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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amal Shukup" data-source="post: 2155116" data-attributes="member: 6291">Now,Did you have them (or roll secretly yourself) Intimidate checks?  Including substantial modifiers for situation and theatrics (tied up, middle of the swamp, drawn dagger)? Or simply decide that the captives remained quiet? (creating additional challenges for the PCs).And if so, why? Just to screw the players over by confronting them with an insoluble dilemma? Then freaking out when they picked a solution you didn't like?Paladins MUST be held to a very high standard of conduct - they live by a code (which ought to be detailed and cover the 'rules' when it comes to treating prisoners - including when it's okay/mandatory to execute them). Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral Characters might be a bit 'stuck' as well, depending on the ethos/Laws of their deity or culture.That's part of the fun of playing those alignments... <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=":)" />Other than that? It's a tricky situation with lots and lots of 'WRONG' answers, very few if any 'RIGHT' answers. What did you expect them to do? Keep the prisoners? What about the risk of their turning the tables later? Killing friends/allies? More importantly (from a law/good perspective) What about the Risk to the MISSION? (Rescuing a gnome village full of innocents? Aren't THEIR lives more important?).Let them go? Again, risk to the party and to the Mission. Even if that all goes well, what if the freed prisoners go on to take more slaves, ruin more innocent lives?? Kill a child??? Aren't YOU (as the putatively good and/or lawful character) responsible for the end result of your blatantly irresponsible actions (freeing these evil prisoners to their own devices)?You, as the DM, maybe KNOW that they could keep the prisoners AND stay safe AND even complete their mission. Players/Characters have NO WAY to know these things and must make their call on the fly, in the absence of surety. Even given all the facts, Good people, acting in good faith, will find room to disagree on the best course of action...Me, PERSONALLY, as a human being that despises uncalled for violence?  Given no societal support or context to rely upon (out in the middle of no-mans land) and a choice between:a) The lives of SLAVERS belonging to an aggresively evil organizationb) Extreme risk to me/my fellow party members PLUS a significant chance of derailing our Mission to save village full of innocents PLUS the very real possibility of recidivism on the part of the released captivesWho knows? QUITE POSSIBLY I'd leave some bodies in a swamp (and feel very very sick for a very long time). Some armchair quarterback gives me crap afterwards? Yeah. I'd be pissed off too.---------As for the Chaotic Neutral Rogue habitually cutting the throats of sleeping enemies? It's icky, but well within the parameters of Chaotic Neutral (well, except for the 'habitually' bit - that could denote a slide towards evil). However, the watching Paladin MUST intervene or be in violation of his code (In my opinion). To the point of risking his own life and possibly injuring or even killing the CN Rogue if it became absolutely neccesary. Good characters, particularly Lawful ones, should similarly (if less emphatically) take steps to intervene in un-neccesary slaughter.A'Mal</blockquote>

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