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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4884983" data-attributes="member: 58197">When was the last time you saw a PC coup de grace a monster after dropping it to zero hit points? PCs don't waste time on coups de grace because monsters almost always stay down once dropped, and in battle every moment counts; it's idiotic to go around slitting throats when there are opponents still up and fighting. I figure monsters are used to dealing with other monsters and take the same attitude. To them, a foe who gets dropped to zero is a foe who's out of the fight.Of course, as soon as such an opponent bounces back up and rejoins the fight, intelligent monsters will change their tactics just as PCs would. They will either start delivering coups de grace, or gang-rush the healer. But the initial expectation is that the guy who's down will stay down.(I'll add that 4E's "jack-in-the-box" combat, with characters dropping and then popping back up a round later, rather annoys me. Previous editions had some of this too, but 4E has exacerbated it with the "count up from zero" rule, which makes it a tactically wise decision to hold your healing until somebody actually goes unconscious. I would prefer a system that made it more difficult to get knocked out, but if you do get knocked out you stay down for the rest of the fight - that's your penalty for "losing.")</blockquote>