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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnlineDM" data-source="post: 5254405" data-attributes="member: 90804">It depends on three things for me:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What I think the monster would do if it were real (intelligence, common sense)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Whether the battle is too easy or too hard for the party</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What would be the most fun</li> </ul>The first point is pretty common.  Mindless monsters like zombies probably just go after the closest PC to them, or maybe whichever PC hit them most recently.  Brilliant monsters/NPCs are far more likely to use tactics, luring PCs into disadvantageous positions, readying actions, etc.  (And yes, grabbing, readying, aiding, etc. are available to monsters - I just wouldn't use it with all monsters).The second point is probably more controversial, but if the monsters are fighting very intelligently and the PCs are getting slaughtered, I might dial down the bad guys' tactics a notch or two.  I won't have them do anything blatantly out of character in terms of stupidity, but I might not go for the most optimal choice, perhaps the most obvious one.  It's a little harder to have dumb monsters suddenly fight smarter, but it might be possible to come up with a plausible explanation (a leader arrives and directs the battle tactics perhaps).The third one is the most important.  An example: I <a href="http://onlinedm.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/online-campaign-what-a-rush/" target="_blank">recently ran my online party</a> though a Living Forgotten Realms adventure (WATE1-1 Heirloom), which has as its final battle an encounter in a room in an inn.  The PCs are coming from the hallway, and the bad guys are ensconced in the room.  The bad guys include a pair of guard drakes, who start out blocking the door (they're guard drakes - they guard).  Doing this made it impossible for the PCs to do much until they defeated the drakes, and a 2-square wide hallway didn't leave much room for the melee attackers to do anything at all (this was a party of eight players).So, even though it wasn't the tactically smart thing to do and probably not what the guard drakes' master would have told them to do, I had the drakes shift back a square to let the PCs into the room.  The battle was way more fun and interesting that way.  You could argue (I would) that this was an encounter design problem, but in a published module I felt stuck with it (oops on me).  So, I had the monsters fight a little bit stupidly in order to make the battle way more fun (for me and for the players), and I'm glad I did.</blockquote>

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