Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6618717" data-attributes="member: 6777696">First of all, I whole-heartedly disagree with the idea that retreat must be the fault of either poor party planning or poor DM planning. Retreat need not be the result of player or DM failure. Furthermore, as a DM, I make no pretense whatsoever that the "encounters" in my campaign are level appropriate, and I usually don't plan them strictly as encounters at all. I use some discretion and math in determining how many hostiles of which types to put in a location, but once all the PCs and NPCs are hanging out, things just kind of run their course.Generally speaking, I am a far worse tactician than all but your most unintelligent of monsters, so the sudden influx of creatures does decrease my tactical capabilities (as I'm now more likely to forget about special combat abilities from at least one of the mobs). Beyond that, I don't go out of my way to adjust-down a fight just because it's over the heads of the party. I might go out of my way to tell the party just how dangerous their opponents are.I've forced a retreat once and, honestly, it was a terrible session and I wish I hadn't done it. I don't think, as the DM, that I should force the players to keep their characters alive. However, once the players decide to get out of Dodge, I'm happy to work with them on it. Retreat opens up so many more options for creative problem solving than your standard combat.I also disagree with you that attacking downed PCs is a genre-savvy or meta-gaming action on the part of monsters. A PC who has gone to 0 hp is almost like a boxer who has been knocked down. They're briefly out of it, but also clearly still alive and breathing. A monster would see this, and understand instinctively, "this guy's still a potential threat." Even without the possibility of magical healing. (Which monsters are also well aware of, since they live in the same world of magical healing that the player characters do.) Genre-savvy is understanding the unique motivations of PCs as controlled by detached otherworldly beings stuffing pizza and beer down their faces and taking several minutes to plan out every 6-second action. Basic awareness is understanding the general mechanical underpinnings of the world you live in.I think there are plenty of reasons why a monster wouldn't attack a downed PC, but I think many of us, my earlier self included, tend to rationalize away the reasons why a normal opponent would attack a downed opponent. I'm re-evaluating those reasons. Will the monsters stand over the unconscious PC hacking and slashing until that PC fails their final death save? In the middle of combat? Probably not. But will they use their second attack as part of multi-attack to give another hack at that PC as he falls to the ground? Absolutely. Happens in medieval war movies all the time. The character might still survive that follow-up hack, but it makes the stakes a lot higher.What I like about what I'm describing is that it's not a house rule. It uses the death save mechanic exactly as written. Even the unconscious PC still has some defenses against monster attacks, and that's as it should be. Falling unconscious in combat should be really dangerous. Characters should be able to die in a combat that isn't a total party kill. This will never happen in 5e once you get past 2nd level if the DM applies some sort of Red Cross/Geneva Convention to monsters.What's the point of a "victory or death!" approach if there is actually no risk of death?</blockquote>

Verification