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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goumindong" data-source="post: 4384954" data-attributes="member: 70874">Man what? NPCs are there for you to roleplay against they are not there to be fodder. Where in the nine hells did you get the idea that NPCs are there to take the place of numerous enemies that still pose a threat but will not utterly destroy you due to hit point scaling?There are no headaches regarding terrain that does damage. If the terrain does not require a to-hit roll, the minion dies. Its very plain and simple in the rules. The minion dies whenever it would take damage, but a minion never takes damage from a missed attack. Does the terrain do damage? Yes, you said it does? Well does it make an attack roll or is it automatic? Its automatic? The minion dies, no attack was missed and it took damage. Blammo, its really easy.Pets, Companions, and Cohorts will only be in the game in the form of Powers. They will only be in the game in the form of powers because pets, companions, and cohorts fundamentally break any game they are put into. They cannot be simultaneously useful in combat and balanced. They break economy of action. They were broken in 3.5(where every truly optimal build took leadership and had a wizard along with them), unless their operation takes up your own actions then they will be really and truly forever broken.There is no problem with a parties torch bearer(assuming this in an NPC you hired) dropping caltrops. Whatever happens with those caltrops is the DMs decision. It an attack by an NPC against and NPC. Unless the DM is arguing with himself there is no need for conflict resolution by way of dice rolling. And if the DM is arguing with himself you have many many many more problems than any any system could throw at you.Here is the deal. NPCs only need survivability when the players take a swing at them. If not, then everything is the DM deciding how powerful he wants the NPC to be and then describing it.Caltrops again: Caltrops will not explode anything on target, it simply takes the minion out of the fight. Hell, you can voluntarily not do lethal damage with no penalty when bringing an enemy to 0 hit points, thus making them unconscious instead of dead. Just say the minion falls over in pain, clutching his leg and cant get up/passes out from the pain/falls on the caltrops in a violent and painful manner.Regards to "free XP" Clearly you have not fought a good minion encounter if you are saying that they are free XP. Minions are tough. And you get 4 per every normal monster. This mean minions are doing around 3 times as much damage, can flank and create effects, can block three times more squares and are less vulnerable to status effects that weaken them.(since you have to hit them all). They are, in return, weak to AoEs. E.G. in my group I am playing in now we have a wizard, artful dodger rogue, ranger, fighter, and cleric. Minions are the hardest part of the fight because they gang up and rip into the fighter/ranger/rogue and don't care about his mark(there are 4-8 of them, what do they care?). The Wizard has to AoE his friends to get them off. The Rogue does 19.5 average damage/hit with sly flourish(or something equally disgusting), enough to kill a level 2 skirmisher in two hits. Throw a bunch of standard enemies at us and the wizard is going to keep one or two out of the fight while the rogue, ranger, and fighter, kill 2 enemies every 3 rounds.(or faster)Mob rules were terrible compared to minion rules. Minion rules are simple, elegant, reduce book keeping, allow them to have tactical options instead of being swarms...</blockquote>

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