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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6908608" data-attributes="member: 6778044">So the idea that there is a crime of passion committed by a character is a valid and potentially interesting one. But this isn't that type of situation. But there isn't any connection between them, no hatred or passion, just a moment following a combat. Involving a trained individual who has been in many combats. The measure isn't not taking a life when it's avoidable here. In this case there was no need to take the life at all. It's not a question of whether they could have used non-lethal attacks to capture the opponent instead of lethal damage. It was an unarmed, surrendering individual, with an extra moment granted by the DM questioning the act. Killing other intelligent "good" races (used to be human and demi-human instead of humanoid) where it is not in self defense is evil. When the situation escalates to combat, which is frequently, we give a pass on whether the characters started it or the bad guys. So there is a lot of gray area. But to kill a surrendering, unarmed individual after all threats are gone? That can't be anything else.To say they have a choice "by game rules" isn't really relevant either. The game rules are there to determine what the characters can and can't do, and how to determine success. The decision isn't made by the rules, the decision is made by the player/character. When a character is in lethal combat with another, there is no issue with them returning with deadly force. If the hostile creatures are only attacking with non-lethal force, and the PCs escalate to lethal force, that's pushing it. If it's something they do on a regular basis, then I'd say they are evil.But the more I consider this particular act, I'm not sure how the character themselves can't be labeled evil. Your crime of passion thing - I hunted him down and killed him because he killed my family - that's a different situation, although probably still an evil act. The difference is that the cold blooded killing of a stranger bouncer who is doing his job, then surrenders to the PCs is a different kind of evil act than the revenge killing of one that murdered your family. So I really think that this is the sort of act that really pushes the character to neutral evil or chaotic evil.</blockquote>

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