robertliguori
First Post
haakon1 said:You don't fight a Cold War by letting your agents get killed and doing nothing about it. Look at the recent situation where the Soviets . . . err, Russian Federation . . . err, parties unknown poisoned a Russia dissident in London with radioactive chemicals. Did the Brits cower and say "Oh my, I hope Putin doesn't do it again." No, they investigated and got into a diplomatic row with the Russians. Diplomats were expelled. "Cultural exchange missions" were closed, and so on. In the height of the Cold War, a Ruskie spy very likely would have been captured or assassinated in retaliation for messing with London . . . not just expelled.
Well, that's the thing. You don't fight a cold war at all with a nation-state that's let you know that they will cheerfully respond to any provocation with carpet-bombing and work up from there; you either keep things diplomatic at almost any cost, or make damn sure you strike first.
That isn't to say that the U.S. wouldn't have replied to the hypothetical nation-state representing the abilities and inclinations of high-level PCs with "Hah! You're bluffing." and said execution; it's simply that a pattern of this behavior would be maladaptive for the continued survival of the U.S. and stability of the campaign world.
Hero is a term of art in D&D, referring to the nature of levels one has taken and (generally) how many of them a given character has. The paladin standing up to defend the peasant village and the blackguard besieging it are both heros; the commoner1 who stands beside the paladin to keep him from being surrounded and fight on a little longer is engaging in heroic action (and damn well should end the battle as a fighter1 if he survives) but is not a hero. This definition does not match up to the generally-accepted real-life definition of heros and heroism. Terms of art are like that.Sol.Dragonheart said:You know, this has been gone over many times in many ways in this thread, however, I must ask, does anyone really believe that a person who ends the life of another due simply to the way they addressed them in conversation, is a Hero? Or even a respectable human being? Such actions strike me as those of the worst of humanity, engaging in dominion over others due simply to the fact that they have the power to do so.
As for the rest, the consequences, the fallout, and the retribution, that is entirely dependent on the world the DM has created. In most simulationist and published worlds, the PCs would not survive for long taking such actions. Not all worlds are like this, however, and if the one in question is not, than the PCs essentially have free reign.