Capturing a Party... A call for experienced DMs

[Vrecknidj]

I suppose this is context-dependent. If you're just talking about a gang of PCs is out somewhere causing their usual havoc, and a gang of NPCs needs to capture the PCs and the PCs wouldn't want it, then all the responses so far work.

But, what if the PCs have some allies who have been captured or who are facing immediate death? Perhaps some charismatic NPC offers the party an exchange--they surrender and the ally lives.

Or, suppose the PCs contain many lawful members and a paladin. Some group members have broken local laws for which at least temporary custody is the issue. An NPC law enforcer could talk to the paladin saying something to the effect of "It's your legal duty to turn yourselves over, it would bring dishonor upon you not to."

Capturing a party depends entirely upon context . . .

 

[DragonShadow]

Capture the Party

From the pages of the Complete Warrior comes to you:

The Justicar.


Have your main villain (or whoever else wants to capture the party) hire one or more Justicar bounty hunters to capture the party. Justicars are great for beating the crap out of anything you want to beat the crap out of, and the entire point of the class is to render your opponent unconcious and/or helpless so you can capture them.




If you don't want to go that route, you can always pull the spy on party and then bait the party into an ambush through clever herding. Example: The party is in a dungeon and all of a sudden the path behind them is closed off due to a cave in. (This isn't a trap either, it works under the premise that whoever is trying to capture the party is hiding or creeping behind them so they can collapse the tunnel/hall behind them after they walk through.) After traveling further along and coming to a place where there are multiple options (either through doors or forks in tunnels), goad the PC's with something they would go after. If they like to kill things, have a monster/enemy in view of one of the tunnels. Of course, since the evil NPC is trying to be noticed and at the same time trying to look like he doesn't want to be noticed, there would be an easy Spot check, and a Sense Motive check for the wary PC.

Not that there would be combat from that particular NPC. He would run happily down to where the ambush was waiting, preferably where the remainder of his party can cover the PC's from higher ground with arrows/crossbows/spells and utilize pleasant cover and remain effectively out of melee combat at the same time. And, of course, the path behind them is blocked off by all the melee fighters that are now swarming down the corridor. These, of course, should be something either sufficiently large and menacing (and of good numbers), or something smaller and versatile with an obscene amount of numbers.

Or you could present them with this set up and have the capturer issue them an ultimatum: "Surrendur or there will be at least 18 new s for each of you."

Then, you can either subdue the PC's with subdual damage, or just net them.

 

[StalkingBlue]

I've discovered that "enforced surrender" is usually the only method that works reliably. Even then, you risk one hotheaded PC acting on his own and getting the hostage killed....

Too true. Last session I had some PCs surrender when combat went badly and the bad guys were threatening to CDG the first PC they'd brought down unconsicous. Of course the coward of the party immediately took the opportunity to break and run!

The only reason the unconscious PC wasn't CDG'd immediately at that point was that another PC had already thrown down her weapon, gone down on her knees _and_ said something rather intriguing that made the BBEG conclude she'd be a valuable prisoner at the very least, and decide to be content with the two prisoners he already had. (There weren't enough surviving minions to guard prisoners and pursue fleeing PC at the same time.)

Not that I'd even particularly aimed at capturing PCs when I set up that encounter.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Oops... almost forgot. I'm running my game in the Midnight setting. Any magic needs to be divine ONLY. Also due to the setting Teleports and the like won't really be an issue.

 

[Kalendraf]

I just remembered another method I've used to capture a party that is probably worth mentioning. For this scenario, the party must be in a city of some sort.

Party learns of an assassin operating in town. After some investigation, they learn of the assassin's whereabouts and go to check it out They encounter him, and a fight ensues which winds up with the assassin dead. However, the town guards show up due to events leading up to or during the fight (alarms going off, sounds of battle, visible and/or audible effects from spells, etc). The guards arrive to catch the party red-handed killing someone they know only as a respected citizen and then take the party into custody. If you don't like the nick-of-time guards, you can use a more believable family member who happens to see the events just as their loved one is cut down. In this case, the horrified family member (who's unaware of their loved one's role as an assassin) immediately seeks out the guards and turns the party in. The guards could easily arrive as the party is rummaging thru the house taking 20's on their searches.

If the party flees, you can send waves of guards or even bountyhunters to capture them. In that case, feel free to go overboard on the ECL-ratings as well. The guards will do their best to capture the party who they now see as murderers. Eventually, they will get captured, or perhaps even turn themselves in hoping to clear their names by offering to submit to truth spells, etc.

Depending on the city laws, a trial of some kind may be in order, but how soon that will occur is up to you. Prisoner rights might be pretty poor as well. Once in custody, other friends of that assassin (guild, contacts, or even just ignorant but influential family members) may use their connections to get the party transfered into their own private dungeon for further torture, etc.

No matter which method you use, don't let the party remain locked away helpless for too long. If they are forced to endure very much of a play session incarcerated, there will be loud grumbling and many unhappy players. Allowing them to make a heroic escape may be in order. They could also be offered a very dangerous mission to work off their sentence. Something to avoid here is the mysterious white knight who saves their butts by providing information to clear them - that will just seem like even more railroading at this point, even if the plot tries to justify it somehow.

 

[StalkingBlue]

Oops... almost forgot. I'm running my game in the Midnight setting. Any magic needs to be divine ONLY. Also due to the setting Teleports and the like won't really be an issue.

Hm, that's tricky. Planning to have the freedom fighter PCs captured by the Shadow Forces, are you? Are you sure they would even surrender if given a chance, in this constellation? If there's one setting that encourages a last-stand mentality rather than surrender, it's Midnight. (Says the DM who just captured two PCs in it, see my previous post... )


What's the party level? How desperately do you need the/some PCs to be captured? You're the DM, you can always arrange a complete overkill situation if that's what you want to do - but I'm getting the impression you watn to leave the/some PCs a chance to win/escape, yes?