Am I being a nice DM, hitting PCs when they are down

[gariig]

I was wondering if a lot of other DMs do this. I've had a few PCs go down in a fight, but I just have the NPCs go running after someone else. This way they have to stabalize or have a PC run over and heal them which has always happened although a few times they were at -9. Also, if you do hit when they are down do all monsters attack, just intelligent ones, or just important ones?

Gariig

 

[Old Fezziwig]

I'd say it would depend on the enemy in question. Particularly evil enemies may finish prone characters off if there's no threat to themselves. Enemies with animal intelligence would probably move on to something more active and dangerous. I don't think that I'd kill off helpless PCs unless there were a really good reason for me to do so. I'm not sure that that it would be all that much fun for the players if I did. Of course, there are exceptions...

I'm not sure this post helps much, but there it is.

Best,
tKL

 

[Desdichado]

There's no right or wrong, just depends on what the game is supposed to be like. Last night I killed five PCs, and that was greatly pulling my punches. But it was a one-night-only slaughterfest Aliens rip-off genre game. I actually allowed three to survive, after all! One didn't even get hit (although the other two were stabilized up from negative HPs)

In most games, I doubt this would be the expectation, but even much more standard D&D games can be brutal, and that's fine.

 

[Hammerhead]

Depends on whether the baddies know if the party uses healing spells. If the enemies know that the party can and will heal dropped people, they'll either want to kill the healer, or hit downed enemies to kill them - assuming that they're playing for keeps and don't want prisoners. Can you imagine how much of a pain it would be to defeat someone, then have him restored to fighting shape in a moment?

 

[Crothian]

It's fine as long as it fits to what the enemy would do.

 

[TiQuinn]

If a PC goes down into the negatives, he's unconscious and bleeding out. I think that if there is still a fight going on, most bad guys are going to focus their attention on another opponent, thinking the PC is dead already anyways.

 

[JESawyer]

If it makes sense, it's fine to have the baddies wander off. Some PCs might stabilize on their own, and the baddies probably won't take the time to execute them. However, sometimes baddies will. Once, my players caused a pack of People of the Black Blood to come after them. They were led by a werewolf ranger/cleric of Malar. He downed three characters and spent an extra round ripping them apart each time. Brutal, but the delay actually helped the party win the battle, overall.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

My NPC's usually move on to the next target after they down the first. They just want to knock as many of the enemies down as possible. Though, they will move to strike killing blows if some cleric is healing people back to fighting shape, and they will probably go after the cleric.

 

[S'mon]

Do the PCs finish off dying enemies during combat? Mine don't - they go round afterwards to finish off the wounded. Likewise, it doesn't make much sense for most enemies, given a healthy survival instinct, to waste time killing already defeated foes when there are undefeated ones still threatening them. If the bad guys win the battle, then yes realistically they may well remember to finish off their defeated enemies, but probably not before, not unless they've already seen 'dying' PCs get healed and returned to the fight.

 

[eXodus]

more often then not the badguys knock a hero into the negatives and move onto another target. as usually there is someone more threatening still around.

once in a while though, there is a time when they play the 'coup de grace card.' last week they used it twice. one time it was halted by a remove paralysis spell. the other target was killed.