So I was looking through the Gm Question: Is it okay to expect your characters to run? thread, and it made me think.
How often do your monsters run? Do you have overclassed "monsters" flee?
I as a player have been in many an encounter where the monsters are getting slaughtered, but they just keep attacking, and none try to flee.
As I GM, I try to have the monsters react in a better manner, they often flee or try to during the combat, or even before.
When I DM, they will often run if hurt.
Or if they are out numbered.
Or in a very poor tactical situation.
Or they can give up.
It depends on the situation.
Well many some monsters have a "Morale" listing that tells if and when they would run. Though this could very based on a home setting. Perhaps say ogre's in your setting behave differently.
I wish more monsters had this and I generally find the morale listing a good thing to go by. Other then that my rule of thumb is undead and mindless things don't run. Anything able to value its life will.
Rarely.
The fact is, most enemies are massively outclassed by the PCs - they don't even have a 1% chance of winning. And this is likely to quickly become apparent.
But enemies running away isn't usually very exciting; the PCs go from heroic to people who are ruthlessly running down defenceless fleeing foes for the sake of XP / loot.
So I was looking through the Gm Question: Is it okay to expect your characters to run? thread, and it made me think.
How often do your monsters run? Do you have overclassed "monsters" flee?
I as a player have been in many an encounter where the monsters are getting slaughtered, but they just keep attacking, and none try to flee.
As I GM, I try to have the monsters react in a better manner, they often flee or try to during the combat, or even before.
In games I run, virtually all living creatures possess basic survival instincts which include fleeing from more dangerous foes. If not for this basic instinct we can probably conclude that there would be virtually no living creatures left to populate the world since even dragons are vulnerable as wyrmlings. Enemies who won't cut and run aren't very believable unless they are exceptional examples filled with fanaticism or exceptional altruism.
I'm running the Jade Regent AP currently (a friend purchased 3 of the APs in the series and gave 'em to me to run) combined with optional homebrew sidequests. Currently the PCs are about 1st-2nd level and the actual AP has barely begun, but they're dealing with some bugbears as a favor to some goblins. Unfortunately the bugbears ambushed the party during an ambush (the party set up a trap but instead of the resident trapsmith taking 10 or even 20 while setting up their traps for the ambush he was rolling everything and left a rather large pile of explosives easily visible, and their bait of two missing bugbears and a cart sitting alone on the trail seemed a little too good; so the bugbear scout who came to investigate reported it seemed fishy and suggested they must be lying in ambush. Thus the bugbears ambushed the ambushers).
Now these bugbears are led by the object of the party's quest. That is a bugbear barbarian named Grimjaw (3 racial HD + 2 barbarian) who's the leader of the other bugbears. Their quest is to kill this guy because he has been harassing some goblins in his spare time. This group of goblins (unrelated to the goblins you meet in the AP) is led by a beefy little goblin, but the brains of their outfit are possessed by a female blue goblin who acts as the adviser to the leader (giving him lots of great ideas and acting like he came up with them). She dealt with the PCs mainly and agreed to a request on the condition that they could remove the bugbear leader who harassed their little band of goblins (and the bugbears preyed on others in the region so it seemed liked a good idea in general).
Back to the ambushed ambush. The bugbears waited until the cover of night was upon them and then used their low-light vision combined with exceptionally good Stealth checks to sneak into the area with the PCs. The gnome in the party (who also possessed low-light vision) realized something was up when he saw a bugbear or two move between trees and lose concealment during the move (since he could see in the low-light just fine). Shortly after the bugbears made a move on the ox-driven cart (while avoiding traps that they had noticed with their Perception checks) and the battle was joined. There were 3 bugbears and Grimjaw among the ambushers (an encounter the PAIR of PCs should have strongly considered fleeing from themselves). Fortunately the dwarf alchemist in the party had a pair of trained wardogs who were more than capable of taking one of the bugbears out of the fight before losing one of them. The gnome bard took out another bugbear with a well-placed sleep after using the begin full-round action action on the previous turn. During the shuffle, the dwarven alchemist's cart and ox ended up right behind him (the cart was loaded with a many kegs of gunpowder which comes up soon).
The dwarf alchemist, hating bugbears quite heatedly, had an alchemist fire suspended over a large pile of hidden explosives between him and Grimjaw by a rope held by his foot. He pulled his rifle and fired at the bugbear leader and critically hit him for solid damage. The bugbear raged and rushed towards the dwarf in a charge. Rumiere the dwarf released the alchemist fire on the rope and set off the bombs mid-charge, causes a great explosion of fire and smoke. Yet the bugbear kept coming as fast as possible and swung his greataxe. 20! Auto-confirm as a Rage power. Rumiere will be missed!
In his dying breath Rumiere shouted for the gnome bard to blow them all to hell. The gnome chucked an alchemist fire into Rumiere's cart which was right behind him, blowing it sky high and throwing Grimjaw into critical HP (he was living on Rage at this point) after making his save, and the only other bugbear who had been otherwise untouched was left with 1 hp after his save. Grimjaw thought about ending that meddlesome gnome but decided it was better to stalk another day. He quaffed a potion of cure light wounds and then began beating feet into the forest, followed by the other heavily wounded bugbear (the bard gnome had been unmolested during the whole fight).
2/4 bugbear down, 2 more on full retreat. Too bad Rumiere gave his life but he died with a grin on his face. A death fitting for a dwarf, staring down a bugbear berserker with a mocking challenge and a thick cigar in his mouth. Such is the price of not fleeing from encounters that are beyond you. Yet because of his valiant sacrifice the other party member (there were only 2 of them 'cause the other players couldn't make the game) made it through. His goggles and beard jewelry are now kept as mementos.
Their next adventure looks like it will involve returning to the forest to take on Grimjaw once again. Rumiere's brother (a dwarven war-desciple AKA barbarian) having heard of his older brother's death now has a score to settle with the bugbear who did him in and has joined the party, and next time the other PCs will likely be with them. Then we shall see if Grimjaw can match their combined might!
But beware adventurers! Bugbears are a stealthy and cunning lot, and Grimjaw is not unskilled at archery! His prized possession is a mwk adaptive composite shortbow and with his fast movement may not go down without a long and grueling encounter!
EDIT: I'd also point out that since you earn XP by overcoming a challenge, PCs get full XP for enemies they push into a retreat. That gnome leveled from the encounter. :P
Considering I'm running a Paizo AP right now, I just follow the morale blocks in that regard. A lot of them have run away conditions but most of them are fights to the death.
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They often run. They don't often get away.
I don't usually have the monster run away, actually I think last nights game is one of the very few times I have ever done it.
A party member managed to get out of the mud trap a will-o-'wisp lured him into so the will-o-'wisp was basically "well he probably won't be falling for THAT again" and buggered off.
My monsters don't run a lot, but my NPCs will. Monsters who will run are generally the more intelligent monsters. In fact it's pretty rare that an NPC led encounter won't end up with some of the NPCs getting away.
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When we played Star Wars, stun grenades were broken (something like guaranteed stun for 2d4 rounds).
We had a bad guy who would always fight us, taunt us, stun grenade us, and get away every single time. We kept trying to find creative ways to get him as we learned this was his signature move but we never got him until he just didn't stun us and approached us in direct combat with his dark jedi buddy.
I think that's the only way you could effectively have a monster run away and still think of it as a good part of the game. Lucky for us Pathfinder rules aren't quite that broken. I think.
When we played Star Wars, stun grenades were broken (something like guaranteed stun for 2d4 rounds).
We had a bad guy who would always fight us, taunt us, stun grenade us, and get away every single time. We kept trying to find creative ways to get him as we learned this was his signature move but we never got him until he just didn't stun us and approached us in direct combat with his dark jedi buddy.
I think that's the only way you could effectively have a monster run away and still think of it as a good part of the game. Lucky for us Pathfinder rules aren't quite that broken. I think.
Had some of that in a Star Wars game. One of the force users readied an action and used Move Object on the grenade when he chucked it. Moved it right back into the attacker's space. Tag 'em & Bag 'em.
Pretty often. I think its what they would do. NPCs are still characters with their own motivations, and its the pretty odd duck that doesn't have "survive" pretty high on their priority list.
Some of my other favorites include surrendering and playing possum: a string of very high bluff rolls at a recent con apparently indicated that the mooks had all graduated from the opparan drama school and were simply working as mooks to make ends meet.
My enemies run constantly. If any creature thinks it will lose, it will try to save itself. This is only flat out running if it seems possible to actually get away--often, for intelligent enemies, it means begging or pleading for mercy.
Only totally fanatical/drugged/ensorcelled or unintelligent enemies fight to the death.
I know APs contain a morale section, but I have to say, most of them are laughable. Either there's barely any explanation for why an enemy fights to the death, "Oh he's a necromancer, so, yeah, he fights to the death" or the HP levels at which they run are ridiculously low: "He runs if at 4 or less HP."
4 HP? What are the chances of that happening when PCs are hitting for double digits?
I disagree that it's not interesting for the enemies to run--I think it's more interesting. It leads to all sorts of decision branches, recurring villains, etc. I feel like it's less interesting if the enemies don't run.
Whenever they can get away with it. Then I have them rejoin the rest of the baddies elsewhere in the dungeon, get patched up, and then gang up on the PC's. This is why my players are so damned gonzo for Sneak and darkvision; they want to establish surprise so nobody gets away and hoses them over later.
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You need to be careful with this though. I have wizards who make good use of contingencies, words of recall and other 'yank me out if I get in trouble' spells.
Its resulted in the party screaming, "Don't let the loot get away!" more then once.
NPCs generally don't want to die.
When dealing with fiends with greater teleport though it rapidly irritated some players, since they'd almost kill one of them, then it'd zot away to the loot room, pop some healing potions and come back. The response was along the lines of:
"Not only did we have to waste spells on the damn Erinyes, but it drank all our treasure too."
I have intelligent enemies flee all the time.
One tricksy villain,
I can't wait till they see her again. I actually think the players will adopt sub-par tactics just to ensure they can kill her before she gets away.
I'd say about half get away, and only if they have useful items or magicks left to them at the time they decide to flee.
I don't have any rules for it, I just decide on the spur of the moment when they'll flee. If it's a proud NPC on their home turf, they'll probably fight till about 20% of their hp. If it's a more craven opponent, they'll flee as they approach 50% if it's obvious that they're totally outgunned.
My players do tend to groan a bit when villains escape, but I think building up a healthy bit of hatred for a recurring villain is cool, and they certainly seem to enjoy it all the more when they finally nail the SOBs. It also forces them to think of tactics that ensure that enemies can't escape, which becomes more interesting and intricate - the battle is not just about winning, it's about finishing off the enemy, either through killing them or capturing them. And that can be quite a bit trickier.
I know APs contain a morale section, but I have to say, most of them are laughable. Either there's barely any explanation for why an enemy fights to the death, "Oh he's a necromancer, so, yeah, he fights to the death" or the HP levels at which they run are ridiculously low: "He runs if at 4 or less HP."
I absolutely concur. Much too many intelligent enemies will fight to the death according to the APs and if someone is supposed to flee, its at ridiculously low HP.
Not that fleeing from adventurers is that easy to begin with. Attacks of opportunity and ganging up alone make it very difficult to survive a proper proper withdraw. And forget about that if you are Large size or larger.
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Monsters and NPCs in my game flee as it appropriate to the situation, according to the nature of the creature in question.
-Predatory creatures looking for a meal flee when below 75%, unless they're really hungry.
-Your generic bandits & raiders consider fleeing or surrendering around 50% health, unless it looks like pressing further will win them the encounter.
-Mindless creatures mostly fight to the death. Non-intellegent undead always fight to the death.
It's like Kimera said though; sans supernatural or magical ways of escape, fleeing is actually pretty difficult. With my group at least, surrendering has a higher survival rate.
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Monsters and NPCs in my game flee as it appropriate to the situation, according to the nature of the creature in question.
-Predatory creatures looking for a meal flee when below 75%, unless they're really hungry.
-Your generic bandits & raiders consider fleeing or surrendering around 50% health, unless it looks like pressing further will win them the encounter.
-Mindless creatures mostly fight to the death. Non-intellegent undead always fight to the death.
Excellent guidelines, I like this.
I know APs contain a morale section, but I have to say, most of them are laughable. Either there's barely any explanation for why an enemy fights to the death, "Oh he's a necromancer, so, yeah, he fights to the death" or the HP levels at which they run are ridiculously low: "He runs if at 4 or less HP."I absolutely concur. Much too many intelligent enemies will fight to the death according to the APs and if someone is supposed to flee, its at ridiculously low HP.
Not that fleeing from adventurers is that easy to begin with. Attacks of opportunity and ganging up alone make it very difficult to survive a proper proper withdraw. And forget about that if you are Large size or larger.
After paging through my copies of Jade Regent which a friend bought for me to run, I must say that a lot of the moral bits seem bizarre. I'll be ignoring most of them and running it how I would expect them to be based on the descriptions instead. Especially when many of them say "fights to the death" for no apparent reason.
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Especially when many of them say "fights to the death" for no apparent reason.
My characters almost always fight to my enemy's death. Maybe you're just reading it wrong? =D
Especially when many of them say "fights to the death" for no apparent reason.My characters almost always fight to my enemy's death. Maybe you're just reading it wrong? =D
Haha, yeah. :P
On a side note. For running, be it PC or NPC, caltrops are a good idea. Just tie the suckers to your belt with a pull-string and yank the cord while you're running/withdrawing, scattering caltrops behind you. :P
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My bad guys try to run appropriately often.
Very intelligent, non-fanatical enemies will usually be the first to recognize an untenable situation and try to extricate themselves from it. Unfortunately for the PCs, these enemies are usually also the ones most likely to have an actual strategy for escape, so they often succeed.
Fanatical enemies (including minions genuinely more afraid of their boss than of death) fight to the death.
Sapient non-fanatical enemies will attempt escape (or surrender) when they recognize a hopeless situation.
Sentient (but non-sapient) enemies (e.g., normal animals) will try to run once they start taking serious damage. But these enemies rarely escape unless the PCs decide to let them go.
Mindless predators -- zombies, assassin vines, Scientologists, whatever -- will fight to the death, of course.
There can be exceptions. For example:
A very intelligent, non-fanatical enemy might very well wait until it's too late to run, due to things like overconfidence. (In a recent AP chapter, the PCs made several forays into the BBEG's lair, methodically wiping out her support and minions. But her response to that was to shrug and think, "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.") When they do realize they've screwed up, I'll mention something like, "she's regretting her life-choices."
Fanatical enemies might "flee," the intention being to draw intruders into a trap or ambush.
Animals might be rabid or protecting nearby young (of which the PCs might not even be aware).
Zombies might have triggers that could send them shuffling away from the fight.
After paging through my copies of Jade Regent which a friend bought for me to run, I must say that a lot of the moral bits seem bizarre.
Out of curiosity, which ones seem problematic? I haven't read the entire AP yet, but in the first three chapters I haven't seen any Morale entries that weren't justifiable.
One thing to keep in mind is that even if the enemy's Morale isn't thoroughly explained (possibly for some reason so prosaic as space restrictions), there may be good plot -- i.e., metagame -- reasons for it, and it's not hard to come up with good in-game reasons. Just see any good fantasy, science-fiction, or action movie for BBEGs who make such decisions ... which are only poor in retrospect, right? (Why in the world did the Bishop of Aquitaine stay to fight Nevarre, for example?)
Out of curiosity, which ones seem problematic? I haven't read the entire AP yet, but in the first three chapters I haven't seen any Morale entries that weren't justifiable.
Pg 31 - A pair dire corbies are chillin' in the gatehouse (which has several exits in which to make an escape so it's not a matter of being cornered either) who don't attack immediately but will sound an alarm if they notice the PCs. If the PCs enter the gatehouse they...fight to the death. No explanation why. Even though said corbies are intelligent and would be well rewarded for taking the fight to the courtyard where they can be assisted by the three dire corbies on the walls and climb (using their 30 ft. climb speed) the walls to escape the wrath of the encounter with the giant spider and ettercap.
Having checked their descriptions on the d20pfsrd.com, I find their suicidal tendencies exceptionally bizarre for creatures with such Intelligence. This could explain their behavior, except that they are hanging out with ogres and tengu already flies in excessive conflict with their generic descriptions which suggest that the corbies should all be dead since they would insanely attack the tengu, spiders, ettercaps, and ogres until they were slain. Definitely not put on plays for the tengu's amusement or laugh and cackle as the PCs were fighting the spiders.
Pg 34 - Muthildah the ogrekin ranger's moral simply says "fights to the death". Again, no reason is given. Simply "fights to the death". Bizarre behavior for a creature that's Intelligent. Hell, it explains that she was driven out of her shack at Riddleport by the locals and she and her two younger brothers are just hangin' out and gave the corbies a sack of gold as "rent". We're talking about a heroically classed ogrekin of Intelligence that saw fit to flee from some Riddleport thugs and is essentially a tenant (smart enough to pay rent for chillin' here). Yet apparently she has absolutely nothing better to do than commit suicide by adventurer. She even speaks common, which means that if she's outmatched it'd probably be in her better interest to surrender and tell the PCs about the castle rather than be put to the sword. I could kind of understand her fighting to the death IF the PCs had killed her brother, but seriously, fighting to the death 'cause your dinner was interrupted? Fail.
Ties in with the fail that if you go with the corbies ecology info from Misfit Monsters Redeemed (the book the AP cites for corbies) she wouldn't be paying rent to the corbies but they would be murdering each other instead.
Pg 35 - The quickling Buttersnips isn't even given a morale or suggestion as to whether she bothers to flee or not. It is written with the apparent assumption that she kills the PCs and then turns them into taxidermy trophies. Presumably the little sadist would run away if people were being too rough with her (she's a sadist not a masochist).
Pg 36 - Andril Kortun is the former commander of the garrison at the keep and has been forcefully turned into a wight and made to guard the castle (though how he is controlled is not made mention of since nobody in the keep, including the oni lord here is capable of either creating nor controlling a wight). Said wight bothers me on many levels. He apparently wears a suit of destroyed half plate that "neither increases his AC nor hampers his movement" which implies that it doesn't even exist (the wight only has a 12 Str and thus even the scraps of half plate would put him into a medium load) which is made of fail. He also carries a +1 longsword but doesn't use it either and is described as merely attacking relentlessly with his claws (wights actually have a single slam attack). This NPC just bugs the hell out of me. He has no reason to obey anyone in the keep, he is an intelligent sentient undead, presumably the same guy who was slain (I guess that Andril Kortun was an evil garrison captain), who apparently wears armor made from paper mache, and fights to the death - again.
I put a level of warrior on him and he'll be wearing a suit of broken half plate and will be using his sword (as he is depicted as doing in the artwork next to his entry I might add) with his slam attack as a secondary attack (or a primary attack when he can't full attack). This adjusts his speed down to 20 ft. but at least keeps the flavor without outright breaking rules and being dumb. Furthermore, since he's a sentient undead and speaks common and clearly uncontrollable by the creatures in the dungeon (what with him supposedly being animated but nothing, not even the oracle or cleric in the lower levels being capable of controlling him) the party may be able to recruit him to help destroy the inhabitants who led to his violent demise (which may have led to his return as a wight to begin with). Otherwise it's just a pitiful waste of what might have been an interesting character.
This is not at all all-encompassing. It's just the first several pages in the main dungeon of the adventure in the 1st AP of the series. There's probably more (I've not got through the entire AP yet as I'm busy preparing for the game and writing up some additional side-quest material and adding another Oni to the game {a rather indifferent young ogre magi named Yasei No Kaze or "Wild Wind" who I plan to use as a sort of wild card in the story}, and a few other optional bits to make the campaign seem less linear.
It should, however, be enough to explain why I'm probably going to end up doing quite a bit of work on this one.
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** spoiler omitted **...
Yeah, I had no problem with any of that stuff. (I didn't read the non-morale issues you had, to be clear.) I think all of them are justifiable with about five seconds' thought. (I do agree that it's mildly vexing when there's no explanation, but ... space constraints are always possible.)
Just for instance, one of the ones you mentioned I specifically remember running and thinking, "She's clearly sick of being pushed out of her home. It happened once, and she just ain't gonna put up with it again."
BTW, "intelligent" is not, in itself, a justification for self-preservation. (Not even extreme intelligence; I bet that even today you know smart people that smoke.) Fanaticism, for example, actually requires intelligence.
** spoiler omitted **...Yeah, I had no problem with any of that stuff. (I didn't read the non-morale issues you had, to be clear.) I think all of them are justifiable with about five seconds' thought. (I do agree that it's mildly vexing when there's no explanation, but ... space constraints are always possible.)
Just for instance, one of the ones you mentioned I specifically remember running and thinking, "She's clearly sick of being pushed out of her home. It happened once, and she just ain't gonna put up with it again."
I dunno man. Dying to a bunch of well armed adventurers vs finding another shack (she lived in a shack before) seems bonkers. Stuff like this would definitely begin to bug my players I believe.
BTW, "intelligent" is not, in itself, a justification for self-preservation. (Not even extreme intelligence; I bet that even today you know smart people that smoke.) Fanaticism, for example, actually requires intelligence.
I can buy fanaticism if fanaticism is the reason (in the Red Hand of Doom, religious fanaticism is actually called out as the reason the hobgoblins fight to the death). I'd rather not have to come up with weird justifications for bizarre behavior. I've had enough of that with gamers coming up with nonsensical ways to justify things like alignment (especially in the case of aligned mindless creatures).
Perhaps instead of saying "Intelligent", I should have said "Intelligent and without enough vested interest or emotional bias to fight to the death". Which pretty much sums up all the examples I mentioned except mayhaps the wight (and the wight is stupid for an entire list of other reasons, like his weightless half plate that offers no cover or protection against attacks at all, and his following the will of the guys who killed him violently despite them having 0 ways to control or entice his services).
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Whenever in makes sense for them to do it.
Well said sir. :)
Can't really top ciretose's answer -- too many factors to consider!
It's a spot decision. For example, in the last session I ran, the PCs fought two enemies. They disarmed one, and utterly detroyed the other. The remaining disarmed one was not in a bad position to simply run away, but seeing decent ranged capability, decided it might be best to surrender, and get out of the area. If he had some other means of escape, he'd have done it. Also, he didn't have any valuable equipment, so I was more willing to let the party have that victory without making them spend more resources chasing him down. ;)
I do this all the time, what does a monster have to game once its clearly outclassed? If a monster is intellegent enough to run it runs when its low on hit points or outnumbered badly or the prize isn't worth the fight.
Preditors run all the time.
You need to be careful with this though. I have wizards who make good use of contingencies, words of recall and other 'yank me out if I get in trouble' spells.
Its resulted in the party screaming, "Don't let the loot get away!" more then once.
NPCs generally don't want to die.
When dealing with fiends with greater teleport though it rapidly irritated some players, since they'd almost kill one of them, then it'd zot away to the loot room, pop some healing potions and come back. The response was along the lines of:
"Not only did we have to waste spells on the damn Erinyes, but it drank all our treasure too."
Stories like this always reaffirm why I don't use magic items in my games.
Stories like this always reaffirm why I don't use magic items in my games.You need to be careful with this though. I have wizards who make good use of contingencies, words of recall and other 'yank me out if I get in trouble' spells.
Its resulted in the party screaming, "Don't let the loot get away!" more then once.
NPCs generally don't want to die.
When dealing with fiends with greater teleport though it rapidly irritated some players, since they'd almost kill one of them, then it'd zot away to the loot room, pop some healing potions and come back. The response was along the lines of:
"Not only did we have to waste spells on the damn Erinyes, but it drank all our treasure too."
I dunno, it made me laugh. :P
Dimensional anchor for the win!
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Just a quick note on the high frequency of "Fights to the death"!
Sometimes when you read in an NPC's tactics for Morale "This guy fights to the death," that's the wordcount creeping in. We COULD put in more details on how they react to being captured, and we try to do that as much as we can, but doing so would force us to spend less time talking about that NPC's history and personality in the first place... which makes them less interesting to redeem. It's a catch-22.
Fortunately, Pathfinder has something that video games do not—GMs. If you as a player want to be able to have the chance to redeem Bad Guys... Tell your GM. Most GMs won't even think this is something that the PCs want since the game's got close to 4 decades of fight fight fight built into it.
That post was from a thread discusssing something very different, but it applies for some of the folks here who find the regularity of "fights to the death" a bit off.
I'm with Ashiel and Ciretose on that matter, I have them act in ways that make sense for their personality and their situation.
Whenever it makes sense for them to do it.
Basically, this.
I never really thought about it before but a good chunk of my encounters end up with enemies either running away or giving up. Not the majority by a long shot, but enough that my players are on guard for it by this point. Generally if they're one if they have a 8 or above Int score and they're not: A.) Guarding something, B.) Mind controlled, C.) Extremely bloodthirsty, or D.) Have the "fights to the death" morale clause there's a good chance they'll try to run. They won't every time, of course, but many will try to get away.
I try to play each monster as if it wanted to live and they will try to escape if they think they're going to get killed.
I use a small table I crafted about 10 years ago for that. If at some point the monsters are clearly in a disadvantage/suffer severe losses, I roll 1d20 + INT bonus and check the table:
0-: Monster continues to fight.
1-5: Monster goes defensive but otherwise keeps fighting. Will saving throw or shaken.
6-10: Monster goes fully defensive and avoids fighting. Will saving throw or frightened.
11-15: Monster retreats defensively. Will saving throw or panicked.
16+: Monster surrenders. Will saving throw or panicked.
The reason I use the INT bonus is because I think smarter creatures are more likely to properly asses the situation and act rationally when defeat is probable or when the damage sustained overcomes the desire/need to fight. Results of 0 or less get no Will saving throw for fear because they are not even fully aware of the disadvantage.
In my current campaign most of the monsters are enraged due to the exposure and contamination to a mystical chemicals; non of the will run, EVER.
If your monsters/NPCs run away, do you continue playing the combat action by action or do you declare the battle over?
If your monsters/NPCs run away, do you continue playing the combat action by action or do you declare the battle over?
I ask my players if they want to chase after them or not (if they want to take a prisoner or something). If so, we continue combat round by round. f not, combat just ends (though may resume soon after using the same Initiative scores if they were just fleeing to regroup or get into a new ambush position).
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If your monsters/NPCs run away, do you continue playing the combat action by action or do you declare the battle over?
It depends. My players are pretty savvy, and they know that a running bad guy isn't always a fleeing bad guy. So they don't always pursue.
If they do, I break out the Chase rules.
I don't really like playing chases out round-by-round, because it emphasizes mechanics like Speed over abstractions (like knowing the territory and many other things). The race doesn't always go to the swift.
Besides, I think the Chase rules, conceptually, are kinda cool, and my players seem to enjoy them.