D&D 5E Morale Rules?

[Paraxis]

For those that have the Monster Manual is there anything on morale? Also I try my best to keep up with tweets, and DMG spoilers but has this been mentioned as something as being covered in that book?

If nothing official has anyone come up with a homebrew system?

Looking for things like effects of intimidation skill during combat, morale check once the monsters are at half health and out numbered, what type of saving throw should it be? should it be a saving throw or something like a death save with just a plain d20 check?

 

[Morrus]

Nope. Not in the MM.

 

[77IM]

I love the morale rules in the Starter Set. They are natural-language and encounter-specific. For example, "If half of the goblins are slain, the rest will flee towards area 4" or "If the orc leader dies, the other orcs flee, but the ogre is too stupid to run and will fight to the death."

 

[Thalionalfirin]

Mike Mearls did say that rules for hirelings and henchmen are going to be in the DMG. I can't recall if I asked him about morale rules as well, but I'm guessing that it'll be in there as well. I figure it'll be pretty easy to port over those rules for henchmen and hirelings to the monster side.

If not, I'll probably just use the morale rating for monsters in the Rules Cyclopedia. Yeah, it's 2d6 instead of a d20 roll, but I'm not too tied into the universal mechanic for everything. It'll work for my purposes.

 

[fba827]

I love the morale rules in the Starter Set. They are natural-language and encounter-specific. For example, "If half of the goblins are slain, the rest will flee towards area 4" or "If the orc leader dies, the other orcs flee, but the ogre is too stupid to run and will fight to the death."

Personally, I've always felt this was the way to do it.... That morale isn't a function of a monster stat, but rather a function of the situation/encounter... So encounter design is where morale rules should be.
That said some examples for dms (like half the allies are killed, the mission the creatures were doing at the site is no longer accomplishable, etc) would be nice to see somewhere like the dmg

 

[Henrix]

Hints about how different monsters are prone to react would be nice, though.

In 2nd ed gnolls had lower morale than orcs, making them prefer hit and run tactics, like hyenas, rather than all out charges.
I like that.

 

[Psikerlord#]

the leaked dmg contents, if true, had a morale entry

 

[Scorpio616]

Morale is Free XP. Monsters are statted up to fight to the last HP.

Also animals and bestial monsters in a world where all wounds heal overnight will be FAR more aggressive. Without lasting wounds and infections, the more aggressive representatives of a breed don't get Darwined out of the gene pool ANYWHERE near as often as they would in our own world. Unless a higher power is actively setting the aggression level to a certain point in the critters, beasts should rarely back down.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I still use the morale rules from B/X. It is simple and easy to add modifiers and it still works.

 

[77IM]

FWIW, here is the system-independent morale system I use in all games.

1. Have a good grasp of the enemy's goals, motivation, and personality.

2. Whenever the situation changes in a major way, have the enemies rethink their approach, in the context of said goals, motivations, and personality. The enemies then change their tactics.

Major changes include:

• half your side is taken out (killed, captured, routed, etc.)
• your leader is taken out
• reinforcements arrive (on either side)
• encounter features change (e.g. the place lights on fire)
• you achieve your goal

Changing tactics could mean retreating or surrendering but could also include pressing the assault, regrouping, etc.