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<blockquote data-quote="Zinovia" data-source="post: 5128086" data-attributes="member: 57373">I've read all kinds of great ideas here on how to speed up combats, and reduce the grind.&nbsp; The minion mechanic is a great place to start for that, but as we all know, minions often don't last long enough to do much.&nbsp; A single Scorching Burst, and *poof* they fall down.&nbsp; Waves of them can be&nbsp; deployed effectively, and they do have their place in the game.&nbsp; I wanted to have some guys that would be easy to take out, but still hang around just a bit longer than normal minions.&nbsp; Tough minions (that go to bloodied on the first hit, and to 0 on the second) were a great starting point, but I also added a hit point value that if exceeded, would take them out in a single round.&nbsp; The ones I ran last night were 2 hit/ 25 hp minions (level 7).&nbsp; Any 2 hits will get rid of them, or any one hit of 25 or more points.&nbsp; They worked nicely, typically hanging around long enough to get a couple hits in on average.&nbsp; They did the normal damage for the base creature, as well as sharing its defenses and abilities.&nbsp; They just died more quickly.&nbsp; It let me throw a lot of gnolls at the party, while still letting the fight run fairly quickly.&nbsp; I didn't track their HP at all, instead just using my bloodied tokens when they took a hit.&nbsp; I'm not sure what the best damage threshold for different levels of creatures would be.&nbsp; I&nbsp; chose 25 as a number that is reachable by my group on any crit from one of the strikers, or a lucky hit from most of the group.&nbsp; I wanted it to take a pretty solid hit to one-shot these guys.&nbsp; None of them were taken out in 1 shot last night, but we got within a few points of it a couple times.&nbsp; So thanks to the ENWorld community for the genesis of the idea - it seems to be something that works nicely for us.&nbsp; It speeds up combat, reduces tracking on my side, lets the creatures be scary and effective, but still die quickly; at least so far.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Zinovia, post: 5128086, member: 57373"] I've read all kinds of great ideas here on how to speed up combats, and reduce the grind. The minion mechanic is a great place to start for that, but as we all know, minions often don't last long enough to do much. A single Scorching Burst, and *poof* they fall down. Waves of them can be deployed effectively, and they do have their place in the game. I wanted to have some guys that would be easy to take out, but still hang around just a bit longer than normal minions. Tough minions (that go to bloodied on the first hit, and to 0 on the second) were a great starting point, but I also added a hit point value that if exceeded, would take them out in a single round. The ones I ran last night were 2 hit/ 25 hp minions (level 7). Any 2 hits will get rid of them, or any one hit of 25 or more points. They worked nicely, typically hanging around long enough to get a couple hits in on average. They did the normal damage for the base creature, as well as sharing its defenses and abilities. They just died more quickly. It let me throw a lot of gnolls at the party, while still letting the fight run fairly quickly. I didn't track their HP at all, instead just using my bloodied tokens when they took a hit. I'm not sure what the best damage threshold for different levels of creatures would be. I chose 25 as a number that is reachable by my group on any crit from one of the strikers, or a lucky hit from most of the group. I wanted it to take a pretty solid hit to one-shot these guys. None of them were taken out in 1 shot last night, but we got within a few points of it a couple times. So thanks to the ENWorld community for the genesis of the idea - it seems to be something that works nicely for us. It speeds up combat, reduces tracking on my side, lets the creatures be scary and effective, but still die quickly; at least so far. [/QUOTE]

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