Escaping from combat, or keeping villains alive

I'm thinking of running a short 2-3 session campaign. But one of the things I want to emphasise is that dying is bad -

How do I keep villains alive? How do you run away from combat without blood thirsty heros slaughtering all your nice friendly npcs?

I'm thinking to base my game on a robin hood setting, and I don't want the merry men being cut down every time they try to rob someone. I want to keep 'Robin' alive till the end of the second session, but I don't want to just hide him entirely from the first session.

This issue has always plagued my DMing. My NPCs are all foolhardy/suicial, because I see running from combat as tantamount to suicide anyway. How do you give NPCs a survival instinct in a DnD world?

Zustiur.

Simple - I don.t

Most of my long-running villains are the creation of circumstances, bad guys who got away due to good timing and a lot of luck.The flow of battle worked in their favor, the PC's made a wrong move early in the adventure that gave the villain something to hold over them, or they simply managed to get away by falling prone and rolling really, really well on their Bluff check when they played dead.

Well, you could make the BBEG larger than life and more powerful than the PCs so that they have to run from him a couple of times before being powerful enough to take him down. That will make them cautious.

If its only a 2-3 session game, load up the npcs with nice magical equipment like boots of teleportation or give them ranks in UMD and give them a wand of DImension Door or stuff like that. That make retreating easy.

Or, you could have a long chat with them about the fact that maybe being "good" implies a respect for all life and not just their own. So if they are being "good" then killing is bad. I often play many of my characters with the mentality tat killing anything except to use as food is evil, thus my groups tend to take a bunch of prisoners. The nice thing about this is the majority stay locked up, but a few escape or get "busted out of jail" by their underlings. That way they don't have to run to stay alive. [Caution. Don't use this tactic often at all or the PCs will lose faith in the jail system!]

Have PCs that use magical means of battlefield control. Obscurring Mist is a great spell at almost any level - especially inside where there is no wind! Things like Obscuring Mist followed by a Dimensior Door or Teleportation allow for virtually untracable retreats.

I think Arwink makes a very good point. Why keep him alive? If the only reason is some sort of story element, then, perhaps it would be a good idea to plan on what happens when he dies. Perhaps someone else steps up to the plate.

However, the best way to keep a villain alive, IMO, is run away as soon as your mooks are down. Actually, probably the round before that. And, let's face it, what's a BBEG without mooks?

This somewhat fits with the setting. The Sherriff sees his men being cut down by the flashing sword of Errol Flynn and buggers off before the last one shuffles off the mortal coil, his tail tucked in behind him.

What level are the player characters, and what level is the BBEG? What kinds of magic are available to each?

I'd do what Robin'd do in real life.
Flee if you are seriously injured!

Usually there aren't many reasons to fight till death, and if you are ambushing someone you certainly had set-up an escape plan.

I'm thinking to base my game on a robin hood setting, and I don't want the merry men being cut down every time they try to rob someone.

One of the major flaws in D&D and especially in the way it is run is the problem of how people get away from their enemies.

Forests give cover, concealment and difficulty in following people. How often in stories do people "fade off into the trees"? Lots. Rangers and Druids can easily disappear into the forest and in many cases, not be tracked.

One of the things you might need to do is use traps, snares and ambushes when your PCs run after the fleeing foe. This might give that more realistic "I might be in trouble if I charge off after those guys and get lost/separated/ambushed" feel.

If they have any magic, then use Potions of Invisibility or Pass without Trace. There are a ton of spells that can be used to hasten or cover retreats as well, from Obscuring Mist to Expeditious Retreat, to things out of the Spell Compendium or Complete books like Camouflage, Easy Trail and Surefoot.

As a recurring bad guy, the trick is to run before all of the other bad guys run. As the first bad guy to run is likely to get away, but the others are less likely to get away.

So as soon as any of the bad guys are injured enough to flee, the Big Bad Recurring Guy should also flee.

I have a recurring bad guy who is a spellcaster. So he typically casts one spell on round 1, then flees on round 2 while the rest of the bad guys keep fighting the party.

After three or four combats of fleeing on round 2, the PCs will get wise to the fact that he is going to flee and will make him their #1 target. Then you may need to get creative on how to flee successfully (word of recall, oil of slipperiness, etc.).

To keep mook morale high, the Big Bad Guy might tell his followers that he is going to get reinforcements.

Some good replies so far. I'll try to respond to each in turn.

Arwink: I don't think I've ever found circumstances where anyone gets away, unless I was approaching TPK. I only expect the 'Robin' character to get away once, just to give the party something to hunger for. I would not normally fabircate a situation in this way, as I wouldn't expect my plans to survive once players are involved, but since this is a short pair or trio of sessions I want to inject a sense of drama.

Nonlethal Force: Brilliant point on good and killing. I may have to suggest that the objective is to take captives, not to kill wayward peasants. I don't want to use more than a few magic items because I don't want to 'cheapen' the situation too much. A couple of one shot things like potions should be ok. One idea I did have prior to starting this thread was to replace 'Friar Tuck' with a druid, and have him slow the party with a entanlge spell. Obscuring mist is another great spell for the situation.

Hussar: As above, I wouldn't normally try to concoct this sort of situation, I'm just trying to inject a little drama in the hunt for Robin. Running before your mooks are down is all well and good, but if we think of the classical Robin, it is not his style. Getting away with most of his mooks, and then rescuing the remainder is more like him. The sheriff on the other hand would run, just as you described. I should have mentioned that the party will be part of the sheriff's men, not Robin's band.

The Shaman: I am aiming at a part of 5 2nd or 3rd level characters. Nothing too complicated, but tough enough to takes one or two hits. I won't restrict what they can purchase other than by the amount of money they start with.

Matafuego: I agree. But the rules don't really support that. Running (immediately) from combat provokes attacks of opportunity. Not to mention the posibility of the party being able to run faster (monks/barbarians/magic items). Spells and ranged weapons also reduce the posibility or retreat.

Chimera: Traps and Snares! Brilliant! Where are the rules for caltrops in 3e? I think each of the merry men will be given a tanglefoot bag. Potions might also be my weapon of choice in this situation.


The feel I'm aiming for here is probably better suited to a different rule-set, such as MERP where there are damage tables - injuring an opponent could slow him down, thus allowing you to escape and so forth.

Another thing that just came to mind (again), is tactics. No story of Robin that I've seen or read ever depicted his men trying to fight one on one. They use all sorts of tricks to swing the odds. For example:
Each should have a ranged weapon of some sort (classically the longbow). None are too likely to charge the party. It is more appropriate for a group to release a hail of missiles, engage one or two party members, and then pull out before the party gets organized. I think this sort of thing might be what I need to focus on. Aside from that, I'm going to have to accept that mooks are mooks and dnd isn't the movies.

Keep the ideas rolling.
I may start a thread for story and adventure ideas for this particular setting also. Where has the correct forum gone? There used to be a forum section for DMs preparing adventures. I thought it was a subforum of the Rogues Gallery, but apparently not.

Zustiur.

It may seem like a small thing, but the run feat can work wonders