Does a group of minions skill dice decrease as the group loses members?

Example: 5 stormtroopers attack the players as a group. Their starting dice pool is is 4 dice, one for each member after the first one. The pool is therefore 1 green ability die and 3 yellow proficiency dice (from the 3 Agility).

After the first round of combat the players have done 12 damage, effectively removing 2 of the groups members (and wounding the third). The group now has 3 members, so the question is: is the group less effective, and does that translate to the dice pool needing to be rebuilt?

The new dice pool would be 1 green ability and 2 yellow proficiency. This makes sense to me, but I cannot find the rule as written.

If not, then does the last member of a group fight as hard as the group's starting strength - because the group is an abstraction, only getting "one" viable chance to hit each round. So even if there was only one stormtrooper left, he's still throwing 1 green and 3 yellow until he goes down.

Thanks in advance.

I thought for sure that this was addressed in the core book. Looking back over page 390, I can see that there is some ambiguity - it doesn't explicitly state that as members drop, the ranks in skills go down. Maybe I missed it, though.

IIRC, when I played at the FFG Star Wars event, the minion groups did lose power as the members were eliminated. That's how I've always played it, too. As you said, it makes sense and ensures that a group of 3 troopers is always at the same skill level regardless of how many were in the group to start.

I play it as reducing the dice pool as the members go down. My reasoning is that they gain the proficiency dice because they are acting as a group. With less members they are less effective.

I believe the rules state that a group of minions has skill ranks equal to zero plus one for each member beyond the first. So yeah, if one dies, the skill ranks would all go down.

"A minion group gains one skill rank for each member of the group beyond the first." --pg. 390

Let's say a group of three minions is making a ranged light attack. The group has an agility of three. Because there are three of them, that's a rating of two for Ranged (light). Agility gives them a three die pool and they upgrade two of them to proficiency dice because of their ranks in Ranged (light) giving them GYY.

One minion dies. Oh no! The group still has a three for agility giving them three ability dice in their pool. However, there are only two members giving them a rating of one for Ranged (light) (one rating per member after the first). This means their pool for shooting would become GGY.

This is more clearly explained in the fifth mission of the Beginner book, but the premise is there. Keep in mind, this only applies to skills granted to them by their minion entry. If they cannot gain ranks in that skill, then they would count as zero ranks.

Does a group of minions skill dice decrease as the group loses members?

Example: 5 stormtroopers attack the players as a group. Their starting dice pool is is 4 dice, one for each member after the first one. The pool is therefore 1 green ability die and 3 yellow proficiency dice (from the 3 Agility).

After the first round of combat the players have done 12 damage, effectively removing 2 of the groups members (and wounding the third). The group now has 3 members, so the question is: is the group less effective, and does that translate to the dice pool needing to be rebuilt?

The new dice pool would be 1 green ability and 2 yellow proficiency. This makes sense to me, but I cannot find the rule as written.

Treat it like this:

Stat = given

Skill rank (if allowed) = group size - 1

Build their pool just like players do (larger number is the pool size, smaller number is upgraded dice).

As far as a I know, a minion groups dice pool is always based on their current size, not their beginning size.

Thanks for the feedback guys. Yep, it makes the most sense, it just doesn't explicitly provide the example of the group losing a member and the dice pool being effected. Which I would presume to be written, as other rules are really elaborately detailed with multiple examples. So, thanks.

As far as a I know, a minion groups dice pool is always based on their current size, not their beginning size.

Yes, otherwise the remaining stormtroopers would be getting better and better as their buddies drop...

As far as a I know, a minion groups dice pool is always based on their current size, not their beginning size.

Yes, otherwise the remaining stormtroopers would be getting better and better as their buddies drop...

And that is not very minion-like as they tend to fray and loose cohesion as they are whittled down.