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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Asisreo" data-source="post: 7965043" data-attributes="member: 7019027">It depend on that NPC and his thought process. Are they hired thugs? Even if they were just hired thugs, would they still prefer not to have their own team killed? Does that mean that all travelers are also hired thugs? Sure, any mustache-twirling NPC wouldn't care if minion 8 got his throat slit. But if the party was negotiating with his trusted advisor's life on the line...it still kinda depends, right? I do, though, find it wholly unrealistic to have NPC's ready to die in a random clearing in the woods for a chance at coins. Regular bandits know they're not getting any split of gold if they're dead. Now, for the tactics discussion. It's about staying alive, not winning (usually). It doesn't really matter how they go about it as long as it makes sense from a desperation point of view. If an enemy can't reach the other threats within a turn, they have a spare multiattack, or they're a hungry mindless creature, they'll execute a nearby PC. Hell, undead don't have much priority staying alive than hating on life and Fiends are usually immortal and sadistic enough to sacrifice their material plane time for a new slave in the lower planes. If an enemy has the option to down another player, they will do that instead of execution. If the enemy isn't particularly blood-thirsty, like a guard, or want slaves, like a grung, they'd probably move on. I just want fights to make sense. Merely threatening me for coin isn't enough for a perceptible "good" character to kill them off, they're just punks until they draw blood. And if they don't kill, they're just thieves. I don't feel like there's enough roleplay once combat has started and it quickly makes things stale when every opposing NPC has ear muffs to prevent common sense from somehow making it into their thick skulls.</blockquote>

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