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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8089413" data-attributes="member: 29398">Perfect! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />What &quot;give a monster an even break&quot; means in this context, however, is that if its personality etc. says it would most likely do X then X is what it'll do even if that isn't perhaps the most exciting or interesting thing for the table.Strafing dragons, for example: if a particular dragon is cautious and-or has run afoul of adventurers before, most likely it's going to try to inflict the greatest harm to its foes while taking the least harm itself; and that means it'll either strafe or just fly away.&nbsp; Not much fun for the table, but good for the dragon.A different dragon who is far more confident (or overconfident) in its abilities might just sit there and let the party come to it.&nbsp; I had a big ol' dragon do this once: it was so convinced that nothing could possibly hurt it (much) that it just sat there and waited for the party - who it had seen coming from miles away - to find it.&nbsp; Then it started talking to them, negotiating while it sized them up and all the while (once it realized how much treasure they had!) intending to catch them off guard with a breath and go from there.The players/PCs got bored with the talking long before I did, and dropped the hammer on the dragon; and though they didn't 'surprise' it they still did enough damage to ground it before it had a chance to try and fly away.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8089413, member: 29398"] Perfect! :) What "give a monster an even break" means in this context, however, is that if its personality etc. says it would most likely do X then X is what it'll do even if that isn't perhaps the most exciting or interesting thing for the table. Strafing dragons, for example: if a particular dragon is cautious and-or has run afoul of adventurers before, most likely it's going to try to inflict the greatest harm to its foes while taking the least harm itself; and that means it'll either strafe or just fly away. Not much fun for the table, but good for the dragon. A different dragon who is far more confident (or overconfident) in its abilities might just sit there and let the party come to it. I had a big ol' dragon do this once: it was so convinced that nothing could possibly hurt it (much) that it just sat there and waited for the party - who it had seen coming from miles away - to find it. Then it started talking to them, negotiating while it sized them up and all the while (once it realized how much treasure they had!) intending to catch them off guard with a breath and go from there. The players/PCs got bored with the talking long before I did, and dropped the hammer on the dragon; and though they didn't 'surprise' it they still did enough damage to ground it before it had a chance to try and fly away. [/QUOTE]

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