D&D 5E As DM, Do you have monsters always fight?

Stormonu

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #1

The HP poll got me thinking about this. When out in the wilderness and a “random” encounter occurs, or in a hostile place the PCs are exploring, how do you handle the monsters the players encounter?

Are they immediately hostile?
Can the PCs peaceably interact?
If a fight breaks out, do the monsters fight to the death? How do you determine if they remain in the fight?
Do you present the PCs with non-combat encounters in hostile areas? If so, about how often? Anything special or unusual in the way you handle encounters and interactions in hostile locations?

 

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R

Reynard

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #2

I chose the "reaction rolls" option, but that isn't strictly true. You did not include a more general option about monsters acting as their "character" dictates. I do try and use reaction rolls (especially with random encounters) but I use morale rolls less often than I probably should. but even so, monsters will sometimes run or surrender, as appropriate.

But nothing is 100%. Some combat encounters exist to push the PCs to their limits and the monsters in those usually fight to the death and do their best to kill the PCs.

 

MarkB

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #3

I always like to leave room for a situation to be resolved by means other than combat, and if there is another option I'm happy for the PCs to take it.

Once combat starts, though, I often tend to get into the tactical to-and-fro and can be bad about remembering that the monsters may choose to run if they're sufficiently outmatched.

 

DEFCON 1

Legend

Supporter

• Apr 22, 2024

• #4

If I use a random encounter table (rare)... the table includes not only the person/creature/event encounter but also the purpose of their encounter. So the table wouldn't just say "wolves"... it would say "wolves protecting their den" or "starving wolves looking for food". Which would indicate what they probably would do when the party encountered them.

Random encounters are story beats. So the table has to have the story as well as the person/creature/event, otherwise what's the point?

 

Stormonu

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #5

On the reaction rolls, I wanted to keep it open for the likes of older edition actual reaction rolls, or more modern “Make a Persuasion, Intimidation, Deception” or other skill rolls. The “based on interactions” would cover roleplay (without rolls) and/or the DM deciding how the monster would respond without making a dice-based check.

 

R

Reynard

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #6

DEFCON 1 said:

If I use a random encounter table (rare)... the table includes not only the person/creature/event encounter but also the purpose of their encounter. So the table wouldn't just say "wolves"... it would say "wolves protecting their den" or "starving wolves looking for food". Which would indicate what they probably would do when the party encountered them.

Random encounters are story beats. So the table has to have the story as well as the person/creature/event, otherwise what's the point?

Click to expand...

Stormonu said:

On the reaction rolls, I wanted to keep it open for the likes of older edition actual reaction rolls, or more modern “Make a Persuasion, Intimidation, Deception” or other skill rolls. The “based on interactions” would cover roleplay (without rolls) and/or the DM deciding how the monster would respond without making a dice-based check.

Click to expand...

I think it is the combination of these things that create really interesting random encounters which in turn provide worthwhile but unplanned "story" (in retrospect). If the encounter is "bandits looking for victims to rob" and the reaction roll comes up "friendly" maybe those bandits decided the small group of well armed weirdos would make great leaders and offer their services to the PCs, mistakenly (or not?) assuming the PCs were highwaymen, too.

 

Cadence

Legend

Supporter

• Apr 22, 2024

• #7

I chose: "No, they react based on party’s interactions"

But sometimes I roll to see how they react to the party. And sometimes they were going to do something (attack, flee, etc...) pretty much no matter what the party does.

 

Last edited: Apr 22, 2024

Crimson Longinus

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #8

Obviously not everyone is hostile and of course you can try to reason even with those who are. Granted, sometimes there are things that lack the capacity to understand such reason. And, yes sometimes enemies might flee or surrender.

Creatures should have at least rudimentary personalities and motivations, and act according to them. Now combat in D&D is actually fun, so I think it is fine to include plenty of creatures which may have hostile disposition, which makes chances of it occurring higher, but unless they're literally mindless, they still do not act like automated murderbots. It is perfectly fine if the PCs occasionally manage to defuse a planned combat encounter peacefully.

 

Last edited: Apr 22, 2024

Echohawk

Shirokinukatsukami fan

• Apr 22, 2024

• #9

Few encounters in my campaign are automatically combat encounters. Usually it depends on how the PCs react to the monsters. What happens once an encounter turns into a battle is a different matter. I've had more than one group who were very reluctant to ever let an opponent escape them. ("Those experience points are running away!")

The players in my very first campaign habitually slaughtered everything they came across, at least until they butchered a pair of adult ankhegs. Shortly after that battle finished, they discovered that the adults had been fighting to protect a nearby baby ankheg. An ankheg isn't really the most cute and cuddly creature, but I played up the helpless little thing cautiously approaching the corpses of its parents and running its tiny little feelers over their bodies, letting out a series of pitiful squeaks and then eventually curling up in a miserable heap between them.

Mortified that they had orphaned the creature, the group was subsequently much less hasty about attacking monsters they didn't have to. They didn't really want to add to the expenses they were incurring caring for the juvenile ankheg now living in their keep.​

 

the Jester

Legend

• Apr 22, 2024

• #10

I need a "Depends on the monster" answer. Some are always hostile, some are going to react based on the party's actions, some might react based on a die roll.