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Super Deadly 5E?
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<blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 7933125" data-attributes="member: 413"><p>I have the monsters react realistically based on their nature, goals and what they know.</p><p></p><p>Usually monsters are fighting to simply survive the onslaught of murder hobos. So they will attack a PC until it is no longer a clear threat and then will attack the next threat they believe they can harm. I make no assumptions that parties of adventurers optimized for fighting are a common thing in the world so most monsters won't know that killing the cleric first is important.</p><p></p><p>But other monsters have different motivations. For instance, my players have come to understand that undead are not interested in winning fights. They mostly want to feed on the living. Which means they are driven to attack dying PCs. Maybe not skeletons, but from zombies on up they desire delivering the killing blow above all else. Higher undead like vampires prefer to play with their food as long as possible but most are content just to kill.</p><p></p><p>Predators will attack the most vulnerable character or animal and drag their prey away.</p><p></p><p>Guards might fight to subdue or frighten enemies away. </p><p></p><p>And so forth.</p><p></p><p>So I generally do not double tap PCs. When I do I usually explain why.</p><p></p><p>For example...in Ravenloft (SPOILERS!) my party was fighting the animated weapons on the bridge by the tower. They had retreated outside. Five vampire spawn that had been trailing the party joined the fight. Two vampires were knocked from the bridge. The monk leaped off to try to finish them off but between the two of them, they scored two crits, knocking the monk out. The next turn they were too far from the fight to engage a new PC. And they ARE vampires after all. I figured each would want to feed before the other could so...the monk died as two vampire spawn tore her apart. I explained why to the player. She was fine. The paladin and revivify amd was fast going down too. Made for an interesting fight as the party tried to keep him alive so they could save the monk. He lived, she was revivified and my players still remember that fight so all is good.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Uller, post: 7933125, member: 413"] I have the monsters react realistically based on their nature, goals and what they know. Usually monsters are fighting to simply survive the onslaught of murder hobos. So they will attack a PC until it is no longer a clear threat and then will attack the next threat they believe they can harm. I make no assumptions that parties of adventurers optimized for fighting are a common thing in the world so most monsters won't know that killing the cleric first is important. But other monsters have different motivations. For instance, my players have come to understand that undead are not interested in winning fights. They mostly want to feed on the living. Which means they are driven to attack dying PCs. Maybe not skeletons, but from zombies on up they desire delivering the killing blow above all else. Higher undead like vampires prefer to play with their food as long as possible but most are content just to kill. Predators will attack the most vulnerable character or animal and drag their prey away. Guards might fight to subdue or frighten enemies away. And so forth. So I generally do not double tap PCs. When I do I usually explain why. For example...in Ravenloft (SPOILERS!) my party was fighting the animated weapons on the bridge by the tower. They had retreated outside. Five vampire spawn that had been trailing the party joined the fight. Two vampires were knocked from the bridge. The monk leaped off to try to finish them off but between the two of them, they scored two crits, knocking the monk out. The next turn they were too far from the fight to engage a new PC. And they ARE vampires after all. I figured each would want to feed before the other could so...the monk died as two vampire spawn tore her apart. I explained why to the player. She was fine. The paladin and revivify amd was fast going down too. Made for an interesting fight as the party tried to keep him alive so they could save the monk. He lived, she was revivified and my players still remember that fight so all is good. [/QUOTE]
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