Problems with D&D 5E: Combat - Mooks

The other day's article seemed to work nicely, and I still have some steam left over, so I'll tackle another issue of mine (that I briefly touched on yesterday). Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition seems to favour fighting big bad evil super-powered monsters... Except for one glaring problem. Despite how powerful a monster is, it still only gets to act once a round, whilst the PCs get to act PC amount of times.

This means either you make a monster so bullet-spongy that they can survive for long enough to act enough times to be compelling, or all your monsters become piles of goo before they get a chance to show why they're cool. The bullet-sponge tactic also has the short fall that often the amount of hp to damage a monster does is off-whack. Either they present no issue for beefy PCs (like Paladins or Barbarians) or they one-shot-kill weaker ones (like Bards or Wizards). This results in weird stilted combats...

One obvious solution to this is adding in Mooks - tiny monsters that surround the big one, and are threatening only in numbers. Mooks in a combat-heavy RPG are awesome - they give the PCs something to fight whilst presenting less of a challenge. They're meat shields for the bosses, and act as pockets of fiero for our heroes. It gives them the chance to throw their arms in the air and yell like the crazy Gnome Barbarians that they are (Flick, I'm looking at you!)

Great! Sorted! Except now you have to run combats with 20+ minis on the field, and a ridiculous amount of book keeping besides. But, as I said last time, 5th Edition is very easy to hack - and hack we will! Below are my rules for using Mooks by turning them into Squads.

I know it's technically Warhammer, not DnD, but just appreciate the awesome, ok?

Squads of Mooks

1. Firstly, find the monster stat block you want to turn into a Squad. Anything squishy works well - generally creatures that will go down in 1-2 hits from your PCs.
2. Next, decide how many you want in the Squad. This number becomes their "Magnitude".
3. Now, make a mini-base, or use a proxy model, that would be of equal size to all the monsters together. So a 3x3 for 9 medium creatures in a Squad.
4. This base moves and acts as a single entity.
5. Give the Squad a special Action:
1. Divided Attacks. The Squad may make up to Magnitude divided by 3 (minimum 1) melee or ranged attacks each turn, so long as they target different opponents with each attack. If they have fewer viable targets, they may direct their attacks towards the few they have.
6. Give the Squad two special Features:
1. Squad Combat. The Squad attacks together, and even though some may miss, eventually one blow's going to get through. If the Squad fails to hit an opponent with an attack, they deal half damage instead of missing entirely. The Squad loses this feature if their Magnitude is reduced to 1.
2.  Stand Together. Whenever the Squad takes damage equal to or in excess of their hp, they immediately lose 1 Magnitude, and replenish their hp. Whenever the Squad would be the target of an effect that targets multiple creatures, instead have it effect that amount of the Magnitude. If this is damage, simply multiply it by the amount of targets. If the effect is a condition, count it as temporarily reducing the Magnitude of the Squad by that many targets. The Squad loses this Feature if their Magnitude is reduced to 1, fully or temporarily.
7. And that's it! Now you've reduced a large group of Mooks into a single 'creature'.

Give this a try, and let me know if it speeds up play whilst not removing your ability to have lots of monsters.