Question on running away in FF1

[desh]

Does anyone know all the rules on how the game determines if you can run away in FF1? Because it seems that with the same/comparable LUCK, my fighters/knights have more success running away than my white mage/wizard (this is not based on extensive observations at all).

Also, what are all the enemies that you cannot run away from (excluding the fiends of course).

Here's my list, tell me if i'm missing anything:

Garland
Wizard/Piscodemon
Astos
Earth/Gnoma
Fire/Pyros
Eye/Evil Eye
ZombieD/Dragon Zombie
WzSahag/Sahagin Prince
Ghost
Water/Aquos
Blue D/Blue Dragon
Gas D/Green Dragon
Warmech
Phantom
Worm
IronGol/Iron Golem? (i'm guessing here)
Lich
Kary/Marilith
Kraken
Tiamat
Chaos

Here's what confuses me, however, I could have sworn you couldn't run away from Zombie dragons, but then i ran into a group of 2 Zombie Dragons and 1 Wizard Vampire (Vampire Lord) and i was able to run away. So this got me thinking on how the game determines when you can run away and when you can't. Anyone know?

[Lamoq]

It's all based on luck. If you're knights with equal luck run better, that's just luck.

[Zifnab]

I've heard that in the NES version, a Thief in the second slot will run away near 100% of the time.

[desh]

by the way you CAN run from those wzsahags/sahag prince guys.

I think you can only run away from them when you encounter them with a Gr Shark/White Shark, but not when you encounter them with the Red Sahagins, then you can't run away.

Here's two more to add to the list (I know this is kind of stupid, but I haven't found any one who has documented this already):

Zombull/Necrotaur
FrGiant/Ice Gigas

[Sword Chucks]

It might depend if it's an event battle or a random encounter.

[Martyr]

It's also possible to run from the Warmech.
Can't run from Sentry's, I think.

[desh]

I'm pretty sure you can run away from Sentry's, in fact i'm almost positive. And as for WarMech, I don't think my lvl 50 ninja could run away from him, but I can double check. Still haven't run into an IronGol lately to see if you can run from him. However, I did find a weird group of monsters that it seems you can't run from: 1 cerebus and 2 WzOgres. You just can't run from them, but you can run from a party of just Cerebus, and other parties that have WzOgres in them, so go figure.

I have a theory on why you can run and can't run from the same enemy depending on the party they appear in; I think it has to do with which enemy is the "leader" of the party. For example, the WzSahag can appear with either a bunch of R.Sahags or Gr.Sharks; when he appears with the R.Sahags, he is the leader of the group (because he would always show up in that group, wheras the number of R.Sahags might change), and when he shows up with the Gr. Shark, it's the Gr.Shark who would alwasy show up, and the Wz.Sahag may be there or not. There is this very group-the Gr. Shark Wz.Sahag party-that guards some treasure chests in the Sea Shrine; if you continually attack this square, you'll notice that sometimes there's 2 Gr. Sharks and 1 Wz.Sahag or 2 Gr. Sharks or just 1 Gr. Shark, so the Gr. Shark the constant in this situation, so it is he who determines whether you can run or not. Anyway that's my theory (I have way too much time on my hands).

[Martyr]

I'm positive I've run from the Warmech.
I mean, if you try to run from the Warmech, like I did, and you succeed, then it's something to remember, which I do.

Note: I may have had a "Strike First," but that always enables escape, and an unescapable enemy shouldn't allow that option. I've never struck first against Zombulls or Wizards, for example.

And maybe you're right about the Sentry's. I remember constantly failing, but I guess I don't try to run from them very often.

I know that the Wz. Ogre may be impossible to run from. I died once in the Fire cave when all I wanted to do was get my Thief out. He was doing well, running, healing, running healing, (Everybody else was dead). Suddenly I hit a Wz. Ogre, and I can't run. I know it's impossible because the bastard took 1 billion turns to kill me, he kept casting dark and slow (So I couldn't kill him either. Miss. Can't Run. Miss. Can't Run...)

That "leader of the party" thing is a brilliant observation. That's gotta be it. Because I've had the same experiences. Running from those unescapable enemies.

[desh]

Ok, you're right, you CAN run from the Warmech, don't know why I thought you couldn't, and i didn't have strike first or anything. However, I do know that when you do fight the Warmech, that most times he gets a "Monsters strike first" or whatever. So maybe i just always got nuclear'd and died before i could run; I dunno.