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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pbartender" data-source="post: 5408334" data-attributes="member: 7533">I'm filing this under "A Good Idea Poorly Implemented".I think the important point to take away from this article is that defeating an enemy is just another mechanical construct of the game, and it can be reflavored just like any other ability, power or feat.You defeat an enemy and one of two results happens:  Unconsciousness -- temporarily put out of commission -- or Death -- practically permenently put out of commission.  So long as the mechanical effects and consequences of the Unconscious and Dead conditions aren't changed, what's the trouble of describing them in a non-standard way?My Paragon-tier Illusionist doesn't knock enemies unconscious, he temporarily overloads all their senses with illusionary nothingness, effectively cutting them off from any meaningful interaction with the real world.He always doesn't kill his enemies, sometimes they lose themselves within his illusions.  The real world becomes an vague dream to them and they become an indistinct apparition to the real world.  They remain in this dream-like illusory state until someone can perform a ritual (Raise Dead!) that will restore their "realness".It's another way to make a character stand out a little on occasion.Something else...I've been rereading the Harry Potter novels, and am currently about halfway through the seven book series.  It's interesting to note that thus far, most of the suggestions the author of the article gives show up in those books in one form or another, often in combination (though usually only in temporary fashion).  In fact, in the books, death is the rarest form of dealing with one's enemies -- even amongst the bad guys -- and is generally considered amongst the most evil methods.It's also fascinating to note which methods are used by the various good guys and bad guys.  For example...Imprisonment, crippling, cursing, disfiguring, cutting off from magic, denying a patron, eternal torment, isolation, oubliette, plague, petrification (paralysis, really), transmogrification, waters of Lethe, and world bound are all used by good guys at one point or another (although other good guys don't always look highly upon it).  Often they are not even used to defeat an enemy, but are used as practical jokes on other good guys, for humorous intent by the author, or are used on innocent bystanders to cover up a mistake.</blockquote>

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