Tougher minions

[Samurai]

I use a minion's listed Con bonus as its DR (the listed Con bonus is actually the Con mod + 1/2 level). This is usually a small enough number that most decent hits will kill it outright, though some especially weak attacks may not.

 

[Arlough]

I know I have posted this before, but it seems it was long enough ago that it is no longer available.

Basically, there are two reasons for minions. One is to let the players feel awesome as they mow through 1258 Kobolds at level 10 and save the town. This is completely valid for a DM to use, because sometimes you just want your party to feel awesome. Also, if you need your players to level, this is a flood of XP.

Then there is the way minions are described in the book. The orc that zigs when he should have zagged and gets an arrow in the face, the hobgoblin that steps in a gofer hole as he tries to block, or the drow who happens to stand up at exactly the wrong time and gets reduced to ash.

The first kind of minon, the players can even know they are minions and target them appropriately. They are one hit kills, and do small flat damage. A miss never damages them, and they have no non-minion equivalent.

But the second kind should not be distinguishable from an actual non-minion monster. They can be used to make it look like overwhelming odds, adding tension to the game, and can't be singled out in a crowd.

For this, I use what I call minionized monsters. I take a standard monster (non elite, solo, or swarm) that I will be using in combat, and I give it vulnerability equal to it's bloodied value to attacks that hit, and make it appear bloodied at 1/4 HP instead of at 1/2 HP.

This way, if it is hit twice, it will go down. If a striker does enough damage to it go down. But if it gets missed by a fireball, it still takes damage and may or may not go down depending on if it has taken enough damage from other sources.

I find that the minionized monsters, at 1/4 XP value, are much more XP appropriate per challenge level for standard encounters (a.k.a. encounters where I am not going out of my way to level the players sooner.)

I find that my players take the combat more seriously when they can't tell which monsters are going to be around for how long, and they seem (with the exception of my <b>Rules Justicar</b>, who disapproves of house-rules he has not invented) to enjoy and revel in victory more.

Of course, I also have house-ruled out Essentials and all the changes made to accommodate the new Magic Missile, so YRMV.

 

[jeffh]

My "tough minions" that I have occasionally used go like this (this has a few small but important differences from the earlier suggestions here)

A tough minion is bloodied by any attack that hits; an unbloodied tough minion takes no damage from attacks that miss, unless one of the bullet points below apply.

A bloodied tough minion dies as soon as it takes damage for any reason.

There are ways to kill tough minions faster:

• An unbloodied tough minion dies outright to any critical hit.
• Some tough minions have vulnerabilities, like normal monsters but without the number, and die from any hit that deals a type of damage they are vulnerable to. Even a miss from such a source bloodies them, if it would have dealt damage to a normal monster.
• A tough minion that is hit by an attack that benefits from sneak attack, warlock's curse, hunter's quarry, a barbarian rage, oath of enmity etc must make a saving throw or die. Basically, any time they're taking extra damage and/or subject to significantly increased accuracy due to a striker's class ability, this applies. If there are no significant conditions attached to the striker damage (i.e. it's an arcane attack from a Sorcerer), the tough minion gets a +2 bonus on this saving throw.
• A tough minion that takes more than (10 + listed Con bonus, i.e. 10 + real Con bonus + 1/2 level) damage at once from a single source dies outright, even if this damage is from a miss effect. (NB - don't bother rolling damage for attacks that target only minions unless there's a real possibility of reaching this threshold).

 

[TheClone]

I once had a complaint of a player that didn't like 4e that it was totally irrelevant how much damage you roll when fighting minions. My idea was also to give the minions a small amount of hit points or such. I would go for 5 or 7 + 1/2 level as damage reduction or maybe 25% of a comparable monster of the same level (corresponding to the 25% XP you get for minions).

I really love the idea of Mengu. It adds a lot of flavor.

I'd also reduce the defenses of the minions by maybe one point. Minions are said to have more than usual defenses and attack bonuses . To counter the effect that damage reduction, hit point or Menug's minions do live longer in average in a battle they should be hit easier. But I guess a small amount of "easyness" will do. Or you need to raise the XP. They are a bigger thread if they are tougher.

 

[MarauderX]

Following the HP to attack to damage numbers by WotC, I just went with a simplier version to work at any level. Tough minions are actually artillery with 1/2 HP or soldiers with 1/4 HP, depending on their role. If I want them to do higher damage (to wear out a party that may only get to have 2-3 encounters an evening) I hop up the attack & damage. For our game they fit an in-between role for getting dropped by a single deadly strike or after a few waves of area damage.