darkbard
Legend
How does your group handle defeated foes, especially humanoid or otherwise sentient ones? Do you default to framing all enemy defeat in combat as dead enemies? Do you give your PCs the option at every potentially lethal blow to make the decision: dead or unconscious? What about unconscious enemies? Do they remain unconscious until, essentially, the PCs are no longer within their sphere of influence (excepting important NPCs that may play a recurring role)? What about foes taken prisoner? Does keeping a captured but powerful defeated enemy sedate/docile become a challenge (possibly a skill challenge?) or otherwise a constant thorn in your PCs' side while they travel to turn the foe over to some greater authority?
Here are the relevent rules bits from the Compendium: "When an adventurer reduces a monster or a DM-controlled character to 0 hit points, he or she can choose to knock the creature unconscious rather than kill it. Until it regains hit points, the creature is unconscious but not dying. Any healing makes the creature conscious.
If the creature doesn't receive any healing, after a short rest it is restored to 1 hit point and becomes conscious....
Monsters and characters controlled by the Dungeon Master usually die when their hit points drop to 0, unless an adventurer chooses to knock them unconscious. Adventurers generally don't need to stalk the battlefield after a fight, making sure all their foes are dead."
Anyway, just curious how other groups handle such matters and if any interesting outcomes have resulted from defeated but living foes left behind or captured.
Here are the relevent rules bits from the Compendium: "When an adventurer reduces a monster or a DM-controlled character to 0 hit points, he or she can choose to knock the creature unconscious rather than kill it. Until it regains hit points, the creature is unconscious but not dying. Any healing makes the creature conscious.
If the creature doesn't receive any healing, after a short rest it is restored to 1 hit point and becomes conscious....
Monsters and characters controlled by the Dungeon Master usually die when their hit points drop to 0, unless an adventurer chooses to knock them unconscious. Adventurers generally don't need to stalk the battlefield after a fight, making sure all their foes are dead."
Anyway, just curious how other groups handle such matters and if any interesting outcomes have resulted from defeated but living foes left behind or captured.