While in a real-life setting, most people have some kind of self-preservation instincts that make them hesitate or value their own lives, with D&D being a fantasy game, most players want to tell a story of heroism, and will fight until their (character's) dying breath. The preponderance of healing and revivifying spells generally don't help here, treating wounds as being quite temporary, non-debilitating, and relatively painless inconveniences.
So, how can you change that? How can you make defeat more than just a case of having to sit out or roll a new character? Capture for ransom is a time-honoured tradition popular with bandits, mercenaries, and other civilized beings (while Orcs might eat you, Hobgoblins are much more likely to want some kind of recompense for their effort, and the potential casualties they'll face in taking you down. Enemies armed with nets or manacles can change up the flow of an encounter, and seeing someone downed be targeted for an attack that isn't going to harm them very well may alarm your players more than a failed death save would. However, you can't just arm every creature with manacles... can you? The rules on knocking creatures out from the Player's Handbook are quite short and simple- they simple say that "When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable." On inspection, this can actually be a little more fiendish that a quick read-through would make you think- unconscious creatures don't get to roll death saving throws, so they can't just "wake up" and feel better unless someone takes a hand in healing them. This can turn the tables quickly if you have enemies who focus their damage on one target at a time and beat them down. This means that you can use some big-hitters like Assassins, or at a lower level, Spies or back-alley cutthroats, to pump up your damage but not have to 'worry' about killing your PCs off. Instead you can hurt them in much nastier ways- in their coin-purses! Honourable bandits might help themselves to some loot, dump the PCs' weapons a mile away, and leave them tied up by the side of the road. Dishonourable ones might take their armour and weapons and dump them down a well, tattoo or mark the PCs as condemned criminals, or cause some other kind of complications, like stealing valuables or highly-prized items. Be careful, because these can easily lead to players vowing eternal vengeance, even on enemies who have actually spared their lives. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 6 November 2021. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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