ezo
Hero
A person should feel remorse for any slaughter IMO. There is no "obvious implication" to me as you claim. If you see an obvious implication, that is on you I'm afraid.
The 2014 orc are "savage raiders and pillagers..." who "gather in tribes that exert their dominance and satisfy their bloodlust by plundering villages, devouring or driving off roaming herds, and slaying any humanoids that stand against them".
So, if a half-dozen orcs are walking down a path, the PCs should just slaughter them without thinking? Why? I could see the PCs being cautious, perhaps trying to find out what the orcs are doing there if the PCs fear for a nearby farmer or something, or perhaps the orcs are deserters from a band, etc. and can forewarn the PCs about an upcoming attack!
But attacking and killing without provocation, and especially without any remorse, is evil IMO.
Now, as DM, I have creatures attack the PCs all the time of course because I am portraying these creatures many times as evil, but even so I often attempt to engage the PCs first as talking to their opponents can lead to plot points, etc. they would otherwise miss. Even still, too often I feel they jump the gun and attack first, often to their detriment.
A couple months ago my players infiltrated an ancient tomb looking for the "boss-caster". When they finally made it to the end and found her, she was going to talk to the PCs because she realized, much too late, that she was herself just a pawn being used by an evil undead (who resided in the tomb). The undead needed her to be its final victim before it could be freed! However, the players attacked her on sight, slaying her in a single round when she was (unfortunately) going last. Her death resulted in the undead's release and nearly resulted in a TPK when the party had to face it.
Now, if they had talked to her first, she could have warned them what was beyond the next doors, trapped until it had another victim. She would have actually joined the PCs in the final battle, making the encounter much easier, and the six trapped villagers (trapped in magical mirrors in the room) would have been freed after the defeat of the undead. But no, they killed her, and the undead claimed three of the villagers life-forces to restore itself during the fight.
In the end, it was a victory...of sorts. The "boss-caster" was stopped from trapping the villagers, the undead defeated forever, and three villagers returned alive.
However, it could have been: the "boss-caster" was redeemed, the undead defeated forever, and all six villagers returned alive.
