My minion rules

[Garthanos]

1. You'd probably want to increase the other defenses too, not just AC.

2. This doesn't solve the problem of being able to autokill minions through automatic damage abilities.

The main part was that visualization is the key component to ... minions they dont have hit points ...but you can make them tougher without giving them hitpoints and your narrative is where the difference can start.

My house rule finishes the trick by allowing them to take a more complete role in the roleplay... at what for me is a very low cost (tracking a bloodied state).

My house rule of bloodiable minions (auto damage and misses / non targeted damage) bloody them - damage a second time takes them down. (.... if bloodied in quantity 1 in 4 are completely out of the fight and 1 in four were virtually unaffected). I also use the sliding number of minions mentioned earlier but not in such a hard and fast way. (4 at 1st level seem nasty)

Right about AC but you could make them tougher in various ways... that was mainly an example.