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Emperor Demonking
2008-01-13, 08:03 AM
Does your group ever take prisoners?

Zenos
2008-01-13, 08:10 AM
You know, this thread has the exact same name as another thread?

EDIT: And we usually don't, but sometimes we capture lone monster scouts and interrogate 'em.

NaYoN
2008-01-13, 08:15 AM
Yeah it does, and no we don't, even though other members sometimes take mthem, my evil rogue usually "accidentally" kills them while torturing/interrogating.

Bayar
2008-01-13, 08:19 AM
"are we soposed to leave some alive? 'cause I took no prisoners!"

LibraryOgre
2008-01-13, 01:18 PM
Frequently. It's a good way to get information and to build your reputation.

Chronicled
2008-01-13, 01:21 PM
Speak with Dead means you don't even need a sense motive check when getting your info!

So, usually not.

its_all_ogre
2008-01-13, 05:34 PM
annoyingly a neutral player will often capture a 'possibly mislead' npc and try to turn them around.
my cleric of pelor used to heal unconscious and dying bandits in order to give them a chance to redeem themselves. the dm used to punish me for it though

(by having them with you, you are putting their lives at risk therefore you are commiting an evil act. hmm. leaving them to die would not be evil. hmm)
my current group of characters (not players) do not take prisoners.

comicshorse
2008-01-13, 06:11 PM
Yes but only if we trust the local authorities to deal fairly with them. Monsters tend to die though if they choose to run we usually let them go.

Pironious
2008-01-13, 06:12 PM
my cleric of pelor used to heal unconscious and dying bandits in order to give them a chance to redeem themselves. the dm used to punish me for it though

That's bad DMing.

I'm in a game that borders on exalted good, so because of our cleric, we generally don't kill things period. The only thing our Cleric will kill is Demons, undead and priests of evil gods, and he's more likely to heal/stabilise a dying enemy than help one of us (that's just the way the character is)

horseboy
2008-01-13, 07:10 PM
Pryzonhers? What is this strange language in which you speak?

martyboy74
2008-01-13, 07:15 PM
Does ripping away any last vestiges of their free will magically count?

Actually, we turned a creature that we dominated into one of our party members once.

holywhippet
2008-01-13, 07:27 PM
Speak with Dead means you don't even need a sense motive check when getting your info!

So, usually not.

Funny thing that, in my current campaign we'd just taken out a small wooden fort built and occupied by goblins (at least we assume they built it). After the battle, most of the party were trying to get out of there as nearby was big tower populated by the bulk of the goblins. I got the party cleric to aim his detect magic towards the fort though in case there was something valuable in there. It turns out there was, but since the fort was currently on fire (thanks to some alchemists fire I used) it was a tough task trying to find it. After checking the spell description, the cleric was able to get a good estimate of the location and dropped a create water spell on the location to give me time to search. The item ended up being a magical lock which gave access to the tunnels underneath the fort.

Problem is, we don't know what the command word(s) for the lock is, and the GM gave it a DC of 25 to try and crack it using knowledge: arcana (not easy since we are only level 4). However, it occured to me that the goblins at the fort must have known the command word and we killed at least one of them outside of the fort. Provided at least one body is still intact (it was about 3-4 days prior), we can go back and question it with speak with dead (after we gain another level).

Talya
2008-01-13, 07:29 PM
Yes. Good and Evil should mean something...and mercy is an essential quality of Good.

pendell
2008-01-14, 08:09 AM
The one and only time we successfully took a prisoner, he did a runner on us. Ah well. I think we still completed the campaign.

Heh ... I remember talking to someone else once and asking him if he took prisoners. His response? "Of course! Someone's got to carry the luggage".

Respectfully,

Brian P.

horseboy
2008-01-14, 02:06 PM
My guys surprised me and actually took prisoners last time. Of course, they totally Bauered them afterwards. Does that still count?

Brawls
2008-01-14, 07:48 PM
Depends on my (and the party's) alignment. Currently playing a LN fighter in a campaign where there are two opposed kingdoms (one LN and one LE) and a third party trying to establish itself as a new power by playing the two established kingdoms against each other. After capturing a few folks from this third party, I maintained that they should be turned over to the authorities of the kingdom we were currently in and that killing them would be an evil act (since they surrendered). The fact that they would be tortured by the LE authorities was not my concern.

Later, we were captured by the military of the LE kingdom and escaped during our transfer from a garrison to the capital. After defeating the guards, I would not let my party members kill the surviving guards (and stabilized those that could be saved). My rationale was that the guards were just doing their jobs and bore us no malice. Also, there was no reason to kill a defeated opponent. We actually chained them up in the manacles and wagons we had been wearing and sent them back to their garrison (where they were no doubt punished for their failure). We kept their gear and mounts. I later ransomed the officer's armor and sword back to him.

For the record, the rest of my party is of the CG persuasion. I've had fun playing up the fact that the LE kingdom is just as legitimate an authority as the LN kingdom (who most of the PCs view as the "good guys") and their laws should be followed and respected when we are in their territory. Of course, if attacked I will defend myself and my party, but that doesn't mean I should disregard a lawfull government's laws just because they are evil. Since one of our group loves playing Paladins, it is fun to subject her current character to the moral (or as I see it, ethical) arguments as to why we should not kill innocents or enemies who surrender.

So, short answer is "Yes, we take prisoners," because as the biggest bad*ss in our group, I say we don't kill prisoners. Fortunately, this campaign is undead heavy, so it doesn't come up regularly.

Brawls

PhoenixRising
2008-01-15, 08:27 AM
I tend to reward party members who take prisoners (and punish those who don't by removing the spell 'Speak with Dead'): My philosophy is that death should have consequences, and wanton killing should have a harm beyond being locked in jail for a few days / until they escape.

kamikasei
2008-01-15, 09:22 AM
Yes; both where I'm a player (in which case they're actual prisoners being turned over to some authority), and in the group I DM (where they knock out opponents, interrogate them, and then kill them or use them as throwaway pawns in some plan or other. Which is kind of like taking prisoners...). Of course, that doesn't mean you always take prisoners, and/or never outright kill an (even already-defeated) enemy; but taking prisoners is a valid tactical option and the idea of never exercising it seems a bit limiting.

Crimson Avenger
2008-01-15, 09:35 AM
Our party takes prisoners regularly. We're playing in the SCAP campaign right now. We do the most horific thing that can be done to prisoners...we turn them over to the church of St. Cuthbert. While technically not evil, it is pretty mean-spirited.

Kain_Tempest
2008-01-15, 11:18 AM
My group tries their best to take prisoners.

During one dungeon crawl, they managed to capture all of the bosses, save for the leader. They ended up executing the leader because they only survived by the skin of their teeth and so decided that they could not safely contain her or get her into a good mindframe in order to be talked down (Magical compulsion for violence).

In the end, the group made one of the local NPCs happy by letting them bring one of the villains in for trial and execution. The two had a history and the villain was a contemptuous murderer.
The villain warrior was actually a neutral mercenary so after explaining his reasons the group let him go but took his weapons and money. He wasn't complaining though.
The villain mage was caught of guard and the group had expected to knock her to a handful of hitpoints and threaten to kill her familiar. They ended up one-shotting each but the cleric managed to stabilize them. When the mage came to back at home base, the group learned that she had also been hired by the main villain as a translator. So the group hired her to be their translator, and since they gave her back everything but her weapons, she obliged.
The villain druid had to be handled by only one of the characters and since it was a battle of attrition, the party member managed to win and capture him. The druid ended up being taken back to base where he was hired on and given another captive, a goblin they saved from the gallows, in order to raise fifteen snotlings (baby goblins) the group managed to also liberate.
The leaders lover was a tricky one. Kicked butt for awhile but was eventually captured. The group took a long time figuring this one out because the guy didn't seem afraid of death. Mostly because his lover was a cleric and expected to get raised if he were slain. The group finally realized he was acting extremely irrational and realized that his lover had pushed him to go to such destructive lengths. They ended up taking him to trial for the vengeful murder of his father and being the accessory to the slaughter of ten other people. His sob story was convincing enough for everyone, so the group vouched for him and managed to get him life imprisonment rather than death. Being a party of mixed alignments, some of the group members are conspiring to eventually break the guy out of prison in order to win him to their side.

The group quickly learned that they started to get a better rep with everyone when they brought in prisoners and usually got to hire them on as help around base.

Woot Spitum
2008-01-15, 06:36 PM
I can't ever remember taking prisoners in a D&D game. Whenever my groups didn't kill our enemies, we just let them go.

graymachine
2008-01-15, 07:00 PM
I'm currently playing a cleric with a Vow of Peace and a Vow of Nonviolence, so I tend to take prisoners, as well as the rest of the party since I hand out the healing. It doesn't really seem to cause any problems; Cure Disease and Create Food and Water has gone a long way to making our party generally liked amongst the humanoids.
The question implies, though, that you've already defeated the enemy and are at the decision of taking prisoners or making corpses. It seems pretty clear to me that killing people that have surrendered, or are helpless, is a distinctly evil act. If your alignment is evil, no problems, but such a think should stay the hand of any good character, or at the very least deeply disturb them.