Results 1 to 8 of 8
-
2016-06-17, 11:52 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Virginia Beach VA
- Gender
How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Inspired by Tucker's Kobolds and this Trilemma post, I'm working on describing how monsters respond to intruders
1. Perception: how likely are they to notice you (Oblivious to Omniscient)
2. Aggression: How likely are they to fight you (Avoid, Indirect Harassment, Attack, Relentless Pursuit)
3. Preparation: "None" to "Elaborate fortifications with layers of traps"
4. Cohesion: "Every man for himself" through "Trained and drilled together" to "Hive mind"
5. Morale: "Flee at first casualties" through "Fight to the death"
6. Innovation: "Never learns" to "learns lessons from the last battle" to "adapts instantly"
Anything else?Junior, half orc paladin of the Order of St Dale the Intimidator: "Ah cain't abide no murderin' scoundrel."
Tactical Precepts: 1) Cause chaos, then exploit it; 2) No plan survives contact with...(sigh)...my subordinates.
-
2016-06-17, 10:26 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2008
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Cleverness (ranging from "always frontal assault" to "uses knowledge of PC behavior to trick them")
-
2016-06-18, 12:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2015
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Not sure how to categorize this, but metabolism/activity cycle.
Like a dragon would be less aggressive after eating, shadowy creatures would be more active at night and stay out of direct light.
Does the monster go out hunting or stay in a lair. Does it have regular activities where it patrols its traps, builds or crafts, or even socializes. How likely are the players to overhear a conversation?
How does the monster bargain? The troll under the bridge demands a toll, will it in fact be bought off with a toll? Does the monster want stories or riddles, gold or magic items? Does it want to feed or just to HURT something, or maybe it is obeying a command.
Is the monster satisfied with its current position, is it constrained to be there?
-
2016-06-18, 06:00 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2015
- Location
- Everywhere and nowhere
- Gender
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Experience - do they have a history of fighting groups of intelligent humanoids? Do they already know that the guy in the robes is exceptionally bad at dealing with a melee fight? Do they recognize that the guy in plate armor is displaying holy symbols and probably can heal? Do they know the guy in black leather is sneaky and can do massive damage to a single target if they can hide well? Or is their experience limited to dealing with commoners with torches and pitchforks?
Nihil Refert
-
2016-06-18, 09:50 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Virginia Beach VA
- Gender
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
I'm inclined to fold this into Innovation. It's not quite the same--for instance, you could face an enemy whose response to Situation A is clever because he's following a professional tactical manual, but every time he faces Situation A, he does the same thing by the book--but I also don't want too many characteristics.
Junior, half orc paladin of the Order of St Dale the Intimidator: "Ah cain't abide no murderin' scoundrel."
Tactical Precepts: 1) Cause chaos, then exploit it; 2) No plan survives contact with...(sigh)...my subordinates.
-
2016-06-18, 10:06 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Virginia Beach VA
- Gender
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Might need a "Will Communicate with PCs" scale, ranging from "Zombie" to "You find yourself talked into doing a quest for the monster"
And also a "Survivability of Losing", ranging from "Fallen enemies are immediately CdG'd" to "Hold for ransom" to "You fought bravely, go in peace"Junior, half orc paladin of the Order of St Dale the Intimidator: "Ah cain't abide no murderin' scoundrel."
Tactical Precepts: 1) Cause chaos, then exploit it; 2) No plan survives contact with...(sigh)...my subordinates.
-
2016-06-18, 10:16 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- right behind you
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
I would also include strategic reactions. As an example, lets say you invade the evil lair of Lord Contingency the Vile. This man has dedicated much of his time to determining how his people are to react to any scenario, so if upon ambushing the gate guards one escapes, there WILL be an alarm raised that sees a highly organized response of overwhelming force. Of course, killing the guards will ALSO raise an alarm, just as soon as the regular shift change shows up and notices the dead/missing bodies, but at least then you have some lead time and they have less information on who is attacking (or possibly who is escaping)
On the other side of the scale, you have Lord Lazy the Slovenly. His troops are barely trained enough to be considered such. Dead bodies arent that unusual because fights are constant, so noone really cares if they stumble across a dead patrol or two. They probably got drunk and fought each other to death. Its still possible to set off an alarm, but the response is likely to be dribbles and drabbles of responders after the surviving guard who escapes runs into people at random screaming about being under attack.
Honestly, thats always been my major sticking point to most dungeon runs, is the lack of the overwhelming response to a group going for "strong through the door" as their attack strategy. Unless they are able to quickly and quietly overwhelm every enemy they find, and then hide the bodies in such a way that evidence is not left behind, there shouldnt be a single safe place to take a breather, let alone rest and regather spells."Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum"
Translation: "Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe."
"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room."
-
2016-06-18, 10:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2012
- Location
- Virginia Beach VA
- Gender
Re: How Monsters Respond to Intruders
Junior, half orc paladin of the Order of St Dale the Intimidator: "Ah cain't abide no murderin' scoundrel."
Tactical Precepts: 1) Cause chaos, then exploit it; 2) No plan survives contact with...(sigh)...my subordinates.