“Master! Intruders! Intruders!”
These were the last words we wanted to hear as we snuck in the side door of this rundown back-alley warehouse, as several hooded figures spun around to stare at us, their bloodshot eyes glowering over their tattooed faces. With a disinterested wave of her hand, the leader bade them at us, and each slowly drew a silvered dagger and launched at us.
They came thick and fast, swarming over boxes and crates, slash, slash. Freya dropped back, loosing a volley of arrows over at the cult leader, but this only seemed to enrage them more, their manic eyes flashing anger as they knocked me aside to get at her. They were locusts, scrambling all over us. We dropped back, falling over ourselves to get out of there.
Freya went down first, she keep firing until the end, but their steel was sharp and their zeal untold, and so they turned to me, blood-stained teeth and wide eyes, they fell on me, the daggers biting deep, dark closing, as I saw the leader turn away, bored by us….
Sniveling Lackeys are the most pitiful and submissive of all minions, they live for their master, giving up all sense of self-preservation for a chance of impressing their overlord. They will rush into danger blindly, forsaking any kind of tactics for their rage at anyone who would dare to harm their master.
Welcome back to LoreMasters, and welcome to a small mini-series that I’m calling Minion Masterclass.
For those that played 4th Edition, you will recall a set of enemies called Minions, which hit hard but notably only had 1 hp, making them a risk, but also allowing the player to feel like a hero for mowing down ranks of them. This isn’t that. Whilst I like the idea of the 4E minions, I’m looking more at Minions as a style of enemies, rather than a game design.
In 5th edition, we are all mostly used to the same low-level en-masse humanoid baddies - Cultist, Bandit, Guard, Tribal Warrior, etc - and this can be part of what reduces combat to a hit point slog, the same baddies standing toe-to-toe whilst slashing for 3 damage each round, and this is what I’m aiming to give you some newer options on. These are going to be a little more involved to run, but the goal of this newsletter is not to make running the game easier but to make that game more interesting to play.
The Sniveling Lackey is the first of these, a minion so diminished and groveling, that they are going to be constantly running around the battle, reacting to whoever attacks the Big Bad, hoping for a moment to shine in the eyes of their overlord.
The intent here is to stop the old staid model of the range fighters lobbing shots while the tanks wade into melee. These lackeys are going to abandon their opponents every turn, rushing to whoever did some damage to exact revenge. With a thrown weapon at their disposal, players are going to have to be much more tactical and aware of all the enemies when they act.
To make this work, we’ve got two main abilities. Firstly Blind Subserviance is a beefed-up version of Dark Devotion, mostly a narrative device scaling the power of the overlords on the lackeys, and also offering a nice late-battle twist on their panic when their master is slain. Secondly, the Protect At All Costs, which is the core of their tactics, each lackey can move every time a player attacks the Big Bad which is going to frustrate all player plans and keeps the fight constantly flowing.
Alongside these abilities, I’ve beefed up their hit points to let them withstand the inevitable Opportunity Attacks that will come their way, and given them a bump to preception to get that swiveled-eyed vibe, always on the lookout for a way to shine in their master’s eyes.
Check in next week for the Ambush Thugs!