A few days ago, Herzy and I chatted about minions and what they could possibly mean to the fiction of the story. There is something strikingly counterintuitive about a 14th level monster with only one hit point, and I had a hard time trying to justify any but first or second level minions. That is, until I remembered Smaug.
“I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong, strong, strong. Thief in the Shadows! My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!”
I don’t know whether I’d call Smaug an elder or ancient red dragon, but he’s definitely in the Epic range of levels–an old beast of immense might and frightful power. It took a legendary quest to find him and stir him from his ill-gotten lair, but it only took one arrow to slay him. It would not be difficult to see this represented in the mechanics as an ancient dragon, with a 48 AC and a suite of terrifying powers that could tear most adventures to shreds. All with one hit point.
If I were creating such an encounter, I could definitely see it as a race rather than a slugfest. I’d expect the adventurers to do what they can to keep clear of Smaug’s path of destruction until they manage to set up that one sweet shot that had a chance of overcoming his AC.
This doesn’t quite erase the all counterintuitive-ness of the situation, because according to the rules, that one sweet shot might be just tricking him into stepping in a 5′ by 5′ cloud of daggers or getting a kobold to stand next to him so you can snap Smaug on the cleave. But it did remind me to a more accurate portrayal of minions in fiction: daleks.
Back in the 90s there was a Doctor Who roleplaying game called Timelord, which is now available for free in PDF format on this kind of noisy flash website. In combat in that game, your damage had to exceed your opponent’s armor to harm them at all. But if you did, all of your damage would get through. I thought this was a bit odd, and somewhat counterintuitive.
Looking through the alien’s stats, I quickly realized that almost every critter with armor would be incapacitated by any attack with enough force to exceed that armor. What’s more, the dreaded daleks, scourges of universe, would in fact be outright slain by anything that could overcome their armor.
This bothered me for a while, until I realized that this was exactly how it worked in the TV show. Daleks would roll in, blasting away at things, impervious to most of their enemy’s weapons. Someone would show up with a big-ass dalek-slaying gun, shoot once, and obliterate the poor thing. Done and done. No chipping away at the dalek’s defenses, wearing down it’s reserve of energy and structural integrity until until it finally gives over it’s last, digital breath. It was all or nothing with them.
And I that’s what is meant by a high level minion. Or at least, that’s probably the way I’m going to envision it. I mean, it shouldn’t be much more of a stretch than the concept of hit points. Right?
3 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
A quick glance through the MM reveals that the “most powerful” minion is the level 23 abyssal ghoul myrmidon. (What a name!) It’s AC is a hefty 35 (with saves in that same area) but it has only one attack: claws +26 v. AC, 9 damage, and target is immobilized (save ends). Oh, and it explodes a bit when you kill it (5 necrotic damage in a close burst 1). Overall, it doesn’t seem too scary, but its possible a dozen or so could immobilize a party and have its way with them for a few rounds.
Guess we’ll have to see how this kind of thing plays out.
I’m curious to try this out as well. Without looking at the MM (I’m too lazy to go to the next room) are any minions designated as Solo monsters? ‘Cause the Smaug analogy is interesting, though I thought they were meant solely as underlings (hence the ‘minions’ title).
Yeah, there’s no solo minions. I think elite, solo, and minion are all mutually exclusive. It was more of intellectual exercise, because I was having trouble resolving in my head what a high level minion would be like.