Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition innovated upon its predecessors in a lot of interesting ways. Its designers aimed to make its combat system a cross between a team sport and a cinematic facet of your campaign’s story. For D&D 5e, however, Wizards tried to distance itself from 4e’s design direction indiscriminately, sometimes to the detriment of 5e’s goal to create a “streamlined” game. In this article, we’re revisiting Minions, monsters with 1 Hit Point designed to quickly populate a combat encounter. What are Minions, narratively? Why should you add them to your combat encounters? How can you make Minions, and then, how can you make them even BETTER?

What is a Minion?

Minions are the minor enemies that pad out a combat scene – unnamed hired thugs, disposable animated skeletons, or goblins that are mostly useful in sheer numbers. Since they’re made to stuff your combat scenes to the gills with foes, they’re supposed to be simple for the GM to track. Minions never have more than 1 Hit Point. They don’t roll damage when they attack. They always act on the same initiative count, and they never take damage from an attacks that miss or successful saving throws. Such flimsy targets make great opportunities for characters with Area of Effect abilities to shine. There’s nothing more empowering for a Dragonborn to mow down scores of Minions with their Breath Weapon, or a wizard to drop a fireball to clear a path for the fighter to engage more serious foes.

How to Use Minions

When adding minions to a combat encounter, as a rule of thumb, 4 minions are roughly equivalent to a regular monster of their Challenge Rating, though at higher levels, this ratio will increase. If you’re using this article’s guidelines to create Minions, follow the Dungeon Master’s Guide’s XP budgets, and consider the following behaviors for Minions when running combat encounters:

Minions aren’t special. Minions should be added to a combat encounter in groups of 4 or more, and almost always be paired with at least one normal monster who is “in charge” of them. If only minions remain in a combat encounter, they should consider fleeing unless there is a narrative reason they’d stay.

Minions are simple. Minions are designed not to be tracked in detail. They don’t care about damage or effects from missed attacks. They should all act on the same Initiative count, even if you normally roll monsters’ Initiative individually. Minions should consider using the Help Action or attempting to Grapple a foe to make it easier for their allies (including other Minions) to hit. With so many extra combatants, don’t allow Minions to take Reactions. Instead, Minions can automatically deal damage in place of an Opportunity Attack every time a creature leaves their reach.

Minions are predictable. Your players should be able to form strategies around Minions, so let them know Minions are present in the scene. Using a spell slot to dispatch Minions is already expensive, and when the effect of “upcasting” a spell is most often higher damage, that waste of daily resources is a huge frustration. Make it clear, either through dialog or description, what Minions are trying to do in a combat encounter.

How to Make Minions

You can take an existing stat block and turn it INTO a minion! You might do this to foes your players have faced multiple times to reflect that they’ve become familiar with an enemy. They might still be a threat in large numbers, but at this point in the story, they’re more of a source of resource attrition when the heroes have bigger fish to fry. Do not apply these guidelines to a creature which can take Legendary Actions – such creatures are supposed to be special.

• Reduce the monster’s HP to 1. The monster is Immune to damage dealt as the result of a missed attack (such as the Graze Weapon Mastery) or a successful Saving Throw. Attack rolls that deal damage a Minion would be Vulnerable to are made with Advantage.
• Increase the monster’s Challenge Rating by 4 (do not increase its XP value or its Proficiency Bonus). A group of minions is meant to be an appropriate challenge for a party of characters whose level is equal to that CR, but otherwise should continue to have the same effect on the XP budget for a combat encounter as it did before being reduced to a Minion. Monsters with a CR of 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 become CR 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

• When the monster hits with its attack, it always deals the average damage for the attack (the damage outside the parentheses).

• If it had one, the monster can no longer use its Multiattack option. The sheer number of Minions in a combat encounter will compensate for this.

• If the monster has an ability which would recharge, that ability is instead usable only once per day.

• If the monster would make an Opportunity Attack, it does not use a Reaction, and automatically deals its attack damage. Tracking whether individual Minions have used their Reactions is unnecessary bookkeeping, and rolling every Opportunity Attack adds to the number of exchanges in a combat encounter. This way, ignoring a Minion is a valid strategic decision with a predictable outcome for your players.

Example Minion: Skeleton Minions

This stat block makes the Skeleton into a Minion. Adventurers might find a horde of skeletons while delving through catacombs, in thrall to a necromancer or guarding a crypt from would-be grave robbers.

Skeleton [Minion]

Medium Undead, Lawful Evil

AC 14        Initiative +3 (13)

HP 1

Speed 30 ft.

STR 10 +0 +0 DEX 16 +3 +3 CON 15 +2 +2

INT 6 -2 -2 WIS 8 -1 -1 CHA 5 -3 -3

Vulnerable Bludgeoning

Immune Poison; Exhaustion, Poisoned

Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 9

Languages Understands Common plus one other language but can’t speak

CR 2 (50 XP; PB +2)

TRAITS

Minion. The Skeleton is a Minion and has the following traits:

The Skeleton is Immune to any damage dealt as the result of a missed attack or a successful Saving Throw.

Attack rolls which deal Bludgeoning damage to the Skeleton are made with Advantage.

When an enemy moves outside of the Skeleton’s reach, it takes 6 Piercing damage.

ACTIONS

Shortsword. Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5 ft. Hit: 6 Piercing damage.

Shortbow. Ranged Attack Roll: +5, range 80/320 ft. Hit: 6 Piercing damage.

How to Make BETTER Minions

Already, Minions should be standing out to you as a way to make monsters in the same way as you would terrain in a combat scenario – they don’t pose an active threat to your players, but instead shape how they’ll approach the combat scenario. Beyond this, hare are a few ways to further reinforce Minions’ roles in combat.

Minion Traits

You can give a group of Minions one of the following traits to make them more interesting in battle:

Coordinated. This Minion gets a +1 bonus to AC and Saving Throws for each ally within its reach.

Disruptive. When this Minion dies, it distracts all creatures within its reach. Until the end of that creature’s next turn, all Attack rolls against it are made with Advantage.

Guarding. Attack rolls against creatures within this Minion’s reach are made with Disadvantage.

Harrying. A hostile creature’s move speed is reduced to 0 while within this Minion’s reach.

Pack Tactics. This Minion has Advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the Minion’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally doesn’t have the Incapacitated condition.

Thrashing. This Minion deals its attack damage to each hostile creature within its reach when it dies.

Vengeful. If one of its allies has died since this Minion’s last turn, its attacks’ damage is doubled.

Legendary Minion Encounters

If you have a cohort of Minions alongside a creature that can take Legendary Actions, you can add one of the following Legendary Actions to that creature’s options:

Onslaught. Each Minion that can see or hear the Legendary creature makes an attack.

Regroup. Each Minion that can see or hear the Legendary creature can move up to its speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks.

Minions add depth to anemic combat encounters without pulling focus away from players or major antagonists. Your players get to feel like heroes facing down hordes of bad guys, and your villains have a chance to be a credible threat without struggling against the attention of an undivided party. Your players can battle against large numbers of foes without you having to keep a detailed ledger of Hit Point counts. And most importantly, as a simple tool, you can customize Minions suit YOUR game.

The Adventures Continue!

A million years and a global pandemic ago (or early 2020 – who can tell anymore?), I announced a TBM Games book that never saw the light of day, The War Gods’ Guide to Battle. While the project was doomed in ways we couldn’t possibly have foreseen, the book’s ideas are still around, and I’m revisiting them with renewed perspective. (After all, I’m a million years and a global pandemic wiser.) If you’re a Game Master who wants to craft cinematic and tactical combat encounters, please consider backing TBM Games here on Patreon, where you’ll get early access to our articles and game design thoughts and help us to keep writing TTRPG resources you love.