Enemies and Self-Preservation

>>48958583
Usually it's when one of their buddies dies in a gruesome way or they're at half strength.
But then it depends on the race, orcs and ogres are too rage filled or stupid to run.

>>48959026
This. Running away is basically down to the angry to stupid ratio.

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>>48958583
A lot depends on the situation, I would say. Realistically speaking, not many people are willing to fight to the death when there is little chance of victory. But surrendering seems pretty iffy when we're talking about entirely different species in skirmish-level conflicts with each other and not a formal war with formal armies. Given that and the probable absence of something like the Geneva conventions, prisoners are likely to end up slaughtered.

Given this probability, humanoids may fight well past the point that many soldiers would surrender in our world. That is, of course, assuming they can't flee. Because as soon as things look hopeless, it's a good bet that at least one or two of them will cut and run if they can, and that will tend to induce others to run as well.

In Basic D&D, all monsters had a morale number you would roll against at certain times to see if they would continue to fight or not (see pic).

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>>48959100
And some sample humanoids so you can get some idea of what morale values looked like.

>>48958583
I've been having enemies flee or surrender when they know for a fact that they are screwed.
This doesn't mean they just drop their weapons at first. Usually this goes through stages depending on the enemies and how the combat has gone.

Enemies surrendering or fleeing is also a easy way for you as a gm to gauge your party and their ratio of murder hobo to role playing.

Good aligned characters won't slaughter a group of simple bandits who surrendered

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>>48958583
>When you run combat encounters against intelligent enemies, how often should they be willing to surrender or flee when the fight turns against them rather than fighting to the death?

>>48961974
What are some other systems that handle this well?

>>48959100
More GMs should probably keep stuff like this on hand.

Depends on situation and how much they think they will be spared. Some may view the world as kill or be killed so will fight to the death or are maybe angered at the death of their comrades (wretches they may be).

They may also be unwilling to surrender out of fear of their higher-ups who are in the fight or will hear of their cowardice.

>>48958583
>how often should they be willing to surrender or flee

As often as their morale rolls indicate.

>>48958583
Depends on the enemy and how the players choose to engage the conflict.
Slaughtering a great number of attackers, killing the strongest among them or a simple threat display to show them how outclassed they are should be enough to have the remaining enemies flee
Some valid threat displays could be:
>Trying to appear bigger than they are, making a lot of noise, etc (Intimidation + Survival) (Doesn't work against opponents clearly bigger than they are, might also fail against sapient creatures)
>Verbal threats (Intimidation) (Only works against enemies that can understand speech)
>Brandishing weapons and armor, natural or otherwise (Intimidation + Equipment) (Works best against attackers capable of understanding the implicit threat)
>Magic (Magic + Magic) (Magic)

If the act that he players chose is gruesome/intimidating enough they might drop whatever valuables they have to discourage a chase
If they have no reason to think they'll be spared if they surrender, they won't

Personally, i have every creature, sapient or otherwise, flee when the odds are against them IF they have nothing to lose from doing so. Preventing the enemy from fleeing tends to be part of the encounter. Traps, especialized equipment, and knowledge of the area and the creature (as an individual and a member of their species) are important factors if the players aim to kill their marks
A chieftain might fight to the end because surrendering or fleeing will cost him the respect of his people.
A mother creature will fight to the death to save her cubs if she thinks they are in danger.
And so on

>>48961974
>>48959100
And here we have a clear example of why Basic is better than AD&D. Basic has some simple guidelines that are easy to quickly apply. AD&D has a retardedly long list of bullshit that would grind the game to a halt if you ever tried to actually properly use it.

>>48958583
>how often should they be willing to surrender or flee when the fight turns against them rather than fighting to the death?
Most of the time. You know, most people really enjoy living and tend to do everything to preserve their lives. Once the fighting turns sour and it's clear there's no chance of surviving, 9/10 enemies should run away. The only factors that change this should be mindless enemies (with no sense of self-preservation), the guarding of a very important individual or good/fearsome leadership (either the enemy is entirely loyal to their commander, or they fear what he'll do to them if they don't do their job right).
And even then, a commander who even remotely cares about his men will himself sound a retreat once the situation becomes hopeless.

You know the old expression "live to fight another day", right?

the more violent the PCs, the more likely they are to run, but if they are trapped with no where to go, they fight to the death

peaceful PCs will find enemies less likely to scatter, but the enemy will be more willing to negotiate an outcome other than complete death

there are exceptions, mindless automatons will fight to the death unless commanded otherwise, while cowardly foes will turn and retreat the very minute they face stiff resistance, even if they are actually somewhat even against the PCs, but they arent very common

i dont usually roll for it, but sometimes when the PCs deliberately try to force either fight or flight out of the enemies, i will make a contest between them, with the outcome based on how much it aligns with the attackers intent.
>enemies are cornered and want to fight to the death
>fighter calls out for their surrender
> rolls natural 20 against a 12
>enemies no longer fight to the death, but will surrender if half their numbers are thinned out