My Character's Ethical Dilemma!

[Avista]

I am playing a Chaotic Neutral character - and before you jump at me, I want to stress this is a proper chaotic neutral, not an 'Evil-characters-are-not-allowed-so-chaotic-neutral-to-be-pseudo-evil' character.

My character is working to clear a man from the law. He was tricked by the BBEG to recruit members for a cult. While the cult's investigation is pending, my character has to figure out how to get the recruiter off of death row (he's technically innocent and she feels guilty for indirectly getting him on there). It's typical cult-like behavior: gaslighting, manipulation, empty promises, etc. Throw in the effects of a rare mind-altering magic that can change people's personality. Only a few can cast this, like the BBEG! And...my character!

So my character's struggling with the reality that she can sway the recruiter any which way she wants and rebuild whatever reality for him. She's already used it to get him to spill the information on the cult and that made him crack a little (dangerous magic). Now the city gave her the chance to undo the cult's damage, or else he's executed. Where does a chaotic neutral character draw the line? Transforming him into a model citizen is downright evil, and doing nothing will harm him. She could sway him to follow her own ideals, but that's wrong as well. She doesn't know him well enough to instill the same personality he had before he joined the cult. He has no family she can return him to, and he's at the mercy of the system.

The recruiter is not 'evil' per-say. He genuinely believes he's helping the people he recruits, and the society he lives in is quite oppressive. It's just that the cult is preying on those sentiments of oppression to grow their numbers and brainwash their victims for an ulterior cause. The society they live in has oppression and restrictions my character equally hates, but she knows the cult is ten times worse.

What's a chaotic neutral character to do?

Also, character growth is totally possible, and she's constantly swaying the pendulum of good vs. evil.

[MrSandman]

Does your character have to use that personality-altering spell? Could she dispel or reverse the effects of his cult indoctrination in some other way?
If she believes in freedom to choose and be whatever one wants to be (without interference of the society), she could try to get him to his previous state or to a sort of new slate state and teach him the path of anarchy.
Or else, since she is CN and probably doesn't care much for those people's customs, she could just take him out of prison and then take him somewhere else where he can rebuild his life without worrying about whether those oppressors will like him or not.

[Avista]

Does your character have to use that personality-altering spell? Could she dispel or reverse the effects of his cult indoctrination in some other way?
The mechanics involve a potion cult members drink, and a homebrew cantrip similar to friends. The cantrip by itself is harmless, even weaker than friends. but the damage done by the potion is permanent. She's tried to find an antidote, to no avail.

She doesn't have to use the homebrew personality-altering spell, but it's the only way she's found to overwrite the effects of it.


If she believes in freedom to choose and be whatever one wants to be (without interference of the society), she could try to get him to his previous state or to a sort of new slate state and teach him the path of anarchy.She could! But it might backfire. She had to use a lot of lies to get him to trust her and cooperate, and she'll have to fess up about those lies. There's a good chance he'll become violent and/or shut down, and she'll lose him for good.


Or else, since she is CN and probably doesn't care much for those people's customs, she could just take him out of prison and then take him somewhere else where he can rebuild his life without worrying about whether those oppressors will like him or not.
I love this idea the most! Except he's trapped in a high-security prison and there would be some very dire consequences if things didn't go smoothly.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Genuinely CN? Nothing. He made his choices and must reap the consequences of them. It's unfortunate that they're resulting in his death but unless your'e convinced that this society's justice system is corrupt and he's getting railroaded there's nothing you need to or should do.

Your guilt is misplaced anyway. If the guards had found him on their own, he wouldn't even have this opportunity to be redeemed. Doing nothing may feel kinda crap but doing anything else is a violation of the ethics common to chaotic characters. If you feel a compelling moral need to do something about it, avenge him by destroying the cult he was recruiting for and/or convince the law that he's more useful alive than dead because of his knowledge of -who- has been recruited. Perhaps you can get them to lessen his sentence from death to banishment.

[Whyrocknodie]

...I want to stress this is a proper chaotic neutral, not an 'Evil-characters-are-not-allowed-so-chaotic-neutral-to-be-pseudo-evil' character.

Decide you're not suffering an ethical dilemma. Those are for other people.

Now we're done with that, what will happen if we warp this pathetic doomed slob into something utterly conforming and more importantly, utterly sympathetic to the mob who want him dead? If the answer is something profoundly amusing and/or beautiful, we're motivated. Let's do it!

If not, would it be entertaining and/or artful to warp the victim into a depraved, unrepentant monster who laughs all the way to the gallows? Maybe he can persuade them to fear their neighbours and grant you more temporal power in the ensuing 'investigation' for yet more things to do. If so, let's do it!

Or, failing that - forget about him. There's better uses of time, some other adventure to be had.

[Kaptin Keen]

There is no dilemma.

Your character is chaotic - but that doesn't mean she automatically feels the recruiter should be chaotic. The most chaotic thing for your character to do would be to just randomly decide. Spin a bottle, or just model him on someone random, a childhood friend she likes, or a famous musician she enjoys.

Having to debate the morals of your action is propably something a good character would do. While an evil character would simply decide what's most useful for herself, morals be damned.

[MoiMagnus]

I'd first disagree with the others saying that as a (chaotic) neutral character, you don't care about ethics and morals.
The neutral on the good/evil you describe is definitely not a "I don't care about good/evil axis" but more the "I'm both tempted by good and evil depending on the situation, and always pondering how much I am willing to sacrifice to do the good thing, and conversely how much I am willing tweak my moral values for my own interest, thus oscillating between good an evil".

Suggestion of answer to this dilemma:
+ "Evil him" does not deserve death, or at least does not deserve to be save. You have some responsibility on the situation, but not to the point of having for moral obligation of releasing a dangerous jerk in the society.
+ "Old good him" probably does deserve life, however you failed to find a way to restore him faithfully. You felt the obligation to try, but you do not have the obligation to succeed. Life is not only success, you should move on and accept that.
+ There is only two options remaining: let his soul go into the afterlife (likely eternal torture?), or you could "recycle" his soul an body into a new individual (with some inspiration from the old one). Keeping him with you probably feels wrong, as it is not really "freedom" for him. But you could just drop him in a community somewhere where he can start a new life and die as a good or evil man, according to its future choices.
=> I feel like it is important for you to decide what is the point of view of your character on the afterlife. If she consider afterlife is "not her business" and that she should probably not meddle too much with the fabric of the universe, then I'd say the reasonable choice is to let him die. If she consider that "screw the universal rules", she will probably reform him, even if that mean creating a new personality rather than restoring the old one.

[Avista]

The ideas I like so far (and may pick more than one)

1. Find a way to get him banished instead of executed, so he can start over outside the city.
2. 'Clean-slate' him and rebuild him to be something as close as possible to who he was before.
3. Sway him to follow her own political cause to fight against the oppression of society, and/or the cultists!

I didn't mention this, but my character has a colony she might be able to send him to. I'm just wondering how much danger I'd put my colony in if I sent an ex-cultist there. I'm sure my DM will find something to do with that.


I'd first disagree with the others saying that as a (chaotic) neutral character, you don't care about ethics and morals.
The neutral on the good/evil you describe is definitely not a "I don't care about good/evil axis" but more the "I'm both tempted by good and evil depending on the situation, and always pondering how much I am willing to sacrifice to do the good thing, and conversely how much I am willing tweak my moral values for my own interest, thus oscillating between good an evil".

This is very true and exactly how she works. My character isn't motivated by evil, nor will she act evil just for kicks. She follows a more 'justified evil' to reach her goals for herself and those she cares for.

(I'm also not going to be that 'one person' who screws the questlines over to benefit themselves and ruin the fun for the rest of the table.)



Suggestion of answer to this dilemma:
+ "Evil him" does not deserve death, or at least does not deserve to be save. You have some responsibility on the situation, but not to the point of having for moral obligation of releasing a dangerous jerk in the society.
+ "Old good him" probably does deserve life, however you failed to find a way to restore him faithfully. You felt the obligation to try, but you do not have the obligation to succeed. Life is not only success, you should move on and accept that.
+ There is only two options remaining: let his soul go into the afterlife (likely eternal torture?), or you could "recycle" his soul an body into a new individual (with some inspiration from the old one). Keeping him with you probably feels wrong, as it is not really "freedom" for him. But you could just drop him in a community somewhere where he can start a new life and die as a good or evil man, according to its future choices.
=> I feel like it is important for you to decide what is the point of view of your character on the afterlife. If she consider afterlife is "not her business" and that she should probably not meddle too much with the fabric of the universe, then I'd say the reasonable choice is to let him die. If she consider that "screw the universal rules", she will probably reform him, even if that mean creating a new personality rather than restoring the old one.

The recruiter is not 'evil' per-say. He genuinely believes he's helping the people he recruits, and the society he lives in is quite oppressive. It's just that the cult is preying on those sentiments of oppression to grow their numbers and brainwash their victims for an ulterior cause. The society they live in has oppression and restrictions my character equally hates, but she knows the cult is ten times worse.

And since he is part of the cult and drank the proverbial Kool-aid, he's probably not going to the good place when he dies. Religion is not my character's forte, but she can take an educated guess.

[Segev]

If she can gaslight, she can use the same techniques to show truths. Show him how his recruits are NOT benefitted. Show what really happens to them to him, and see if he changes his mind about the goodness of his actions. That will get him more on board with cooperating with your character for the rest of it.

For the rest, I'm not sure what the requirements are. What is it she needs to do to get him off the hook? What does HE need to do to get off the hook?

[Rynjin]

I don't have too much thought on the rest, but remember that changing someone's personality is a breach of their choice/free will.

As a Chaotic Neutral character, personal freedoms are literally the only moral/ethical thing you are (meant to be) passionate about, and changing somebody's alignment against their will would probably be very, very anathema to your ideals.

[Madwand99]

A CN PC would, presumably, value personal freedom and the ability to choose your fate. So, talk to this man. Give him the options. Allow him to choose his fate. Perhaps he will appreciate being given a new personality. If not, he chooses whatever fate he would have without your interference (death, presumably). This will be strong incentive for him to hear you out.

[Avista]

I don't have too much thought on the rest, but remember that changing someone's personality is a breach of their choice/free will.

As a Chaotic Neutral character, personal freedoms are literally the only moral/ethical thing you are (meant to be) passionate about, and changing somebody's alignment against their will would probably be very, very anathema to your ideals.


A CN PC would, presumably, value personal freedom and the ability to choose your fate. So, talk to this man. Give him the options. Allow him to choose his fate. Perhaps he will appreciate being given a new personality. If not, he chooses whatever fate he would have without your interference (death, presumably). This will be strong incentive for him to hear you out.

Both very good points. Since his personality is already altered (both on purpose and accidentally) her deduction is that trying to undo the damage is far better than leaving him as is. 'Plea of insanity' doesn't exist according to the system.

She knows his original values of freedom aligns with hers, just more toward chaotic good. If she wants to win his trust by using a 'good' action she must stop the lies and tell him the truth of what's going on, and confess she's been manipulating him throughout the interrogation. But! That can go south very quickly with how prone he is to violent outbursts. Worse, he may not be ready to accept the cult abandoned him to die. And if that happens...court's not going to keep him around since he's a 'danger to the public'. Pleas for insanity does not exist in this court system.

I can make him believe whatever I want with the spell, but that is again, the moral dilemma since it interferes with his choice of free will.

A third option I came to: There is the city's Holy Order (church separate from the state) that may have the only facility to help the ex-cultist with recovery. I can very easily cash in a favor to ask for help. The catch: the Holy Order is lawful good, and that doesn't jive well with the chaotic good nature of the recruiter. Asking the Holy Order to spend their resources and efforts to cure one man who would resist their efforts would leave an opening for the cultists, and put the city at risk.

I guess I can magically persuade him into accepting their help. But once again, interference of his choice of free will.

Man, the DM really gave me a real puzzler.

Edit: And if you're unconvinced I'm playing CN and not CG, my character's totally going after the other three cultists she found and getting them on the chopping block. One tried to kill her, another attacked her, and a third hurt her friend. She doesn't care that their friends and families will be hurt by this fallout - she's got a vendetta.

[Segev]

CN does value personal freedom and freedom of choice, but it's CG that is egalitarian about it for all. CE, of course, cares only about it for itself. CN is...mixed. Unless philosophically inclined, CN will instinctively care about their own choice and freedom to make it, and those of their in-group. All else being equal (i.e. it costs them nothing, save perhaps opportunity), they'll agree that it's fair to let others have their freedom to make choices. (CE might agree to that, or might not, but if it even slightly impedes their personal freedom or that of their in-group, they'll not care about 'fairness' or the like and will say 'screw them!' about anybody else's freedom of choice where it inconveniences them or those they care about.)

If you like this guy, then yeah, your CN nature will make you want to value his freedom to choose. However, as CN, you might still think your freedom to choose to make the best choice for him is overriding his freedom to choose.

Heck, with him already mentally compromised, there's argument that undoing that compromise (whether he currently likes it or not) is a valid ethical and moral move, so his "real self" can be queried as to what he actually prefers.

[Phhase]

Oooh, this is a really interesting situation. And also, massive props for wanting to do the CN thing proper.

Most of my suggestions are just riffs or remixes on the (very intelligent) things people have already said, but I do have one idea that I think might fit well, especially for your character.

As Lord Shojo would say, you can cheat.

What I'm getting at is this: find a sneaky way to stall for time. You don't necessarily need to break him OUT of prison - just delay or obfuscate the pressing need for his death. This can take any number of forms, depending on what your character has access to and how much she's willing to sacrifice. Consider the following:

Fake his death, then either release him in exile far away, or some other out-of-sight solution. You can do this a myriad of ways. You could create a statue of him and cast Stone to Flesh on it to create a fake corpse. You could use the spell Feign Death, or a similar effect, of course. Illusions like Mislead can be very useful in a pinch. Particularly combined with non-illusion decoys, like Simulacrum. If you can, you could use the spell Clone to bypass the justice system entirely in one fell swoop: he serves his sentence of death, then bam! Alive again. Easy. Depending on the exact laws in place, this might even be aboveboard.

You could "Poison" his prison food, Romeo and Juliet style (Just hope they don't cremate the dead).You could save him at the last minute during the execution, making it seem to everyone that he died. Or heck, you could just change his appearance to that of a different inmate, kill that inmate, and put him in the now vacant cell.

A more bookish option, depending on the justice system of your setting is that you could jam the gears of bureaucracy. File appeals, injunctions, make outrageous claims and accusations, spam the court with too many smaller cases for this one to be processed, "lose" the evidence, subtly alter the memories of witnesses to make them seem unreliable, etc. Read the legal code closely, if that's a thing.

A cheekier version of the same thing would be to sabotage the tools of execution so that it gets bungled every time. That could be pretty funny. Ropes and swords break, poisons turn out to have been confused with grape soda, long falls end up in unexpectedly soft ground, stones simply don't seem to be around because SOMEone cast Rock to Mud like no tomorrow...you get the idea.

Outside of whatever plan you use, the weakness of the magic involved being detectable can be circumvented by using a spell that's quite powerful, but is often overlooked: Nystul's Magic Aura. The Mask option completely obscures the magical nature of anything you cast it on, no save.

As to "fixing" him, well, any of the above solutions that don't involve him escaping are temporary at best. You could use that time to try and scrounge up a Wish to restore him to his original self. If a Wish can restore the soul of someone who's soul was damaged or devoured by say a Barghest or Devourer, then it seems reasonable it could do this. Much more easily said than done, of course. A Wish is a special thing.

And, of course, you could make a Faustian Bargain with a powerful entity. That at least may shift a good portion of the danger to you rather than him, depending on the terms. Of course, that relies entirely on how much your character really cares, and even then, is clearly a last resort.

All of these are just suggestions, of course, and any one of the other ideas in this thread is equally likely to be as good an idea. Hopefully gave you something to chew on, though. They're certainly Chaotic solutions.

[Avista]

Heck, with him already mentally compromised, there's argument that undoing that compromise (whether he currently likes it or not) is a valid ethical and moral move, so his "real self" can be queried as to what he actually prefers.

I do believe this is what I am ultimately leaning towards. I am going to attempt and re-introduce his free spirit, and show him how the cult is actually oppressive. He won't believe me if I don't use the spell, so fingers crossed it doesn't backfire and do more harm than good.



~~snip~~


I really love a lot of your suggestions! I especially love the bureaucracy option, and I could probably make that succeed. Since I'm not playing a dedicated spellcaster most of the magic-based options are out of reach. Although I do appreciate the Faustian Bargain idea - I went ahead and made a plea to the local deities. Only time will tell if my offerings are accepted.

My goal is to ensure that he doesn't become violent, convince him to work with me at fighting the cult, and give him a new start at life in my colony. If I fail, well...more fuel for the fire to get my character motivated to eliminate the cultists.

[Phhase]

I really love a lot of your suggestions! I especially love the bureaucracy option, and I could probably make that succeed. Since I'm not playing a dedicated spellcaster most of the magic-based options are out of reach. Although I do appreciate the Faustian Bargain idea - I went ahead and made a plea to the local deities. Only time will tell if my offerings are accepted.

My goal is to ensure that he doesn't become violent, convince him to work with me at fighting the cult, and give him a new start at life in my colony. If I fail, well...more fuel for the fire to get my character motivated to eliminate the cultists.

Thanks :smallbiggrin:. Always glad to help. The magic stuff was assuming you had allies or NPCs, or magic items/consumables like scrolls that could help you out. Get to work stickin' it to The Man! Don't get caught red-tape-handed. And best of luck entreating the Powers That Be.

[Avista]

I was going to post again to explain how it went, but...

...another one of my party member's quest went south and we failed to stop an attack on the city. Long story short thee recruiter is probably dead now. Will find out next session how the dice rolled.

That tragically sorted itself out.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I was going to post again to explain how it went, but...

...another one of my party member's quest went south and we failed to stop an attack on the city. Long story short he's probably dead now. Will find out next session how the dice rolled.

That tragically sorted itself out.

I'm honestly not sure if I should offer congratulations for getting through the situation, one way or another, or condolences for having something that looks like a meaningful choice snatched away from you.

Would it be considered optimism to say that maybe your GM will manage to jam him back in there in an even more compromised position that demands an answer on the spot?

[Avista]

Would it be considered optimism to say that maybe your GM will manage to jam him back in there in an even more compromised position that demands an answer on the spot?

I wouldn't be surprised if the DM did that! It's pretty reliant on the luck of dice rolls for scenarios like this one, but he could still be alive. In which case, oh boy. Situations has changed, especially if he escaped.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Funny thing is that my GM has put me in a similar predicament in my last session.

I too am CN. Went with a hard-line anarchist who values freedom above everything and sees nearly any imposition of rules on anyone as "fascism."

At the end of the last adventure, we got dumped out of a collapsing demiplane and ended up the gods only know where. So we just picked a direction to start moving. I'm the party's scout so I'm out front when I spot an ambush at exactly the same moment one of them spots me. I call out the ambush as I'm putting an eldritch blast into the face of the one who spotted me and battle ensues. We let a couple go and continue on our way.

Turns out, the ambush wasn't brigands just waiting for anyone likely. It was part of the military of the city-state we come to a bit later that was waiting for an expected offensive force from a rival state. Oops. Negotiations broke down rather quicky when the captain of the guard said "ignorance is no excuse" in response to our protestations that it was just an innocent mixup and was insisting we were under arrest. Well, the idea of the rules applying to him whether he even knew them or not was more than my character could bear so I attempted to flee, unsuccessfully.

Came around to find myself chained to a wall with a magical tattoo that the city uses to control certain personell. Anyone who knows it can speak a command word to instantly kill the bearer of one of thsese tattoos. This was explained to us as a magistrate was telling us that we were being conscripted to serve the city to make up for the soldiers we killed. Thoroughly convinced I had done nothing wrong, I told them in no uncertain terms that i would happily accept exile but that I was nobody's serf. Under the presumption that there must be some way to deactivate the tattoo, I kept trying to blindly activate it in the hope that I could free myself. My presumption was wrong and my skill at using magic devices is decent. I died.

Well, one of my party, feeling at least partially responsible for my death since he carried one of the bodies into town, intending to get the guy a proper burial and making any denial that we were the party that slew their guards impossible, ponied up for my ress just before retiring the character to service elsewhere in the city. The city had declared that paying for my crime with my life, albeit temporarily, was acceptable but that I would only be tolerated if I didn't cause anymore trouble. I don't want to leave my party in the lurch over something I'm still convinced is unjust servitude so I'm still with the other two.

Now, I told you that story to tell you this one:

The retired character was replaced with what turns out to be the captain of the guard's brother. The player is a decent guy but a bit of a troll so the new character has a couple flaws whereby he flies into a rage when struck in battle and has to turn on neutral parties and then allies if he runs out of enemies before the rage expires. Effort was being made to try and resolve this problem when circumstances had us looking down the barrel of an advanced, huge griffon, one of whose mates we had recently killed (and partially eaten), and his pride. I was the only one in the party that could communicate with them, the rager had recently half-killed me, and I didn't like our odds of not having a party wipe if this came to a full on battle. So when the beast demanded to know who was responsible for his mate's demise, I pointed the finger. I "translated" its demand to duel with the rager and their single combat had the predictable result; rager got shredded.

We get back to the city and the escort that had been sent with us, so that captain's brother wouldn't be outnumbered and my buddies wouldn't just flee, head off to report. We're soon being confronted by the guard captain and a bunch of his guards. After a bit of bravado from both of us, he orders the guards to take the others for a walk so he could have a word alone with me.

I figure I'm about to be in a fight for my life, right? Nope. As soon as we're alone, his apparent wrath crumbles and he practically begs me to get his brother's body back. He shows me that -he- has one of the control tattoos on his leg where he can easily hide it. He reckons he can afford a ress for his only remaining family but he literally can't just abandon his post to go get him. I try to explain to him that there's almost certainly not enough of a body to bring back at this point (carried off by the griffons, presumably to feed themselves and their young) but in the end I agree to at least try.

So here's my dillema: this guy's part of what my character considers a fascist regime that should probably be laid low for the good of everyone but he's not there entirely voluntarily and I -did- get his brother killed.

Do I follow through on what amounts to a heist with instantly lethal consequences for failure to try and make up for what I've done and show a little humanity or do I say "screw that guy" and go about my own business.

[Quertus]

Reading through this, I was reminded of SAO, specifically Season 3, how the two protagonists were on opposite sides: one fighting to restore Alice's memories; the other fighting to save her soul. Of course, given that I haven't watched the most recent season yet, and given that I don't want spoilers, that's not the angle I'll take.

Instead, I'll open with the classic, "alignment is the worst thing to happen to role-playing in the history of RPGs". So let's ignore alignment, and look at the scenario, and the character.

So, what I'm hearing is that an evil mind control character is feeling guilty that their actions put an "innocent" man on death row¹. And we've got some issues with the definition of the word "innocent", because those who were mind controlled to hurt something that this PC cares about are not "innocent", and are deserving of death.

I can't help but approve.

So, what is the question? It can't really be, "what's the moral answer?", because that's just too far afield of where we are (either the Twinkie defense is good for all crimes, all related/applicable crimes, or no crimes), and because the character doesn't consider themselves to be a moral agent.

Perhaps we could ask, "what will help the character sleep better at nights?"? In that regard, I suspect picking a goal, and taking actions towards that goal, so that the character can say "I tried" will be optimal.

And, if the NPC is already dead, having the PC (have) come up with a plan will still let them say, "I would have…", and feel better about themselves.

¹ and, notably, not that they engaged in the evil mind control in the first place.

So, you have a good recruiter, whose good actions (helping people in a struggling society) had unintended side effects (bolstering "Evil") that were unknown to the moral agent.

And, now, the oppressive society wants to kill him, because…?

At which point, your questions are: do you need to murder Society, and replace it with something better? Can you keep him alive until then? Or, do you need to save him from society? Or, do you not care about his body, and the only question is whether his soul is safe?

And, of course, if soul isn't safe, do you need to murder the gods, and replace them with something better?

OP, you keep saying that you have to:

"She had to use a lot of lies to get him to trust her and cooperate, and she'll have to fess up about those lies. There's a good chance he'll become violent and/or shut down, and she'll lose him for good."

"If she wants to win his trust by using a 'good' action she must stop the lies and tell him the truth of what's going on, and confess she's been manipulating him throughout the interrogation. But! That can go south very quickly with how prone he is to violent outbursts. Worse, he may not be ready to accept the cult abandoned him to die."

I'm not seeing why you "have to" do anything of the sort.


I can make him believe whatever I want with the spell, but that is again, the moral dilemma since it interferes with his choice of free will.

I guess I can magically persuade him into accepting their help. But once again, interference of his choice of free will.

So… it sounds like the extent of the morality - and thus the extent of the moral question - is "free will".

Which brings us back to SAO, and the question "can someone who has been Mindraped to be someone else” / "can someone who has suffered Babylon 5 'death of personality' " / "can someone who is mind controlled / drugged / otherwise 'not themselves' " be deemed to be a moral agent, a Person, in questions regarding their former personality?

And… that's a bit heavy for me to weigh in on, personally.

[Avista]

So here's what happened: The recruiter survived the bombings! He escaped in a major prison break and ran back to his cult. His cult decided to infect with with a parasite that turned him into a mindless, lethal killer then sent him off to assassinate my character. I had a very entertaining one-on-one fight with a homebrew monster.

In the end, my character had to make the difficult choice of either a) Killing him to end his suffering or b) Letting him live to get treatment later, but risking his escape into a war-torn city. And she had to make the decision in the presence of her apprentice who's never experienced war, and begging her to let the guy live despite the risks.

She killed the recruiter and broke her apprentice's faith in her. It was a harsh decision.

[Sapphire Guard]

I was going to suggest just trying to get a stay of execution on the basis that you need to interrogate him more/keep him alive until you can verify the information, and use the time to educate him about his cult's true nature. But it looks like this sorted itself out.