D&D 5E Fleeing

[S'mon]

Just as a point of interest, most casualties in muscle powered warfare came after one side routed and were cut down while fleeing.

Yeah, but "most casualties" historically typically meant ca 10-30% of a force, unless you were fighting Mongols or Parthians maybe (poor Crassus). The opportunity attack already handles that fine.

Obviously if you have cavalry vs fleeing enemy infantry on open terrain then long term pursuit is
viable, but in larger battles a lot of enemy are still going to get away.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Yeah, but "most casualties" historically typically meant ca 10-30% of a force, unless you were fighting Mongols or Parthians maybe (poor Crassus). The opportunity attack already handles that fine.

Obviously if you have cavalry vs fleeing enemy infantry on open terrain then long term pursuit is
viable, but in larger battles a lot of enemy are still going to get away.

The 10-30% was the usual casualty rate for muscle powered warfare, yes, but most battles didn't end in a rout, either. A rout involved the complete breakdown of the enemy's positions, and often ended in the complete dissolution of that force through casualties. You cannot take the average casualty rate of mostly skirmishes and assume that that holds for routs -- routs were what drug that average up.

But, all that said, the at least 1 more PC death is still in line -- fleeing will usually result in at least one more PC dying or being captured. Unless the PCs are heavily overmatched and/or outnumbered, in which case, like routed armies, they face complete annihilation.

 

[TheNoremac42]

Remember kids, you only need to be the second slowest camper in order to escape the angry grizzly!

 

[S'mon]

The 10-30% was the usual casualty rate for muscle powered warfare, yes, but most battles didn't end in a rout, either. A rout involved the complete breakdown of the enemy's positions, and often ended in the complete dissolution of that force through casualties. You cannot take the average casualty rate of mostly skirmishes and assume that that holds for routs -- routs were what drug that average up.

But, all that said, the at least 1 more PC death is still in line -- fleeing will usually result in at least one more PC dying or being captured. Unless the PCs are heavily overmatched and/or outnumbered, in which case, like routed armies, they face complete annihilation.

Are we talking about PC retreats or PC routs as "fleeing"? I've GM'd a fair few of both. Typically in a rout where the PCs are being overrun almost everyone dies, usually there's one fast guy escapes. Whereas I've seen retreats in good order where the PCs lose no one; occasionally they even establish a choke point vs over eager pursuers and inflict such heavy casualties there they eventually counter-attack and win (3e-5e orcs are particularly vulnerable to this tactic).
Another common thing with the non-rout retreat is leaving a forelorn hope rearguard at choke point who is inevitably killed or captured while the rest escape. That works well with the 5e Barbarian due to his extreme toughness.

There are almost all in 3e-4e-5e btw, although I do remember running Mentzer Classic last two years I saw a fair few hurried retreats from eg the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, the Master of the Desert Nomads (twice!), the Master's deputy Alrethus (three times!) etc etc.

I remember back round 2003 running 3.0, the cowardly Wizards would D-door away leaving the warriors to die. That sucked.

 

[Triumph_Fork]

So, are people using special rules for fleeing not in the actual books?

Yes and no

Fleeing is a tactial and viable option for PC's
Fleeing is a tactic. Lets say your party takes on 6 encounters after resting and you come across the DM's favourite boss. The DM knows that some PC's will die, just because the party's resources are almost exhausted. Unless the players are really lucky with Crits and if the monster(s) are unlucky, survival may be out of the question. Then, it's best to run.

Players don't always know when to flee
Problem is though, people get into the mindset: "I'm an adventurer, slaying 2 ancient red dragons is a piece of cake!", even though it isn't. The DM knows this... One way to get the players to know they're over their heads is through an NPC or player who can roll an intelligence check. "Guys, I think we've gone too far into the volcano!" should be enough to tell the party to that they shouldn't have stolen their dragon eggs to begin with!

Villains enjoy player's fear
I think many villains & monsters LIKE to see people flee. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and fulfils their desire to control others. However, some villains would take the opportunity to crush them as they're fleeing, especially if their something mindless. In that case, I'd give the party chances to hide while running away, making it an obstacle course (chase) to run and/or a skill challenge (stealth vs perception) to hide.

I had a TPK happen when I ran a siege of a small town. The army's leader and her Chimera (along with some skeletons) happened to go where the PC's were defending. I had a small Gnome NPC Bard yell: "Fall back! Retreat" as he started running away towards safe territory... But the players didn't see running as a viable option. This is partially because they hated the villain so much and were so invested in defeating her it was ridiculous!