Do all players run away from the unknown?

[Gamerlord]

My players recently fought a homebrewed monster of mine, they panicked and ran after spells didn't work on it, and they couldn't figure out anything about it. Had they used their swords, they would have easily won. Is it just my group, or is this a widespread problem?

[Eurus]

My players recently fought a homebrewed monster of mine, they panicked and ran after spells didn't work on it, and they couldn't figure out anything about it. Had they used their swords, they would have easily won. Is it just my group, or is this a widespread problem?

Who says it's a problem? Presenting your players with something that they can't identify is one of the best ways of intentionally inciting paranoia. :smallbiggrin:

[Yukitsu]

Depends on how caster heavy their party was. If their best fighter was a rogue or bard, using a sword except on minor distractions just won't be an option. Otherwise I'd guess it's not that common. People know that magic is powerful though, so anything immune to it is generally assumed to be really dangerous.

Me, I don't run from those. I find it a treat trying out ability after ability on them to find out which ones work and which don't.

[arguskos]

Yes, the majority tend to do so, at least in my experience.

The unknown is big and scary, bizarre and unknowable in nature. I once threw homebrewed critters that seemed to be immune to damage (based on some good RP on my part) and weak to fire. The party freaked out.

In reality, they were taking damage all the time, with no special resistances or weaknesses to speak of (especially not fire). The party just was so confused as to what the damn things WERE, they freaked the hell out and had this tendency to run every time they showed up.

tl;dr: the unknown is awesome, you should use it more. :smallamused:

[Weezer]

Sadly mine almost never do. They generally charge in and try to batter whatever is in their way through sheer bloody mindedness. This makes it difficult to make them turn and run from something that is obviously out of their league, after a couple TPKs or near-TPKs I learned to lean away from that kind of encounter. The only exception fittingly enough is anything Cthulhuesque, one carving of a tentacled humanoid and they're about ready to piss their pants. Needless to say they've had some interesting mind flayer encounters. :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: It doesn't help that my players don't know a lot of D&D monsters, especially once you get out of MMI so pretty much all encounters that use anything outside of that book (or stranger things in the book) is unknown to the players.

[Il_Vec]

In my group's case, it really depends on the character, and you should tell them if they're not roleplaying consistently. I mean, we have in our group 3 PCs that never ever showed fear of anything if it wasn't magic-induced fear. They wouldn't run from the unknown, but would flee from a unwinnable battle.

Suddenly if one of these 3 PCs, who is a sorcerer, finds that his spells are ineffective, should he run away, the DM would point to the player "Hey man, isn't running against Erik's (sorcerers name) nature?", and the player would think of a course of action more in-line with his char, like trying to find some weakness of the monster.

Now, if all your players are always very extremely cautious and never take any risks or chances, then, I guess running from the unknown is a natural response.

[Boci]

I agree that the OP is atributing too much to this "unknown" factor. PCs face that all the time. What most likely caused them to flee was the fact that their spells didn't work.

Although arguable it was a combination. Golems are immune to many spells, but people aren't that scared of them, because they're well known. So unknown + immune to most magic = PCs run away.

[Gamerlord]

My players have faced monsters with resistances to magic before, and also, these are some of the most paranoid players ever (To be fair though, some of my earlier campaigns have made them like that)

[randomhero00]

Why is this bad or sad? Sounds like good roleplay if anything. Adventurers are tough, but if they suddenly come across something they can't seem to hurt and know nothing about how is realistic they'd stay?

[Divide by Zero]

I try to keep it in character. For example, my knowledge-obsessed wizard would be more curious than anything else, whereas the self-interested rogue would get the hell out of there if things started to go south. If I die, it's not the end of the world (well, it might be in-game, depending on what our goal was).

[Trellan]

Sadly mine almost never do. They generally charge in and try to batter whatever is in their way through sheer bloody mindedness.

I've got the same kind of players for the most part. Hitting it with magic didn't work the first five times? Better try it again just in case. The thought of running or even of alternate tactics is difficult to implant in their minds for some reason.

[arguskos]

I've got the same kind of players for the most part. Hitting it with magic didn't work the first five times? Better try it again just in case. The thought of running or even of alternate tactics is difficult to implant in their minds for some reason.
You are so much nicer than I am. They'd be slaughtered by that point in one of my games. When a tactic fails more than twice, CHANGE TACTICS. Otherwise, the monster/NPC/dude in question will slaughter you to death in horrible ways.

For example, a player of mine was once fighting a golem (stone), and couldn't get his magic to work for anything. He didn't run or use any other tactics. Instead, he stood his ground as the thing lumbered up to him. I asked him if he was really sure he wanted to be this close, and he said yes. The golem grappled him, and ripped him in half (literally). He got pissy with me, then a fellow player pointed out it was 15 ft tall and he was 5 feet tall, and further, that it was a giant stone golem, and he was a shrimpy dwarf mage. He realized it was stupid of him to expect to live and vowed to run away more.

[gibbo88]

RP has to be the factor in this one, if your party is just going to run away because the wizard can't kill it then there is something really wrong, and they have been reading too many forum posts :smallwink:

Chances are pretty good too that as you get to higher levels the characters would run into more and more things they would have barely heard about and probably never seen, so, from the characters point of view, its all unknown, the reason the players don't make their characters run away is because they know full well what it is and that it can be killed.

Kudos on circumventing that and making them haul their bitching asses away.

[Lord Vukodlak]

If you know your opponents weaknesses then you know what you need to do to fight it. If you don't know how to defeat monster then if you find your first method of combat doesn't work its prudent to fall back and rethink your options.

The greatest power one can have over an enemy is knowing their strengths and weaknesses. A party that knows the basic stats of a creature could take something several CR's above them while a creature of equal CR causes major problems as they have no clue of its abilities.

[krossbow]

generally, my party would have just started chucking anything at hand at it. Their motto is "if fire isn't working, use more fire"

they're basically the personification of leeroy jenkins.

[Optimystik]

How has this thread gotten so far without the Gazebo? (http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html)

[Grommen]

My players recently fought a homebrewed monster of mine, they panicked and ran after spells didn't work on it, and they couldn't figure out anything about it. Had they used their swords, they would have easily won. Is it just my group, or is this a widespread problem?

But magic is nai-all-powerfull ausomness...How could my spells not work!!!!!! :smallfurious:

RUN!!!

Serriously. My players never run, even when they know they will die. Coodoos to you for showing them that their are still things out their to be reconded with.

[Ernir]

My players' characters don't run away. They die.

[Boci]

generally, my party would have just started chucking anything at hand at it. Their motto is "if fire isn't working, use more fire"

That plan sounds more like "if fire isn't working, use a different type of fire", which is a pretty complex plan for your average adventure party.

[arguskos]

That plan sounds more like "if fire isn't working, use a different type of fire", which is a pretty complex plan for your average adventure party.
Nah, as someone who can speak from experience with a similar party, the motto is actually as he wrote it: "if fire fails, use more fire". Not different fire, though that's nice too, but more fire, with the logic being that more=better, therefore, more fire=dead monster.

Does it make sense? No. Is it ****ing funny? Yes. :smallcool:

[krossbow]

Nah, as someone who can speak from experience with a similar party, the motto is actually as he wrote it: "if fire fails, use more fire". Not different fire, though that's nice too, but more fire, with the logic being that more=better, therefore, more fire=dead monster.

Does it make sense? No. Is it ****ing funny? Yes. :smallcool:


it runs on the same logic that hellfire can burn fire immune creatures because its just that much hotter :smalltongue:

[Boci]

it runs on the same logic that hellfire can burn fire immune creatures because its just that much hotter :smalltongue:

Rule 1: Everything burns.
Rule 2: If something does not burn, consult rule 1 searing spell.

[Thajocoth]

For my general response, see Roy's line here: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0105.html

However, I do not mind rolling a new char if need be...

[valadil]

The unknown is more likely to make them act like people and not adventurers. People run away from likely death. Adventurers count their HP and move on.

[Shalist]

Rule 1: Everything burns.
Rule 2: If something does not burn, consult rule 1 searing spell.

Rule 1: Everything burns
First corollary: Including things that burn other things.
Second corollary: Including things that have already been burned.

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/215086122_ntv5S-L-2.jpg (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/11/8/)

[Doc Roc]

Rule 1: Everything burns
First corollary: Including things that burn other things.
Second corollary: Including things that have already been burned.



Actually, yes, you can burn fire in D&D.

[Coplantor]

My players are good roleplayers, except that in battle, well, some of them go into video game mode and fight mindlessly.

For example, once I wanted to run a large dungeon for them, some parts contained monsters way above their ECL, like the stone golem wearing a full plate disgusied as an undead mostrosity. They made some wrong turns and ended up in front of this guy. They saw it and prepared for battle (they were level 1). The golem moved veeeeery slow, the warblade charged, missed, got reduced to 1 hit point with hit from the golem (who rolled poorly by the way). Her next action? Attack again!
The other two guys in the party fled in their first round, well, one of them did, the other one casted a spell on it only to find out it had no effect. Wich makes the warblade choice of still atacking even more reckless.

It also happens with weak monsters they are not supposed to kill. Like the time I told them they saw a band of orcs on the distance, when they got near I described them as unnarmed and unnarmored.
For some reason, the only character who did not wanted to attack them was the chaotic evil priest.

[Cogidubnus]

My player's standard reaction does tend to be just hit it. I mean, in my current campaign, if they encounter something that spells bounce off, their spellcaster (a mystic theurge, so this response is understandable) just buffs. Enlarge Person, normally. Great low-level buff, btw. But the combat guys tend to slug it if they can. They only drop a tactic when they're brushing death.

As for running when magic doesn't work, I reckon the explanation is that they don't know WHY the spell didn't work, exactly. Things with heavy protections/resistances against magic tend to be tough and high-level. So they might run from it as they expected it to slaughter them in combat.