Bring them back Alive, but how?

[PastorofMuppets]

One character concept I find interesting is a bounty hunter type. I like the idea of a person that goes after the bandits in the woods not to just kill them but to take them to stand trial and give the public a display of justice. If the town has no lawbreakers wanted for questioning then those skills might be useful in trapping creatures in the wilds to sell as trainable guard animals.

The problem I see is that there don’t seem to be many options beyond some spells for taking someone down without also killing them. Does anyone have advice on how to make a capture focused character in 5e with low/no magic?

[NorthernPhoenix]

In 5e, you can just choose to make a melee killing blow knock someone out with no penalty. It's that easy.

[Unoriginal]

One character concept I find interesting is a bounty hunter type. I like the idea of a person that goes after the bandits in the woods not to just kill them but to take them to stand trial and give the public a display of justice. If the town has no lawbreakers wanted for questioning then those skills might be useful in trapping creatures in the wilds to sell as trainable guard animals.

The problem I see is that there don’t seem to be many options beyond some spells for taking someone down without also killing them. Does anyone have advice on how to make a capture focused character in 5e with low/no magic?

Any character who brings an enemy to 0 HP with a melee weapon attack can decide to do a non-lethal knockout instead of killing.

At the contrary of spells, which always kills if they bring someone to 0 HP (unless precised otherwise).

So 5e has a solid option far beyond spells to take someone down without killing them.

[Misterwhisper]

When you knock someone to zero HP with a melee weapon you always have the option to just knock them out without killing them.
It is a harder for an archery based character unless they do not mind closing in when the enemy is getting low on HP, for casters, just save a sleep spell.

Like a ranger who specializes in melee would work very well, and if played well a rogue could do the job as well.
Also, don't underestimate the monk in this kind of situation.

[nickl_2000]

The sleep spell will be your bread and butter for this character class. Our any other disabling spell that does no damage.

Hold person, charm person, tasha's hideuos laughter, etc. These give you a chance to tie someone up or do something other than kill them. A Valor or Swords bard would be really good for this class.

[JeenLeen]

NorthernPhoenix has the right of it.

I'll also recommend some general ideas for successfully transferring someone, especially a spellcaster, without having to knock them out every time they regain consciousness. Though that is probably a good thing to implement along with these if you don't have any morality concerns.

-handcuff or tie hands behind back, including binding the fingers (makes Escape checks harder, disables somatic spellcasting)
-...I somehow forgot the word for this, but when you put a cloth around one's mouth so they can't speak. Gag them? Anyway, do that to limit vocal spellcasting
-strip-search them. You can leave them in underwear, but make sure to remove anything that is possibly a magic item, search for hidden thieves' tools, secondary spell component pouches, etc. Replace their current clothing with spare clothes you carry, if you want to be more pleasant to them. (Probably a good idea if you don't know they are guilty.)
-probably good to blindfold them and put in earplugs, to increase disorientation and make it hard for them to know when to escape. Especially good for a rogue or other sneaky-type.

You could probably train some animals to use their Scent ability in a cool way, like how real-life prisons can use dogs to track escapees. Though, even if the rules are somewhat set, I'd find depending on Animal Handling to be rather DM-dependent, so check with the DM first about any ideas to get his take on it.

[Guy Lombard-O]

The sleep spell will be your bread and butter for this character class. Our any other disabling spell that does no damage.

Hold person, charm person, tasha's hideuos laughter, etc. These give you a chance to tie someone up or do something other than kill them. A Valor or Swords bard would be really good for this class.

Sleep wears out at higher levels. But the bard gets Animate Objects. 10 tiny objects can beat your target senseless without killing him.

[JackPhoenix]

Note. Any melee attack can knock someone unconscious, it doesn't have to be weapon attack specifically.

[nickl_2000]

Sleep wears out at higher levels. But the bard gets Animate Objects. 10 tiny objects can beat your target senseless without killing him.

Sure it does, but if you want to bring things home alive you can still cat it from a distance after something has been beaten up some

[Damon_Tor]

The problem isn't knocking them out (that's well handled by the rules) the problem is getting them back to civilization in a reasonable way without taking several hours to hike back to town after every battle.

It's one of the reasons I love the Ravnica supplement: if you're a member of the Azorius guild (the governmental body that includes law enforcement) you get to bring some uniformed cops along with you on your adventure. Perfect for saying "book 'em boys" and letting some NPCs drag off the bad guys in shackles while you keep on adventuring.

[Nhorianscum]

One character concept I find interesting is a bounty hunter type. I like the idea of a person that goes after the bandits in the woods not to just kill them but to take them to stand trial and give the public a display of justice. If the town has no lawbreakers wanted for questioning then those skills might be useful in trapping creatures in the wilds to sell as trainable guard animals.

The problem I see is that there don’t seem to be many options beyond some spells for taking someone down without also killing them. Does anyone have advice on how to make a capture focused character in 5e with low/no magic?

(Greater) Mark of passage + expertise works wonders for this concept in Ebberon.

[Kadesh]

Teleportation Circle, Demiplane, Imprisonment

These are all pretty high level spells, and predicate a Caster. TC at least is 5th level, but requires a year of downtime to make a permanent place where you want, and playable by a Bard or Sorcadins, encouraging some potential 'Gish' concept (where you can Quicken melee cantrips and Haste or similar to shore up weaknesses elsewhere).

A Paladin/Sorcerer, or Paladin/Bard (Swords/Valor), or even either of the latter straight classed can get you there.

[Man_Over_Game]

Paladin of Redemption.

Comes with ample enough options to subdue your target without killing them, or just convincing them to surrender. You also come equipped with Find Steed, capable of carrying you and your prize home. The Steed is also loyal to you, so it's not like the bandit can steal it from you. Divine Smite works well as a "pacifying strike" as you Nova them into 0 HP and knock them unconscious.


Horizon Walker.

Does well as a tracker, is capable of tracking enemies through portals as needed, and is more able to chase enemies down. You can deal some massive damage with your force-strike and a melee weapon and still knock them out, and Force is the least mitigated damage type (so not even some fancy spell/armor will stop you).

[Misterwhisper]

I played a bounty hunter recently, the key was playing a warforged.

Never needing to sleep and being the unstopping tracker was great RP.

I did it as a scout rogue, but I can see it working as a ranger just as well.

Monk is also great, stun and beat someone unconscious.