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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 2252015" data-attributes="member: 4937">This is what I call training your players to take TPKs.  If you always present the PC's with situations in which retreat is unviable, pretty soon they will stop treating it as an option for the very good reason that the DM has never made it a viable option.  If you've done this, about the only thing you can do is a DM is a) let the party die, or b) secretly reduce the foes hit points and let them off the hook.  Neither is particularly satisfying.I can't count the number of fights my PC has run away from or avoided.  The main trick in a retreat is to retain party cohesion, and not turn it into a rout in which every character is for themselves.  Generally speaking, monsters are no better at fighting a moving action than parties are better at fighting a movie action.  In fact, against single big monsters, a moving action can greatly advantage the PC party.  After all, the parties biggest advantage against most foes is that they can generate more actions per round than the monster can.But you must all so plan a party with the idea, 'What are we going to do if we get in over our heads?'  If the party has given all its thought to maximizing damage output and none to mobility, then sure, retreat is probably impossible and you are better off slogging it out to the last man.  If on the other hand your party has spells like 'Wall of Force', 'Teleport', 'Expeditious Retreat' and items/mounts chosen specifically to help you move when you need to, then you are rarely going to be caught in situations you don't want to be in with no way to get out of them.  Also, be sure to retreat along areas you've already explored so as to not make your problems worse.I tend to design my PC's with the goal of maximum (party) survivability, and the ability to deal massive damage to a foe is only part of that.</blockquote>

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