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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 3861346" data-attributes="member: 704">I agree with what frankthedm said.  As long as the fights are reasonably balanced for difficulty, fighting Mobs of Mooks can be pretty fun.  For the players, they get to totally annihilate some opponents and revel in their awesomeness.  The Dm gets a convenient buffer to fine tune difficulty.  With mooks, you can use sub optimal tactics if you realized you inadvertantly set up a  TPK.  With a larger monster, it is trickier to pull off without being obvious.  And conversely, the DM can run the mooks as being out for blood.  The DM does not get many chances to pull out all the stops without doing a TPK, but with typical mook types, you can usually do so without forcing a TPK.That is why I like that style of game, and why I disallowed the Spiked Chain to begin with.  I was up front with my players about why I wanted to remove it from the game.   No one had a problem, and everyone has been happy.Regardless, a DM must adapt his game to his players at some point.  You do not need to min / max every encounter, but Orcs and Goblins are not totally retarded.  If someone drops a quarter of your forces in one attack, they should fall back, re-enforce, regroup, and try again.  Orcs and Goblins are often cowards for a reason.  It is a good survival instinct.  Even if you stick to Mook Mobs, you should have a wider tactical repetoire than "Enter melee, die".  By about 6th level, you should be using terrain, hit and run tactics, and readied actions to pincushion easy spell caster targets at a minimum.  I will often justify such tactics by having dedicated observers who simply watch the fight and hide so they can report back.  If the PC's prevent opponents from fleeing and reporting back, then they get the reward of being able to use the same trick more than once.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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