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<blockquote data-quote="Mephistopheles" data-source="post: 5217340" data-attributes="member: 4460">I feel the same way about minions for a couple of reasons.The first is that they're anticlimactic. The players see a large number of enemies and rub their hands together in anticipation of a tactical challenge. Then someone drops an area attack to hinder the enemy getting themselves into position only to find that a bunch of them drop dead from the small amount of damage the attack did. &quot;Oh, okay&quot; the players say, and then they lay down a few more area attacks to clear out the minions so they can get on with fighting the smaller number of real enemies.The second is that, after a few encounters like the one above, the minion metagame sets in. The players see a large number of enemies but are not particularly excited by this as they assume a bunch of them are minions. They drop some area attacks to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then get on with fighting the real enemies.Admittedly the DM could mix things up a bit by having encounters where things that players expect to be minions are not minions, but that just adds another layer to the minion metagame rather than eliminating it.There may be ways that minions can be used that are satisfying but I haven't yet experienced such an encounter.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mephistopheles, post: 5217340, member: 4460"] I feel the same way about minions for a couple of reasons. The first is that they're anticlimactic. The players see a large number of enemies and rub their hands together in anticipation of a tactical challenge. Then someone drops an area attack to hinder the enemy getting themselves into position only to find that a bunch of them drop dead from the small amount of damage the attack did. "Oh, okay" the players say, and then they lay down a few more area attacks to clear out the minions so they can get on with fighting the smaller number of real enemies. The second is that, after a few encounters like the one above, the minion metagame sets in. The players see a large number of enemies but are not particularly excited by this as they assume a bunch of them are minions. They drop some area attacks to separate the wheat from the chaff, and then get on with fighting the real enemies. Admittedly the DM could mix things up a bit by having encounters where things that players expect to be minions are not minions, but that just adds another layer to the minion metagame rather than eliminating it. There may be ways that minions can be used that are satisfying but I haven't yet experienced such an encounter. [/QUOTE]

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