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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Helldritch" data-source="post: 7965568" data-attributes="member: 6855114">As for the OP.It really depends on how the PCs are acting with their enemies.Are they whirlwinds of death incarnate that slay everything without remorse or do they show mercy to those who surrender? Systematic slayers will soon have the reputation of not being responsive to parlays and the intelligent NPCs will react accordingly. The higher the characters' level, the more they are known throughout their area of adventuring. The more their habits are known to important and not so important potential enemies.If the players use the whack a mole type of actions, it won't work for long with intelligent enemies. It might work out a few times in the early levels but around level 9 this tactic is known to their enemies and they will take action to make sure the fallen PC won't get up.It will go as far as any easy fight type will flee at the mere sight of the PCs if the PCs are known to their enemies. Of course changing adventuring location will change this a bit at first. Are these the: "Hands of Lothars" adventuring group members or not? At some point the "Hands of Lothars" group's identity will be confirmed and the PCs' enemies will react accordingly.On the other hand, if players are known to show mercy, they are likely to get captured and released for a ransom. The same if they capture an enemy or enemies. A ransom will be paid by the bosses of the captured ones if they are of some value. At the very least, the families of the captured ones will pay a bit for the return of their relatives. This was often an acceptable alternative to death in medieval times. I usually go for 5 gold pieces per HD/Level in addition to the possessions the captured one had on himself. This might not look that much but gold is pretty rare in my campaign. Half casters are worth 10 gold per HD/Level and full casters are worth about 15 gold per HD/Level.For what it's worth, it works quite well in my campaign. It once led to an NPC being captured three times by the PCs. The fourth time they said: "Not you again?????? Begone, you'll ruin your family." To which the NPC said with a sad look on his face: "They're ruined already. What do you think I'm here for? I'm trying to repay my ransoms..." They let him go. About two adventures later, that same NPC was their cell keeper. They convinced him to release him in exchange for a nice payment to his family. They had let him live four times after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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