Apparently there's a rule from 4th edition D&D about creating "minions." These are minor enemies that can spice up a fight to make it a bit more challenging without being too crazy to run.
Having DM'd for a few years now, what I've definitely noticed is how it can be hard to build a really satisfying boss confrontation. Especially in the low levels, fights go pretty quickly one way or the other. I think the first two fights of my first session went by without any of my monsters getting a chance to hit the party.
A big part of this is action economy, but it also has to do with round-one bursts.
For instance, the first "dungeon boss" I tried to use was a Spectator - a kind of minor beholder in the Monster Manual. The Paladin, getting a good initiative roll, crit on the Spectator and then used divine smite, which did more than twice the monster's health in a single hit before it got a chance to do anything.
So, how to work around this?
First, minions:
Apparently (according to the Dungeon Dudes Youtube channel,) minions do the following:
You take a monster block - one without too many complicated passive mechanics - and you do the following:
You remove any spellcasting.
You remove multiattack - they just do one attack per action.
You give them one hit point - a single hit take them out.
You also give them Avoidance, which is like Evasion, except for all saving throws. Any save they succeed means they take no damage from the effect, but of course anything they fail, if it damages, means they die immediately.
You then have them do average damage on their attacks to keep things simple.
This allows you to throw in a lot more monsters into the fight, which will eat up attacks, and while the threat from them will be real if they aren't dealt with, dealing with them will not make the fight go on forever.
Next, another option: making a creature legendary.
To make an individual monster feel like a threat, it's going to need to live long enough to threaten the party and also have enough actions to keep the party from feeling safe most of the round.
In fact, minons are, in a roundabout sort of way, a bit like legendary actions. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
To make a monster legendary, here's what I recommend:
First, give them max health - whatever the max health they could roll with their dice, that's what they have.
Next, consider the following:
At super low levels (like 1,) you can probably skip these given how limited players' options are. But by level 5 or higher, you might want to give them either Magic Resistance (advantage on saves versus magical effects,) or 3 Legendary Resistances per day (when they fail at a saving throw, they can choose to succeed instead.) These will make it harder for the party to cheese them with a Hypnotic Pattern or a Suggestion or something like that.
Next, the biggest thing: Legendary actions.
The simplest Legendary Action is a basic attack or a cantrip. If their attacks have some nasty effect, you might consider making the attack cost 2 actions. But generally, if it's just a swing with a weapon or a firebolt, you can feel free to make this a legendary action.
Next, I recommend some sort of re-positioning ability. My Thought Spy last night had "Stutter Step," which allowed him to move up to half his movement speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Both of these techniques are there to make a fight more epic, and also definitely challenging. If you do XP-based character advancement, you'll want to make a legendary creature reward extra XP - possibly doubling it. Minions, on the other hand, might count for a quarter of their normal value.
You can have a legendary creature with minions, but I think you'll want to be careful doing so, as you might make a fight that's just too overwhelming. Then again, my players always surprise each other with how well they can get through my challenges, so maybe go for it!
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