I was thinking the same things for the two firsts points during my last game (I agree with the third, and know nothing about pathfinding...). I would just add that these better AI may be depending on the subject: I can't imagine a minotaur, a zombie or a spider fleing or screaming for help. But a goblin, yes.

AI gets into a long discussion, I think we should figure stuff out before code gets written/changed.

Pathfinding

Currently the pursuit AI is dead simple: face the hero and walk forward.  It is supplemented by one main feature: If the enemy loses Line of Sight on the creature, the enemy instead pursues where it last saw the hero.  This works surprisingly well for most situations.

I think this could be supplemented by A* in the following way: If the enemy has Line of Movement, use the simple pursuit (face hero, move forward).  If the enemy loses Line of Movement but can still see the target, calculate an A* path once and follow that path until Line of Movement is re-established (then abandon the A* path and continue with simple pursuit).

Fear

This can be done simply: face away from the hero and move forward.  A chance_flee could be used, and checked when certain situations occur (e.g. another nearby enemy dies, the enemy takes damage, etc).  Spells could also have a fear_duration added (War Cry was intended to have an AOE fear component).

Monster Packs

One simple way that monster packs can be done: enemies in combat could emit an AOE pulse that targets creatures (e.g. source Neutral).  It could have no damage component but still have an attack roll.  Basically, if a creature is attacked (even if missed) it automatically enters combat.  Dropping an invisible AOE hazard could be an easy way to get nearby creatures into combat.

Non-Target Specific AI

This might be too far outside the scope of Flare 1.0.  Save it for another time.  Flare 1.0 won't have henchmen, pets, multiplayer, creatures attacking each other, etc.