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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 4160076" data-attributes="member: 1879">No actually I said (not as clearly as I thought) that the minimum disruption to the rules leads to the minimum disruption to the game. The coup-de-grace rules are a standard and well understood part of the game. Applying them to a situation where the NPC would not normally count as helpless is a lesser disruption then trying to describe a "You take no damage but bleed out in 5 minuetes for some reason" effect. Ideally you could find a way to make the scene work without even needing that non-combatant tag. With more time to think about it I think it would be better to either give Bar-Sinister a feat that allows him to treat a pinned grapple buddy as helpless (isn't there such a feat?) or simply declare that Princess Vapid has fainted and is therefore as helpless as any other unconcious person.But if you did decide to codify the Noncombatant as a house rule why would it be different for PC and NPCs or require an entry in the monster manual? A PC (a bookish wizard say, or priest of a pacifist god) could declare themselves a noncombatant if they wanted to. Perhaps treat it as a UA style flaw and let them get a feat out of it.</blockquote>