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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9464381" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Another problem with fleeing is- where are you going to flee to?  In most scenarios, you could easily blunder into another encounter, patrol, or random encounter!If you're in a dungeon, you're not going to be able to flee all the way to the exit (most likely), so your only option is an area that you've fully cleared that managed to stay that way in your absence.  Worse, you're probably in bad shape, with party members out of spells, limited healing options, and in dire need of a rest- something that's already difficult to do in the field!Simply put, either the DM has to go out of his way to make retreat possible and telegraph that to the players (which might require some metagaming or even immersion breaking: "uh, why, exactly, are the orc berserkers just letting us go?") or the players need to have scrolls or dedicated spell slots devoted to "run away" spells (and it pretty much has to be spells in 5e, because non-casters can't fill an area with fog, smoke, difficult terrain, or other control effects to deter someone from chasing the party) at all times.AND if the party is subject to a "time crunch", ie, the kind of thing that forces them to face X encounters before resting, depending on how high the stakes are, the consequences of failure might not be any better than dying!I'll illustrate that last bit with a story.  4e game, we were up against some crazy cultists and we encountered their leader, who seemed to possess vampiric powers.  Pretty quickly we realized we were outclassed, as he could negate one attack per turn outright and had an ability that let him dominate a party member, which he used on our Sorcerer.The intent was for us to retreat and this guy become a recurring foe for the game.  But the DM tipped his hand when the guy cursed me in combat.As he explained, for a year and a day, the villain could scry on my location no matter where I went, and could target me or anyone near me with his abilities- basically meaning that not only could he destroy me or anyone else he cursed at his leisure, but that we would now be a threat to anyone we came into contact with!With that threat looming over our heads, flight seemed extremely pointless.  The party died to a man, and the campaign ended, with the DM unable to comprehend where he went wrong, lol.</blockquote>

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