A goblins dying breath.

[Christian]

Play dead? (What's the DC on that?)

Bluff vs. Sense Motive, I'd say. And if someone actually took an action to investigate his condition, maybe Bluff vs. Heal, with a bonus (+5? +10?) on the Heal check.

 

[Orco42]

Go for survival, no matter how slim the chance?
You're more then likely going to die so take someone with you?
Surrender?
Play dead? (What's the DC on that?)

It depends on the person. Most would run away or surrender. People that are very motivate, or have no chance of surrender or espcape will fight to the end.

 

[Forrester]

Goblin life is, unfortunately, cheap . . . mostly because of all the damn max-minning adventurers around.

My general rule is that if the Bad Guy has at least a 25% chance of survival, he'll run for it. Less than that, he'll fight to the death.

In this case, it was obvious he needed to run for it. I'm SURE that the DM was intelligent enough to max out his ranks in Tumble (6), and the goblin, because he was a 3rd level rogue, was probably a bit above average -- maybe a 16 dex or so (+3 to the check).

Meaning all he needed was a '6' to tumble away successfully. He rolled a '4' -- typical goblin luck. But he had a good chance to get away.

(One question -- couldn't he have taken the Run action and still tumbled 20' in there, or not?)

 

[Umbran]

The goblin probably knows what most adventurers do - when in doubt, stall for time. If you are about to die, stalling really cannot make matters worse, and may give you the break you need.

 

[Quickbeam]

Exactly, Quickbeam. I love recurring characters. And baddies with vendettas are among the best.

Or, if you wanted, you could have him engage in a new action that we developed in our game:

Cry Like a Little Girl - Full round action which provokes an attack of opportunity.

LOL.

Seriously, though. NPC's that run away, make FANTASTIC recurring nasties, who drive the party insane with their hit and run cowardly tactics. This goblin sounded like a prime candidate for that role.

 

[Lord Ben]

Mechanics wise he could have. But in this case there was a pit in the way of a direct route out so he needed a double move to move around it. Ftr4 was coming out of hold in 1 round, adept8 coming out of ghouls touch in 2 rounds and everyone below 15 hp. If the goblin fled they wouldn't have pursued. He had full hp when they ganged up on him and he lasted 4 rounds with 4 people all swinging and missing. Eventually he took a crit from the cleric at 2d8+2 and had 1hp left. He decided it was time to leave! Poor luck though on the tumble and AO's.

 

[Lord Ben]

LOL.

Seriously, though. NPC's that run away, make FANTASTIC recurring nasties, who drive the party insane with their hit and run cowardly tactics. This goblin sounded like a prime candidate for that role.

I still remember Galgratch the Destroyer!! A pure monster manual Gnoll out of a group of 10 that happened to knock 5 of the 6 party members to negatives. He didn't have a name until he fled and never showed up again, but it still sucks that he fled.