Unnerfing monsters?

[keterys]

They're actually starting to make some better melee only minions - like ghouls that do 12 damage and immobilize, and also have an aura that enemies take 5 damage when they start their turn. And have actual defenses, not level +7 Wills and stuff (whoever thought that was a good idea, argh). Trolls that do 10 damage and require fire/acid to actually kill. Etc.

But even if you treat them as no xp at all, it's still worth having some melee only minions sometime. At the very least, it'll look really odd when the animal minions pull out bows

 

[Mesh Hong]

All the GOOD minions I have found are ranged, because the players mostly just leave them alone since I put them out at maximum range. Melee minions will often find themselves in a 7x7 square area if the party doesn't split up too much...

Adding melee minions with that Invoker would add negative xp to the encounter as far as I am concerned, so I don't see the point in adding them.

About them ranged minions - I just give them bows or whatnought, range 10 or 20 and don't change anything else...

Please bear in mind that it is a minions job to die......horribly.....actually hindering its allies in the process......giving away xp without ever really being a threat.

Its a thankless job being a minion.

I have an infernal warlock in my group that with rod in hand kills minions when he curses them and gives a party member about 20 temporary HPs. That means that each minion needs to hit and damage a PC twice before it breaks even in the damage dealt department.

I still use minions though (maybe not as often) as I understand that they are there to make the players feel like gods. I also use the formula of 6 minions = 1 standard creature (though in my case adding more minions just gives the PCs more temporary HPS).

Learn to take the moral (and maybe morale) stand with minions.......

Every time a minion causes damage to a PC it is a major victory and should get a rousing cheer or entusiastic taunts from any other minions present.

 

[keterys]

The other day I had 4 minions assigned to a fight for a level 10 module and they were melee only and dealt like 4-5 damage each. Ie, clearly not well designed minions and they were just staff from the location hired on as thugs. I basically went 'wow, these guys are a total waste to swing at people'

So I changed things slightly so they were instead ushers, no weapons out, whose only combat actions were bull rushes and grabs, stand in the way, and to try to carry out the person the PCs were trying to rescue.

It worked fantastically - they still fell down when sneezed on _but_ they were non-combatants so the PCs didn't just go crazy on them and they successfully screwed up two people's turns by pushing them out of the way, held up two of the PCs by trying to carry the NPC out, _and_ one of them actually escaped with his life and was regaled at the table as the super-minion for his success

Sometimes it's just okay to give out some extra xp, even if you know the monster isn't going to earn it. Even if it only makes the player feel cooler. Actually, wait, _especially_ if it makes the player feel cooler.