Tag: minion

Categories
DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2012: Minions: Full Disclosure

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2012. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

We’ve written a lot about minions here at Dungeon’s Master. We like minions… a lot. As DMs, as players, and as bloggers, we have an unhealthy obsession with minions. There’s just something to be said for monsters that fall with a single hit.

As a player when I see that the party is outnumbered 2:1 I know we’ve got a tough fight in front of us. When the combat ends and the party stands victorious it feels good. We did our job as heroes and defeated the bad guys. So what that some of them were minions, they were all out to kill us. And therein lays the heart of this article.

A monster is a monster and it has the power and opportunity to kill the PCs if they do nothing. The fact that it’s got only 1 hit point shouldn’t matter. If you see an Orc with a sword running at you do you really care if he has 1 hit point or 100? No. You get out of the way or try to stop him before he can reach you. If a single arrow drops him, great; if it takes seven arrows that’s less great.

The point is that players need to try and put themselves into their characters’ shoes more often. Stop looking at the map and minis as a player and look at it as a character. Don’t assume that some monsters (minions) are less important or less threatening than other monsters. As long as the monsters are standing consider them a threat and don’t let up until every one of them, minion or otherwise, is down.

DMs try using some of the tips we mention in the article below to disguise your minions and keep the players for easily distinguishing them from the more powerful monsters. When the players don’t know which monsters are minions they treat them all equally and consider them all deadly. This mentality makes combat encounters a lot more interesting and enjoyable for everyone.

From June 26, 2012, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Minions: Full Disclosure.

Continue reading “Greatest Hits 2012: Minions: Full Disclosure”
Categories
DM Resources

Minions: Full Disclosure

Is the DM obligated to tell the players that monsters are minions? I never do. Players don’t treat minions like they do other monsters. They don’t see them as threatening. And why should they, after all a minion only has 1 hit point and will fall with any hit that inflicts damage. In my mind the minion was one of the best additions to 4e D&D.

DMs can throw lots of monsters at the heroes, and as long as a bunch of them are minions then the PCs will just mow through them. They still have to target and hit them, but if a hit is scored the monster falls. There are, of course, some variations and exceptions to traditional minions – some minions explode when killed, some get a final attack and others still will rise from the dead to fight again after they’ve been killed once. Here at Dungeon’s Master we’ve introduced two-hit minions that, as the name implies, need to be hit twice to finally kill them. Regardless of what kind of minion you’re facing the commonality is that it doesn’t make a difference if you deal 1 point of damage or 100 points of damage with a single hit, you just have to hit them.

Minions are great and I encourage DMs to use them regularly, but DMs need to be careful how and when they reveal that some monsters are minions. As soon as player know that some for their opponents are minions they use this meta-knowledge to influence their PCs’ actions. For this reason I never disclose the fact that monsters are minions. I let the players discover this fact when their characters do. And if they make some poor assumptions I rarely correct them.

Continue reading “Minions: Full Disclosure”
Categories
DM Resources

Greatest Hits 2011: Two-Hit Minions

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

Of all the articles I wrote in 2011, the article on two-hit minions is one of the ones I’m most proud of. Most of our articles are tips, tricks and advice for how to improve your game or make it more fun; rarely do we try and introduce any new mechanics. The two-hit minion was an exception. It was a mechanic that Sterling first suggested almost two years earlier, but when we actually started using the two-hit minions regularly this article was born and the feedback was very positive.

It took a few sessions of play testing before I believe I found the right balance for running two-hit minions, and each time we tweaked the mechanic the players confirmed that it was getting better. I’ve been using two-hit minions in my games, especially D&D Encounters, for about six months now and they always make the game more interesting. The players love the rush that comes from mowing down a bunch of minions, but they really love that some of those minions have the strength to take a hit and get right back up.

I’ve also learned that the key to two-hit minions it not to overuse them. This is good advice for minions in general, but is even better advice when it comes to the two-hit variation. By switching it up and mixing regular minions in with two-hit minions, players stop making broad assumptions about monsters until they actually have a chance to engage them. They no longer assume that six identical minis are going to be minions that will fall with one hit. Now they take into consideration the possibility that some or all of them might survive a blast from the controller so they need to be ready for that eventuality.

Continue reading “Greatest Hits 2011: Two-Hit Minions”
Categories
DM Resources Editorial

Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions

While the Dungeon’s Master team enjoys some well-deserved vacation time, we’re breaking out the greatest hits and shining a spotlight on a few of our favourite articles from 2011. We’ve searched for hidden gems that our newer readers might have missed and our long-time readers will enjoy reading again. Enjoy a second look at these greatest hits from Dungeon’s Master.

I love minions.

It has been almost a year since the original article was published and my love affair with minions has not decreased. If anything the infatuation has only increased. Since this article on minions was published I’ve taken the DM hat off and returned to the other side of the screen. Yet, even as a player I love minions. 

I take great joy in watching how my DM deploy’s his minions, how he frustrates me and other players with their tactical usage. It’s most obscene, but I take a perverse joy when all the minions gang up on the controller. I attack something else for a round just to see what will happen. 

In my mind minions truly are the best tool in the DM tool box that 4e introduced. The ability to add swarms of easy to kill, easy to use enemies is fantastic. Minions can quickly change the dynamic of any combat. Player’s are often left guessing on which monster is the minion during the initial rounds of an encounter. Where minions really stack up is when their synergies mesh with the other monsters in the encounter. 

As a player I feel truly heroic when I dispatch multiple foes with a burst or blast attack. Sure, they only have 1 hit point, but that isn’t the point. The point is what minions truly represent in the game. The fodder. My characters are supposed to be powerful, there are opponents that I am supposed to be able to vanquish with impunity. Minions fill that role. 

I hope you enjoy another read of this article. Since it was first published it has become one of our most searched articles and whether you are a DM or a player I’m sure you’ll find the value, joy and satisfaction that minions inject into combat. As I’ve said, my love affair with minions stands. I don’t see us breaking up anytime soon.

Continue reading “Greatest Hits 2011: My Love Affair With Minions”
Categories
DM Resources

Eenie, Meennie, Mini

I wasn’t a fan of minis until 4e came along. The introduction of very tactical combat made the conversion easy. I enjoy the different perspective that a large mini represents on the battlefield, how lines of sight might be affected and how the battle in general unfolds. Of course it has also led to several members of the Dungeon’s Master team to develop rather large collections of minis. Which is all to my benefit as a player and DM.

One of the questions I’m constantly debating is whether to use a mini that matches the monster they player’s are fighting. Now let me clear up that last statement. If the players are fighting a dragon, a beholder or a giant I use the appropriate mini. The dragon might not be the right colour, thought that’s usually not a problem, but the mini at least represents the monster.

Where I’m less specific is with humanoid combatants. My half-orc’s might look like humans, and my minotaurs might look like elves. As long as I have a mini on the table I’m usually satisfied.

Continue reading “Eenie, Meennie, Mini”
Categories
DM Resources

More Than Just Minions

Killing minions feels good. So good in fact players do weird things in order to kill minions. Controllers who normally hide behind the defenders will charge with wild abandon to unleash a close blast spell if they believe they can drop more than one minion on their turn. Likewise, strikers will move into the thick of a group of enemies they don’t consider a threat to get their shots in on some easy minion fodder.

Here are a few fun things you can do to exploit the PC’s perceptions of minions.

Continue reading “More Than Just Minions”