Wondering waht other DMs do...

[oldbone]

You present this encounter:
1 elite, several "standard" monsters, and a pack of "minions"

Do you:
1. clearly tell the players which figs are standard/minion/elite?
or
2. let them figure it out for themselves?

 

[DracoSuave]

You present this encounter:
1 elite, several "standard" monsters, and a pack of "minions"

Do you:
1. clearly tell the players which figs are standard/minion/elite?
or
2. let them figure it out for themselves?

Depends on how good their skill rolls are.

 

[theNater]

I kind of go half and half. I make it fairly clear that the pack are all essentially the same critter, so the players usually identify them as minions in no time.

Pointing out the elite isn't quite so blatant, but most of the elites my players have run into have been large sized, giving orders, or otherwise distinct.

I feel this is a reasonable approach because the monsters usually have sufficient surprises that the players don't also need to be surprised by relative hit point totals.

 

[Akhena]

I would tell them, but not using a straight forward approach (so not mentionning the words : elite, standard and minions). I would make sure the desription of the bad elite guy is awesome compared to the minions. Remember, the more description you give about something, the more the PC think it is important. So here it is probably a good way to do it.

Then I would let them figure out how to deal with the situation. Obviously an encounter might be totally different if the goblin lair is guarded by 10 minions or by 10 standards goblins...

 

[Doomhawk]

I often allow Perception/Insight rolls to determine who's in charge/subordinate, depending on the situation. You don't have to give out ALL the information, but it's not hard to figure out that the guy leading the charge is an elite, or that the swarms of anklebiters are minions. Or maybe they're not minions, and it's just a combat the PC's were supposed to avoid...

 

[Palladion]

Use an appropriate "knowledge" skill to identify them. A successful roll tells you if the creature is standard, elite, solo, or a minion, along with whatever information is normally granted.

The other way is allow them to notice equipment or visual differences and let the players discern for themselves.

 

[James McMurray]

I haven't run 4e yet, but if I do I'll describe the different groups and use similar enough minis that's its easy to tell which one belongs to which group. Then, when a minion gets blasted, the players will know that the rest of the minis from that group are also minions.

If, however, all of the enemies look the same (like with zombies for example) I'd do exactly the same thing, but certain minis in the "minion" group wouldn't be minions.

 

[Gort]

It usually becomes pretty clear which are the minions after the first round of area attacks from the wizard and the dragonborn fighter. I've never told my players which enemies are elite or solo or minions, that's pretty metagaming.

I might point out that the elite hobgoblin chief is clearly tougher-looking than his henchmen, but I certainly don't use out-of-game terminology to do it.

 

[BASHMAN]

With a background of playing a lot of 7th Sea, and as the author of a system that uses Minions as well, I have always found that it is "in genre" for the Heroes to know which foes are minions and which ones are the big bad guys. In a Three Musketeers Movie, A musketeer can take down multple guards, but can only fight one Lietinant at a time, etc.

From an anime perspective, the characters with detailed and original "faces" stand out from drawn with less detail, that look almost the same, as "faceless".

The ONLY time that the Heroes would NOT know if someone is a Villain or a Minion is if the villain is DELIBERATELY trying to avoid detection by blending in with the minions.

Even then, mechanically, there are ways to tell someone is a villain or minion. In BASH! minions don't roll to hit or defend themselves, they use static values-- so if you attack someone and they don't roll defense, you know it is a minion. In 7th Sea it is outright declared which are brutes-- (they attack in squads). 4th Ed D&D has a similar mechanical clue-- Minions don't roll damage. So if you get hit by an attack and take damage but the DM didn't do a die roll, you know you are fighting a minion. And if you DM rolls a die behind the screen just to keep you guessing so you waste your encounter power on it, you know your DM is a jerk.

 

[Arbitrary]

I don't tell the players what are and what are not minions but it is extremely difficult to hide that fact unless I really go out of my way. They reveal themselves even if I fake roll dmg and do 3/4/5 instead of the fixed 4 and using identical figs for every monster just makes it confusing for everyone (me included). So far it hasn't really been worth trying.