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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4574789" data-attributes="member: 58197">Hmm... well, it's worth keeping in mind that D&D players, no matter how careful and conservative they may be, hardly ever retreat from an actual battle. I find most players won't start a fight that's obviously out of their league - a party of low-level PCs will likely refrain from attacking an ancient dragon - but if the monster attacks them, even cautious players are likely to commit themselves fully and not consider retreat until one or two PCs are dead. There are some legitimate reasons for this, both in-game and metagame.The only players I've seen who will voluntarily withdraw from a battle before things look utterly desperate are players who are scared to get in a fight at all. Like the wizard who always abandoned his friends at the first sign of trouble, and who never used his combat spells in case he needed them later. That's not an attitude I want to encourage at my gaming table.The phrase "sometimes the whole point of the encounter is to flee to fight another day" sets off warning bells in my head. It sounds too much like a DM out to "teach the players a lesson," which is hardly ever a good idea.Well, in most cases I would say that's just a whiny player. However, a lot depends on how difficult it is in your game to recover lost levels; if those levels are effectively gone for good, I think the player would have a legitimate beef. It's not unreasonable of the PC to make one attempt to whack the thing before letting the cleric take over. Certainly that's not a mistake that ought to be punished by permanent level loss.</blockquote>

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