Half of Party Captured, what's a DM to do?

[Forrester]

If you only take a "couple key items" from the players, you're being a huge wuss.

They lost. They got captured. If they escape, they should be grateful they escape with their lives and limbs intact. Take their damn stuff. It's what ANY PC would do if the situation was reversed.

 

[Victim]

Well, if the wizard wants them to do things, then he'd be better off leaving them with some of their items. 11th level characters wouldn't be nearly as effective without gear, especially since 2 of the captured people are fighters. However, while the captured characters are dominated, perhaps the wizard might force one to make an expensive item for him, forcing the PCs to lose and XP. Of course, they gain exact info about at least one of his items.

Making the PCs fight each other seems like a fun idea, especially if your players can play the dominate right. I'd imagine that many players have an idle curiousity about whether their character and skills could prevail against another player.