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Message: <blockquote data-quote="keterys" data-source="post: 5217695" data-attributes="member: 43019">It was a party in a mansion that got attacked by a necromancer, and all of the partygoers turned into undead. The fight sprawled through several floors and multiple levels as the primary enemy danced through the combat. Each place they got to had more and more minions, and - it was an online game - when they got to the final room and saw the last one with the '20' after its name, it was "Holy (cow), that's a lot of minions. Awesome."But, minions apparently don't work for you or your players. At least, not the ones you've used, in the ways you've used them.I think of them like using giant rats, orcs, and kobolds and such in slightly higher level 1st edition games. People enjoyed fireballing those then, or in a fighter sweeping through up to level adjacent ones, etc. The times haven't changed _that_ much in that respect.And, again, I avoid crappy minions (melee only, defenses 5 too low, and you do no damage... eh?) or use respawning mechanisms that make them part of another creature or challenge. Of the last 5 fights in one campaign, 3 of them involved minions, and I actually think the minions were one of the better working parts of the fights. Enough so that I planned on posting them online specifically as soon as the monster builder update goes through.Necromancer who started with 4 skeletal minions and 4 zombie minions, and could reanimate one per turn as a minor action. Master Vampire who had 4 vampirespawn minions that were more difficult to kill until he was down (though they mostly did it anyways)Dark Ritual that was animating all of the dead in the temple and making two wight minions attack until they'd stopped the ritual (in the middle of combat with the high priestess of the temple)The skeletons could do ranged attacks and did extra damage on OAs. The zombies grabbed on their basic attack and got to make a save to fall prone instead of dying from automatic damage. The vampirespawn fell Unconscious and Prone until end of their next turn when reduced to 0 by a non-critical hit (or other special means - holy water or killing the master vampire).The wights got to shift 3 after hitting, and if they hit someone, the person hit would lose a surge at end of next turn if that wight wasn't dead by then.Everything had normal defenses for its level (5 - 9, varying. 7th level PCs)Nothing inherently wrong with things that don't require as many rolls and drop when they're hit.</blockquote>

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