Evil Minions are the Best Minions
The fantasy: Conan wades through a sea of cultists, taking them down and looking good. He must take them down, because their shear numbers will overwhelm him if he doesn’t.
Goblin Minions
Flea, Mortals! delivers that fantasy with minions. I’ll tell you how to use them. First I’ll explain why they are needed.
5E has a game design concept called bounded accuracy that was supposed deliver that fantasy. It doesn’t work.
Try It, You’ll Hate It
Throw a dozen low CR creatures into one of your combat encounters vs. a level 8 party. Say the standard orc, 1/2 CR, 15 hp, +5 to hit, does 9 damage. Your twilight cleric is giving everyone an average of 11 temporary hit points per turn. And is concentrating on spirit guardians, maybe upcast to 4th level to do an average of 14 (7 on a save) points of damage to all nearby enemies each round.
So you roll a dozen saving throws, miss most, and the orcs try and hit. The fighter in plate and shield has AC 20, and has found one of the many ways to get the shield spell, just in case AC 25 is called for. And is likely to have more temporary hit points than the orc’s damage output, should they ever hit.
Lots of bookkeeping for the GM, negligible effect except for slowing the encounter to a crawl and boring everyone. Great job!
Flee, Mortals! to the Rescue!
You can see Flee, Mortals! minion rules in the free preview, so you can check it out before you buy. I like that.
These minions are different than those in 4th Edtion, or the mooks in 13th Age, but the goal is the same. To support the fantasy of jumping into hoards of foes, and fighting hard to take them down before their numbers overwhelm you.
Group Attacks: Less Work, More Threat
Minions have group attacks, where the DM rolls one die for a group. Saves time. The more minions in the group, the more dangerous the attack. A group of 5 CR 4 mummy rotwraps have +10 to hit and do 20 damage plus some special effects. This may get the PC’s attention.
One Point of Damage
One point is all it takes to drop a minion. Touch one and they go down. But look at the sample. The Goblin Minion (called the Goblin Lackey in the book) has 6, not 1, hit points. What’s up with that?
Overkill
The DM uses the listed hit points to see if multiple minions die from one attack. If a goblin minion with 6 hp takes 7 points of damage, there is one point left over. If there is a nearby other goblin minion, that one dies! If the first minion took 13 points, the first 6 would kill the first, the 2nd 6 would kill a second, and the 1 left over would take down a third. There’s the fantasy.
Save for No Damage (Sometimes)
What about half damage from spirit guardians or fireball? If half damage is equal to or greater than their hit points, they go down. If not, they take zero damage. A goblin minion who would take 6 or more damage on a successful save is just dead, no reason to roll.
Shockingly, fire giant minions have more hit points than goblin minions. Minion hit points scale.
Use ‘em!
I like these minions. They deliver the fantasy, are less work, and most of my players like them.
Most. I have seen players who dislike minions for not behaving like standard (Wizards of the Coast) monsters.
Have you tried these minions? Or other 5E minion rules? How did it work out?
