Wold wolves fight to the death? Something tells me they would not.
Only if cornered with no other option, or when driven mad with pain.
However, most animals seem to make a decision to "fight or flee" at the start of a dangerous situation, and it can be quite difficult for them to change their mind.
At how many hp's would you have them flee?
Three or less, I'd say. A bit more if there's a pack of 'em, and individual wolves could fall back and catch their breath for a moment.
Though in groups they'd be unlikely to flee unless several of them are dead already.
At least, that's what I guess. I never encountered a wolf pack irl, but the discovery channel is a decent substitute. ;)
They will if starved, rabid (or suffering from equivalent fantasy disease), protecting the young in the den, magically compelled or otherwise controlled, possessed, summoned, trained to attack or under other kinds of outside influence making them do so. Mundane wolves without exceptional interest in fighting to death wouldn't do that.
However, mundane wolves would rarely attack humans in the first place (historically number of wolf attacks was enormously overestimated), which usually means that the very confrontation with PCs counts as atypical.
At how many hp's would you have them flee?
Maybe half hit points. In many cases they would probably flee after suffering single hit, regardless of damage inflicted or after losing one or two pack members.
Yes, I agree. It is probably odd for them to be attacking players at all without some kind of external impetus. Although there is a halfling in the group. They might be tempted to attack him.
Since there is nothing out of the ordinary egging them on in this encounter, I'll probably let them turn tail around half hps or a little less.
Even while halfling might look like a tasty morsel completely ordinary wolves would avoid coming close to humans (unless visibly crippled, wounded or otherwise weakened) so the halfling would have to move come apart. And wolves probably won't stalk the party all the time looking for easier kill instead. Un-ordinary wolves on the other hand... Who knows?
This is off the topic somewhat, but how do you implement the trip rule that wolves receive with their attack? Is that a separate combat maneuver that is rolled separately when a wolf attacks, or is it an automatic trip when a wolf lands an attack?
Half HP unless they were defending a den. Defending a den to 1/4 HP, alpha female to the death.
Wolves in north america will rarely attack people, but its slightly more common in Eurasia and even more so in india. In a fantasy setting who knows: competing against farmers with slings may be safer than competing against whatever monsters lurk deeper in the woods, leaving to the adaptation of a less humanphobic wolf population.
This is off the topic somewhat, but how do you implement the trip rule that wolves receive with their attack? Is that a separate combat maneuver that is rolled separately when a wolf attacks, or is it an automatic trip when a wolf lands an attack?
IF the bite hits and does damage then the wolf makes a seperate combat manuever check against the victims CMD. If that is successful then the person is tripped.
This is off the topic somewhat, but how do you implement the trip rule that wolves receive with their attack? Is that a separate combat maneuver that is rolled separately when a wolf attacks, or is it an automatic trip when a wolf lands an attack?IF the bite hits and does damage then the wolf makes a seperate combat manuever check against the victims CMD. If that is successful then the person is tripped.
Ah, OK, thank you BigNorseWolf. That makes sense. =)
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I had a pack of wolves trail the players. Not attack, not come close, fell back out of sight if the PCs shot arrows at them. Just followed them, trotting over the snow (it was a winter trip). Waited until nightfall. The PCs were rather unnerved, but they made camp normally and just left one guy on alert.
Then the wolves attacked.
Put in some stalking and hunting behavior. Things that don't attack right off the bat can really deceive players. Or worry them.
My favourite thing to do when players point out that animals are acting weird is to say "Why yes, they are acting strange. I wonder why." Then I start stating up the evil that is corrupting them :D
I once had a session where the primary foes the party faced were deer :)
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My favourite thing to do when players point out that animals are acting weird is to say "Why yes, they are acting strange. I wonder why." Then I start stating up the evil that is corrupting them :D
I once had a session where the primary foes the party faced were deer :)
Now I want to run a session where deer act exactly like the wolves in tonyz's post. Complete with wolf-like attacks (reflavor the gore as a bite, don't use the hooves). It probably won't be dangerous unless I throw half a forestful at them, but it could be creepy at least. Thanks for the idea!