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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6730926" data-attributes="member: 6777696">I guess I'm just saying that most of the DM's I've played with (and myself included) tend to run their monsters with a sort of "hive mind" mentality. They may run them effectively, with a clear strategy, or they may be like me and run them poorly, but the individual survival instincts of each unit in the monster hive generally don't come up until a morale check is failed, at which point everybody just runs away. I would like to get good at making my monsters a little more scrappy than that.I will say, one "tactical" change I've made since I started DM'ing is for monsters not to focus fire on PCs. Even if it means spreading out the damage such that a character doesn't get knocked unconscious, it makes the fights more engaging and also discourages the players from focusing fire. I would make exceptions, like if the PCs leave the AC 11 Wizard undefended and monsters can get in there and take him out, they will.This stuff is all great. And yes, running mock combats between NPCs and a notional party sounds like good training, if I wanted to take the time for it.</blockquote>