Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 TDCHeath1 May 18, 2015 8:54:52	I had a very interesting situation in my game last night when my players (level 7 characters) were cornered by a pack of Displacer Beasts (6 to be exact).  The party is in a tropical jungle.  They need to make it from point A to point B.  Along the way they've tresspassed into the territory of these Displacer Beasts.  So, after being chased and cornered, the College of Valor Bard casts Faerie Fire on one of the beasts, it fails its saving throw (effectively removes the creature's displacement) and then yells at the Fighter/Rogue Archer in the group to kill the creature giving him a Bardic Inspiration die.  So, the Archer unloads 3 power shotted arrows on the lit up beast (Multiattack and Action Surge).  He uses Inspiration on his first attack.  This activates his sneak attack, he also adds a manuever die for the extra d8 and the Valor d8.  He rolls a critical hit.  He ends up doing a boat load of damage but not enough to drop the Beast from 85 to 0.  The next two arrows also hit which do end up dropping the creature to exactly 0 HP.  An amazing feat in 1 character round.  I gave the remaining pack of Displacer Beasts (INT 6) a morale check, for lack of a better term, to fight or flight.  They failed and fled the scene.   My question is, were the Displacer Beasts intelligent enough to realize, "Maybe we should hunt something else....".  And also, where is that line?  At what INT score are animals self aware of their own mortality and would live to fight another day based off seeing a pack member killed?
#2 xanral May 18, 2015 9:20:46	Showing and recognizing dominance is probably something that exists for most anything.  You see it in dogs for example.   Certain undead and insects might not care, but past that I'd say anything is going to consider retreat or submission if it thinks it has a chance at it.
#3 Mechatarrasque May 18, 2015 9:27:28	I would say that anything smarter than a black pudding should be able to figure out it should run if it starts taking damage.  In the real world mammal predators are often skitish, since any serious injury might be a death sentence.  Now such a creature might be enraged, desperate, trained, or enchanted into attacking even after taking damage.  I think a pack of displacer beasts would attack with the goal to kill the weakest looking member of the party (probably the wizard) and drag the body off to eat before someone steals it.  Their aura probably means they are pretty confident, since previous humanoids were probably ineffective against them.  That confidence will be hard to shake, so taking some damage won't stir any urge to retreat.  Repeated damage to a beast, and seeing one of their number fall probably would cause them to hit the road.
#4 AndrewJO May 18, 2015 9:32:32	On an unrelated note, the archer should have had 4 attacks. Action surge allows an extra action, extra attack lets you attack twice when you use the attack action, so you get 2 extra weapon attacks.
#5 TDCHeath1 May 18, 2015 9:45:44	I will let him know he gets an extra attack, he'll be excited to hear that!  I've always thought it made sense to have a wounded beast retreat. It wasn't a wounded beast that retreated though.  It was a pack who saw one of their own go down.  It is a judgment call but I'm curious where other DMs draw the line between, "Oww that hurt me so I'm gonna run" vs "I saw you kill my friend so I'm gonna run."  Because not all creatures (INT score not withstanding) really grasp or value their own mortality.
#6 durntaur May 18, 2015 11:12:53	I think it was the right call and an apt adjudication of the scenario. The other DBs see this creature wielding a bow just drop their pack-mate in seconds. They don't know it was a once-every-short-rest type of thing and think, instead, let's find easier prey.
#7 Captain_Kobold May 18, 2015 11:25:50	Displacer beasts aren't animal intelligence. They're actively sentient and able to reason rather than operating on instinct. Seeing one of their number go down so easily would definitely make them reconsider the attack, or go find something weaker. If they decided to hold a grudge they would probably still back off, and try again when they could surprise a party member who gets separated.   Actual animal-intelligence creatures might have just stopped attacking and possibly started eating their dead comrade.