Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheFindus" data-source="post: 5883431" data-attributes="member: 75791">I see a room for morale rules in an adventure. In an adventure, combat situations are tied to story elements that form a basis for morale decisions. Is the opponent encountered at home, protecting somebody or just passing through? What motive does the opponent have for fighting?All these things are vital for morale decisions and - if one decides not to let all opponents fight to their death - need to accounted for. This, to me, is nothing that can be laid down in numbers. It should be described in short fluff instead. If you put something like this down as a rule mechanic, as an abstract monster description in a monster manual, you will only be able to take all the important factors into account with a great deal of administration for a GM. And administration equals work. More work is something I personally do not need as a GM.That is the reason why I never played with morale rules even when they still existed in the 80s and 90s. I was glad when they were basically declared dead as part of an abstract monster description with 3e in the new millenium and put into fluff in adventures instead.Somebody in this thread posted rules that included calculating % based on hit dice and other stuff, with +1% here and -2% there etc. Excuse me for being blunt, but: My goodness, what a waste of prep and game time!  Also, these numbers invite rules lawyering ("Those goblins should flee, because with the death of their leader, their morale is now 3. You have the numbers all wrong and therefore suck, GM") and can work against plausibility if there is a great story-reason why the opponents continue fighting even though the numbers in the monster description say otherwise. And morale does not neccessarily make fights better or quicker.In my games, I regularily let opponents flee, if they are outnumbered or in a bad spot or if I have designed them as cowards. Sometimes, the players let them go. Most of the time, they want to capture them and present them to the watch (except my wife's character - she just wants to kill them all, even if important information could be gained).And I do not need numbers to do this. Last but not least, a failed morale check can ruin an otherwise great heroic fight. Which is one of the most exciting things for all players at the table. So, please WotC, do not waste good design time now on putting monster morale in the core! Put it in a later rulebook that people who like stuff like this can waste their money on.</blockquote>

Verification