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Guidelines on monster behavior and priorities in combat
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<blockquote data-quote="Kinak" data-source="post: 5918583" data-attributes="member: 6694112"><p>There used to be a lot more of this. I liked this information too, but it often got ignored. I think there are two reasons.</p><p></p><p>1) The DM has plenty to deal with already. The more tactically complicated an enemy is on paper (whether that's several different actions in 4e or running a spellcaster in 2e/3e), the less time you have to take care of actually making the enemy act appropriately.</p><p></p><p>2) The answers provided were often realistic. Almost everything runs away. And, really, <em>of course</em> it runs away! Half the time you have to wonder how they got into a fight in the first place, let alone fighting to the death.</p><p></p><p>But, for most campaigns, it's not really about making the combats realistic (just enough to grant verisimilitude). It's about making them fun. And the advice provided often just isn't fun. </p><p></p><p>The normal D&D kobold lair is a small dungeon with some quirky traps and kobolds that largely fight to the death and don't really work together. I think there's a good reason for that. Going into a "smart" kobold lair, with tiny winding passages, dead ends, traps upon traps, guerrilla ranged attacks, and a decent chance of no final battle at all would be hellish.</p><p></p><p>So what I really want is advice about how to make those combats engaging and how to use monster's abilities in fun ways (rather than necessarily the most effective ones). How can they be smart without depriving the players their chances to shine?</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p><p>Kinak</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Kinak, post: 5918583, member: 6694112"] There used to be a lot more of this. I liked this information too, but it often got ignored. I think there are two reasons. 1) The DM has plenty to deal with already. The more tactically complicated an enemy is on paper (whether that's several different actions in 4e or running a spellcaster in 2e/3e), the less time you have to take care of actually making the enemy act appropriately. 2) The answers provided were often realistic. Almost everything runs away. And, really, [I]of course[/I] it runs away! Half the time you have to wonder how they got into a fight in the first place, let alone fighting to the death. But, for most campaigns, it's not really about making the combats realistic (just enough to grant verisimilitude). It's about making them fun. And the advice provided often just isn't fun. The normal D&D kobold lair is a small dungeon with some quirky traps and kobolds that largely fight to the death and don't really work together. I think there's a good reason for that. Going into a "smart" kobold lair, with tiny winding passages, dead ends, traps upon traps, guerrilla ranged attacks, and a decent chance of no final battle at all would be hellish. So what I really want is advice about how to make those combats engaging and how to use monster's abilities in fun ways (rather than necessarily the most effective ones). How can they be smart without depriving the players their chances to shine? Cheers! Kinak [/QUOTE]
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Guidelines on monster behavior and priorities in combat
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