I've been thinking alot about morale as a D&D mechanic. Let's do an analysis of the 2e system so we can better understand how it works.
The Basics
Each character / monster has a morale rating.
Morale checks are called for when a combat situation is beginning to look bad (very broadly).
Player characters never check morale.
Morale checks are a roll of 2d10. If this is equal to or less than their morale rating, they pass. If it is more than their morale raing, they fail.
2d10 averages to a roll of 11.
A +1 to morale is more impactful in the mid ranges of morale, and less impactful on the extreme edges. (Table from anydice.com rolling 2d10)
Basic Analysis
A creature with "average morale" (see lower in the article for description of what this means) will fail its morale check more than half the time if there are no positive situational modifiers. This means that calling for a morale check more often than not means the creature in question is going to fail the morale check.
Most of the time, morale can be decided by the DM who simply declares the creature wants to fight, flee, posture, or submit. We only need to make morale checks when we want to introduce some chaos into the system, or when we think the situation is close enough that it could go either way.
Calling for morale checks often will almost guarantee that the creatures making checks will flee.
Recommended Mechanical Updates
Much of 2nd edition AD&D is a little clunky. It is much nicer to have a system where high rolls are good, and low rolls are bad.
If we update the system to be 2d10+morale must equal 21 or higher to pass, like we updated stat-checks, we are essentially giving everyone a +1 to morale. Math to show this is at the bottom of the article.
This is an acceptable buff for simplicity sake. This also gives us a nice way of making a table of suggested actions for failing morale checks.
≤10: Freeze (lose round in panic)
11-16: Route / Flee / Disorganized withdrawal
17-18: Surrender / Submit if reasonable, else round 16 or 19
19-20: Organized withdrawal / Defensive tactics
21+: Pass, keep fighting
Useful Examples / Takeaways
Based on the table and math below, if a party of PCs with a spellcaster kills the leader of a group of enemies, the enemy NPCs / monsters should make a morale check at -6, which is very, very bad. For a creature with average (9) morale, they would need an 18 on 2d10 to succeed. If the original system was used, they'd need a 3 on 2d10.
Since most PC parties have at least one spell caster, monsters should be routing almost all the time when their leader is killed.
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Since we can check for morale when a group of creatures is surprised, being surprised inflicts a -2 penalty on a morale check, and the average morale of most creatures is below 10, surprising a group of creatures is likely to cause them to fail their morale on the first round. (2d10+9-2 averages to 18). They may outright run, lay down their arms, or quickly form up while creating distance from the PC threat.
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The -6 penalty for "Abandoned by friends" would likely apply if you're telling a hireling to go do something dangerous without you. This could be scouting out a dangerous location, holding a defensive position while you escape, or any situation where they cannot count on your aid.
These hirelings wouldn't need to make a morale check right away, but whenever it is that they do need to make it, they're likely to do poorly.
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PCs never have to make morale checks. Because players retreating, withdrawing, or disengaging from combat are an endangered species, the morale system acts as a strong soft-power buff to the player character's side. If a PC were fighting a mirror match up, they would be more than likely to win if the DM uses morale checks for their NPC mirror.
Because of this huge soft-power buff, we should be careful not to abuse the morale system. Morale checks should be made when it is likely a creature would fight, but unlikely it would fight to the death.
Like the DMG states, do not let your players dictate when you make morale checks, or abuse the guidelines for morale checks.
First, do not check morale every round of a combat. Aside from the fact that this slows everything down, it also crates unbalanced and unrealistic battles. Everyone going into a fight expects a little danger. Only when the danger becomes too great should a morale check be rolled. Just when the DM rolls morale checks is a matter of judgment, but the following guidelines should prove useful.
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Players, once they've learned the conditions calling for morale checks, may try to abuse the rules. For example, they might think to offer surrender terms to every monster they meet, figuring the odds of the morale check might work out their way.
Don't let players get away with this, and don't let the dice overrule logical or drama. When 1st-level player characters offer surrender terms to an ancient red dragon (obviously hoping for a lucky break on the dice), remember what common sense is saying: "There ain't no way!"
Reference tables, math, and sources
Basic Monster / Creature Morale
To these basic morale guidelines, we apply the following base modifiers.
-2: Creatures with ½ HD or less
-1: Creatures with less than 1 HD
-1: Creature is chaotic
+1: Creature is lawful
+1: Creatures with 4 HD
+2: Creatures with 9 HD
+3: Creatures with 15 HD
These modifiers are usually accounted for on the stateblocks in the Monstrous Manual and all the other monster books in 2e AD&D. The information above is useful for calculating morale for custom creatures, or for working out unusual situations. This should be done in advance of gameplay, and not on the fly unless you are very quick with your lookups and math.
Generally speaking, we can categorize creatures by their morale scores. The following is the text the monstrous manual uses to describe creatures. This flavor text is food for thought, but not actually of mechanical significance.
2-4: Unreliable
5-7: Unstead
8-9: Average
10-12: Steady
13-14: Elite
51-16: Champion
17-18: Fanatic
19-20 Fearless
Sources of Morale Modifiers
A creature or character gets morale modifiers from many sources. Situational modifiers, as well as those for the charisma of the leader (loyalty base column) are listed below.
Math
2d10 averages to 11. If you have 11 morale, and you make an average check you should just exactly pass. If we update the system to morale + 2d10 and you have 11 morale and make an average roll, your total would be 22. So if an updated morale check is 21 to pass, we're saying 10 morale would pass on an average roll instead of missing it by 1. This equates to a +1 to morale.
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That's it for today, thanks for reading, and thank you for your patronage.
gl hfNeal / Koibu