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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 4864761" data-attributes="member: 11999">In the Batman example, I don't think it would be unreasonable to rule that the Commissioner and Aunt Harriet are unable to cause significant damage to the minions unless they are armed.  If they could, then they wouldn't have needed rescuing.  If they need to roll a high enough number to hit the minions' AC when attacking with a weapons, then a lucky but lethal shot feels appropriate to me.The intent of the minion rules -- as I see it -- is that they are minions because they are a minor threat to skilled, well-armed combatants.  If they aren't facing such combatants (i.e. the PCs), then they're not minions.  But if they aren't involved in combat with the PCs, then there is no need to apply combat stats to them, as the game centers on the players and their characters' actions, not on what's going on in the background.  Some DMs (and players) will object strongly to this approach, but I love it.  The game status of "minion" isn't intended to define what a creature is in objective terms and explain how it interacts with the world when not in the presence of the PCs.  "Minion" is a shorthand way of saying that a creature poses some threat to the PCs, but its purpose is simply to slow down the PCs a bit on their way to the real threat and add a bit of dramatic tension.  As such, they aren't worth the effort of tracking hit points when the PCs *should* be able to take it down with one hit, if they roll well, but could take 2 or 3 additional hits if the PCs are unlucky and roll poorly.  When DMing previous editions, I'd often just kill off a "filler" monster if it was brought down to 1-4 hit points from a single hit, rather than bother with tracking its hit points and initiative for yet another round.  And there were times I purposefully gave a monster very low HP, in the hopes that they would essentially be "speed bumps" and threaten the PCs but go down in one hit.  But again, I don't view the rules as an objective set of attributes that govern how the world operates "off-camera."  A creature's stats are only relevant to me when they are interacting with the PCs, and I love that the system embraces this philosophy in its design.  I can understand why a lot of people will disagree with this and object to the idea that the same individual Ogre could be a level 4 solo, a level 6 brute, or a level 9 minion, depending on what level the PCs are and what purpose said ogre serves in the adventure (please nobody correct me on what the ogre's level and roles are in the MM; I'm just making up numbers).</blockquote>

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