History Main / TheMinionMaster

** The Swarm Host, added in ''Heart of the Swarm'', is a ground-to-ground Zerg siege unit which also has no attack of its own, and instead can produce two locusts every

* Carriers in ''{{VideoGame/Starcraft}}'' can send out up to eight tiny, lightning-quick Interceptor drones each to pepper any enemy that comes near. Every Zerg player counts too.

* While all three player classes in ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' can be this, the Shaper class is best suited for this.

* Summoners in ''VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal'' Kill an animal, and you can make a totem out of its corpse. Kill an {{ExplosiveBreeder}}, make a totem out of it, and the children of the summon are friendly towards you - and don't cost you. Filling entire levels with your pets is easy, but considered cheating.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/olimar_and_many_pikmin.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[DeathOfAThousandCuts Attack of the 50 one-inch critters.]]]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Queen Atomia sits back on her throne and orders her many Proton and Netron slave mooks to deal with her foes, fetch her food and even carry her about. Once she's deprived of them she proves to be an unexpectedly competent fighter with super strength on her own.

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' allows for a variety of summoner builds, some of them resembling the "Zoomancer" build from the ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' example above. The selection of minions include GlassCannon Skeletons, MightyGlacier Zombies, raised Spectres of fallen enemies, powerful and short-lived Raging Spirits, elemental Golems, animated weapons, and many more. Passive skills and items can be used to raise the number, life, and damage output of the minions, as well as add other effects such as causing them to explode at low life, give your shield bonuses or flask effects to your minions. Other ways to enhance your minions include auras and Offering spells which consumes corpses to give your minions a powerful buff. The intelligence-based Witch class are the best choice for summoner builds, and their Necromancer Ascendancy class is specifically tailored for such builds.

ZergRush often describes the most common combat method of TheMinionMaster. Because of their tactics, they often fall under AntiHero and DarkIsNotEvil characterization. Can occasionally be {{Game Breaker}}s, occasionally {{Crutch Character}}s. If the minions are copies of the master, it's a DopplegangerAttack.

** The Leadership feat causes a group of people to gather around you and mostly do your bidding. It is infamous for [[GameBreaker being one of the most overpowed abilities in the game.]]

Whereas [[TheBeastmaster Beastmasters]] usually focus on quality of minions, often restricting themselves to one or two (or at least [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} one at a time]]), TheMinionMaster on the other hand focuses on sheer, undiluted numbers. This often makes for an unusual and difficult-to-balance character build- a character whose power comes from brutally outnumbering his opponents often leaves himself as the squishiest of {{Squishy Wizard}}s, and enemies either succumb quickly to the DeathOfAThousandCuts or perform a minion version of a TotalPartyWipe with area of effect attacks. They may also possess skills to control and buff their minions. The Minion Master tends to, of course, to be the keystone in his KeystoneArmy that is [[StraightForTheCommander the prime target to finish first]].

* Tron Bonne in the ''VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever'' games has a large group of Servbots ready to follow her orders. She usually keeps just one by her side, however--she saves the rest of them mostly for her [[LimitBreak Hyper Combos]].

* ''Literature/TheBannedAndTheBanished'' adds a touch of BodyHorror to this. The first corrupted spellcaster in the series has man-eating spiders living in her womb and gives birth to them when she needs someone dead. Later varieties include a former healer who has leeches living on his flesh, two [[EvilAlbino albino]] [[CreepyTwins twins]] who grow pustules that explode into rats, and one villain who's connected to ravens in an unexplained but presumably unpleasant way.

* [[ExactlyWhatITSaysOnTheTin Minion Master]] {{Necromancer}} [[AnAdventurerIsYou character builds]] [[AllBlueEntry in]] ''VideoGame/GuildWars''

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' allows for a variety of summoner builds, some of them resembling the "Zoomancer" build from the ''VideoGame/DiabloII'' example above. The selection of minions include basic but weak Skeletons, beefy Zombies, raised Spectres of fallen enemies, powerful and short-lived Raging Spirits, elemental Golems, animated weapons, and many more. Passive skills and items can be used to raise the number, life, and damage output of the minions, as well as add other effects such as causing them to explode at low life, give your shield bonuses or flask effects to your minions. Other ways to enhance your minions include auras and Offering spells which consumes corpses to give your minions a powerful buff. The intelligence-based Witch class are the best choice for summoner builds, and their Necromancer Ascendancy class is specifically tailored for such builds.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/olimar_and_many_pikmin.png]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Olimar__Pikmin_9045.jpg]]]]

* Tron Bonne in the ''VideoGame/CapcomVersusWhatever'' games has a large group of Servbots ready to follow her orders. She usually keeps just one by her side, however--she saves the rest of them mostly for her [[LimitBreak Hyper Combos]].

* Gotenks from DragonBall is famous for being able to create an army of ghosts that explode with whoever they come in contact with.

* Focusing on Charm skills in ''VideoGame/{{Torchlight}}'' can make your character into one of these. This is especially true of the Alchemist if you invest into the Lore skill tree.

Compare AssistCharacter, an {{NPC}} in FightingGames that can be briefly summoned to assist the PlayerCharacter; DroneDeployer, a character that carries their minions upon their person and "deploys" them when they're to be used; EnemySummoner, a video-game enemy that summons other enemies while also directly fighting the player; MookCommander, a mook with the ability to strengthen other mooks just by their presence; MookMaker, where the producer of mooks may be an inanimate device rather than an actual character; and TheTurretMaster, who instead of minions uses technology.

* One of your options when building a deck in ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' is to fill it with [[ZergRush hordes of cheaply-summoned teeny-tiny monsters to overwhelm one's opponent.]]
** Another is to utilize creature tokens, i.e. creatures not represented by an actual card in your deck. There are numerous cards (including creatures!) that generate and/or strengthen creature tokens and many deck builds with creature tokens as their core victory condition.

A SubTrope of TheBeastmaster, and the heroic inversion of MookMaker and EnemySummoner (and occasionally EvilOverlord). Whereas [[TheBeastmaster Beastmasters]] focus on quality of minions, often restricting themselves to one or two (or at least [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} one at a time]]), TheMinionMaster focuses on sheer, undiluted numbers. This often makes for an unusual and difficult-to-balance character build- a character whose power comes from brutally outnumbering his opponents often leaves himself as the squishiest of {{Squishy Wizard}}s, and enemies either succumb quickly to the DeathOfAThousandCuts or perform a minion version of a TotalPartyWipe with area of effect attacks. They may also possess skills to control and buff their minions. The Minion Master tends to, of course, to be the keystone in his KeystoneArmy that is [[StraightForTheCommander the prime target to finish first]].

ZergRush often describes the most common combat method of TheMinionMaster. Because of their tactics, they often fall under AntiHero and DarkIsNotEvil characterization. Can occasionally be {{Game Breaker}}s, occasionally {{Crutch Character}}s. If the minions are copies of the master, it's a DopplegangerAttack. See also AssistCharacter and DroneDeployer. Compare MookCommander, a mook with the ability to strengthen other mooks just by their presence; TheMinionMaster may also have such ability for his own minions. Compare with TheTurretMaster, who instead of minions uses technology. Supertrope to PestController.

* Summoners in ''VideoGame/TalesOfMajEyal'' Kill an animal, and you can make a totem out of it's corpse. Kill an {{ExplosiveBreeder}}, make a totem out of it, and the children of the summon are friendly towards you - and don't cost you. Filling entire levels with your pets is easy, but considered cheating.