"How do you want to kill him?"

[Protato]

Does anyone ever ask their players, or get asked by DMs, how you want to kill a monster? I generally have my players say the decapitate or crush the enemy's head, but a few times I've seen more creative kills, like the time a Barbarian lifted the wyrmling above her head and broke the dragon's wings with a maul.

[Metamorph]

If it is not a fight with several enemys at once I always ask the players and modify it a bit.

[Lombra]

At our table it's the players that ask this generally, but not often, it's just a description of the last attack of the fight, or the finish on an important target.

Things like "I slash the bugbear's throat"

Or "I finish the flameskull ripping out his jaw from the rest of the skull"

[SLOTHRPG95]

If players bring up some specific action or way that they're attacking/casting the finishing spell, then yeah. I let them be as narrative as they want. But it's up to them to take that, I don't ask them every time.

[SirGraystone]

I never ask my players but I will often describe if an NPC get a critical on a PC or get a PC down to 0 hp, some pick up on it and do the same, some don't bother.

[Waterdeep Merch]

I tend to do it myself as DM, but I let the players do it themselves if they want to. Most of my players come from video game stock and prefer expedience over stunting. They like the cool mental visuals, but get annoyed when they're overly elaborate and happen all the time.

So, regular enemies usually get something quick- "Your arrow buries in the orc's throat, who gurgles as he dies".

Big fights and bosses get something special- "You dodge one last feeble claw from the dragon, swirling your axe around you. It has enough time to look up and see the coming blow, but can do nothing as you bury it deep in the monster's skull. It's eyes lull to the sides as it's roaring slowly subsides into a whimper, collapsing with an enormous thud. It takes you several hard yanks to free your weapon."

[mephnick]

I tend to do it myself as DM, but I let the players do it themselves if they want to. Most of my players come from video game stock and prefer expedience over stunting. They like the cool mental visuals, but get annoyed when they're overly elaborate and happen all the time.

So, regular enemies usually get something quick- "Your arrow buries in the orc's throat, who gurgles as he dies".

Big fights and bosses get something special- "You dodge one last feeble claw from the dragon, swirling your axe around you. It has enough time to look up and see the coming blow, but can do nothing as you bury it deep in the monster's skull. It's eyes lull to the sides as it's roaring slowly subsides into a whimper, collapsing with an enormous thud. It takes you several hard yanks to free your weapon."

This is pretty much how I do it. The only time I'll ask for a player's input is if its some enemy that's personal to the character. Give 'em a chance to throw out a badass one liner as they rip the throat out of their hated rival. But 99% of the time, it's just me keeping the pace of the game going.

[SociopathFriend]

Typically this only occurs when one of my DMs enacts his, "I'm feeling good today" rules that the players can choose to accept or not.

The rule is thus:
A natural 20 automatically kills the target, no matter who rolls it, player or DM.

He's quite happy to have you spell out your miraculous kill under those circumstances- with the full knowledge that he'll be doing the same to you if he crits...

[DMThac0]

Yup, more often than not I spend the majority of the time using as many adjectives and colorful words to keep combat exciting, vivid, and moving. My players generally find that they can pipe up and make some of their own calls on the actions they take, which I will then take and make part of the narration.

I also have found that it depends on the group too, some groups will always go with "I swing at it, I rolled a 17, 15 damage". Where as, there will be the diamond in the rough, the one that has a flare for the dramatic, and they'll come up with this harrowing attack where they parkour across the balcony and then dive like an eagle, dagger first, into the bad guy.

But more often than not, I'm the one making the cinematic narration...

[GlenSmash!]

I do this regularly. The last opponent to drop in a fight i ask the player to describe it. It's pretty fun, and lets players add a little color to the game.

[Ganymede]

I allow this of my players.

It does remind me of one magic moment involving this policy. The party was fighting a slaad; one of the PCs had polymorphed into a t-rex while the druid PC had become a giant constrictor snake but not before summoning a Moonbeam on the slaad. When the slaad was slain, it was grappled and restrained by both beasts at once. I asked them both to tell me how the slaad was slain.

One said he was going to eat the slaad. Not hearing the first suggestion, the second player also said she was going to eat the slaad. What followed was an awkward moment where the t-rex's and snake's lips touched in a kiss as they both attempted to swallow the baddie at the same time, all while silhouetted by a moonbeam.

[Grog Logs]

"The creature is reduced to zero hit points. What happens?" Or, "How do you reduce the creature to zero hit points?"

By asking how you kill it, you have already declared the outcome and biased the results. In contrast, asking how the creature is defeated let's the PC decide whether the opponent is unconscious, killed, or other.

While some might argue that the PC could always ask to knock the creature unconscious instead if killing it (work the OP), the anchoring effect indicates that you will have more killings by your phrasing of the question.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring

[Bahamut7]

While Matt Mercer has made this a pretty exciting phrase, I have been considering to use it to help make my players more invested.

But just as Mercer does it, you don't do it all the time. You make it that special treat that comes up every so often.

[Phoenix042]

I tell my players when they wound an enemy (bring it to half or less HP) and when they kill one, and invite them to describe the action for us. I try to focus more on how the character's action works than how the monster looks as it dies, unless the monster's death is going to be especially interesting (like how some monsters turn to dust or explode when they die).

I'll also typically describe the monsters wounding players and dropping them in especially vicious ways.

We do lots of quick combats in my game lately, so I don't always go into super great detail unless it's an especially important fight or an especially interesting monster.

[DarkKnightJin]

While Matt Mercer has made this a pretty exciting phrase, I have been considering to use it to help make my players more invested.

But just as Mercer does it, you don't do it all the time. You make it that special treat that comes up every so often.
The DM for my Cleric's group doea the Critical Role thing of asking "How do you want to do this?" when it's the end of the big enemy, or the final enemy of the encounter.
It lets us be a bit creative in how we want to end the fight/that enemy, including if we want to spare their lives. But it doesn't happen for every kill.
It's a bit like a Skyrim Killcam move. Reserved for special kills.

[mephnick]

I will say, however, after describing kills for years as a DM, whenever I'm asked to do it as a player I'm generally at a loss for words. It feels much more like a spotlight and for some reason I don't enjoy it. I have no idea why it would be different.

[Luccan]

I've always preferred having PCs describe their attacks (you don't want me describing your character's flourish in their attack if they're more disciplined and prefer efficiency to flash), so long as it isn't overly long. So generally as long as their execution makes sense, I like them to tell me how they kill an enemy as well

[Honest Tiefling]

I find it odd no one seems to ask to determine consequences, such as making a lot of noise, taking too much time, creating difficulties in hiding the body, or having blood on your nice outfit.

[willdaBEAST]

As a DM I'll often add some kind of description when an enemy is dispatched. I tend to give the player a chance to add their own flourish if they crit or their target was already weak and they did a significant amount of overkill damage.


"The creature is reduced to zero hit points. What happens?" Or, "How do you reduce the creature to zero hit points?"

By asking how you kill it, you have already declared the outcome and biased the results. In contrast, asking how the creature is defeated let's the PC decide whether the opponent is unconscious, killed, or other.

While some might argue that the PC could always ask to knock the creature unconscious instead if killing it (work the OP), the anchoring effect indicates that you will have more killings by your phrasing of the question.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring
In my opinion, non-lethal force is something that should be declared during the attack. If the DM is not giving any context clues, sure, give the player a chance to use non-lethal force. However if the DM took the time to describe the enemy as bleeding profusely and barely able to stand, a great weapon master attack with a great sword isn't going to leave much to interrogate. I guess RAW the player always gets to decide if the damage is lethal as soon as the creature is reduced to 0 with a melee attack, but that seems to be for simplicity's sake.

Personally I'd rather ask "how do you defeat this creature?" instead of any phrase mentioning hit points.

[Honest Tiefling]

Personally I'd rather ask "how do you defeat this creature?" instead of any phrase mentioning hit points.

Ah, but asking 'how do you want to kill this monster' on a failed roll will make the players extra-paranoid, which is always a nice touch. But yes, non-lethal attacks should probably be mentioned beforehand, as there are only so many ways you can attempt to knock someone out with a crossbow or a fireball, or other hilarious situations.

[Lunali]

Ah, but asking 'how do you want to kill this monster' on a failed roll will make the players extra-paranoid, which is always a nice touch. But yes, non-lethal attacks should probably be mentioned beforehand, as there are only so many ways you can attempt to knock someone out with a crossbow or a fireball, or other hilarious situations.

The problem is that it gets annoying saying that you're doing non-lethal damage for every single attack when the only time it matters is if you get the last hit.

[Laserlight]

Our current DM often asks, but I would prefer it were limited to bosses. I don't care for graphic descriptions of gore. "Your thrust goes home and the orc staggers back to the table and collapses" is enough.

[JackPhoenix]

there are only so many ways you can attempt to knock someone out with a crossbow or a fireball, or other hilarious situations.

True. Zero, to be precise. You can only choose to knock the enemy unconscious with melee attacks.

[Honest Tiefling]

The problem is that it gets annoying saying that you're doing non-lethal damage for every single attack when the only time it matters is if you get the last hit.

You're not wrong, but it doesn't solve the problem to have a lethal attack just knock someone out, nor have penalties applied. Then again, knocking people on the head to knock them out is already pretty unrealistic, so eh.


Our current DM often asks, but I would prefer it were limited to bosses. I don't care for graphic descriptions of gore. "Your thrust goes home and the orc staggers back to the table and collapses" is enough.

This is probably one way to deal with the issue that Lunali proposed, which is to only knock out plot relevant NPCs, but it can also get a little clunky. Again, not saying anyone is wrong, just that I am curious as to solutions.


True. Zero, to be precise. You can only choose to knock the enemy unconscious with melee attacks.

Never doubt the ability of the party barbarian to use anything as a melee weapon.

[ZorroGames]

OP, had a last minute substitute DM do that last night. The murderhoboes loved it, the rest found it “old” quickly.

[furby076]

Typically this only occurs when one of my DMs enacts his, "I'm feeling good today" rules that the players can choose to accept or not.

The rule is thus:
A natural 20 automatically kills the target, no matter who rolls it, player or DM.

He's quite happy to have you spell out your miraculous kill under those circumstances- with the full knowledge that he'll be doing the same to you if he crits...

So, how many characters do you typically keep on hand for when you die? also, how do you deal with continuity? "My PC Bob died who wanted to get revenge aginst the trolls who killed the village. Now that he died, Joe enters"...so whats Joe's motivation?


Our table pops in stuff whenever they want. The DM does it mostly (since he typically knows when a monster is going down). If however, we know its about to happen, then we chime in.

My favorite way to ever kill a monster. Illithid was my opponent. I had an arm of nyr, and was in an anti magic aura from a beholder. My sword, which had shrink property on it, was hidden in my arm of nyr. While in the anti magic aura the sword would not come out. The illithid was happy about this. So I punched the illthid in the mouth and lodged my arm of nyr in there. One of the other party members distracted the beholder, so the anti magic aura pulled away for a second (oops). Sword popped out (2 handed falchion) while in the illithids mouth....messy

[SociopathFriend]

So, how many characters do you typically keep on hand for when you die? also, how do you deal with continuity? "My PC Bob died who wanted to get revenge aginst the trolls who killed the village. Now that he died, Joe enters"...so whats Joe's motivation?

If you die then you're basically "out" that session while you get until next week to message the DM and get your new character in-line.
It's not a rule we do every time or even close. Typically it only rolls around once or twice in a campaign depending on length and we're obviously allowed to vote no if the majority is with it (they never are because I am always the one he crits) but it's not a forced thing. The last time we ruled this the DM (to both his disbelief and mine as he crits extremely often) did not crit once the entire session.

Also to be fair in the current campaign he's got 3.5 younger-ish players that are all very susceptible to dying perfectly fine without his help.
1. The one guy went through 3 characters in 3 weeks- from doing stupid things. He has explicitly been told if he dies again he will not be coming back.
2. The other guy went through 2 characters in 4 weeks- from doing stupid things. (Admittedly, this one has mental issues of some manner but he seems like he should know better and didn't care)
3. And yet another one died at least once (probably from a stupid thing) but since then I joined and his new character's backstory decided to revolve around mine so I've since kept him alive.
3.5. The new guy is running a Wild Magic Sorcerer and happily engaging the Wild Magic every chance he gets so I question whether he's going to live long- the Tiefling Paladin of Asmodeus is already getting pretty fed up with it and I can think of better things to be mad at me than an Evil Paladin who dislikes chaos.






Our table pops in stuff whenever they want. The DM does it mostly (since he typically knows when a monster is going down). If however, we know its about to happen, then we chime in.

My favorite way to ever kill a monster. Illithid was my opponent. I had an arm of nyr, and was in an anti magic aura from a beholder. My sword, which had shrink property on it, was hidden in my arm of nyr. While in the anti magic aura the sword would not come out. The illithid was happy about this. So I punched the illthid in the mouth and lodged my arm of nyr in there. One of the other party members distracted the beholder, so the anti magic aura pulled away for a second (oops). Sword popped out (2 handed falchion) while in the illithids mouth....messy

While that's nice- it's also time-consuming and time is not something we have an excess of. It's not that we're not allowed to- we simply don't.
Typically the DM himself describes it depending on how overkill you beat the enemy. Just barely taking them down gets a remark of a near-miss becoming a hit while overkill is described with relish and stuff like hammering someone's head clean off and the like.

Personally I wouldn't in any case- I'm fighting for my life and as such I won't be going for theatrics when killing. I'll be busy giving a clean and decisive blow and then continuing to check the battlefield. I think the most I did for the current campaign for "End him rightly" was to point out Eldritch Blast likely left two holes in a Drow's torso when they found his body (shot him off his spider and his spider responded by grabbing me, jumping to the ceiling, and fighting me up there- good times).