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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 1170100" data-attributes="member: 2011">Possibly.A few things to consider:1) As DM, it is my responsibility to challenge the group, but not to outright slay them if possible (there are living people playing the PCs after all). In this particular case, although the enemies outnumbered the party considerably and it was supposed to be the major finale, the party had made a strategic mistake where 3 of their members were in a different room (the Barbarian, Cleric, and Fighter), hence, they did not join the fight until a round after it started (and it took even another round to get within range of melee). That gave the opposition time to gather their forces and concentrate their attacks against the Monk and Rogue/Wizard which set the tone early.2) I make all combat rolls out in front of the group of players. Hence, the failed save for the Illusionist and the morale rolls. In fact, I made the morale rolls very low and still missed all 4 rolls (I made the first roll DC 8 and every roll after that where one NPC failed +2 DC, so since everyone failed, the DCs became 8, 10, 12, and 14 Will saves). The chances of all 4 NPCs missing their saves was less than 6%, but that is what happened. C'est la guerre.3) If some or all of the morale rolls were made, the NPCs would have continued to fight to their advantage (attempting to flank, etc.). If that would have happened, the Monk would probably have died and possibly the Barbarian as well (the Cleric had stabilized the Barbarian with Cure Minor Wounds the round before the enemy retreated, but if they would have stayed, they may have done a quick swipe at the prone PCs just because the Cleric was healing them). The party would still have had a fair chance of winning though since the Fighter was going to come out of the Color Spray in a few rounds, but it would have been close.Some DMs would not even consider morale rolls and have all NPCs fight to the death. I do not find that plausible play. With nearly two thirds of their forces including their leader gone and half of their remaining forces wounded, I think it important for there to be at least a chance that morale fails and they run away. The Gnolls did not know that it was a Cleric and a Rogue/Wizard who were both out of first level spells and down to zero level spells, the Gnolls knew that nobody could hit the pesky little Halfling although he had killed a few of their allies and the female in armor was able to cast a spell which made their leader run away (and also had not been wounded yet). As DM, you have to put yourself in the NPCs shoes from their point of view, you cannot rely on metagaming knowledge that the Rogue/Wizard only has 12 hit points and will be easy to kill in two shots.Just like it is important for prone PCs to be valid targets if the enemy thinks that other PCs are trying to revive them (the Fighter in fact had been attacked while unconscious on the ground once and if the Gnoll didn't have to move to do it, it would have been a Coup De Grace attempt). I do not spoon feed my PCs, but I do attempt to make all aspects be fair (attack mean when it appears that you have the advantage, run away to fight another day when it appears that you do not). As can be seen, I did not give the NPCs a high chance of retreating, that is just how it worked out.</blockquote>

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