It'll be interesting to see how this works out, but I'm of the opinion that it will really be difficult to play consistently. Vash and the Kenshin are often thrust into situations in which they escape without harming others.. their motives, as far as I can recall, dont involve much in terms of personal gain but rather survival and protection of friends. They live due to their pure almost supernatural luck and skill over whomever they face, and their intentions aren't to win win win, fight fight fight. This fits very poorly into a standard dnd game, where parties of adventurers go out, kick butt, chase fleeing npcs till they're killed, and strip bodies of treasure. If your setting doesnt' support this standard, and the other players don't usually act in this manner, great.
Characters who don't kill.
- Thread starter Psyckosama
- Start date
Viktyr Gehrig
First Post
Spider said:
Batman and Spider-Man both wrestle with this issue extensively. Other superheroes seem not to think about it, I guess.
The question is, if they can't be kept imprisoned, and they won't reform, is it worth it to keep stopping them, over and over again?
Frostmarrow
First Post
I have a fighter that is very hesistant to killing things. This is a character I have in the Scarred Lands. In the beginning I used my claymore to soften up the opposition and then used my fists to defeat them. Now I have multi-classed into monk so that I can grab and pummel those who oppose me or my party.
Sadly, this doesn't work very well for the DM have those beaten by me bleed to death anyway. Out of conveniece I guess. I'm a DM myself from time to time and I find it can be pretty discomforting to play out interrogation scenes and such. Particulary if your NPC-baddies aren't supposed to know anything about the plot. Not anything that can be revealed to the players anyway.
Still, I like my character and I will continue to spare lives if I can. My fighter is probably regarded as more brutal than the fighters of my friends due to the contrast between the enthusiasm with which I engage in single combat and my fervor for saving lives.
The patented move includes grappling the opponent, render him prone, sit on him whilst pummeling his head and face.
Sadly, this doesn't work very well for the DM have those beaten by me bleed to death anyway. Out of conveniece I guess. I'm a DM myself from time to time and I find it can be pretty discomforting to play out interrogation scenes and such. Particulary if your NPC-baddies aren't supposed to know anything about the plot. Not anything that can be revealed to the players anyway.
Still, I like my character and I will continue to spare lives if I can. My fighter is probably regarded as more brutal than the fighters of my friends due to the contrast between the enthusiasm with which I engage in single combat and my fervor for saving lives.
The patented move includes grappling the opponent, render him prone, sit on him whilst pummeling his head and face.
Darklone
Registered User
Hmm. He could let the enemies flee.
Give them three warnings. After the third warning, he strikes to kill. Till then he should have Expertise, Sunder and Disarm and that Disarm with grabbing the weapon... How often do you have to hand your enemy his weapon till he yields?
Give them three warnings. After the third warning, he strikes to kill. Till then he should have Expertise, Sunder and Disarm and that Disarm with grabbing the weapon... How often do you have to hand your enemy his weapon till he yields?
I'd be a little hesitant to let one of my players do this as their character would really be drawing a lot of attention from other characters. However, something to keep in mind is that Vash and Kenshin used to both be pretty vicious so in D&D terms they could take penalties for making subdual attacks and easily succeed with disarms. Also, starting like that at first level seems like an odd standpoint for an adventurer.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
Interesting idea, but it may be hard to implement.
Think of your average party of adventurers as a group of special forces operatives. How many spec ops teams include a pacifist?
You're likely to see a scene like this fairly early on:
Paladin: Aha! The giant is unconscious! I quickly lay on hands for one point to stop his bleeding, then begin to tie him up.
Other PC: Screw that! This giant is wearing the skulls of half a dozen people, and he nearly got my skull to add to his necklace. No way I'm letting him go. While the paladin stops the bleeding, I slit the giant's throat.
Paladin: What?! Nooooo!
Adventurers can travel together even if they have different philosophies, as long as their goals are compatible. But most adventurers put "killing bad guys" near the top of their list of goals, and that's highly incompatible with the goal of "not killing bad guys."
Unless the paladin has amazing powers of redemption and can guarantee that the captured villains won't escape to go killing again, the other PCs are pretty unlikely to cooperate with the capture-not-kill approach.
That said, the Book of Hallowed Might does have some great feats and spells for this effort, including spells that put helpless or willing targets in extradimensional prisons. If the other players are interested in exploring this option (it has to be a party, rather than individual PC, decision), and if the characters are high-enough level, you might want to consider getting the $5 .pdf and getting the player to design a cleric/paladin character who has access to these sweet imprisonment spells.
Daniel
Think of your average party of adventurers as a group of special forces operatives. How many spec ops teams include a pacifist?
You're likely to see a scene like this fairly early on:
Paladin: Aha! The giant is unconscious! I quickly lay on hands for one point to stop his bleeding, then begin to tie him up.
Other PC: Screw that! This giant is wearing the skulls of half a dozen people, and he nearly got my skull to add to his necklace. No way I'm letting him go. While the paladin stops the bleeding, I slit the giant's throat.
Paladin: What?! Nooooo!
Adventurers can travel together even if they have different philosophies, as long as their goals are compatible. But most adventurers put "killing bad guys" near the top of their list of goals, and that's highly incompatible with the goal of "not killing bad guys."
Unless the paladin has amazing powers of redemption and can guarantee that the captured villains won't escape to go killing again, the other PCs are pretty unlikely to cooperate with the capture-not-kill approach.
That said, the Book of Hallowed Might does have some great feats and spells for this effort, including spells that put helpless or willing targets in extradimensional prisons. If the other players are interested in exploring this option (it has to be a party, rather than individual PC, decision), and if the characters are high-enough level, you might want to consider getting the $5 .pdf and getting the player to design a cleric/paladin character who has access to these sweet imprisonment spells.
Daniel
MavrickWeirdo
First Post
What about "undead" opponants? Is it o.k. to kill things that are already dead?
Kahuna Burger
First Post
Azlan said:
It sounds like you're saying that if your D&D group wanted to play an adventure specificly about being a different kind of adventurer, and not killing everything off, you'd just stick them in the same kind of adventure and screw with them until they gave up. Might be better to say at the outset, "No, I won't do that kind of story and would twist it into a story about how that can never work, so we better do something I like instead."
I really doubt you present your characters with any of the "complications and impracticalities" which would plauge a normal adventuring party if we were critical of that story line for five seconds, so really, you're just saying you don't like non deadly plotlines. And you would never consent to one even if your whole group asked for that kind of story. Too bad.
Kahuna burger
SamuraiY
First Post
I don't really think this idea would work. For one thing, it would draw a whole lot of attention away from the other characters, after all Kenshin is the main character. I have also played with peace loving characters, and they tend to become very annoying, even to the people playing them. Unless your players are excellent role-players this probably woudn't work.
