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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shendorion" data-source="post: 6760993" data-attributes="member: 6804078">I strongly disagree.  I think that a player initiating a skill check rather than just lobbing another attack roll is good for the gameplay and the narrative both.  This situation was a perfect setup for an Intimidation check - the intimidating characters had the upper hand, and the intended victims knew it.  If this was a conflict happening in any medium other than a video game, it would be the part of the narrative where the winning side shouts, "give it up," or the losing side (if we're seeing the battle from their point of view) says, "this is hopeless!  There's too many of them!"  Whether the losing side pulls an ace out of the hole and turns the tide, throws down their weapons, flees for their lives or chooses to go down swinging is up to the DM and the dice in various proportions.I'd want to know more about the situation before deciding what I'd do in it.  If the creatures are low WIS, prone to panic, or of species commonly killed on sight, I'd probably have them keep legging it unless the first party could physically stop them.  Otherwise I'd let them use Intimidation again to stop them running.  Fire at their feet, roll the dice, and see what happens.  The first success got them to abandon the fight; the second one gets them to abandon the escape attempt.  Honestly, I wouldn't even make them do the attack rolls to land the shots ahead of the fleeing creatures unless you want the possibility of a really low roll killing one of them.Under this edition's rules, any damage can be declared nonlethal at the time of assignment, so if they really want to catch a fleeing target and know the rules, they can shoot it down and call the damage nonlethal (a thrown weapon knocks them out with the hilt; an arrow wings them and they collapse under their wounds).  Rule in their favor, and use this to fuel the narrative.  If you want to feed them breadcrumbs and muddy the moral waters, have them winkle it out of your NPCs in a skill challenge.  If you want them to be in the dark, the detainees knew nothing (or were fanatical enough to the cause to bite off their own tongues or similar).  In short, reward them for doing something more interesting than fighting everything to the death with an interesting scene, information and loot at your discretion.</blockquote>

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