I'm great with minions: a class of portable scenery makes a lot of sense to me. But there are some monsters which are relatively craven as I imagine them -- your bog-standard goblin or kobold, for instance, shouldn't be much of a menace against a stalwart human armed with a torch or a pitchfork.
I'm pretty sure D&D 4e doesn't have that.
It has the minion goblin & kobold, weighing in at level 1 for both, and then a variety of level 1 members of the race with upwards of twenty hit points each (Goblin blackblade (25), warrior (29), sharpshooter (31, level 2); kobold skirmisher (27), slinger (24), and dragonshield (36, level 2))
That's a little ridiculous! My starting character will likely have in the region of 25 hit points, and I expect to deal about 7-9 points of damage with each attack. With my encounter powers, I'll probably do more like 12 damage.
And here are the "craven" races (not orcs, hobgoblins, or other such tenacious beasties) being pretty equivalent in both damage input and output right out of the gate!
I'm considering ruling either that all kobolds and goblins have vulnerability 10 weapons, or that they simply have fewer hit points, in the neighborhood of half to two-thirds of their current values.
This will obviously give goblins and kobolds less staying power, which will make them less dangerous. To compensate, I'm inclined to throw in an additional minion of the appropriate race per normal member, or perhaps three minions per two normal members.
The advantages are that I get to use more interesting low level challenges without having to accept the new conceit, that goblins or kobolds are indidually as fearsome as an adventuring human, or even in the same league.
Thoughts?
I'm pretty sure D&D 4e doesn't have that.
It has the minion goblin & kobold, weighing in at level 1 for both, and then a variety of level 1 members of the race with upwards of twenty hit points each (Goblin blackblade (25), warrior (29), sharpshooter (31, level 2); kobold skirmisher (27), slinger (24), and dragonshield (36, level 2))
That's a little ridiculous! My starting character will likely have in the region of 25 hit points, and I expect to deal about 7-9 points of damage with each attack. With my encounter powers, I'll probably do more like 12 damage.
And here are the "craven" races (not orcs, hobgoblins, or other such tenacious beasties) being pretty equivalent in both damage input and output right out of the gate!
I'm considering ruling either that all kobolds and goblins have vulnerability 10 weapons, or that they simply have fewer hit points, in the neighborhood of half to two-thirds of their current values.
This will obviously give goblins and kobolds less staying power, which will make them less dangerous. To compensate, I'm inclined to throw in an additional minion of the appropriate race per normal member, or perhaps three minions per two normal members.
The advantages are that I get to use more interesting low level challenges without having to accept the new conceit, that goblins or kobolds are indidually as fearsome as an adventuring human, or even in the same league.
Thoughts?
