Imaro
Legend
It's set up to throw the PCs off guard by appearing to be a rescue the prisoner scenario.
Yep, a classic... and a little cliched at this point, but I don't see how this in any way makes it inherently wrong or bad.
It's exactly the sort of thing that makes players suspicious of every single NPC they interact with. I've had DMs that tried to screw us with 90% of the "harmless" or "benevolent" PCs that we met. I have no wish to impart such paranoia upon my players. I've always found that sort of thing to be of great detriment to the game.
I'm really lost as to how this one encounter with one NPC can be equated to... "90% of the "harmless" or "benevolent" PC's that a party will meet in their entire adventuring career."
Granted, I have wolves in sheeps clothing, but they're the exception rather than the rule. As in, not much more than once or twice in an entire campaign. This encounter would be a complete waste of that.
Hmmm, so it's not that you disagree with this type of encounter... this particular one is just a complete waste of a "wolf in sheeps clothing" type encounter... so what would be a few examples of the type that wouldn't "waste" this type of encounter. I'd be particularly interested in some examples that fit a sandbox style game.