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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5209442" data-attributes="member: 42582">My players will often seek to take prisoners for interrogation purposes, and will generally accept surrenders. I tend to use a lot of undead and demon encounters, however, which reduces the prisoner quotient a bit.Over the past 18 months my PCs have taken prisoners on quite a few occasions that I can recall. They captured a bear and it tagged along with the party paladin for a while. They took a mercenary halfling prisoner and let him go in exchange for information. They took a mercenary wizard prisoner and the paladin made her join the party - she ended up getting killed by a swarm of undead hands, and then resurrecting as a wight in the same combat to try and kill the paladin (she failed). They defeated some bandits without killing them, and let them go after negotiating a few deals with them. They've also taken quite a few goblinoids prisoner - generally letting them go in exchange for information and/or solemn oaths to give up their violent ways. I remember on one occasion it was a bit embarassing for the prisoner, as she turned up in the throneroom of the goblin king a few sessions later (and was viciously targeted by the PCs for it). The PCs recently took some hobgolilns prisoner and made them serve for a couple of encounters as stretcher bearers for a rescued NPC, and then let them go after extracting oaths of renunciation of slavery and violence. Some other hobgoblins captured in the next session weren't quite as fortunate - one chose to be executed in the name of Bane rather than swear a pacifist oath, and some others were put to death by the party wizard (who has a major thing against goblins and hobgoblins) before the oath-extracting PC could make it onto the scene and save them.As a GM, I'm always happy for the PCs to take prisoners or enter into negotiations. Sometimes I get a bit of surprise at who they will negotiate with, and how generous they are prepared to be to NPCs - but that's part and parcel of playing the game! And I regard the results as skill checks or skill challenges as binding for all this sort of stuff - if I didn't, what is the point of the players spending build points on those skills?That said, I see this stuff as more relevant to the unfolding of the story than to the tactical capacity of the party. If NPCs join the party - whether prisoners or allies - I like to have them hang at the back rather than take an active role in encounters. If the PCs insist that an NPC help them in combat then I let the players roll for the NPC in question, and dilute XP accordingly.</blockquote>

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