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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9578923" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Some do, some don't.Some monsters are...for lack of a better term, suffering from "lion syndrome", having become so accustomed to being the BMOC (big monster on campus), they fail to account for how wily and dangerous intelligent prey can be. Others might be defending a nest, starving and desperate, or in some way not in their right minds (e.g. magic, infection, poison, etc.)Actually sapient monsters tend to be more clever, but there's something to note here. In Jewel of the Desert, most sapient species are accepted as part of society. Orcs, ogres, minotaurs, goblins, all sorts of races are welcome. Initially this was just a "because that's the kind of world I want to portray" situation, but as the game has developed, we've clarified exactly why this is the case. We've learned that the Genie-Rajahs, the ancestors of the modern Jinnistani nobility who ruled over the mortal world until their exodus two millennia past, were...not exactly the nicest people. It had already been established that genies keep slaves and that slavery is a BIG no-no in the Tarrakhuna (main setting of the game), but as the party has explored Genie-Rajah ruins, it's become clear that their slave trade was extensive and cruel; some Genie-Rajahs were kinder than others, but none were 100% benevolent.Mortal-kind rose up against their cruel masters at around the same time as the exodus to Jinnistan (this is not a coincidence, but the players haven't learned why yet), and thus the nomad tribes and the revolting slaves were the two major ethnic groups that formed the modern society of the region. The people doing this revolt couldn't afford to pick and choose who could join up, and all of them despised the slavery practiced by their overlords, so this neatly explains both the firmly anti-slavery stance and the egalitarian attitude of the region.The only exceptions to the "we accept basically all races" thing are those that are inherently about hurting and killing other people. If vampires exist (this hasn't been established either way), they'd be on the KOS list. Werehyenas are a known scourge of the deep desert, though I don't think that is transmissible by bite. Mind flayers exist and are definitely on the KOS list, though they're very rare and generally keep hidden.So...most "sapient monsters" like minotaurs, ogres, etc. would act like any other ordinary sapient mortal being, because they're all considered "part of society". However, many of the more powerful sapient monsters that specifically prey on other mortals? They might fight to the death because they know there's no chance for them to survive if they don't throw everything they have.(The one mind flayer the party has faced did, in fact, escape from a fight with a PC during a solo adventure to catch said PC back up with the party--which neatly explained why the mindflayer's ship had crashed into a pyramid when the rest of the party met him "later" in the world but previously in IRL terms. However, said mind flayer was far too cocky, and got himself killed by the very creature he was trying to subvert to his control, which the party then successfully cleansed of her corruption, a couatl named Tlacalicue, who is now a background ally for the party.)</blockquote>

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