Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Funny - this almost-exact scenario came up in the session I just ran. A couple of Orcs ran off into the dungeon as their buddies got hopelessly slaughtered, the party knows there's (almost certainly) more of 'em in here somewhere.I wouldn’t know because all I ever see or hear about is never works. One need only look at this thread and see that.
Here’s a simple solution. Baddies that run away cause similar baddies in the same region to begin encounters frightened with a dc 10 Wis save at the end of turns removing the effect. Effect is removed by a long rest.
Character A: "Do we chase 'em?"
Character B: "Nah - let 'em run scared, 'cause they'll make any of the rest of 'em they bump into scared."
Which, thinks me as DM, is very likely exactly what will happen. Morale is sinking fast among the Orcs overall, and their two leaders are both dead; these two running scared might just send the whole lot of 'em packing other than a couple of die-hard elites who will fight to the death in hopes of gaining brownie points with Gruumsh.
And then I read this post. What impressive timing!Poof. Instant fantastic results for the party to let things flee and spread panic.
But I’m fairly sure no dm ever does this.