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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 1737597" data-attributes="member: 3400">This is one of the things I liked about 2nd edition's monster books. All monsters were given a morale rating. If put under sufficient stress, you check morale and if they fail, they run or surrender or something. But then, I'm an old style wargamer too. There are some role-player DMs who would undoubtedly scoff at rolling to see what the monster's going to do, but even if the roll isn't made, it's worth having a general guage of how stalwart the NPC really is the face of adversity... and then play it up realistically. One thing about combat in real life: sometimes a person or unit has a good day and won't flinch, sometimes they will, and whether or not they do or don't is often unpredictable. That's why a die roll is sometimes a very good way to make the decision.The trouble with not even considering things like this is that it's too easy to leave the monsters in the fight since they aren't real. No real pain, no real blood. Those goblins can be left to fight to the death to whittle the PCs down in preparation for the bigger bad guy a few encounters down the map. I'm not saying that there won't be some goblins sufficiently motivated to hold their last stand, but all the time? Probably not.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 1737597, member: 3400"] This is one of the things I liked about 2nd edition's monster books. All monsters were given a morale rating. If put under sufficient stress, you check morale and if they fail, they run or surrender or something. But then, I'm an old style wargamer too. There are some role-player DMs who would undoubtedly scoff at rolling to see what the monster's going to do, but even if the roll isn't made, it's worth having a general guage of how stalwart the NPC really is the face of adversity... and then play it up realistically. One thing about combat in real life: sometimes a person or unit has a good day and won't flinch, sometimes they will, and whether or not they do or don't is often unpredictable. That's why a die roll is sometimes a very good way to make the decision. The trouble with not even considering things like this is that it's too easy to leave the monsters in the fight since they aren't real. No real pain, no real blood. Those goblins can be left to fight to the death to whittle the PCs down in preparation for the bigger bad guy a few encounters down the map. I'm not saying that there won't be some goblins sufficiently motivated to hold their last stand, but all the time? Probably not. [/QUOTE]

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