I need my PC's put be captured. Help

[Theone0581]

Their is a point in my campaign in which the effectiveness and build-up of a greater cause relies on my PC's to be captured. They are around level 3 right now. I need a way to put them to sleep or something, however I need it to be "balanced" but keeping odds on my side for success. Any suggestions would be great. Thank.

 

[Dandu]

A band of bards with the Sleep spell?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

-Drow sleep poison?
-Town Guards swarm and capture?
-Hold Person spells?

 

[Theone0581]

I am looking for more of a spell or a type of trap. Drow sleep poison might be something I might check out.

 

[Empirate]

I'll go out on a limb here and say your players will probably hate being auto-captured. It's a theme that crops up time and time again, and most of the times this has been discussed, the general consensus seemed to be: don't do it. You're basically getting the PCs on a railroad the second you think about auto-capturing them. That's not particularly fun from the players' perspective. "How were we supposed to win this? That was unfair! Oh, I get it, we weren't supposed to win or even get out of there..." - that's the thought process you're going to initiate.

I'd recommend not doing anything too heavy-handed. Maybe the PCs are attacked by some guys who are obviously out to capture, not kill; they win the battle, then find out somebody is putting a price on their heads; they investigate, find the instigator and question him. Another approach might be to have only one or two PCs captured, so the others can try and mount a rescue mission.

If the bad guys' motives aren't only shady, they can still be convinced to accept his quest - but now they feel much better about it than if you had just auto-captured them. They're not forced into anything, they're in a position of control, and that's nice when you're a player. If you force a quest on them, on the other hand, you'll just evoke feelings of powerlessness and annoyance, never good motivations for the quest you want them to take.


That said, if you really want to capture them, you won't need much of a sleep spell/poison/whatever. Most people at level three must still sleep naturally from time to time, and won't be able to do it in a Ropetrick all of the time. Walk in with a superior, pre-buffed force, slap them around a little when they're just waking up, out of armor and with no spells prepared, put them into sacks and haul away, that's it.

 

[Crothian]

If you need for it to happen then just have it happen. But just make sure the pay off is very good or the players won't trust you to do something like that again.

 

[xigbar]

A spiked chain fighter and a couple of enchanters would do it.

 

[Grogg of the North]

Why do they need to be captured?

Who is doing the capturing? The story's villains? I think if we had more info, we could offer more tailored suggestions.

If this has to happen for the story to progress, I'd caution you that:

1) The PCs may choose Death over Defeat. I've had this happen.

2) Assume that any "Must happen" event will fail. Do you have a plan if you fail to capture one of the group? What if they all scatter in different directions and you cannot capture any of them? Is the attempt on their lives enough to drive the next event?

Now onto the fun part. Capturing these annoying PCs.

As its been mentioned, sleep is a great way to do it. Unless you have elves or some other race that is immune to magical sleep.

A 6th level monk could just stunning fist / trip / beat them for non-lethal damage.

I had a monster that I used for something like this once. I think it was an ogre that had levels in the PrC Lasher from Sword and Fist. I'll see if I can dig up its stat block in my old notes. Basically it would trip people that tried to flee and anyone that stayed close it grabbed and tossed in a bag of holding. One the plus side, to the PCs they just see an Ogre. An ogre that just so happens to have traded its great club for a whip.

Along the magical route you can always use Charm Person/Monster. Just use something reasonable. "Hey, can you come help me with something...." and just lead the PCs off one at a time. You could also do this with a Satyr if it would make sense in your game.

One of the PCs resembles someone that has committed a heinous crime and the realm has sent out a Justicar to capture him/her!

And I'll just throw this out there. Blasphemy. Now, the spell may just out right kill them now since they're 3rd level. But in a level they'll merely be paralyzed, weakened and dazed. Makes it a perfect opportunity to capture them.

Use a monster that has a fear aura with a really high DC. As the PCs flee from the source of the fear, just have a few more pop up to herd them into the trap. And I wouldn't worry if there's a paladin or something that's immune to fear in the group. When the rest of the party high tails it out of there I doubt s/he will stick around. This would work best if the PCs are somewhere were it's reportedly haunted.

And my last one for now. A pit trap. The PCs fall and can't climb out. Eventually a "helpful" individual comes by to help them get out only to capture them, sell them into slavery, conscript them or whatever you want.

 

[domino]

Just tell them that they're going to be captured for the sake of the story.

 

[papastebu]

My initial response is in the "don't do it" vein. However, if you really feel that it's got to happen and can't figure out a reasonable way to get them where you need them otherwise, then make the whole process fun. Have them stolen from---and feel free to fudge on, or even fail to make, rolls that would be contested---and make it something large, valuable, important to some other quest, or all three, and lead them on a merry chase after the thief or thieves. When everything is at its most chaotic, the cage/net/bag is dropped/yanked upward with them in it, and the questioning/quest assignment/unnecessary torture can begin.
If they fail to take the bait for you to lead them onto the next leg of their experiential journey, then have a PC/NPC in the soup with them to talk them into it, into escaping, which leads onto that next leg, or even breaking out his- or herself, and saying something like, "This is the only way out," or whatever.
The point that I am trying to make is that, as long as the players are enjoying themselves and get to be an integral part of the decision-making process, they aren't going to mind horribly where they go or why. If you give them enough to do, the roundabout path to the next encounter is unimportant. You might even find that you and your group are getting more out of the game than you were before.
Also, never be blunt about anything you are having them fall into unless you just can't manage anything else.