plisnithus8
Adventurer
But your players characters, evil or otherwise, can't think of ways to "nerf" a minotaur captive other than sawing off it's horns? A bound captive with cladding fixed to it's horns would probably do the trick, no maiming required. Probably a lot less time and effort to boot. Not to mention magical solutions, as we are playing D&D after all.
I would think cutting off the horns would be the first thought; thinking through other options may not be something they have time for or consider worth time if they had it.
As for cutting off horns being time-consuming and full of effort, it seems like swinging a sword at a horn would be much easier and less time consuming than trying to think of what spell might work (plus having to use a spell slot, etc.) or trying to find something to cover it and then bind it to the horn so it won't come off and then hope that it would prevent an attack (and then potentially losing the resources of the padding and rope).
Is there a moral dilemma? Sure. But not cutting them off isn't more expedient.