Fetid Cloud (1/day).Constitution Saving Throw: DC 11, each creature in a 10-foot Emanation originating from the dretch. Failure: The target has the Poisoned condition until the end of its next turn. While Poisoned, the creature can take either an action or a Bonus Action on its turn, not both, and it can’t take Reactions.
Features
Minion (3) — Passive: The dretch is defeated when they take any damage. For every 3 damage a PC deals to the dretch, defeat an additional Minion within range the attack would succeed against.
Group Attack — Action: Spend a Fear to choose a target and spotlight all dretches within Close range of them. Those Minions move into Melee range of the target and make one shared attack roll. On a success, they deal 3 physical damage each. Combine this damage.
Fetid Cloud — Action: Spend a Stress to cause every creature in Very Close range to make an Instinct Reaction Roll. On a failure, they have disadvantage on their next action roll.
Designer's note
As weak but annoying monsters to fight, dretches make sense as Minions. They bring utility and support in ways most Minions don't, so they can be quite dangerous when working with other adversaries.
Why Minion?
Very low-CR enemies make the best Minions or Hordes in my opinion, so with the dretch at CR 1/4, it fell into that category. I decided on Minion over Horde because of its Fetid Cloud ability. It makes sense to me that each one could summon the cloud and cause extra havoc on the battlefield.
Why give a Minion an extra feature?
Using Fetid Cloud still has an opportunity cost for the GM. It supports stronger enemies and protects the dretches, but it also pulls a punch by not dealing damage to the PCs. In my opinion, that tradeoff makes it fairly balanced as a hybrid Minion/Support of sorts.
Why Tier 2?
Giving each individual Minion its own feature, like Fetid Cloud, makes them potentially very dangerous in numbers. Plus, I feel like there aren’t many demon adversaries in Daggerheart; the SRD has none at Tier 2. So it felt right to start filling in that gap a little bit. I see them as fodder for the larger demons at Tier 3 (the demons of Avarice, Despair, Hubris, Jealousy, and Wrath) or even Demon Lord Berzug at Tier 4. After all, overwhelming enemies is one of their motives.