Should Monsters use sneaky tactics in combat??

[OldGreybeard]

I was a player during this example:

We were a party of moderately high level characters, when we came across a cave in the side of a mountain, a very strong pungent odour could be smelled before the cave like fools we entered, just inside the entrance we saw the floor of the cave was a bubbling smelly liquid, ahead of the party, from behind some huge boulders rose a gigantic black skinned giant, the rest of the guys were so wound up for a fight, before i had time to ask what colour the shaven giants eyebrows were our wizard was casting fireball, all the DM said was WHOOOSHHHH in a very loud voice, the silence from the group was deafening, as he explained that the cave was a natural oil well producing petrol or gasoline for you yanks, the spark set off the inflammable vapour, it was 2e at the time and whoosh twenty D6 rolled out of the DM`s fingers, i was marginally lucky, in that i was at the front of the party and was a Dwarven Fighter/Cleric, apparently the giant got a bit of a shock as the 300lb armoured dwarf flew towards him like a tomahawk missile, followed by a fireball the size of a small nuclear blast, it turned out to be the deadliest room any in the group had ever encountered, 76 HP damage for those who failed to save, which was everyone, as the DM said no dex bonusses on saves as here was nowhere to dodge to. All i was happy about was the idiot wizard blew himself up in the process, poetic justice for the rest of us.....

 

[kiznit]

As a self-admitted rat bastard DM, I pride myself on making much of the game challenging for my players, and strongly believe in the importance of keeping them on their toes - Yes, I have coup-de-grace'd after sleep spells, in deference of going after PCs still up and about - I'm that evil. I've sprung surprise abilities and nasty tactics and ambushes on the players. I've hidden were-rat monks under the guise of "spellcasters" and done other sneaky tricks.

However, a good game carries with it a wide spectrum of variety, IMO. I would be a horrible DM if I did that all the time, and though I lay awake at night chuckling sometimes about how to make an innocent-looking troop of goblins actually a finely-toned whirling death machine, I've come to realize that sometimes you want to let the players run roughshod over a regular old troop of goblins. It's important to give players moments in a campaign where they are in complete control, or to put it another way, circumstances where they really truly feel like they are the biggest badasses in the room, because that can be just as exciting a feeling as defeating a deadly challenge by the skin of your teeth.

And similarly, when the PCs come up with a Really Clever Plan that will completely screw over your bad guys's carefully set trap, well, sometimes you should let them screw over your bad guys's trap, and make it clear how angry and surprised your bad guys are that they got one pulled over on them.

It makes it all the sweeter when you do the same thing to them later.

 

[Lanefan]

However, a good game carries with it a wide spectrum of variety, IMO. I would be a horrible DM if I did that all the time, and though I lay awake at night chuckling sometimes about how to make an innocent-looking troop of goblins actually a finely-toned whirling death machine, I've come to realize that sometimes you want to let the players run roughshod over a regular old troop of goblins. It's important to give players moments in a campaign where they are in complete control, or to put it another way, circumstances where they really truly feel like they are the biggest badasses in the room, because that can be just as exciting a feeling as defeating a deadly challenge by the skin of your teeth.

And similarly, when the PCs come up with a Really Clever Plan that will completely screw over your bad guys's carefully set trap, well, sometimes you should let them screw over your bad guys's trap, and make it clear how angry and surprised your bad guys are that they got one pulled over on them.

It makes it all the sweeter when you do the same thing to them later.

Hear, hear. Well put, sir.

A few years ago, I was running a 1e game where the party was decent level (7th-11th) and had all kinds of magic and tinker-toys. They were wading into a forest looking for some bad guys (in fact, a small syndicate run by 3 Beholders, but they did not know this yet) and between one thing and another I'd managed to build things up such that the party was jumping at shadows.

Then a lone Kobold steps into the trail, levels a little crossbow at them, and in a squeaky voice calls out "Stand and deliver!"

The party literally scatters in 4 directions at once: one goes left, one goes right, one goes up, and one charges only to go down when he finds the Kobold's little pit trap the hard way. All from one tiny 4-hit-point Kobold, that has no backup of any kind!

They soon enough cut him down, but that one glorious moment of watching that Kobold scatter such a mighty group will stay with me forever.

Lanefan

 

[Krensky]

Hear, hear. Well put, sir.

A few years ago, I was running a 1e game where the party was decent level (7th-11th) and had all kinds of magic and tinker-toys. They were wading into a forest looking for some bad guys (in fact, a small syndicate run by 3 Beholders, but they did not know this yet) and between one thing and another I'd managed to build things up such that the party was jumping at shadows.

Then a lone Kobold steps into the trail, levels a little crossbow at them, and in a squeaky voice calls out "Stand and deliver!"

The party literally scatters in 4 directions at once: one goes left, one goes right, one goes up, and one charges only to go down when he finds the Kobold's little pit trap the hard way. All from one tiny 4-hit-point Kobold, that has no backup of any kind!

They soon enough cut him down, but that one glorious moment of watching that Kobold scatter such a mighty group will stay with me forever.

Lanefan

This brought a smile to my face, although based on the party's reaction, I would have immediately made him something more then a 4 HP Kobold just so he can come back and waylay the party whenever they're looking a little heavy in the gold department. Impossible, if I remember right, by the rules as written in 1e, I know; but still.

 

[OldGreybeard]

I am a firm believer that Dragons should not be the last encounters in a dungeon complex, i remember chuckling for days after i sprang the following on a party: we had been waiting for some of the members to turn up, so i had slipped Aliens on the VCR, the mood was set. the party was an average of 6th-8th level using the 2e rules, when they stumbled into a dark cave, waves of heat emanating from a red glowing pool, scattered around the edges of the pool were seemingly hundreds of large eggs, when one began to rock and shake, one player uttered the brilliant words, "whoopy f***ing do man, we`re all gonna Die", and the Wizard started blasting egg shells screaming "Lets Rock", the Hatchling Red dragons charged in to the slaughter.
After the battle every player thanked me for having the fight of their lives, they couldn`t understand why i kept chuckling, perhaps it was the fact Mommy dragon was going to be seriously miffed at the loss of her beloved hatchlings.

 

[timbannock]

Like said, it depends on the situation. Some monsters should be sneaky bastards. Some should be dumb and charge head on even if that's not the best idea.

I've found in 4E that you need to be aware of terrain and other stuff way more, and keep that in mind when "balancing" an encounter: if the terrain advantage is heavily stacked against the PCs, don't make the enemy equal to Party Level +3 or more. It'll just be mean. In 3.X, I allow any books, so I often find the PCs are way tougher than my badguys. In that case, I'm much more apt to play dirty, but I still keep the encounters within the guidelines of 3.X encounter building. Playing dirty gives me the edge.

Occasionally, I throw an unbeatable force out there, but I specifically call attention to that fact and make it as clear as possible without actually saying it in those words...and I make sure it's not there as a fight encounter (at least not in theory). If the Players are too dumb to realize it, I give them a Sense Motive check using the rules in Complete Scoundrel to "size up" their foe. If they STILL try to fight it, then you really can't hold me accountable for that, can you?