A pack of Carver minions.
Minions are supporting monsters, appearing together with a Unique Monster (in Diablo II) or a Rare Monster (Diablo III).
Minions look like ordinary monsters but have more hitpoints; in addition, minions have a 'minion' tag under their name. When minions appear, their leader can't be far away. Minions usually appear in dense packs.
Minions are usually of the same monster type as their Unique / Super Unique / Rare leader, though there are some exceptions. For instance, in Act II hordes of Horror skeletons are minions of normal Greater Mummy monsters.
Pets and creatures summoned by players are also sometimes dubbed "minions".
Diablo II[]
Though minions lack special abilities their numbers and large healthpool make them a potential threat. Some Super Unique's bonuses also apply to their minions, like Aura Enchanted and Extra Fast.
Minion bonuses:[]
- Extra Strong: minions gain a 75% damage increase.
- Extra Fast: minions gain a velocity increase.
- Aura Enchanted: minions may gain the benefit of the aura.
- Fire Enchanted: minions gain +33-50% fire damage (Nightmare and Hell only).
- Cold Enchanted: minions gain +33-50% cold damage (Nightmare and Hell only).
- Lightning Enchanted: minions gain +33-50% lightning damage (Nightmare and Hell only).
- Spectral Hit: minions gain +33-50% random elemental damage (Nightmare and Hell only).
In addition, minions can have up to three times their health on Normal, 1.75 times their health on Nightmare and 1.5 times their health on Hell.
Diablo III[]
In Diablo III, minions are very often not of the same type as their leader (sometimes making them actually stronger than the Rare monster they accompany). They can, but are not guaranteed to have some Monster Traits, provided their leader has those too; basically, Minions may have any affixes, except:
- Avenger
- Fire Chains
- Frozen Pulse
- Health Link
- Horde (indirectly: just increases amount of Minions)
- Missile Dampening
Minions only accompany Rare monsters. They all count as elites.