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<blockquote data-quote="Distracted DM" data-source="post: 9696547" data-attributes="member: 6894926">One can talk about IRL battles being morale-based, etc; that touches on the &quot;combat as war&quot; vs &quot; combat as sport&quot; mindsets. Modern DnD lends itself much more to Combat as Sport, though obviously you can go against type. But anyway, both behaviors can be desirable:You want the party to let enemies go when they retreat, for a variety of reasons- not the least of which is that enemies fleeing means that the encounter's over, you're not wasting time on a foregone conclusion.However...You also want the party to realize that the world is reactive- if they let enemies retreat, those enemies may go alert nearby allies and get reinforcements.. or they may go report to their superiors elsewhere.Deciding which of these to go with requires some thought and discrimination on the PC's part... but if they're not in a thinking mood, they'll may to the &quot;safer&quot; option, which is killing everything. Yes, as you described it such behavior could be that of a &quot;sociopath,&quot; but the murderhobo stereotype is there for a reason.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Distracted DM, post: 9696547, member: 6894926"] One can talk about IRL battles being morale-based, etc; that touches on the "combat as war" vs " combat as sport" mindsets. Modern DnD lends itself much more to Combat as Sport, though obviously you can go against type. But anyway, both behaviors can be desirable: You want the party to let enemies go when they retreat, for a variety of reasons- not the least of which is that enemies fleeing means that the encounter's over, you're not wasting time on a foregone conclusion. However... You also want the party to realize that the world is reactive- if they let enemies retreat, those enemies may go alert nearby allies and get reinforcements.. or they may go report to their superiors elsewhere. Deciding which of these to go with requires some thought and discrimination on the PC's part... but if they're not in a thinking mood, they'll may to the "safer" option, which is killing everything. Yes, as you described it such behavior could be that of a "sociopath," but the murderhobo stereotype is there for a reason. [/QUOTE]

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