For combat, i mostly go strict by the rules, but i encourage my players to do interesting stuff, like movement, jumps etc. and im not that strict by handling that. Generally i try to make combat not a slog to roll through, but something fun and exciting. Not that easy, but i love printing minis and building cool maps.

If that goblin is the last enemy, it’s braver than any goblin on Toril.

Very few battles are fought to the last warrior. When the battle is basically over, enemies would know this and flee.

I personally will roll “bravery saves” for npcs that are in over their heads, its just a d20, 1-10 flee 11-20 fight, basically just a fight or flight instinct, or I roll a WIS save against the closest players passive intimidate

I roll it anytime an enemy: has its hp reaches a point where they will likely die to one more hit, has no more allies in line of sight, sees an ally die and now has less allies than active threats, is actively intimidated

fight means charging into combat to deal as much damage as possible before death

flight means running away, but it doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on whatever goal they had for ex. If the enemy was attacking in order to steal an item, a fleeing enemy may grab the item as it runs away

“it is clear that one side will win so lets speed up things”

just call combat over, no one is forcing you with a gun on your forehead to keep doing combat when it should be over lol

Yeah… I don’t know about your monsters. But mine react the same way people generally do in various situations.

They fight when they think they can win. Especially when they have the advantage of numbers or positioning. They run away when they’re being beaten badly. They try to escape. They do everything they can as individuals in order to survive. But against the overwhelming horror of a slow and grisly end? They break. They might beg and plead for their lives. They might mentally snap and rush the players. But occasionally? After seeing his or her entire family clan/tribe/whatever being ruthlessly butchered in absolutely demented ways by laughing “adventurers”, and realizing they’re the last one left, and that the people killing them all won’t even consider listening to them beg for mercy, my monsters will slump down and terrifiedly whimper, “No. No- not like this.” And then they’ll use thier weapons on themselves. If there’s gunpowder or something nearby, they may attempt to bait them in and take the party with them, instead.

As what is essentially a small group of mercenaries calling themselves “Adventurers” simply because it sounds nicer, it really drives home how depraved the players are getting when the monsters are terrified of them to the point of self-termination.

Try it out. It might get them to realize what they’re becoming. My table is cool with darker and more realistic stuff like that. Yours might be a bunch of power-trippers. They might not be.

Just the other day, one of my players told me that he actually enjoys the way I play out combat more than most of his other DMs, because I play down to the last enemy. Turns out he LOVES getting to take down the very last guy, even if it’s not specifically his character doing it. Goes to show how different everybody is.

Never underestimate the party’s ability to completely defy math and probability by rolling like absolute trash right at the end.

Give the players a reward for every enemy that runs and escapes and you’ll probably have the players wanting to wrap up combat faster

This statement is true ONLY if you view combat as a you vs them mentality. If you vote it as a challenge that you are eager to see how they overcome then it’s exciting when they are doing well. Both DM and players should be enjoying combat.

My creatures almost always try to run when they lose enough allies to know they are losing, unless they are undead or something that doesn’t care about its life.

On one hand I do understand stressing a timetable in sessions, on the otherhand, while players should buy in to your game to enjoy it, so should you buy in to enjoying the moment with them. They can’t kill it now? It farts in their direction and attempts to skidadle, promising revenge. Buy into the game, get playful and things will smoothen out

5e combat is so mindless and numb that it doesn’t hurt to simply call combat when it’s pretty clear that an encounter is going to end one way but over multiple, slow, agonisingly boring rounds. Better yet, incorporate morale checks from older editions.

as a general rule i avoid random/filler encounters, and i try really hard to avoid combats that are just fights until someone wins. every chance i get, i want a secondary (or more) goals, items being stolen or people being kidnapped, big buttons that need pressed or a ticking time bomb that needs diffusing. multiple factions wherever possible.

as a side effect, this also means that more fights end without everyone dying - if the goblins charged in here to steal the mcguffin before the elves could get it, then whoever’s team gets it is only leaving enough people behind to try to prevent a chase. (and if they didn’t get it, then they’re trying to get past the other guys to run off on a chase)

so the party has to decide (a) whether they’re on one team’s side or the other and probably (b) whether to hold off the other team while the one they support runs off to get the thing, or tell *them* to hold off the other team while the party runs off on a chase. it’s even more complicated if they want the mcguffin themselves and now have to fend off both groups (who are unlikely to band together but are still both fighting now)

…so by the time there’s just one goblin, nobody cares about fighting him. either we handwave it and he gets knocked out, or maybe there’s a very funny scene where two groups have just run off and this goblin is the only one conscious to ask what in the heck just happened. now we have a great NPC encounter!

I struggle with this… on one hand the whole point of the minions was to drain party resources. On the other it feels like I want to remove these dead zones entirely. As a player my favorite part is when the enemies are weak and we just mow through them with our basic attacks 😂 but I want it to be fair play