Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4383409" data-attributes="member: 58197">The claim that minions are somehow unrealistic never ceases to amaze me.&nbsp; Minions are the guys who can be killed with one solid hit from a deadly weapon.&nbsp; Like... y'know... REAL HUMAN BEINGS.&nbsp; What on earth makes them unrealistic?&nbsp; Now, if you were complaining that non-minions - who are somehow impossible to kill without several rounds of beating on them first - were unrealistic, you might have a point.In game-world terms, minions are guys who lack the fighting skills to go one-on-one with the PCs.&nbsp; Individually, they're easy meat for a player character of their level.&nbsp; They aren't going to make an endurance contest out of it - at best, they get lucky for a round or two, then the PC breaks through the minion's guard and it's lights out.&nbsp; Compare that with a normal monster, which is canny and skilled enough that the PCs can't usually drop it without a few rounds of softening-up first.En masse, however, minions are dangerous.&nbsp; A martial artist may be able to disable or kill an untrained opponent in seconds, but will still have trouble against a mob.(It's important to keep in mind that monster stats are designed to reflect how they interact with the PCs.&nbsp; They aren't the universal laws of the world.&nbsp; A minion does not die if attacked by a housecat.)As for a mechanical reason to use minions?&nbsp; Well, if you want your PCs to face off against a mob, it'll take bleeding forever if the mob is made up of normal monsters.&nbsp; And that forever will consist of the PCs relentlessly slogging through monsters they miss only on a 1, while the monsters wait for the lucky 20.&nbsp; Minions solve the problem.&nbsp; They're very easy to keep track of and their attacks and defenses are good enough that you aren't guaranteed to hit them and they aren't guaranteed to miss you.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4383409, member: 58197"] The claim that minions are somehow unrealistic never ceases to amaze me. Minions are the guys who can be killed with one solid hit from a deadly weapon. Like... y'know... REAL HUMAN BEINGS. What on earth makes them unrealistic? Now, if you were complaining that [i]non-minions[/i] - who are somehow impossible to kill without several rounds of beating on them first - were unrealistic, you might have a point. In game-world terms, minions are guys who lack the fighting skills to go one-on-one with the PCs. Individually, they're easy meat for a player character of their level. They aren't going to make an endurance contest out of it - at best, they get lucky for a round or two, then the PC breaks through the minion's guard and it's lights out. Compare that with a normal monster, which is canny and skilled enough that the PCs can't usually drop it without a few rounds of softening-up first. En masse, however, minions are dangerous. A martial artist may be able to disable or kill an untrained opponent in seconds, but will still have trouble against a mob. (It's important to keep in mind that monster stats are designed to reflect how they interact with the PCs. They aren't the universal laws of the world. A minion does not die if attacked by a housecat.) As for a mechanical reason to use minions? Well, if you want your PCs to face off against a mob, it'll take bleeding forever if the mob is made up of normal monsters. And that forever will consist of the PCs relentlessly slogging through monsters they miss only on a 1, while the monsters wait for the lucky 20. Minions solve the problem. They're very easy to keep track of and their attacks and defenses are good enough that you aren't guaranteed to hit them and they aren't guaranteed to miss you. [/QUOTE]

Verification