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Sep 20, 2011 -- 3:59PM, insrtnmhre wrote:

The DM should use Rule -1: Decide whatever is fun for everyone.

It is a game after all 

_insert name here_

This is probably the best and most succinct answer you can get

If you want something more than that, than I would say it depends somewhat on the situation.  If one party member charges into the group of enemies, and then all of the enemies go, they are probably going to focus on him.

Also, monsters are going to use tactics that suit their abilities as much as possible.  If there are a bunch of minions that do extra damage when they have combat advantage, then they are going to flank and double team player characters as much as possible.  A pack of wolves is going to use pack hunting tactics. A mindless creature like an ooze will probably just attack the nearest target, or whoever has been hurting it the most.  If an enemy hasn't been able to get through the Paladin's armor, he may target the more squishy looking rogue instead
   More advanced creatures may use more advanced tactics, like trying to target the healer first, or a group of trolls may target the wizard controlling the flaming sphere, etc.
  Don't forget, monsters know every effect they have been put under by the party and vice versa, so they will base tactics based on that.

  But above all, it should be fun for everyone.

Sep 20, 2011 -- 5:12PM, CorrinAvatan wrote:

Officially, there is no "official way."  The DM decides how they want to do it.  As far as tactics are concerned, it is up to the DM; however, it is considered BadWrong for a DM to have creatures that are not intelligent to be using Super Teamwork Tactics (unless there is a good explanation in-game for the situation).  Most people would be bewildered by a group of frogs using the same type of tactics as a wolf pack.

Swarm tactics for a group of individual creatures is also wrong.

For example, if there are five orcs, they can all go on the same initiative - but one (chosen by the DM) takes its turn, then a second takes its turn, then a third, and so on.

They do NOT all five move as one action (or even as five move actions) and then all five attack, and then all five use a minor action.

Why? Well, as one instance, consider opportunity actions. Each creature may (if the situation presents itself) take one opportunity action per turn other than its own. Five orcs taking five move actions in five turns potentially gives any one PC up to five chances at an opportunity attack. Five orcs moving in ONE turn only allows that PC to make a maximum of ONE opportunity attack.

It also affects whether the first orc to move might have flanking at the time he attacks. And there are other ways it shows up.

     All of the monsters in one group would act on the same initiative count, but each still gets their own individual turn - it isn't all just one massive simultaneous attack. There are any number of ways for the surrounded character to interrupt, escape or otherwise change the situation before all of the monsters get their attack in, even though it's not the character's turn. At the very least, one or more of those monsters moving into flanking   position is likely to incur an opportunity attack from the character   they're trying to flank.
 As for your question, no, absolutely nothing prevents the monsters from doing exactly what you described, regardless of their initiatives. Even if you rolled all of their initiatives separately, they could all still do exactly that as long as all the monsters acted before the character's turn in the initiative order or all of them went after his turn - and if the player chose not to move his character out of the way on his turn, it woudn't even matter how far apart the monster's turns were. It's certainly smart tactics on the part of the monsters.

     What you may be missing is that the players should be using tactics too - although there may be plenty of opportunities for the monsters to be able to get a character in a flanking situation, and another monster or two may choose to hit the same character with a ranged attack (which doesn't get combat advantage, because he's not flanking), you won't find too many chances to truly surround a single character. The party should be acting in concert to prevent such tactics through intelligent use of positioning and powers that either move the enemy or themselves.
Players have immediate interrupt powers that are used on other people's turns to interrupt attacks. The surrounded character may have a power that lets him shift out of his current position before the monsters get a chance to flank - rogues are notoriously hard to pin down and many of the ranged classes have powers that automatically let them move if someone gets too close. A party with a leader or defender in it may be able to use a power that allows them to switch places with the character, or something similar.
If the character in question is a defender or a monk, getting focus-fired or surrounded isn't a particularly big deal - they both have excellent defences, and many of their class features and/or powers operate on the assumption that they'll have more than one opponent adjacent to them at almost all times during a fight.

    Also, think of the tactical consequences of focusing your fire on one character - if you only attacked one character, that's four other characters who didn't get damaged that turn. And who you haven't bothered to hinder in any way, so that they have a wide range of options in how they want to take advantage of having so many of the enemy clustered around one square. At the very least, melee characters can now move in and flank the monsters with the surrounded character, which is a bad place for your monsters to be if either one of those characters is a defender or striker. Even worse, one character surrounded by three or four of your monsters is the exact area of a burst 1 spell, many of which only effect enemies.
Plus, unless the characters are fairly low on hit points and don't have immediate access to someone with a healing power, it's unlikely that two or three attacks on the same character in one round is actually going to drop them, which is really the whole point of focus fire. It's not exceedingly difficult, through powers or magic items, to go from single digit hit points to not-even-bloodied in a single turn - which means that if the character you focus-fired on wasn't dropped by the attacks, at most you cost them or another party member some actions and a healing surge or two while using up a significantly larger number of action on your side.

   While focus-firing or gang-jumping a single character is certainly an allowed and viable tactic for monsters, it's not necessarily always (or even often) a particularly smart or effective one. (I wouldn't suggest trying it while playing with your kids, but in a regular group it is one option among the many.) Smart monsters who use tactics will most likely realize that focus-firing on one enemy isn't going to be very effective in all situations, and will most likely only use the tactic sparingly.