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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 7616166" data-attributes="member: 58197">The OP missed one other thing that makes torture highly effective in D&amp;D: The zone of truth spell. Unless the enemy has access to extremely high-level spells (glibness), zone of truth is an infallible lie detector. Even if the target makes their saving throw, you know they made the saving throw, and you can cast the spell again until they fail. Their only defense is refusing to talk*, and torture is real good at breaking that defense down.I ban zone of truth anyway due to its capacity to wreck intrigue plots (along with its little brother detect thoughts), and I encourage my players to run heroes instead of vicious murderhobos, so I don't run into this issue; but if playing by the book, it is the torturer's best friend.[size=-2]*Giving evasive answers is equivalent to refusing to talk. Unless the DM is extraordinarily skilled at dancing around the truth, it's really, really obvious when someone is trying to dodge a question. The PCs will just demand a straight answer and tighten the thumbscrews until they get one.[/size]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 7616166, member: 58197"] The OP missed one other thing that makes torture highly effective in D&D: The [i]zone of truth[/i] spell. Unless the enemy has access to extremely high-level spells ([i]glibness[/i]), [i]zone of truth[/i] is an infallible lie detector. Even if the target makes their saving throw, you know they made the saving throw, and you can cast the spell again until they fail. Their only defense is refusing to talk*, and torture is real good at breaking that defense down. I ban [i]zone of truth[/i] anyway due to its capacity to wreck intrigue plots (along with its little brother [i]detect thoughts[/i]), and I encourage my players to run heroes instead of vicious murderhobos, so I don't run into this issue; but if playing by the book, it is the torturer's best friend. [size=-2]*Giving evasive answers is equivalent to refusing to talk. Unless the DM is extraordinarily skilled at dancing around the truth, it's really, really obvious when someone is trying to dodge a question. The PCs will just demand a straight answer and tighten the thumbscrews until they get one.[/size] [/QUOTE]

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