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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatula" data-source="post: 4237644" data-attributes="member: 2198">This is a problem if minion is a template-style process (like putting a fire- and acid-resistance template on a troll in 3e is disproportionately good but the CR increase doesn't take that into account), but it's not clear that the zombie minion is the result of that.  It's missing the regular zombie's grab ability (useful) and its necrotic resistance (not very useful against PCs, anyway).  It's also a level higher, which is a little strange...  But in theory, they were designed from the ground up and not the result of taking a 2nd level brute and turning it into a 3rd level minion.Well, probably as far as combos go, but I disagree about the standards thing.  There's nothing preventing tight standards on a monster's numbers in the design framework (primarily, its hp, defenses, and damage output as a function of its level) and indeed I was hoping for just that; how the monster arrives at those values isn't really important.  This zombie minion, though, is definitely poorly designed for its level and makes me think that the vaunted "4e math" is not really there.  Which makes the encounter design tools potentially not any better than CR & EL, and that was what I was mainly looking forward to with the new edition. =\</blockquote>