A PC who wont kill

[Tinker Gnome]

Okay, I have probably been watching too much Trigun lately(anime,main character, Vash, wont kill anyone no matter how vile and evil they are). But have you ever DMed for or played with, or played as a character who refused to kill Anyone. I mean, not even killing that evil to the core Drow, or even the rampaging Orc Warlord? Did the PC try to redeem these evil villains? If so, how did it go?

 

[frankthedm]

No Player I have ever had ever gimped themselves with the comic book code. The worlds D&D takes place in have a place for mercy, but utter refusal to kill is a mental sickness of the modern world that has little place in a world ruled by strenght of sword and spell.

 

[Tsillanabor]

I once had a monk in one of my games who wouldn't kill. He'd destroy outsiders, constructs, or undead, but if it was alive he'd go nonlethal.

 

[Glyfair]

Okay, I have probably been watching too much Trigun lately(anime,main character, Vash, wont kill anyone no matter how vile and evil they are). But have you ever DMed for or played with, or played as a character who refused to kill Anyone. I mean, not even killing that evil to the core Drow, or even the rampaging Orc Warlord? Did the PC try to redeem these evil villains? If so, how did it go?

On a couple of occasions, but they were relatively limited, and for a different system.

Runequest had the cult of Chanala Arroy, the healer goddess. To worship her you had to forgo any sort of violence. I've seen a couple of PCs with those strictures.

 

[Blackrat]

Haven't had a chance yet but i've fancied playing a monk with with wow of poverty and wow of nonviolence feats from book of exalted deeds. it could be fun...

 

[wmasters]

I play a rogue who usually chooses to wield two saps and deal non-lethal damage, carrying other weapons mostly to deal with constructs, undead etc. It's as much so we can question the enemy later, rather a morality issue though.

 

[DM_Matt]

Okay, I have probably been watching too much Trigun lately(anime,main character, Vash, wont kill anyone no matter how vile and evil they are). But have you ever DMed for or played with, or played as a character who refused to kill Anyone. I mean, not even killing that evil to the core Drow, or even the rampaging Orc Warlord? Did the PC try to redeem these evil villains? If so, how did it go?

In Trigun, Vash generally fights either a single opponent in a very long and dialogful fight until said individual is somehow defeated and huiliated, or else a bunch of mooks that are easily scared off with a display of power. Vash can genrally avoid killing becuase his opponents rarely are dedicated to fighting to the death. But DND does not work like that, and its encounters are quite often not like that.

 

[Agback]

But have you ever DMed for or played with, or played as a character who refused to kill Anyone. I mean, not even killing that evil to the core Drow, or even the rampaging Orc Warlord? Did the PC try to redeem these evil villains? If so, how did it go?

Yes, but not in D&D.

In RuneQuest I've played Humakti Death-worshippers and other warriors who adventured alongside completely non-violent Chalanna Arroy healers.

In SF campaigns and campaigns set in various periods of the 20th century I have played on occasion detectives who never used lethal force. They arrested villains and sent them for trial, and never needed to shoot them (though all but two would have shot a suspect to defend themselves or another, or to prevent the imminent commission of a heinous crime, had the circumstances ever required it).

Also, I can recall that in one of my SF games a player chose to play a rehabilitated criminal, psychologically incapable of using lethal force. Also, in a Con game that I ran last year I made one of the PCs such a 'palimpsest'.

D&D games are usually set in environments where there is an internecine struggle between 'Good' and 'Evil', or at least between civilisation and monsters. Nonviolence is difficult in such a setting. But there are other settings, where villains can be gaoled or mindwiped instead of killed, and where SWAT can be called in to deal with the purely tactical aspects of intransigents.

 

[gfunk]

I've played such a character before. He was a human sorcerer/apostle of peace/mystic theurge. He had a Vow of Peace and would never cause damage to a living creature.

Here's the build: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=1188526#post1188526

Here's his intro to the party: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=1188288&postcount=325

This is from the Shackled City Adventure Path in the middle of the adventure "Zenith Trajectory."

 

[sckeener]

Never experienced it myself.....but I do remember reading an interesting bit in either Dragon or White Wolf Magazine years ago about a group of female gamers. They finally decided to let a boy play in their game and were surprised when he walked up to the villian, a villian they had been dealing with for years, and killed him. It was like a realization what all those rules about combat were for....

All these years I've remembered that article because I keep wondering what sort of soap opera style of game they played. It must have been very story intense if they never resulted to combat.