Should players know minions are minions from a rules/tactics PoV?

[Wolfwood2]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I think for ease of play concerns and player tactics, the default example should be "yes". Knowing which opponents are minions allows players to be more confident in their tactics and will result in battles being run in a different way.

However if the DM wants to run a "gotcha" encounter where the players aren't sure which creatures are minions, he's perfectly justified in doing so and let them puzzle it out.

 

[keterys]

Agreed that the default should be "Yes". It's a game, don't make the PCs play it blind. Minions are their chance to go a little over the top, describe their killing blows in interesting (and excessive) ways, etc.

 

[Sanzuo]

I just describe the creatures visually as presented and let them figure it out.

 

[Nail]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Exactly.

While learning the game - say with KotS - allow the players to pick up on the concept of "minion" pretty easily. Maybe even describe the masses of lesser bad guys as "minions".

Then - after everyone's comfortable with how these things work, mix it up a bit. I'd recommend using regular monsters of a much lower level instead of the minion template.

 

[SDOgre]

Couple thing here, you don't want to tell them the rules behind the game. That tends to ruin the suspension of disbelief. Allow your players to feel a bit on edge. If they are smart (and most who play D&D are) they will figure it out soon enough. But even if they do - I wouldn't confirm or deny.

When you know the rules behind a creature it looses its mystery (at least in my experience)

Great advice.

A good DM gets to know the rules inside and out and much of it to him is a numbers game. You should never present it to the players that way though. If you do, after a while it loses the "cool" factor. It loses the mystery. If it becomes just number crunching and probability... well, the pool of players that would enjoy that kind of game is pretty small.

Keep the mystery, but give out clues.

 

[blargney the second]

Mystery's overrated. Let me know it's a minion and I'll help everybody at the table have fun by describing my interaction with it in an entertaining way, and they can do the same.
-blarg

 

[yu gnomi]

my 2 cents = spotting minions in the middle of combat should be reserved for characters who either: have been trained in the appropriate knowledge skill or have fought against this type of minion before and seen firsthand how wimpy it is.

It seems a bit off to me that people fighting for their lives would scrutinize creatures to see how nervous they are, or how unused and second rate their weapons and armor are.

If a character does have the opportunity to scrutinize in a non- life or death situation, then I think clues of minion-hood are fine.

 

[Logos7]

minions and mooks are literary concepts and as such should not be spottable in character.

Its great to think of a bunch of mooks with crap clothing and armour and no determination when your dealing with kobold minions, but when you stop and think that their are minions for every level your left with a level 30 abysal badass that the other abysall badasses picked on or who's heart isn't really in the cause and who's vorpal sword is really as vorpal as everyone elses?

Think of storm troppers who are in a lot of ways a great example of minions, was their anything wrong with their kit, armour, or attitude

no?

why did they suck then, cause they weren't the heroes? How will my players figure it out, when i don't ask for damage rolls and just start flipping them over. or once they realize a whole bunch of them don't take more than one hit to kill.

Logos

 

[Danceofmasks]

But ... only imperial stormtroopers can be that precise.
It seems obi couldn't figure it out.

 

[keterys]

Minions are just as precise as normal monsters

Heck, if you think about it, they're a bunch of levels ahead of their 'peers' (like Ogre Minions being 8 levels higher) so they're _really_ accurate.