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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatula" data-source="post: 4322354" data-attributes="member: 2198">Nope.  Lots of people have noticed this; it's a typo or a screw-up.I don't think it's winged, neccessarily.  Compare the zombie rotter to the non-minion zombie and skeleton.The rotter is 1 level higher than the regular zombie, which is a little strange, and that makes me think that the level 3 for the rotter is a typo or a mistaken hold-over.The two zombies otherwise have very similar values - the same exact defenses, etc (if it was really level 3, it should have roughly +1 defenses over the non-minion zombie).  So the rotter almost certainly used the normal zombie as a base.  You can see similarities between the decrepit skeleton and the regular skeleton as well, at least as far as defenses go.  The skeleton warrior is 2 levels higher than the decrepit skeleton, and has a flat +2 defenses.Now, minions don't have roles, but the skeleton is a soldier, and the zombie is a brute.  Looking at the DMG, a soldier's numbers are really just 95% superior compared to all other roles.  Better defenses, better attacks, better initiative.  Brutes have lower defenses, lower attack bonuses, but more HP.  One would imagine that they would do more damage as well.So, if you were to take a soldier and minion-ize its stats, you'd end up with a minion that has better-than-average Initiative, defenses, and attacks - all of which are very important for minions, as they need to get attacks in before they are hit and killed.  Whatever tradeoffs for HP and damage that went into the soldier design are not important, because all minions have 1 HP and deal around the same damage.  If you were to minion-ize a brute, you'd end up with a rather worthless creature like the zombie rotter.  The low defenses of a brute are balanced out by its high HP, but all minions have 1 HP so you just end up with a creature that is easy to hit, and that dies the first time it's hit.  And the higher brute damage turns into nothing much at all for a minion.So I think that minions, or at least those that are based off of non-minion creatures, are basically templated monsters.  It also seems like no one looked at the final numbers on the rotter (at least) to see if they made any sense.  With the decrepit skeleton, it actually does not have the +2 "soldier bonus" to its initiative and attack rolls, although it keeps the high defenses.  The rotter should have been adjusted in a similar manner, perhaps given higher defenses since the normal zombie model of low-AC/high-HP does not work well with minions.</blockquote>

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