Combat - Avoidable or not?

[Rosisha]

"War is the continuation of policy with other means." - On War, Clausewitz

I fall into this trap a lot - especially since I love playing fighters - of always just jumping at the opportunity to kick some butt and take some names. However, is it always the right choice? I'm curious to find out what you guys would do in these situations (and am wondering if I should try playing something other than a fighter my next game hahaha... not really).

Okay, so here is the first situation:
A standard adventuring party of four comes across two orcs and say five goblins. The goblins are hammering away at some wall, maybe trying to reinforce it. Seven on four is not good odds, for the party - so they decide to assess the situation. The Orcs are obviously in charge. The goblins might even be slaves, or at least mistreated. Would you let the party have a reasonable shot at convincing the goblins to stand aside or maybe even betray the Orcs? Without a charm monster spell? What are your thoughts?

Second situation:
Random encounter occurs. The players get a doppleganger. The creature isn't particularly impressed with the characters or anything about them. Do we move to combat or let the even play out as a random merchant who is to busy to talk to the players?

Third situation:
Players are not in the best of shape. They've been defeated in a dungeon (maybe even lost someone). Got their butt kicked by the corrupt city guard. They come across a bandit camp - fight or let them maybe talk into joining? Or maybe this is where they find their replacement character?

What are your thoughts? And would you reward XP for these situations?

[Plungingforward]

It does sometimes seem that - what with monsters being shopping lists of stats, treasure and XP, not to mention the primary method of gaining the latter in these rules - the idea is to go forth and kill things. But combat can be as common or rare as the players decide, and decent players are always looking for at least a strong advantage before just wading in and attacking. In the situation with the goblin slaves, getting a wedge between them and the orcs is just good sense. The bandits? Run them however you want to run them. But some weird dude just turning up in a dungeon is going to be relentlessly scrutinized, probably to the point of antagonizing the poor doppelganger into attacking.

[Dimirag]

Avoiding combat is always a good option and should always remain available where possible, specially at low levels.
Characters has less HP than modern games, and recover at a slower pace, HP are precious and avoiding losing them is a must.
It really depends on the monster encountered, not every monster must be an evil opponent to be fought to the death, initial morale rolls helps here in some cases.
Against intelligent monsters a talk could be the solution, depending on what lore the game is using.
Other situation may call for a retreat or some other approach, like using traps or hiring people.
"Defeating" does not necessarily means "dead", if the monster run due to a failed morale roll then his XP is earned (but any further encounter with that monster will not result in more XP), same if you avoid a monster or eliminates the danger it poses.

[Rosisha]

"Defeating" does not necessarily means "dead", if the monster run due to a failed morale roll then his XP is earned (but any further encounter with that monster will not result in more XP), same if you avoid a monster or eliminates the danger it poses.

This I agree with and I'm considering a more diplomatic fighter for my next character. However, what would you say is the "refresh" time for that monster becoming valuable for XP? Say the characters are dealing with those goblins in a dungeon.

They convince the goblins to revolt. One orc is killed and the other runs to raise the alarm. Adventure continues and the players help the goblins cast off their chains, and arm up. The orcs, heavily outnumbered, retreat to the Orc Tribes of the North or whatever. Weeks of in game time later the Orcs, furious at the human interference in their affairs, come marching down on the players home town. At their head? The orc supervisor!

Would that warrant new XP at this point? I'm inclined to say yes, because their are two very separate encounters here. However, I've run with DMs who would say no - and also only give partial XP for non-combat defeat of monsters. So it's interesting reading the replies.

[Dimirag]

If the following encounter happens relatively sooner (a couple of rooms or hours later) then no, no XP. But if a significant time has passed, then yes, this means that PC can grow from encountering the same opponent as time passes.
If you give XP after an adventure is ended then you can "reset" any surviving monster, if you give XP "on the spot" then you must judge each situation individually.

[Tazer_The_Yoot]

This is one reason I give xp for gold and rp as well as defeating monsters. Encourages a slightly different play style. Probably one of the most popular house rules for BFRPG, especially as it's present in the old school rules it emulates. (Some versions, anyway. TSR era D&D was a diverse playing field).