I have a question, if somebody would be kind enough to answer.

Let's say a PC character is medium distance away from minions (using melee weapons). Those minions would have to spend one maneuver to reach short range, and then could spend an action as maneuver to move to engaged. And that's it. PC could then attack them, and spend two maneuvers (using strain or advantage) to move to medium range again, and in this way he could kite them without ever fearing attack.

Am I interpreting right? Would it be possible for melee minons to move from short range to engaged and attack (some sort of charge)?

Another question is. If three minions, each with 5 wounds (for a total of 15) would suffer 15+damage or 10+damage and critical injury. Would this mean that all three are dead? Or would just one be dead (that is if you attack minions and overshoot the damage, is that damage wasted or still counts against other members of the group).

Thank you.

1) Yes, the PCs could do this. But that isn't a big deal - Minions are speed bumps for the most part. If this is frustrating for you have another group of minions flank them or bar their retreat with a shield wall or something. The PCs now must punch through, fight back to back or use their smarts to find another way to retreat. Are the minions Melee-only for a reason? No bows? If they're animuls then perhaps a special "pounce" talent is justified?

B) Technically each of those would leave a single minion alive, though only just. (I believe you remove one minion for each multiple of wounds in excess of an individual's WT that a group suffers.) That said, Minions are just speed bumps so yeah, feel free to skrag 'em.

1) Yes, the PCs could do this. But that isn't a big deal - Minions are speed bumps for the most part. If this is frustrating for you have another group of minions flank them or bar their retreat with a shield wall or something. The PCs now must punch through, fight back to back or use their smarts to find another way to retreat. Are the minions Melee-only for a reason? No bows? If they're animuls then perhaps a special "pounce" talent is justified?

B) Technically each of those would leave a single minion alive, though only just. (I believe you remove one minion for each multiple of wounds in excess of an individual's WT that a group suffers.) That said, Minions are just speed bumps so yeah, feel free to skrag 'em.

Thank you for your response.

1) I was actually thinking of animals, so "special" pounce talent sounds cool.

B) Yeah you are correct, miscalculated that. However if they had 4 wounds threshold than 5 damage should be enough to down. So in that case they should be down and out.

I would consider this to be a chase, with fighting thrown in. So at the beginning of each round I would have both sides roll Athletics (the player to keep distance, the minions to close it) and if the minions keep close, they can attack normally, probably making called shots to knock the player down and swarm him. And, of course, since he ran off, he's separated from the rest of his herd, which is exactly what predatory animals are trying for in the first place.

Now then, if the player won the Athletics check, the animals couldn't attack, but I would let them use their action to make a Coordination roll or something, adding difficulty dice to the PC's shooting roll. Basically, the beasts are following him from the sides and behind, keeping behind cover, running across narrow ledges overhead, trying to keep him scared and confused. Any Threat the PC rolled I would probably use to hit him with Strain, again and again as the chase exhausts him.

Don't run from wolves, kids. Be a pack, not a herd.

The other key thing to consider is starting position; If your gonna make melee a credible threat I would do one of two things.

1) Limit the amount of space available. This way they can't indefinitely Kite. A DM used this technique on our auto-fire gunner to stop him indefinitely backpeddling from the inquisitor while fighting in the interior of a ship.

2) Make them come from multiple angles. Ambush predators will look to surround targets before attacking so if they are genuinely ambushed, surround them.

3) Last but not least, simply make them move quicker. Roll athletic checks to outrun these things if everyone tries to run, those that fail will fail to put distance between them and the dogs, add setbacks to both sides to climbing up tarrian, but also grant bonus's to defence against attacks made uphill. Simple, effective.

That being said, these are minons and their role is to generally die quickly. Personally I find it more interesting to deal with more independent minions.

1. Yeah, it's possible, but you're burning 2 strain every time you do it and also the GM would be playing those minions like idiots. IMO, if a character is actively running away from the bad guys, then it's a chase scene. The second time he tried the attack-disengage-move tactic, I would have him roll a competitive Athletics or Coordination check (depending on the physical layout) at the beginning of the round to keep from being caught or cornered. It really just depends on the intent of the character performing the actions. But there are many ways to keep a player from gaming the system, if you feel like they're doing that.

2. Wounds must exceed a target's threshold to take him down. So, rules as written, it'd have to be a total of 16+ wounds suffered, or 11+ wounds and a critical.

Give your minions a commander who can grant them an extra maneuver. I don't have my book in front of me so can't remember the talent name.

Give your minions a commander who can grant them an extra maneuver. I don't have my book in front of me so can't remember the talent name.

There's a number of Adversaries that have the "Minion Type" Authority special ability, which lets them grant either a free maneuver or a boost die to skill checks to a minion group of a certain type. The most commonly seen one is probably Imperial Authority, letting officer-types grant stormtroopers and the like a maneuver or boost die, though I think the Inquisitor build rules in FaD have a version that grants both the maneuver and boost die, but I can't check my book to be certain about that.

Give your minions a commander who can grant them an extra maneuver. I don't have my book in front of me so can't remember the talent name.

Screw that. Just give all your minions jetpacks!!