Minions are weak enemies that die from any amount of damage. Their feeble attacks cannot crit, ignore advantage/disadvantage, and they attack as a group, so any number of minions can be Defended against as if they were a single attack. Dealing a large amount of damage to a minion can, at the GM’s discretion, overflow to other minions within range as well.
Hardy Minions (AoE Protection)
SSanityWithInSome times minions can lose a bit of their appeal, when the AoE capabilities of the heroes get so good that any amount of minions are effortlessly dealt with.
To avoid that, one can use especially "hardy" minions. Hardy Minions have a damage threshold called "Hardiness". When hardy minions are affected by AoE damage, not all of them die automatically, but only some of them according to the formula: damage/hardiness (rounded up and at least 1).
Good and easy to use hardiness values are the minions "die size" or "die size/2".
Examples: --A group of 8 Kobold minions (size: 1d4) with a Hardiness of 2 is hit by an oathsworns explosive judgment for 11 dmg. 6 of them die, 2 survive.
- A group of 4 Hill Giant minions (size: 1d12) with a Hardiness of 12 is hit by an oathsworns explosive judgment for 11 dmg. 1 of them dies, 3 survive.
One could use Hardiness for single target thresholds as well, but in my experience it feels bad when you spend actions to damage a minion without any positive result at all. Therefore I would not recommend it.