I don't really think everyone got the point on minions. Clearly the minion idea was not about throwing a pack of powerfull 1-hit kill mobs at players.
5 Orc Warriors (9th lvl) against a 5 men 1st lvl party would be pretty lame, ie. Not even counting in the "fireball dilemma", the party could bring down all of them in one single round, providing the players roll high enought. While the very same party would need two/three rounds to win an appropriate 1st lvl encounter with no minions.
A 1st level character can even take down a 30th level demon minion with a nat 20, as likelly as making a gnoll minion laugh at the Epic Tier character's unlucky miss. This clearly is not the spot minions are supposed to fill.
Minions are supposed to be the crowds to flood the party. Suppose the 10th level party is attacking the Orcs outpost. Throw at them tens of Orc Warriors, a pack of Eyes of Grumsh/Berserkers and some Chieftein and Bloodragers. The horde would quicklly surround the party, while the heroes are taking down the warrior's number (whome hit point the DM don't have to bother with, they just die on hit or survive on miss). Of course Berserkers and Bloodragers are spreading out damage across the battlefield, and the Warriors who managed to reach melee would be more dangerouse when dieing thanks to theyr leaders' auras.
At this point you see why minions don't die on miss. 1hit point doesn't mean they only need a punch to be killed, it means managing a huge encounter with ease.
Just don't use hundreds of low lvl minions to bother Paragon or Epic chars, or a few high lvl minions against low lvl party. Regular monsters are much better at this.
5 Orc Warriors (9th lvl) against a 5 men 1st lvl party would be pretty lame, ie. Not even counting in the "fireball dilemma", the party could bring down all of them in one single round, providing the players roll high enought. While the very same party would need two/three rounds to win an appropriate 1st lvl encounter with no minions.
A 1st level character can even take down a 30th level demon minion with a nat 20, as likelly as making a gnoll minion laugh at the Epic Tier character's unlucky miss. This clearly is not the spot minions are supposed to fill.
Minions are supposed to be the crowds to flood the party. Suppose the 10th level party is attacking the Orcs outpost. Throw at them tens of Orc Warriors, a pack of Eyes of Grumsh/Berserkers and some Chieftein and Bloodragers. The horde would quicklly surround the party, while the heroes are taking down the warrior's number (whome hit point the DM don't have to bother with, they just die on hit or survive on miss). Of course Berserkers and Bloodragers are spreading out damage across the battlefield, and the Warriors who managed to reach melee would be more dangerouse when dieing thanks to theyr leaders' auras.
At this point you see why minions don't die on miss. 1hit point doesn't mean they only need a punch to be killed, it means managing a huge encounter with ease.
Just don't use hundreds of low lvl minions to bother Paragon or Epic chars, or a few high lvl minions against low lvl party. Regular monsters are much better at this.
