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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Combating fights to the death
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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 7607502" data-attributes="member: 6775477"><p>On the DM side of things:</p><p></p><p>Most low intelligence monsters are not going to suicidally throw themselves at enemies. Everything has a motivation, and most monsters are simply hungry (or just cruel). Once the hungry ones down a PC, have them start to drag it off to be eaten. Once they take a lot of damage, they'll flee (taking the withdraw action most of the time), especially the cruel ones (better to live and get revenge). Some creatures WILL fight to the death, however, such as when defending their young and/or lair. NPCs and intelligent monsters will have various goals and motivations that can be met without killing the PCs, or are not worth risking life and limb over. Those might simply surrender if they think the PCs will abide by it, and consider having the NPCs accept surrender from the PCs.</p><p></p><p>On the Player side of things:</p><p></p><p>Tell your players that you are not creating balanced encounters, but are designing the adventures based on the needs of the world and story, not combat. This means that enemies will summon reinforcements, or they may just be more powerful at the outset. This makes combat the least preferred solution, because they never know how bad it might get (unless they take suitable precautions). If they continue to rush in head-first, they'll hopefully change after the 1st TPK. Once you have the reputation of a "killer DM," the players will always consider flight as an option (I suggest you allow it to happen, unless the story demands otherwise).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 7607502, member: 6775477"] On the DM side of things: Most low intelligence monsters are not going to suicidally throw themselves at enemies. Everything has a motivation, and most monsters are simply hungry (or just cruel). Once the hungry ones down a PC, have them start to drag it off to be eaten. Once they take a lot of damage, they'll flee (taking the withdraw action most of the time), especially the cruel ones (better to live and get revenge). Some creatures WILL fight to the death, however, such as when defending their young and/or lair. NPCs and intelligent monsters will have various goals and motivations that can be met without killing the PCs, or are not worth risking life and limb over. Those might simply surrender if they think the PCs will abide by it, and consider having the NPCs accept surrender from the PCs. On the Player side of things: Tell your players that you are not creating balanced encounters, but are designing the adventures based on the needs of the world and story, not combat. This means that enemies will summon reinforcements, or they may just be more powerful at the outset. This makes combat the least preferred solution, because they never know how bad it might get (unless they take suitable precautions). If they continue to rush in head-first, they'll hopefully change after the 1st TPK. Once you have the reputation of a "killer DM," the players will always consider flight as an option (I suggest you allow it to happen, unless the story demands otherwise). [/QUOTE]
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