thenewflesh wrote:I think, as a melee character, you need some kind of range anyway. And slings with some skill investment (8-10 levels) can pick out fleeing elephants and death yaks just fine. I'm not even talking about stuff like crossbows, javelins, large rocks or decent rods, since they're much less common. And as a melee character, you have some xp to spare for Invo, Throwing, Slings or stuff like that. And it's not like you'll be levelling those secondary skills just for that as you implied. Softening tough enemies like hydras, dealing with packs of blink frogs without excessive stair dancing, etc. it just makes life much easier.
Making fleeing less common might be a good idea. However, using ranged weapons, wands and rods doesn't mean not playing melee.
Yes, this is fairly true. There are a few things that make ranged a non-ideal solution when facing packs of enemies though. When fighting say, a group of yaks, you'll probably want to get into a corridor so you're not fighting multiple at a time. Unfortunately, this means that if the one you're fighting starts to flee, it will slip behind one of the non-fleeing ones, making it impossible to hit (except for smite targeting attacks, which you probably don't have).
If you're fighting multiple enemies in the open, you're more able to pick off fleeing enemies. This can be sub-optimal though. It's better to keep fighting the ones that are a threat to you, and only start to pick off enemies once the last one starts to flee. At this point, you will probably have to chase down some of the others. Also, using a bow or crossbow is out of the question for some characters (if you are a shield user). I find the best options are throwing (javelins, but also for poison needles) and wands. Slings can work but I think throwing is better.
Ranged attacks (if you choose to use them) tend to work best on single enemies that flee, I find. But for some reason, most of these guys appear in packs. The ones that appear by themselves tend to be strong enough to be worth wand charges, though.
This is why I've proposed making it so enemies flee at lower HP (rather than 25%), and why I also proposed a way for ranged attacks to make enemies turn hostile again, and various other things like that. This way, it still exists, but it is less of a chore to deal with.