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<blockquote data-quote="Schmoe" data-source="post: 3260372" data-attributes="member: 913">When I DM, I generally run the critters fairly &quot;realistically&quot;.&nbsp; For example, a starving wild animal will fight to the death, but a pack of wild animals will try to make off with a kill or run away after losing several of their members.&nbsp; Big predators often flee if they are badly wounded (30% or so of HP) and haven't killed any opponents.&nbsp; Again, they will generally try to flee with food if the opportunity presents itself.Before each encounter, I generally spend a couple of seconds to make sure I understand the overall motivation of the opponents and how they plan to pursue their goals.&nbsp; It can certainly change during the battle, though.&nbsp; For example, a dire bear attacking a group with the motivation of &quot;Get Food&quot; can quickly change to &quot;Protect Myself&quot; if the encounter goes badly.Intelligent opponents flee if the situation looks bad and they aren't terrified of the repercussions.&nbsp; On the other hand, there are plenty of opponents, often humanoids or &quot;grunts&quot;, who are bloodthirsty or stupid enough to wade into a hopeless situation.&nbsp; This really comes down to the personality and intelligence of the opponent in question.I've written a lot of detail about what probably only amounts to a few seconds of game-time thought, but it definitely leads to a lot of opponents fleeing when the gig is up.As for PCs fireballing fleeing lions or chasing wounded henchmen, I've set up enough ambushes and attacked enough resource-depleted parties that my PCs generally only pursue fleeing enemies if it's really important for the enemy to not escape (personal motivation, plot reasons, stealth reasons, etc).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Schmoe, post: 3260372, member: 913"] When I DM, I generally run the critters fairly "realistically". For example, a starving wild animal will fight to the death, but a pack of wild animals will try to make off with a kill or run away after losing several of their members. Big predators often flee if they are badly wounded (30% or so of HP) and haven't killed any opponents. Again, they will generally try to flee with food if the opportunity presents itself. Before each encounter, I generally spend a couple of seconds to make sure I understand the overall motivation of the opponents and how they plan to pursue their goals. It can certainly change during the battle, though. For example, a dire bear attacking a group with the motivation of "Get Food" can quickly change to "Protect Myself" if the encounter goes badly. Intelligent opponents flee if the situation looks bad and they aren't terrified of the repercussions. On the other hand, there are plenty of opponents, often humanoids or "grunts", who are bloodthirsty or stupid enough to wade into a hopeless situation. This really comes down to the personality and intelligence of the opponent in question. I've written a lot of detail about what probably only amounts to a few seconds of game-time thought, but it definitely leads to a lot of opponents fleeing when the gig is up. As for PCs fireballing fleeing lions or chasing wounded henchmen, I've set up enough ambushes and attacked enough resource-depleted parties that my PCs generally only pursue fleeing enemies if it's really important for the enemy to not escape (personal motivation, plot reasons, stealth reasons, etc). [/QUOTE]

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