Finish them!!!

[Mathew_Freeman]

[Um, AGGEMAM, that's Dr.Midnight, not Dr.NRG, if memory serves]

Back on topic - I think that if the evil guy thinks he can do it and get away from the characters then he'll go for it, because he knows if he attempts to CDG a character then the rest are going to come after him like bloodhounds until they get back at him!

 

[Dinkeldog]

I actually prefer having the bad guy with spell resistance grapple the PC and drag him through a blade barrier.

Uh, otherwise, I have less intelligent creatures go for the kill unless someone else attacks them. Highly intelligent and evil creatures may go for the CDG to demoralize the PCs.

 

[Pielorinho]

Rarely do I CDG during a battle, either as player or as DM.

Some illustrating exceptions:

-During one battle, a shadowy rat-form rose from a corpse and demanded of a PC, "Are you the one? Are you he?" The PC, having no idea what the rat-form was talking about, shrugged and said, "Uh, sure." BZZT! Wrong answer. It focused all its attacks on him, knocking him to 0 strength, and then tried to CDG him. Thank God for good fort saves! [although it was similar to a shadow, it wasn't quite a shadow -- thus, dropping the PC's str to 0 didn't kill him.] MORAL: A villain will try to CDG a PC in the middle of battle if pursuing a deadly grudge is more important even than personal survival.

-During another battle, our party faced a nasty fighter-guy surrounded by about two dozen flunkies. We focused all our attacks on the fighter leader, taking him down, but one of his allies dragged him out of the thick of battle. Fearing that he'd be healed up to consciousness, I tumbled through our enemies and stabbed the leader one last time, killing him (not technically a CDG, but effectively the same). MORAL: When a group has a very strong leader, killing the leader can demoralize the followers enough that they'll scatter.

But otherwise, we tend to focus on standing, fighting opponents before focusing on the helpless ones.

Daniel

 

[Savage Wombat]

I had the opportunity come up in my game just the other week. The PCs hadn't really fought opponents capable of lots of Hold Persons before, and weren't, as it turned out, ready to deal with it. I didn't want to CDG, not wanting to slaughter PCs indiscrimintely at this point - but I didn't want to nerf the villains either.

Then it occured to me that Aztecs preferred to take captives anyway, so the people who would ordinarily have done the CDG instead tied up the held adventurer and dragged them off.

Good thing, too - three of the party were down from Hold Person before the fight was over.

 

[AuraSeer]

From the enemy's point of view, going for the CDG is seldom worth the time. A helpless combatant is no longer a threat, but his mobile opponents are still dangerous. If you manage to take the rest of them out, you can come back to the paralyzed one and decapitate him at leisure.

If the held PC is about to be freed by a dispel or a remove paralysis, then a CDG might be sensible, to put him down for the duration of the fight. But in the great majority of cases, the CDG is used by unimaginative DMs as a tool for player-screwing.

 

[shilsen]

If it makes good tactical sense to spend the full round on the CDG and the NPC is smart enough to realise it, first chance he gets.