Question for DMs: How smart do you play your monsters?

[the Jester]

If you are a DM, how often do your creatures use skills like

• charge
• grab
• aid another
• ready/delay action
• flank
• focus fire on the controller instead of the defender
• etc?

Are creatures assumed to be able to use these skills or are they meant to be available only to players?

These tactics (not actually skills) are ABSOLUTELY available to npcs and monsters. As a dm, I play monsters to their intelligence and nature; while a dumb beast that tends to work alone isn't likely to flank intentionally, wolves or other pack hunters certainly will.

Do the XP values of monsters take into account how intelligently they are played? Because it seems to me the natural behaviour of most creatures would be vastly different in difficulty to the same creatures under the control of a master tactician.

XP values reflect the monster's stats, nothing more. Tactical acumen is something that cannot be reflected in the numbers since it varies from group to group. Also, the real difficulty in dealing with any given monster often varies based on what it's paired up with; abilities that synergize can become a significant boost.

I wouldn't worry about it- the monster's xp value is its xp value.

 

[Argyle King]

I'll echo what most others have said and say that it depends upon what I think the monster would do in the given situation.

Though, unless the monster has a special ability which keys off of grab or I have a terrain based tactic in mind, I pretty much never use grab. Grab on its own in 4E normally isn't worth it; not for players or monsters.

Aid Another... extremely rare that I use this

I use Bull Rush more often than Grab and Aid, but still not very often.

 

[surfarcher]

I agree with the other posters that these things are available to monster/npcs, that it depends on intelligence, yadda, yadda...

What I'd add tho is it also depends on my players.

A group of utter RPG noobs will get a much easier fight from encounter X than the same characters would get from the same encounter if they were being run by highly experienced, tactially minded 4e players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I play the creatures the way their mechanics & fluff say they should be played. Creatures that are extremely intelligent will use every trick in the book...that they would use given their nature- a hyperintelligent being who is built like a twig won't be attempting too many grapples, for instance, and Elves trained decades as archers are going to use solid, tried & true archery tactics...including running away if necessary.

In the sam way, a dumb creature that has a special attack will use it...sometimes even if it doesn't work the first time.

 

[Iconik]

Great stuff here.

Simple rule for me. In the Monster Manuals and DDI listings there's generally a little flavor at the bottom that will explain things that the keyword or monster tends to do. And since I make my campaigns up from the ground up...I tend to throw my own stuff in there as well.

For instance...there's a demonic race called the Gharzim. In groups they are strong as long as there is a leader. If there is no leader present they tend to do hit and run tactics more.