Broken will

[Dark Dragon]

How would you play (or expect to play - as a DM) a character with a broken will?

The group I'm DMing has a CN cleric of Tempus. He was entitled by his church as a general to lead a small strike force to free an occupied outpost and get some information about the enemy's strength. Things developed bad, but after a hard fight, the outpost was freed, captives where tortured by the cleric to get some information. One enemy, a drow fighter, managed to escape and bring information to his boss. A few days later the party was ambushed by trolls who worked for the drow. After a short fight, the party surrendered, the cleric was given to the drow. The drow were pleasured to see the cleric again, and tortured him with magical pain (a special spell, stored in a black wand) over and over. They didn't want information, just to break the will of the arrogant cleric. I ruled that the PC had to make wisdom checks for each torture he had to suffer. At last, he failed, and begged for mercy. Some weeks later, the party regained its freedom during a rebellion against the drow and their allies. The almost first thing the cleric did was to torture nearly any helpless opponent...just as if nothing had happened to him. The wand of pain passed to the party. Only after my intervenation, the cleric refuses to use and carry it.

Any proposals for better role playing?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Any proposals for better role playing?

Err.. well it is the player's character, right?

You could try talking to them, but it is their character.

Perhaps their faith consoled the humiliation/broken will- and reinforced his desire to torture heathens.

FD

 

[Pyske]

Two common responses to trauma are hypersentivity or distancing. Sounds like the player is going with distancing. You might emphasize the fact the the PC is no longer as perceptive about when he is hurting people, since from his perspective, they are hyper-sensitive. His handshakes may be more crushing, he may be more callous about risk to others, etc.

You might check out the madness meters from Unknown Armies as an interesting game application of this concept.

. . . . . . . -- Eric