I've played with several groups, and not only do they not describe what they do to the individual in the attack phase, but never describe what they do in the damage phase.

So, I feel it perfectly acceptable to put that power in the DM's hands, narratively.

 

[Paul Strack]

I usually tell the players that the monsters they are facing are minions, but occasionally I don't if there is a good story reason.

In one adventure, the PCs were hunting down a demon cult, and there was a raving old woman that was the leader of the cultists and escaped from them earlier in the adventure. When the PCs got to the final fight, the woman had a different miniature from the (clearly minion) cultists, but when she got hit, she went down immediately ... because the real villain of the fight was the demon in the other room. The PCs were definitely surprised that a named character was a minion.

 

[Gruns]

Never!
In fact, I'm not sure why you would even consider telling the PCs that they're facing minions...(I also don't tell them they're facing brutes, skirmishers, controllers etc.)
I use the same mix of minis for minions that I use for regular monsters. I even roll "damage" dice when the minions hit to keep the illusion of non-minion status alive. Don't you think it's easy enough for them to figure it out during the normal course of the battle?
Later!
Gruns

 

[DDogwood]

My players always figure out which bad guys are minions pretty fast, so I don't point it out, but I don't go to great lengths to hide them, either.

IMO, minions are there to make the heroes look badass. They are just dangerous enough that the PCs can't ignore them, but that only serves to enhance their badass-ness - it's way cooler to mow down dozens of orcs who could hurt you if they got the chance.