PCs who kill everyone that attacks them

[Gundark]

Now, this situation got me thinking...most pcs Ive seen in games are pretty much of the attitude, if the npcs defend themselves when we attack or they attack us, then we should leave a trail of corpses behind us. Most unconscious foes are left to die or killed through judicious throatslitting. IMO, this builds a reputation for the party. If you mess with them, you better make sure you kill them, because they will kill you in a heartbeat. As a dm, this kind of behaivor lends me towards if the pcs lose, there is no capture situation, they just get killed. But then again, maybe I shouldnt be thinking too much into this and just roll some dice

Yes I agree, if the PCs are ruthless then the NPCs are ruthless when dealing with the PCs. There is no capture. In my campaign my players were quite ruthless with a criminal organization. When this organization strikes back they'll be equally as deadly. What goes aroun comes around

 

[Black Omega]

I usually try to balance what the NPC's do with the PC's reactions. Be more ruthless and fewer weak mercs will attack you. People may be more likely to fear you, depending on how ruthless you are. And not just bad guys.

It's a but stickier when a battle is not necessarily to the death. If the NPC's are not sent to kill the group, but rather are looking for an item, a person, some information, or some other goal and they would cheerfully not fight the group, is that the same as NPC's sent to kill the PC's? I've seen alot of discussion over taking prisoners but not much over motive for combat having an effect on if to take prisoners.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I'm going to quote a Steven Brust passage. To call it tangentially relevant is probably overstating the case, but any opportunity to quote Steven Brust is a good one

(It's got the word 'surrender' in it, anyway.)

Sethra the Younger's greatest moment had occurred during the Third Battle of Hartstongue Wash. On this occasion, she was serving as a brigadier under Sethra Lavode, who had entrusted to her the Flooding Pass, vital as the supply line to the army, with the instructions "If they wish for this real estate, you must bargain with them for it, and be certain you get a good price." Now Sethra the Younger, intrigued by this formulation, decided to take it more literally than it had been intended, and so, when the Duke of Softrock threatened her position, she came forward under a flag of truce, and said to him, "My dear Softrock, I believe you wish to control this pass."
"Well, and if I do?"
"Then you may have it."
"How, you surrender it?"
"Exactly. But I must receive for it one-third of your command, to be sent back to the prison camps behind our lines."
"What? A third of my command?"
"Yes, my dear Duke. That is the price. And, if you are wise, you will take it!"
"Bah! The price is too high!"
"You think so? Well then, come and see if you can gain it for any less," upon which she returned to her lines, and, in the event, defended the ground with such skill and ferocity that the Duke lost some ten percent of his force in killed, wounded, and captured, and at no time came close to taking the position. We hope this story will serve to tell something of the character of Sethra the Younger, for it is all we wish to say of her at this time, and therefore the reader is obliged to be satisfied.

Steven Brust, The Paths of the Dead.

-Hyp.

 

[Geoff Watson]

They may not have an aligment in AU but this kind of behavior should have some kind of consequences people ahould be gunning for this party family of thier victims maybe the woman who they treated so badly. If I was the DM I would one day have all this come back and haunt them.

That's one of the problems with not using alignment. The players think that they can get away with nasty stuff, since the DM can't accuse them of being evil.

Geoff.

 

[Seule]

In my game this evening, we had just arrested some individuals that we suspected had committed murder, but we couldn't prove it. When they broke out of prison, we suddenly had a concrete crime to charge them with, and then they tried to kill us, we killed most of them. The last one alive we put a lot of effort into capturing, as we had the luxury. The earlier ones, we were still fighting for our lives. The last one was Time Hopped, then Coccooned, the Dazed, then Grappled, then subdued into unconsciousness, because with the others dead we had the resources available to try.
We tried to get her to surrender, but she wouldn't listen...

In Living Greyhawk, my LN character is from Ket, the region where killing a citizen is illegal under any circumstances. Self defence makes it only manslaughter, with only days in the stocks and fines rather than life in the copper mines as punishment. It means everyone who can carries a sap.

--Seule

 

[Steverooo]

They tell her they will let her live and then divest her of all objects. She asks for them back, saying they can keep a bracelets of healing magic, but wants her other stuff back. After much discussion, the players decide to take all her stuff and tell her she's lucky to have her life.

IMHO, your NPC is an idiot.

"I know I just attacked you, and tried to kill you, but can I please have my weapons and armor back?"

Yeah, right, buddy!

He/She/It deserves to be slapped across the room (if not out the window).

 

[CCamfield]

IMHO, your NPC is an idiot.

"I know I just attacked you, and tried to kill you, but can I please have my weapons and armor back?"

Make that "I just tried to help murder you". Getting away with her freedom was lucky. If that inn was in a town, presumably if the players had turned her over to the authorities, she would have been executed. Of course, that depends on the local culture and laws.

I agree that outright slaughter isn't always the best policy to follow, but as far as medieval practice cited in this thread - ransoming took place on actual battles. If you were attacked by or putting down bandits, I am pretty sure that all captured bandits would be "hanged from the neck until dead". I'm no expert on medieval times, but in some places wasn't the punishment for stealing to have a hand lopped off?

(And I've never heard of ordinary soldiers being "ransomed" as a sort of wage slave. Ordinary soldiers probably wouldn't be in a position to make use of such an individual; to a lord, it probably wouldn't be worth the bother, it seems to me.)

 

[Alejandro]

Depending on your GM's choice, if your group had gone with your call (i.e., left the kid alive), y'all could have doomed the world to oblivion, IIR the adventure correctly.

The thing with the witch, OTOH -- that sounds to me like they gave in to greed.

When asked later, the PC who shot the newborn admitted that the baby seemed a softer target when compared to the cult leader or the artifact we were hired to destroy, even though he wasn't quite sure what was going on. My character certainly wasn't aware of the big picture (doom for the world), but he at least tried (and failed) to save the newborn from the others on stage (a dire lion and its master, the cult leader). Instead of questioning the remaining cultists, they killed them all as I and another new PC raced after the escaping cult leader. Instead of questioning the mother of the slain infant, they returned her to her father for the reward (to our sorrow, learned the next day).

I've already listed what was taken from the witch, as well as the attitude conveyed by the other PCs. I've been admonished that I'm trying to straddle both sides of the law by not antagonizing this bandit, even though the party has no compunctions about robbing graves, insulting knight-lieutenants, or looting the bodies of the witch's companions (without first reporting the incident to authorities). My character is not a wise man, but even he's doubting the wisdom of associating with such ruthless individuals.

 

[Endur]

Hyp, I may not always agree with you, but that was a great quote.

I'm going to quote a Steven Brust passage. To call it tangentially relevant is probably overstating the case, but any opportunity to quote Steven Brust is a good one

(It's got the word 'surrender' in it, anyway.)

Steven Brust, The Paths of the Dead.

-Hyp.

 

[barsoomcore]

Never too much Steven Brust in a thread, I always say.