Is there a limit to the number of minions that can combine attacks against a single character? I assume 6 since skill ranks can't go above 5.

As a GM it wouldn't statistically help you after 6, no, but it would continue to improve the HP, and retain that max bonus even after some damage is taken. This basically comes down to how much bookkeeping the GM wants to do. Honestly, if you get beyond a dozen? They probably are a big enough mob not to even all occupy the same range band, and you should probably split them into two. However, if you are in a scenario where say....there is a formation of B-1 battle droids marching into the characters positions (the TCW cartoon and even E2 and E3 have some situations like this), where the formation seems infinitely deep, and yes, for every droid you kill, there is another right behind it to take its place, it might serve the game to have a minion group of 100 or 500 or 1,000. So basically, the stats of thier attack is never going to change, and they will just keep coming in practice infinitely.

Why would you want this scenario? Well maybe the objective isn't for the players to kill all the enemies, but just to hold out for X rounds while an objective is met, and then retreat/get extracted. So sure, there are potentially scenarios where you'd rather just have one giant mob, instead of forcing the GM to juggle 30 or more individual mobs in that case, for the purposes of initiative and attacks and the like.

_{I was under the impresstion that minion groups equal the number of PC's. I'm sure that was the idea in Beta. I haven't got the core book yet, so I am unsure if it has changed.}

_Cheerd

_Cynabar

I was under the impresstion that minion groups equalled the number of PC's. I'm sure that is the case with Beta, but maybe the corebook changed this.

Cheers

Cynabar

Hmm what is the rationale behind the equal number as the PCs? Since you ll basically be using multiple minion groups, is the idea presumably that each player fights "their" minion group?

I ve never been a big believer in splitting up fights into 1-on-1s, but for narrative combat its obviously the easiest solution, especially given that in many game systems, numerical advantage is a devastating situation far exceeding the threat of two opponents after each other, since defense abilities are limited use per round, or some static "outnumbering" bonus comes into play.

EotE does not seem to feature such a thing, although one could obviously always use setback dice to simulate the added problem of keeping tabs on multiple opponents regardless.

In regards to the question above, Minion groups are best suited to handling larger, cineastic numbers of opponents without slowing down the game much. I happily use and abuse the idea to have a handful of tough single opponents be supported by triplets or quadruplets of minions.

_{I was under the impresstion that minion groups equal the number of PC's. I'm sure that was the idea in Beta. I haven't got the core book yet, so I am unsure if it has changed.}

_Cheerd

_Cynabar

I think that's just a rule-of-thumb to scale the difficulty. In the Beginner Box, the recommendation is to face the number of minion groups for how many PCs you have.

Less players will fight less dudes, more players will fight more. It's an easy way to scale it, but by no means a hard rule.

How many minions in a group?

How many minions in a group?

I forget exactly what the Beginner Box suggests, but I believe it's x groups of 3. Seems like a reasonable number.

As we are talking about minions. Do minions get one action per minion per round of combat or just one action per minion group per round?

Both could be reasonable:

1. minions are just poor fighters so skill bonuses would present group of storm troopers firing walls behind PCs and getting perhaps one hit. (One acton)

2. Minions are weaklings and only their combat resolve is low. They get morale bonus from the group as they act together represented by skill die per minion rule. And by facing nemesis level enemies (PC) they trigger fear which is presented with removal of skill dice to minimum of basic attribute when alone. (Action per minion)

As we are talking about minions. Do minions get one action per minion per round of combat or just one action per minion group per round?

Both could be reasonable:

1. minions are just poor fighters so skill bonuses would present group of storm troopers firing walls behind PCs and getting perhaps one hit. (One acton)

2. Minions are weaklings and only their combat resolve is low. They get morale bonus from the group as they act together represented by skill die per minion rule. And by facing nemesis level enemies (PC) they trigger fear which is presented with removal of skill dice to minimum of basic attribute when alone. (Action per minion)

Minions fight as a group. Say you have 4 Stormtroopers as a minion squad. When that squad acts, they shoot at a PC. Their base pool is GGG from their agility, but it's upgraded 3 times (one upgrade per additional minion). So their final dice pool is YYY.

If you instead wanted 4 separate Stormies, they'd each only roll GGG, but would get 4 distinct actions.

-EF