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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 4141838" data-attributes="member: 307">Comments that include a justification you made up. Note that the OP didn't say "the arbiter threatened them" he said, "the arbiter asked for his child, wouldn't somehow justify this request, and they attacked and killed him".In other words, they initiated unprovoked violence. Contrary to the fantasy version you have spun as justificiation for unprovoked murder and mayhem.That is the lamest argument I've seen this week. The arbiter doesn't have to justify his actions to a bunch a ragamuffin PCs. Any more than a judge would have to justify an order, or a police officer has to engage in on-the-spot banter with a criminal. Maybe later he would be called to account for his actions, but at the time? Not a chance.In other words, you've decided to make up stuff that appears not to have happened. And even if he did threaten, that doesn't mean the appropriate nonevil response is "kill him!".Not necessarily. I think you are, once again, assuming things to be true that are not universally so. I've DMed and played in seveal brawl situations in which one or more of the combating parties, upon realizing they would not prevail retreated, surrendered, or otherwise ceased hostilities.The problem is, even in an "unfriendly brawl" escalating from nonlethal to lethal violence usually has much more severe consequences. To drag a real world example in, usually a brawl that ends without someone maimed or killed results in midemeanor charges, a slap on the wrist, and maybe a civil suit. A brawl that ends with someone dead usually results in a felony trial, and often a lengthy prison term.Escalating a nonlethal struggle to a lethal one is a significant step. If it is clear to the players that this is the case, you are much more likely to have a situation in which they respect that barrier when it is appropriate to do so.</blockquote>

Verification