Ethics of Killing POWs

[Drowbane]

justified execution, not murder.

The first mistake was to expect D&D characters to follow modern morality and ethics (unless the group is down with that from the get go). This is a game where (not everybody's play style, but common enough to be the "norm") you go around killing monsters and taking thier stuff.

99% of the good PCs I've played would have slit the lizardman's throat themselves. And those few who wouldn't have... would see the lizardman fully healed and then challenged to personal one on one combat... to the death.

That Lizardman blew his chance for survival the moment he tried to warn his kin... only an exalted (or foolish) party would've let that slide.

 

[WayneLigon]

I have no problem with what happened to the lizardman. I'd have no problem wit what happened if you or the paladin did it, either. He was an untrustworthy traitor who has demonstrated by his actions that he still means harm to the party. If I were a paladin, I'd have probably tossed him a weapon so I wasn't cutting down a defenseless foe, but maybe not.

I would have problems with the other party members, including your so-called paladin. If I were LG, I'd watch them like hawks. Or find another group of people to hang out with.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

He was an untrustworthy traitor...

excuse me? It seems to me that the entire "problem" for the warlock was that the lizardman refused to be a traitor. What definition of traitor are you working from exactly?

Colonel Von Luger, it is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.

 

[Son_of_Thunder]

Okay. I've seeking advice on what my character's reaction should be to a character who killed a POW last night in game.

snip

So. Any suggestions for what a LG character should do in response to killing the prisoner who gave us away?

My advice, which you won't like because you're probably heavily invested in the character, is to retire your guy and roll up a neutral character.

 

[S'mon]

excuse me? It seems to me that the entire "problem" for the warlock was that the lizardman refused to be a traitor. What definition of traitor are you working from exactly?

Martin Van Creveld in "The Transformation of War" has a good discussion of the changing idea of the prisoner's duty; from the 18th century notion that, having surrendered, they had a duty not to further oppose their captors, with the quid pro quo they should be treated well or even released on parole, to the late 19th & 20th century notion that prisoners had a duty to try to escape, but that the captors still had a duty not to kill or mistreat them despite repeated escape attempts. The 18th century notion makes more sense to me, the 20th century one arguably shows a higher developed sense of morality and honour. Of course neither resemble the typical medieval approach to prisoners of ransoming the rich and executing the poor.

 

[WayneLigon]

excuse me? It seems to me that the entire "problem" for the warlock was that the lizardman refused to be a traitor. What definition of traitor are you working from exactly?

OK, 'traitor' might be the wrong word. He gave away the party, attempted to work against them, etc. 'Traitor', 'Enemy', no real difference here. There's no 'problem': he needed to die.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

'Traitor', 'Enemy', no real difference here.

well, what with the words having completely different meanings, and the rights of each in war having been different for millenia, I guess I can't agree. But I can see there isn't a lot of common ground for productive conversation here.

 

[jdrakeh]

OK, 'traitor' might be the wrong word. He gave away the party, attempted to work against them, etc. 'Traitor', 'Enemy', no real difference here. There's no 'problem': he needed to die.

If everybody murdered everybody else who didn't see or do things their way. . . well. . . there wouldn't be an ENWorld. Or for that matter, much of a human race.

 

[DragonLancer]

I think the point here, concept of traitor aside, is that the lizardman POW is still a threat to the party and their mission. In such a situation my player characters that I've been witness to would probably have killed him as well.

 

[Klaus]

excuse me? It seems to me that the entire "problem" for the warlock was that the lizardman refused to be a traitor. What definition of traitor are you working from exactly?

Sure, he did his job as a lizardfolk soldier. Let the lizardfolk celebrate his memory. To the PCs he is an enemy who is still threatening the party.