Fleeing enemies are interesting.... the first few times. After a hundred times, that bandit tearing off through the ruins out of your range (if melee) and around a corner (ranged & spells), dragging you into more baddies, etc, just gets really tedious.

It would make sense against certain types of enemies, human-type enemies specifically, but not against animals or most monsters. I've seen this incorporated into a couple of games that come to mind, with varying degrees of success.

1) In the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of shooters, many types of enemies will try to retreat - or at least evade combat briefly - as the player gained the upper hand. Unfortunately, it often became realistic when fighting multiple enemies, as severely injuring one in the group would sometimes cause all of them to retreat.

2) In some MMORPGs, enemies turn and run when their health gets below a certain point. It's not as sophisticated as what you're suggesting, but in Lord of the Rings Online for example, beating the snot out of certain enemies (a goblin, for example) causes them to retreat. Special attention would have to be paid to pathing issues though, especially in close quarters like caves or mines.

I'm all for the idea myself, but as with anything, it would need to be properly implemented and rigorously tested.

Fleeing enemies are interesting.... the first few times. After a hundred times, that bandit tearing off through the ruins out of your range (if melee) and around a corner (ranged & spells), dragging you into more baddies, etc, just gets really tedious.

I would assume this time around that the ones who manage to escape will return with help.