Good article from Dragon Mag

[Greebo]

For you non DnD Insider subscribing DMs:

[Shiz]

The best way to at least start is with skill checks. All of us players need to do them more often at the start of encounters. I think identifying minions should be part of this.

"Can I tell if any are minions?" Nature/Arcana +x, DC15. Once a minion of a certain type is killed, it should become clear which of the remaining mobs of that type are also minions.

[Greebo]

I agree with the former - more skill checks would give you a lot more insight into effective tactics up front.

However, I'm not personally inclined to simply say, "They're minions". The minion status is as significant to my mind as knowing things in advance like "they have 5dr to fire" or "they have 110 hps".

[DinbinFanfoom]

"They are minions" or "They are brutes" could be communicated in RP ways... though maybe "fuzzily". The DM in the podcasts said things like "these three zombies look pretty rough, older" and "these two are pretty fresh... more tissue on them".

I like not knowing SPECIFICALLY which ones are minions (I think we'd make a beeline for em if we knew outright) but there might be ways of describing them that might shed SOME light on them, but only if the appropriate skills/perceptions were rolled.

[Lycos]

I agree. It's best not to know who the minions are, but the game forces the players to push for that information since some of the powers rely on that information. For instance, Foe to Foe in the Barbarian power list relies on that information. So, as a player of a barbarian, I am overly worried about that piece of information.

[Greebo]

Well of course, you can always tell if an NPC takes damage and lives, it's not a minion...

[Shiz]

Right. It is up to the player to not spend a Daily to kill a minion.

[Quervo]

Yeah that goes back to one of my old gaming group's Mage you would ask what we were headed up against so he could prepare his spells for the day... he would always get the same answer 'Prepare what ever you thing you need' IE I aint tellin