Stick Minion [3.5]

[kinem]

Stick Minion

Medium-Sized Construct
Hit Dice: 1/5 d10 (1 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 20’
Armor Class: 14 (+2 natural, +2 size), touch 12, flat footed 14
Base Attack / Grapple: +0 / +0
Attack: Slam +1 melee (1d6)
Full Attack: Slam +1 melee (1d6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities: Evasion, construct immunities, darkvision 60’, low-light vision, fragile, thin, damage reduction 5 / slashing or bludgeoning
Saves: Fort +0, Reflex +0, Will +0
Abilities: STR 10, DEX 10, CON -, INT -, WIS 10, CHA 10
Skills: –
Feats: Weapon Focus (slam)
[B]Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary, Pair, or Harvest (3-30)
Challenge Rating: 1/8
Treasure: none
Alignment: Neutral
Advancement: none

These are magically created stick-figure-shaped humanoid constructs made of wooden sticks, either rough or smooth.

They follow only extremely simple instructions from the creator or harvester. Examples are: stay, attack those guys, or flee. All stick minions that obey the same person will attempt to follow the order if they are close enough to hear it.

They don't have hands, just club-like forearms, so they can't throw things, though they could be given things to carry.

Fragile (ex): It does not gain the bonus hit points for being a medium sized construct.

Thin (ex): It has a +2 size bonus to AC.

Construct: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, and similar effects. Not subject to non-lethal damage, ability damage or drain, or energy drain.

Construction:

These constructs can be created either individually as normal for constructs, or by carving runes into a tree and applying certain oils to the tree. In the latter case, a large tree can be used to create up to 5 stick minions, or more for a very large tree. The minions will grow from the tree branches over a one week period, and can then be harvested. They will then obey the commands of whoever plucked them, as well as of the creator. (If given conflicting orders, they follow the latest orders.) If harvested too early, they will fail to function and remain inert. If not harvested after 3 months they’ll rot away.

Each costs 30 gp to create, or 15 gp if the creator is a druid. The creator must be 5th level, able to cast arcane or divine spells, and have the Craft Construct feat. Completing the ritual for a single stick minion or for a tree takes one day.

[Debihuman]

Considering that Constructs are destroyed when they reach 0 hit points, a construct with 1 hit point is well, kinda pointless. CR is closer to 1/8 rather than 1/4 because of that.

You might want to reconsider the fragile special ability so that it is half bonus hit point rather than none just to make this a little challenging.

Debby

[kinem]

Debi, thanks for the comments.

I definitely want to keep the 1 hp. It may be over-CR'd though at 1/4 (compare kobold at 1/4, or skeleton at 1/3), so I'll reduce it. Note the damage reduction though; if you don't have a blunt weapon they might not die when hit.

Basically I want them to be quick, cheap, weak servants / fighters without the need to procure bodies for animate dead.

BTW, the term 'minion' is a 4e-ism, and while I don't like 4e, most players know the usage of the term in 4e. Basically, in 4e it means a creature with Evasion, only 1 hp, and that dies at 0 hp. The main advantage is that the DM doesn't need to track their hp. In 4e though it is used in ways that don't make sense (much as just about everything in 4e), such as having high level ogre minions; this is a play off of the 4e usage since for these it does make sense.

[Hamste]

You might want it weak to slashing not bludgeoning. After all it makes more sense for a tree to die to an axe than a hammer. Of course this would make it very easy for them to die though and you might be focusing on sticks snapping thing like skeletons.

[kinem]

Thanks. There is a certain logic to that.

I made the DR 5 / slashing or bludgeoning, but also made Thin give a straight +2 size bonus to AC. Piercing weapons are still at a disadvantage as they have to overcome the DR.

[Debihuman]

HD should probably be 1/4d10 (1 hp) not 1/5.

Normally you list the specific feat and spells in Construction that would allow you to make these. I recommend: Craft Construct, animate object, ray of enfeeblement.

Debby

[Lappy9001]

You've left a [B] tag in the feats section. I'm a touch worried about the HP, from what it looks like, a stick minion can never gain any extra HP except for HD and feats. I know you want weak minions, and 4e minions have 1HP no matter what but it's something to consider if anyone ever wants to advance it.

All of its abilities are 10. Was this intentional, because that's pretty unusual. It could use some work, but it looks pretty good. I like the 'harvest' organization :smallsmile:

[Arcanist]

Evasion

Unless you can somehow make a spell or effect deal less than 1 damage, Evasion will not be helping at all.

[Debihuman]

The [b] tag is because it is a bonus feat. Mindless creatures don't have feats and skills unless they are bonus feats and racial skills.

[The Mentalist]

Unless you can somehow make a spell or effect deal less than 1 damage, Evasion will not be helping at all.

Evasion is Save for None

Improved Evasion is Half on a failed save which would be useless for a 1hp mob.

I think that these things need to be priced differently, it's hard to price them as they're a creature that can take actions and that has repercussions beyond combat. They make a better version of the Unseen Servant Bomb. They can also carry oils and smear them on an adjacent creature, throw nets and lassos, and do a lot of other indirect combat actions and that's a lot of things for a 30gp hireling to be able to do but considering how amazingly fragile they are it seems like raising the price too much would make that a big investment to have to throw away so often.

Perhaps if you could plant the fragments of a dead one and have it regrow after a few weeks to months with a price increase?

I would give them hardness and object traits for damage reduction in terms of the DR debate though. Object traits gives energy resists which could be useful.

[Lappy9001]

The [b] tag is because it is a bonus feat. Mindless creatures don't have feats and skills unless they are bonus feats and racial skills.Realized that after I posted but forgot to make the edit. Thanks :smalltongue:

[kinem]

Thanks for the comments.

Maybe I need to say so explicitly, but they can't throw things or smear oils: They don't have hands, just club-like forearms. Of course they could be given certain things to carry.

For Construction it does say you need the Craft Construct feat and the ability to cast spells. You don't need specific spells, because I couldn't find appropriate ones. Animate Object is too high level and too restricted in terms of class spell lists.

If you want more powerful constructs, don't use these; they are meant to be basic low level cheap and disposable minions.

All abilities being 10 (other than non-abilities) seems to work fine for that.

[Debihuman]

Thanks for the comments.

For Construction it does say you need the Craft Construct feat and the ability to cast spells. You don't need specific spells, because I couldn't find appropriate ones. Animate Object is too high level and too restricted in terms of class spell lists.

At 5th level there aren't a lot of spells that would make fit. Warp wood makes the most sense (these are stick figures after all). The creator doesn't need to cast the spell so class is irrelevant.

How is this:

Construction
Stick minions are made by carving runes into a tree and then applying 15 gp of oils to the tree. A large tree can be used to create up to 5 stick minions. The minions will grow from the tree branches over a one week period, and can then be harvested. They will then obey the commands of whoever plucked them, as well as of the creator. (If given conflicting orders, they follow the latest orders.) If harvested too early, they will fail to function and remain inert. If not harvested after 3 months they’ll rot away.

The creator must be 5th level, able to cast arcane or divine spells, and have the Craft Construct feat. Completing the ritual for 1-5 stick minions (one large tree) takes one day.

CL 5, Craft Construct, warp wood. Price: 30 gp, Cost: 15 gp,1 xp and 1 day to create.

Debby

[kinem]

Thanks Debi, though I am satisfied with the way I have it already. I didn't require Warp Wood because I don't want a need for druid (or scroll, etc.) to be involved, and didn't include an XP cost because I see no need for one for these simple constructs. Pathfinder doesn't use XP costs at all.

[DracoDei]

Maybe I need to say so explicitly, but they can't throw things or smear oils: They don't have hands, just club-like forearms. Of course they could be given certain things to carry.

Yeah, I'd state that explicitly.

Carrying stuff... isn't too big a deal. From that perspective they are a mule with a lower carrying capacity that you don't need to feed, and can climb ladders. Nothing to sneeze at, but not huge.

[Kane0]

Seems fine for a minionish construct, though i wonder why minions need to be fully statted out at all. If i were running i'd just need their attacks, defences and any special abilities with the word 'minion' as a heading or subheading. It's not like they are meant to be detailed and/or fully fleshed out anyway. They are by design just blade-fodder.

Just my 2cp of course.

[kinem]

I strongly disagree, Kane.

Certainly, a quick reduced stat block would be handy for running a combat and is probably all you'd need in your notes for that. I have long liked the idea of having that available for monsters.

But as the end all and be all of the monster stats and description? No way! How would you get into the head of any resourceful NPC or PC who uses the things if you don't know how strong they are and what they can carry? How would you make plans to use them in noncombat situations, or know as DM what such situations to throw in for flavor? How would you write fan fiction if you don't know how long it takes to make them, and in what manner, so you can visualize in you head the guy doing it? How would you visualize the combat if you don't know if their AC comes from dex, from size, or from natural armor?

Maybe you don't care to do any of those things, but as for me, I would have little interest in the D&D game if I couldn't.

[Fosco the Swift]

I personally think these make great blade-fodder minions, but all I can think of is this: Great Cleave (Roy has Boobies :smalltongue:)But I can see a Harvest of these things being quite difficult to defeat. You could make them CR 1/4 again and give them the "Harvest Swarm" ability- basically two Stick minions can occupy one space, and gain a +2 bonus to attacks when doing so. This stacks with flanking. This basically makes your minions dangerous in numbers, but worthless alone.

[Kane0]

-Snip-

I can see your point here, but the way i see it a minion isn't the focal point of anything, and shouldn't be. The second they become an individual they cease to be a minion, thus you can fully extrapolate all their aspects and give them a proper place in the game as opposed to their faceless brethren.

It's nice to have all the information that you could possibly need, but in reality you only need the basics since it is by design an expendable pawn on the field of play. The more streamlined you can make it the smoother the game should run, at least in theory. For those requiring additional details (especially those that do not impact combat) a simple footnote should suffice unless said minion becomes a fully sledged NPC, at which point they are no longer, in my eyes, expendable blank templates in the way that minions are.

But this is a DMing preference of course.

Edit: To save confusion, i'm not really trying to say you cant have depth and flavor for minions, i'm just saying that a lot of the time it is wasted effort and not helpful for running combat. When one places them on the field they would be identified as animated bundles of sticks rather than the actual word 'minion', though the numbers behind your screen say that. The players see little stick golems (depending on your depiction of course), you see little stick golems with 1 HP. If interest is expressed in these little stick golems then you can freely put in all the fun details about them, either right there or further on as the game progresses.
Actually i'm not sure if that cleared things up or made it worse.


but all I can think of is this: Great Cleave
Cleave is an at-will power in 4e, I'm sure Kinem has considered it.

[Fosco the Swift]

Doesn't the title specifically say 3.5?

[Kane0]

Kinem mentioned his familiarity with 4e in his second post.

As he said, in 4e a minion always has 1 HP and will never lose that 1 HP unless they take direct damage. For example something like the 1 HP splash damage from an alchemist fire won't hit them, but will if that vial of Alchemist fire is thrown straight at them.

Translating that over to 3rd ed is a little tricky, but since most sources of damage that have secondary targets and/or splash damage are reflex half, some form of evasion is a good place to start.

[kinem]

This is in no way a 4E minion, it's a 3.5 monster with the name 'stick minion' and obviously inspired by the 4E idea to some extent. As such, there would certainly never be a mark on the DM's sheet labeling them 'minions', nor any special mechanics beyond what's in the monster stats. My familiarity with 4E is limited to learning enough to know what's it's like, playing in a short game of it, and dropping any further interest.

Cleave? Sure, go nuts if you can. But with AC 14, a low level fighter won't always hit them.

[Fosco the Swift]

So would Harvest Swarm be any good? It basically allows a new max of 16 minions around a target instead of only 8. So suddenly let's say a target with an AC of 15 gets surrounded by an ambush of these minions. That's 16 attacks with a new attack of +5, so about 50% of your attacks hit. 8d6 is a pretty nasty attack at the lower levels.

[kinem]

That's too strong for what they are. I'll leave them as is. Thanks for the suggestion though :smallsmile: