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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 7222960" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think one of the biggest improvements I've ever made as a DM is to stop having the majority of bad guys simply hurl themselves at the PCs. I do my best to treat each enemy as a thinking creature with goals of its own, and a normal sense of self preservation (although there are occasional exceptions to that, like fanatic cultists or whatever). It just makes no sense for a creature looking for a meal to decide to attack a group of humans, and then for that creature to continue attacking them well after it's obvious that there are easier meals to be had. It doesn't require a high intelligence for basic self preservation to kick in. For more intelligent creatures, I try to use tactics and thinking that makes sense for them. I think most such plans would include some kind of option for falling back or getting away, so I try to keep that in mind. I don't think many people would ever approach a fight without at least some thought to this...not unless it was such a seemingly foregone conclusion that it did not seem to be a concern. Having fights end a bit earlier due to the bad guys retreating can also help address the complaint that "pointless combats" that are present just to help increase the number of encounters per day need to take up so much time. Having the bad guys retreat helps reduce the amount of time it takes for the encounter, and it also provides a slightly different take on the combat; it becomes less about "kill them all" to "stop them from getting away". I meant to mention that in my last post, too; changing the goals of combat can really increase the how tough or meaningful an encounter can be without adjusting the actual Difficulty. Make the combat about rescuing someone, or about capturing one specific target, or about reaching and throwing a lever to open the drawbridge.....whatever. If every combat simply boils down to each side trying to kill the other and little else, then no amount of tweaking the rules or mechanics will prevent some feeling of repetition.</blockquote>

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