It's not really come up in my group much, but I've got a house rule that any more than 6 minions in a group would only add Boost dice, not skill ranks. And it's literally only came up once; an enemy had formed a squad of 7 minions and got a triumph, so that's the ruling I went with for their attack. But you know, that was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and haven't really thought it through too much.

RAW, you don’t even add the boost dice for the additional members. Having more than six members just means that you can kill more of them and still have their rolls maxxed out.

If it’s a seven member minion group, they get exactly the same roll as a six member minion group. However, if one member of each gets killed, then the former seven member group still makes the same roll as they did before, while the former six member group is now a five member group, and they aren’t as effective as they used to be.

This makes large numbers of large minion groups pretty deadly, because they can take a lot of damage for a long time, and still be every bit as effective as they were at the beginning.

Of course, it is your game, so it is also your rules.

I do kind of like the boost dice house rule, although I think I might cap that at five boost dice.

I love massive minion groups with zero combat skills, its a great way to represent a rowdy mob of angry villagers.

Not sure if I should ask here or make a new thread.

When it comes to minions, how do Talents work?

1. Do they stack the way skills do?

2. Can a minion have a higher rank than 1?

Generally minions don't have talents, if they do it would be one or 2 ranks at most. They dont stack, they are applied to the dice pool once the skill/charactertistic part has been completed. Here are some examples:

Planetary Defence Trooper, a squad of 14 of them:

Characteristics all 2

Soak: 3

WT: 70 total, first one dies on 6 Wounds, then 1 every 5 from there.

Skills: Brawl; PPAAA, Discipline; PPAAA, Ranged (Heavy & Light); PPAAA, all others AA

Talents: None

Abilities: None

Bith Musician: a Quintet.

Characteristics: 1, 3, 3, 2, 2, 3

Soak: 1

WT: 20, first dies on 5 Wounds, then 1 every 4 after that

Skills: Charm; PPPA, Cool; PPPA, Perception; PPAB

Talents: None

Abilities: Keen Senses (add a Boost to all Perception checks)

It's not really come up in my group much, but I've got a house rule that any more than 6 minions in a group would only add Boost dice, not skill ranks. And it's literally only came up once; an enemy had formed a squad of 7 minions and got a triumph, so that's the ruling I went with for their attack. But you know, that was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and haven't really thought it through too much.

RAW, you don’t even add the boost dice for the additional members. Having more than six members just means that you can kill more of them and still have their rolls maxxed out.

If it’s a seven member minion group, they get exactly the same roll as a six member minion group. However, if one member of each gets killed, then the former seven member group still makes the same roll as they did before, while the former six member group is now a five member group, and they aren’t as effective as they used to be.

This makes large numbers of large minion groups pretty deadly, because they can take a lot of damage for a long time, and still be every bit as effective as they were at the beginning.

Of course, it is your game, so it is also your rules.

I do kind of like the boost dice house rule, although I think I might cap that at five boost dice.

Oh, I'm aware, it was just something I said in the heat of the moment. Doesn't necessarily need to be broadly applicable.

I just noticed that Hutt crimelord (Edge of the Empire page 407) has Resilience skill at 8. Generally though it seems that Hutt crime lord is only NPC in EotE core book which have skill over 5. So I personally probably don't apply the skill cap of 5 to NPCs, but I'd exceed 5 only when really appropriate, and with nemesis NPCs. But on the other though, I probably wouldn't make minion group with more than 5 or 6 minions, unless I want to give really tough challenge to PCs, or if PCs are really touch.

I just noticed that Hutt crimelord (Edge of the Empire page 407) has Resilience skill at 8. Generally though it seems that Hutt crime lord is only NPC in EotE core book which have skill over 5. So I personally probably don't apply the skill cap of 5 to NPCs, but I'd exceed 5 only when really appropriate, and with nemesis NPCs. But on the other though, I probably wouldn't make minion group with more than 5 or 6 minions, unless I want to give really tough challenge to PCs, or if PCs are really touch.

Note that NPCs don’t have to follow all the same rules as PCs, but I agree that I wouldn’t typically have any NPCs with a skill level above five, unless it was a special Nemesis, and even then I wouldn’t do it often.

I just noticed that Hutt crimelord (Edge of the Empire page 407) has Resilience skill at 8.

Yeah, this seems... unprecedented to say the least. I would have to chalk that up to a typo. I don't own Lords of Nal Hutta, but I from what I can find online, I don't see any rules that would allow

Besides, the Hutt Crimelord is a nemesis, it doesn't do much to answer the question about minions.

I just noticed that Hutt crimelord (Edge of the Empire page 407) has Resilience skill at 8.

Yeah, this seems... unprecedented to say the least. I would have to chalk that up to a typo. I don't own Lords of Nal Hutta, but I from what I can find online, I don't see any rules that would allow

Besides, the Hutt Crimelord is a nemesis, it doesn't do much to answer the question about minions.

A typo, or a change in mind.

From Lords of Nal Hutta...

Mature Hutt, Resilience 5. Venerable Hutt, Resilience 5.

But, from the latest printing of the EoE CRB...

Hutt Crime Lord, Resilience 8.

Possibly it's something that the Devs felt was an exception to the norm, Jaba is the pinnacle of the Hutt and I guess they thought he was incredibly resilient. It is a one off too, I can't find any other NPC that does similar.

I love massive minion groups with zero combat skills, its a great way to represent a rowdy mob of angry villagers.

I love a full platoon of four 8-man squads of Imperial Stormtroopers for when I want to persuade the PCs to run while still giving them some (small) chance to fight their way through.

I love massive minion groups with zero combat skills, its a great way to represent a rowdy mob of angry villagers.

I love a full platoon of four 8-man squads of Imperial Stormtroopers for when I want to persuade the PCs to run while still giving them some (small) chance to fight their way through.

Especially when you know one of them is going to shoot first, nothing says run more than a PC taking out a couple then the return fire is still a 5 dice pool.

A typo, or a change in mind.

From Lords of Nal Hutta...

Mature Hutt, Resilience 5. Venerable Hutt, Resilience 5.

But, from the latest printing of the EoE CRB...

Hutt Crime Lord, Resilience 8.

Yeah, I shot FFG a question for clarification: If it *is* meant to be 8, whats the mechanism allowing it; if it's a mistake, what's the appropriate value?

I can't imagine minions are intended to break the '5 rank rule'. 5 ranks represents the pinnacle of proficiency that few individuals achieve, and it seems incongruous that a group of seven mooks could suprass that just because they're near each other.

I can't imagine minions are intended to break the '5 rank rule'. 5 ranks represents the pinnacle of proficiency that few individuals achieve, and it seems incongruous that a group of seven mooks could suprass that just because they're near each other.

I agree that minions are not intented to break "5 rank rule". Only reason I told the Hutt example is that, it's in the core book.

Yeah, this seems... unprecedented to say the least. I would have to chalk that up to a typo. I don't own Lords of Nal Hutta, but I from what I can find online, I don't see any rules that would allow

Besides, the Hutt Crimelord is a nemesis, it doesn't do much to answer the question about minions.

Only reason I posted that observation is that by RAW example, NPCs are not strictly restricted to maximum skill of 5. Personally I think that this is one of those GM discretion things.

Note that NPCs don’t have to follow all the same rules as PCs, but I agree that I wouldn’t typically have any NPCs with a skill level above five, unless it was a special Nemesis, and even then I wouldn’t do it often.

Kind of my point exactly. And I fully agree with you about NPC skills. I think that the hard skill cap of 5 for all NPCs is kind of traditional D20 thing (GM vs PC balance issue). If I need NPC to have skill of 10 for a dramatic reasons, then I give him/her skill of 10 and I don't care a single bit what rule book says about max skill. Although I will think few times why that is necessary and is it really necessary.

Summary of my opinion : If you want to cap NPCs skills to 5, be my guest. But don't expect everyone to follow same rule. I will probably keep max skill of five as guide line and reminder to do a sanity check when it is broken. And I will always try to go fun and story first, and if either of those require higher skill level, then I will have it. Also, I don't think that either, having skill cap of 5 or not, is wrong. Use what works for you. Test it and change it.

A typo, or a change in mind.

From Lords of Nal Hutta...

Mature Hutt, Resilience 5. Venerable Hutt, Resilience 5.

But, from the latest printing of the EoE CRB...

Hutt Crime Lord, Resilience 8.

Probably a data entry error. Note that the 5 is right under the 8 on a keyboard's keypad.

Where does it say npc's have to follow the same rules and restrictions as PC's? They don't follow the species characteristic stats, not even the starter box premises does that, and there is no reason why they should have to follow the same restrictions. I thought i remembered npc's with higher skill ranks and characteristics too, but I wasn't sure. I have still seen nothing that truly convince me minion groups should have a cap... As always, I might be wrong.

If they had no cap then why use the word Skill in the Minion rules. It would be much less contradictory to use different verbiage.

And then the NPC's that break the rules are very much the exception to normal. Minions are nothing but normal. So I just don't see a reason they should break the rule so easily and for every single possible group.

I don't know.. Good points though. Maybe you're right.

Nemesis would of course be the only single npc to be good enough to reach above 5 rank. The examples of that proves npc's CAN have more ranks than 5. A huge group of minions could also potentially(plausibly..) reach that level of threat to the party too. The text says they are harmless alone, but can be dangerous in large groups so...

But I see you guys' perspective too and you might be right.

If you encounter a massive group though, run ! Genre appropriate. This is Star Wars, not superheroes or ninja fiction!

I just noticed that Hutt crimelord (Edge of the Empire page 407) has Resilience skill at 8.

Yeah, this seems... unprecedented to say the least. I would have to chalk that up to a typo. I don't own Lords of Nal Hutta, but I from what I can find online, I don't see any rules that would allow

Besides, the Hutt Crimelord is a nemesis, it doesn't do much to answer the question about minions.

A typo, or a change in mind.

From Lords of Nal Hutta...

Mature Hutt, Resilience 5. Venerable Hutt, Resilience 5.

But, from the latest printing of the EoE CRB...

Hutt Crime Lord, Resilience 8.

According to Sam Stewart, the listing is correct. I responded asking for a clarification in how that ruling impacts the question at hand (rank limit with minions).

Sam confirmed minion groups only get up to 5 ranks in a skill.

Sam confirmed minion groups only get up to 5 ranks in a skill.

Thank you. Did he elaborate any on it?

Sam confirmed minion groups only get up to 5 ranks in a skill.

Thank you. Did he elaborate any on it?

The entirety of the email was:

"The five rank limit does apply to minion groups."

So not really.

To be fair, it was a reply to my reply to his original response to my question about the Resilence 8 listing for the crime lord (It's not a typo), so there was no need for an extended response.

Sam confirmed minion groups only get up to 5 ranks in a skill.

Thank you. Did he elaborate any on it?

The entirety of the email was:

"The five rank limit does apply to minion groups."

So not really.

To be fair, it was a reply to my reply to his original response to my question about the Resilence 8 listing for the crime lord (It's not a typo), so there was no need for an extended response.

Ok. Thank you very much for doing the legwork and helping us to clear this up.