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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9641418" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>I feel like there are two different questions being asked here simultaneously. “Do you play each fight to its conclusion?” And “does every fight conclude with one or the other side being reduced to 0 HP?” I would answer yes to the first and no to the second. I find it important to focus on what are the monsters/npcs’ goals in a combat? What do they want that they think fighting will help them achieve? And I’m constantly checking, is fighting still a viable way for them to try to achieve that goal? If not, what should they be doing instead? I find that, using these heuristics, very few combats end up being fights to the death. Sapient enemies will often surrender when it’s clear they can’t win, and animals with bestial intelligence often flee if they even become injured. I don’t use any sort of “quick combat” mechanic to resolve the encounter in a single roll or anything like that. But fights where every enemy stands their ground down to their very last hit point are quite rare at my table. They usually only happen when the enemies are cornered or otherwise desperate. Monsters should have self-preservation instincts!</p></blockquote><p></p>