Mercy

Well met!

I like when villains ask to stop the fight.

>I think we should end this here, I'm wounded, your friend is lying on the floor and needs help desperately. I definitely would die if I fought you, but I bet I could take your friend with me and it'd be better for both of us if I just walked away.

Very rarely because my Dm is a dick and has made it so almost evreytime we don't kill a fallen or surrendering enemy it comes back to bite us in the ass.

When I ran a Rogue Trader game, sparing and subsequently recruiting any enemy they reasonable could became a thing for my players for some reason. In one combat against Eldar, through some unlikely rolls they managed to knock two warlocks unconcious without killing them and took them captive, and later did the same thing to a DE sybarite. Then they "recruited" the last surviving kabalite of his unit at gunpoint (basically, gave him a choise of working for them or getting shot). The two warlocks were eventually turned over to the Eldar in a prisoner exhange, and the sybarite released when they ended up making some deals with the archon he was working for, but the random kabalite ended up becoming a permanent crew member.
Generally, the PCs had a habit of trying to get any mercenaries to change sides in their favour, usually by first beating the shit out of them and then offering to pay them more than the guy who hired them.
They also kept a Chaos reaver captain locked up in their brig, but that had nothing to do with mercy of any kind: they specifically set out to capture him alive so they could interrogate him for information about the chaos lord he was serving.

Also, they never killed a fellow rogue trader unless it would've been absolutely necessary. That would've been ungentlemanly. In fact, several times they saved the life of a rival. Of course, they had nothing against humiliating the guy or charging exhorbinant fees for saving their ass.

We had a session where we crossed a border into another country. We were walking through town, when for no real reason a house collapsed and caught fire.
Two of the people escaped and we rescued a third but two children burned to death.
So the magistrate or guard captain or whatever came and heard about it.
Next thing we knew he had the carpenter arrested and tossed into the fire to burn to death.

The gm was apparently a big fan of the code of hammurabi and did this to show us just who we were dealing with.

>Also, they never killed a fellow rogue trader unless it would've been absolutely necessary. That would've been ungentlemanly. In fact, several times they saved the life of a rival. Of course, they had nothing against humiliating the guy or charging exhorbinant fees for saving their ass.

Isn't that also kinda one of the few things they can't do by imperial law anyways?

Don't think there's any law against it (about the only thing Rogue Traders can't do even when outside the bounds of Imperium is consort with the forces of Chaos and those xenos races classed as "xenos horriblis" by the Inquisition), but other RTs probably don't particularly approve of such behavior, as having unspoken agreements to only try to murder each other discreetly inorder to to keep every meeting between rival RTs from degrading into a shootoff are commonplace.

It really depends. Sometimes it's just not wise or feasible to show mercy. I remember one game of shadowrun ( so no paladins, but kinda still related) We killed this gang right? But several of my compatriots spared one of them. I was against it, but I was overruled. Of course she who we spared went and got resources, other gang members, and since she knew our faces was able to find us and it nearly got us all killed. Closest I ever came to dying was in that ambush. Crazy thing, they tried to spare her again. At which point I said screw it, and just killed her myself unilaterally.

That depends on who we are fighting and what the situation is right now.

Last time, our group was tasked with retrieving something from a forest, where we went. After getting the macguffin, while we were on the way back, we were attacked by the elves who, before, were neutral. The officer of the scouts had decided to be a dick to the group and attack them, because there was a human in the party and elves were almost genocided by the humans.

The group managed to knock all the elves out after convincing a couple of them that fighting really was not worth it and, being 4 v 4 in the end, managed to knock all the enemies unconscious. Then the group tied them up, the elvish member gave them a very stern talking-to and then let them go with only their daggers and a shortsword. We wouldn't risk getting an arrow in the back after that shitshow.

That was one instance of mercy: when the group is more pressed for time, there is no way we can mercy our enemies: we met with a band of bandits who had taken over a small fort, so we infiltrated them after killing their guards in the forest and took out their leaders. The rest scattered when our elvish allies came over to keep an eye out in the fort while we went to do some organizing shit.

So yeah: mercy is good when it is practical, mostly. We didn't kill the elves because it would've soured the relationship with them, while we killed key targets of the bandits because we were pressed for time.

I literally jumped after the villain when he fell off a 50-story tower.

Right after, the asshole tried to shoot himself in the head, and I stopped him.

This happened after he almost destroyed a whole city with a spell that makes you laugh until you literally spill your guts out your mouth.

He is still alive to this day.

Paladin, Ho!

Pic related is a pic I made of her.

Pretty good drarwring

Nice pic

We stopped after the gm just randomly killed an npc we spared off screen for seemingly no rasin, though the real final nail was and I quote "God you guys are too nice for an evil party" after we tried to talk our way out of an incredibly one sided fight(I.e. Standard Bandits vs. lvl 13 PC characters and some skeleton minions.

My favorite moment was, when the necromancer had a 30ft giant necrocraft, he asked why they weren't straight up running in fear(this area has no undead, the concept is completely unknown to them) the gm just went the
>"sight of the 30ft monster made them excited for the possible loot."

Suffice to say it was a short battle, the gm then one ups himself by having the survivors try and extort money out of us to let them live and pass through the forest unmolested.We gave up on trying to be merciful.

That said the rest of the campaign is going great, no repeats of that crap.

How are does your party handle a situation when half wants to execute the BBEG and the other half wants to show mercy to him? Do you just kill him without waiting for permission? Defend him with violence if necessary?

Ye Ye.

Thanks a lot.

Each side lists the pros and cons of why they want to show mercy/kill the dude to the boss, he takes the final decision. If the leader is not present and both parties of the group seem to be really against each other's idea, they flip a coin.

There is no serious infighting in the group allowed.

Do what your characters would do.

If that means protecting with force, so be it. Think Captain America Civil War. Tony vs Cap.

Funny story, once my group got in a heated fight between Executioners and Protectors. Like, this whole fight had usurped the climax in seriousness.

Standard evil overlord. villain, possessed by Demon Prince. About to be killed and asking his son to look away. Villain's son was watching whole fight from sidelines and was sobbing.

Our Blackguard tried sparing the villain because, legit, whole situation hit close to home.

Paladin tried killing him because villain was too far gone.

It was Human Blackguard, Dwarven Fighter, and Elf Spiritist VS Human Paladin, Assassin, Cleric, Wizard, Ranger, Monk, and Spellsword.

Blackguard "won" by allowing villain and
son to escape, but his character became villain again, after several sessions of Blackguard struggling to earn our trust.

>[Throw Fire Ball at him, killing all but me.]

Heh. Like I'd care about worthless pawns.

Here's mine.
Return it once you are done.

Justice? There is no justice in this world, kiddo.

None for communists, I'm going to kill all ten of you bastards and your BTR-70 too.

Well, basically, our characters have joined up with a mercenary group that signed a treaty with a bunch of other mercenary groups where they all agree to not kill other signees.
On the one hand, some of them are real dicks and it would be nice to never have to deal with them again.
On the other hand, it's fun to gloat about our wins to NPCs. If you kill the guy, you can't make fun of him later for getting bodied.

NO MERCY FOR THE DAMNED!
THOU HAST NO ESCAPE FROM THE CLUTCHES OF CATASTROPHE!
METEOR SWARM!

>Does that make me a Vengeance Paladin or Devotion Paladin?
I think ether could work in most cases. A lot of BBEG tend to play out as incredibly murderous lunatics and there isn't much of a reason to trust or spare them. Being honourable doesn't mean being ignorant.

I think the difference is more in how the player reaches the final point of killing the BBEG. How do you treat neutrals, collaborators, people pressed in service of evil? Are you willing to do nasty stuff yourself to get the bad guy?

(occasional) mercy/punishment on the mooks, judgement on the boss.

The BBEGs don't have to always be completely reprehensible, and I'd rather they not be, but the supposedly misunderstood tend to do some pretty monstrous shit along the way. Even if they have no bad intentions, I'm sure the mice in one's home also had no bad intentions. Trap them. Smash their heads in with a hammer, let [deity of choice] figure it out.

Well, my definition of innocent tends to be looser than most. Just because you were pressed into evil, or you really needed this job or else your family would starve, that is no excuse for the evil things you do. You will receive justice either way.

For my character, his motivation isn't so much removing the threat, nor walking the righteous path (although he does do those things), but rather delivering justice to the victims of evil. He cannot show mercy to the BBEG or his minions, because they have harmed innocent people, and it is not his place to show mercy in their stead.

Question,
>played pala, was late in the game. Meet the gang.
>Gangs hunter dude had a wolf. GM said "wolf came up to me, wolf bite mey toe, dealing 4dmg (cuz sick rolls)"
>me hitting but missing.
>still plotting to murder that doggo.

So as a pala should I instead just go up to it and beat it, or kill it?
But doggo out of sight cuz hunter pussy hide it in forest. But if seen again. Should I kill it? No damage taken to that shitty as wolf whats so ever.

We've never killed an arc villain who was actually sapient.

It's bitten us in the ass multiple times, but it's also saved us on occasion and gotten us some very reliable allies, so all-in-all I'd say we've come up about equal.

>he combos Pyromancer with Equality to clear your board to smack you in the face with Leeroy
Extraordinary

Reminder that the artist is Dutchko and korean who got canned by the police for his artwork.

sadface.jpg

Same. It's always worth a try.

Maybe if you could speak anything above under-common the wolf wouldn't have mistaken you for a Brazilian monkey.

heh, nothin personnel party members

>he had a ring of fire protection
Oh good. You've leveled the playing field nicely. Now I can kill you easily.

Never.

I once patched up a captured enemy.

After we tortured him for info.

Then we were told to kill him, would have been nice if they said that before I patched him up.

I don't know man, you tell me.

Heretics and xenos deserve no quarter.

My paladin would have some options with a bad guy who got caught and begged for mercy;

>If he's a heretic, kill him on principle

>If he was trying to kill someone before or do something heretical, kill him

>If the bard or rogue thinks it's a really good idea to kill a dude, I don't kill him

When I was playing a paladin in my last game, I literally had a flowchart I would use to decide whether or not to kill people.

almost never. live by the sword die by the sword

I will spare his life, but impart him with my God's blessing. Perhaps an immediate death would be the mercy in this scenario.

Mercy...? is that some kind of armor or something?

I thought OP's artist drowned in the sea.

Or was that a different fucked-up drawfag?

I'm trying to use something of a common sense curve when it comes to this with my paladin.
He has no problem killing when nessicary but makes a point to try to be quick and clean if for no other reason than it ends the danger faster, but does realize that "SMITE AND TEAR" isn't the way to go either.

In or first session I made a point that he knocked out the halfling bandits we ended up fighting and plans to take them to the local authorities and my buddy was groaning since another member of our group (the DM for this game, which makes me nervous) seems to randomly decide to try to spare monsters or negotiate, including hugging a mephet until it gave up and totally trusting two mind flayers not to backstab us if we left them alone in a room behind us.
I said later no i don't plan to try to redeem every orc but three midget muggers don't seem the warrant holy fury, let someone actually piss him off and then we'll see

Y'know, it's always bugged me how a lot of games these days, tabletop and vidya, have bandits and thugs that have all the suicidal courage of a cultist who worships a death god.
A smart bandit, hell, even a dumb bandit should know when to cut their losses and either beg for mercy or try and run away.

If enemies asked me nicely to be merciful instead of trying to run away more often maybe I would be merciful more often.
Runners get shot.

As a Paladin, it's annoying for enemies to fight and fight then just smirkingly 'surrender'. My GM loved, loved to do that. But I got wise to him, eventually.

When a fight started, I always went - On my first round "Surrender and be treated honorably...Or I swear, you shall be given no quarter!"

That little phrase means that I no longer have to show mercy. Remember, I *swore* that I'll give no quarter if he didn't surrender right then. So when the enemy tries to surrender, you can say: "Would you make a liar of me?" and drive your sword through his heart.

So far my players have shown mercy to three people. Two they sold into slavery and one they left naked in the forest, which teems with fairies and various undead things because of a loose end they haven't tied up.

Why would your paladin accept a surrender that was clearly not sincere?
If they're smirking and going, "Yes, we totally surrender, and have no intention of coming back to harm you, no really," and are generally being transparent about their motives, surely it's reasonable to take steps to make sure they don't pose a threat again?

Chink drowned. This guy is a different creepy asian.

I am the only not chaotic stupid murderhobo in my group. I play lawful good and have spared or offered to spare every realistically redeemable enemy we've come across.

Last session, a wizard killed the only other not shit PC in our group. He died saving me. The rest of the useless party members just abandoned us because they're shit and don't role play. When I got to the BBEG, I soloed him (with slight help of the DMPC). After he was defeated there was no mercy to be had.

I like the idea of morals and ethics but lines becoming blurred when it gets personal. You know, like a real person.

Only if they beat me in combat. Goodness knows they can't kill ME.

Post apoc game, we kind of fucked up in fighting raiders and bandits, stuff like that when we spared the female ones just sort of out chivalry feelings out of game. Problem now is we've got a ton of prisoners we showed mercy to, all women.

Not really sure what to do with them and it's becoming a drain to sustain them all. We've thought about maybe putting them to work but they're not that agreeable and not very skilled for proper work. Also maybe any social issues of being mostly women, like if they try to take over and make some matriarchy thing?

This is what happens when you show mercy.

>*Taps pip boy*
>M'ladies

All men go to God, eventually. There, their hearts are judged, and their spirits are given either to paradise or nonexistence. This we know, for it is written.

Therefore it must be said, that the worst sort of death wouldbe that of an evil man, which occurs before he has a chance to repent for his sins. The best sort of death is the death of the righteous, or the innocent, because their death ends them in a time of grace, when their souls would surely be found worthy of salvation. This is why good men need not fear death, and why we should not mourn overmuch the death of small children who have not yet had opportunity to sin.

It seems to me then that there is nothing worse, in a broad sense, than to kill an evil man if he could instead be spared. Not released, necessarily, nor set free to continue his transgressions against his fellow man, but spared death, and given a chance to repent for his sins. In this way his soul may yet be saved, and upon his death, he might join us in the starlit halls of our Father, who is most merciful and understanding. And in that country which knows no want, company is always welcome. And so we should pursue that end if we can, and forgive our enemies if it hurts us not much to do.

Any man could do that. As a paladin you should drive for better.

..you're just being an edgy retard as a joke, right?

If you failed to be quick on the uptake let me reveal to you to that fedora tipping edgy fucktards, atheists, HFY and paladin faggots are generally the same people. Veeky Forums sure loves unironically discussing and adoring being smite happy, cruel, vengeful, religious fanatic killing machine paladins because its mimicing a tripfag's shitposting from like three and a half years ago, except Veeky Forums never stopped pretending to be retarded and now it permanently is.

its very hard to break the murder-hobo mentality, especially when the GM isn't really interested and the party enjoys the meme of the party 'accidentally' being a walking apocalypse.

When I was playing a Paladin last campaign I often tried to show mercy and began every combat with an attempt at diplomacy (if only just to establish why we were fighting).

I think the GM saw what I was going for and at one point I attained a sword that let me (once per level if I got the 'killing' blow) redeem the enemy, showing them the error of their ways.

Second to last major encounter was against a dragon that I think was supposed to be my character's inner demons made manifest. I was determined to use the blade against it and, given my shit luck, the party had a hell of a time both keeping us and it from dying while I kept missing eventually turning into a comedy skit of us passing the sword back and forth trying to get that last hit in.
Since the dragon wasn't real, I ended up redeeming myself and turning into a dragon (my character was a dragonborn/oversized kobold, so it wasn't completely out of nowhere) for the final fight and the campaign's epilogue.

So, I guess my point is that mercy can lead to cool things sometimes?

Feels/10

Well written user. And well said. I'd love to play a character like that someday.

>Thou shalt punish the bad guys and tank the tanks.
Well, I am not required to kill them, but I sure beat the hell out of them to teach them a lesson.
And I am not actually a paladin

Guess it wasn't a joke

Your GM is a dick. I hope you don't play with That guy anymore.

Well said

though im not sure its relevant to thread but i feel that on a emotional level. when i ever try to explain it to anyone they just look at me like i just said i didnt believe in space.

i like this sort of role playing. i also like it when a characters alignment changes depending on whats happened, like the death of those around them or other experiences theyve had. thats how life works.

that was bait man.

this

When I GM I try to make a point of it that not everyone is a suicidal cunt. People regularly throw down their weapons, run away, etc. IMO this is especially important for ordinary nooks, so the players realize these are people too, not necessarily good people, but also not just mindless meat for the meatgrinder.

Once you do that and present them as more than just cannonfodder players also tend to show mercy more often.

>do you show mercy?

Glad to see that GS is still as shitty as ever.

Depends ENTIRELY on the context.

Racial Holy War: Default state of many World of Darkness conflicts, Exalted, D&D, 40k Roleplay, etc. Mercy is usually not only dangerous but meaningless. You may be nagged into showing mercy, but they will still use that act of mercy to fuck you over. The setting is in the midst of a war of extermination that will never be resolved peacefully. Verdict: Horrible idea.

Mercenary vs Mercenary: Usually the case in Shadowrun, occasionally the case in the preceding category of games, etc. Its just a fucking job for both sides, showing mercy is probably a better idea as nothing personal is involved. The enemy may simply be security guards who have done nothing wrong. Verdict: Decent idea.

No one said that god's work was glamorous

I don't mean the DEUS VULT schtick, which is also pretty stupid.

I refer to the cheap shock value of
>hurr durr goblins rape women hurr
>omg look at how gory and violent these goblins are hurr durr

>mercy
At best I'll let gravity decide my enemies' fate.

Paladins are not stupid.

If there is a state handy that can imprison and possibly rehabilitate or at least work the guilty until they repay their state somewhat, that's great.

If that is not practical, the choice between letting someone free or killing them is a stranger one as the line between the two options is of course blurry.

That's why paladins hang out with clerics, who will likely have some sort of spell they can use to place a mark on the head of the penitent they release.

because alot of people think that being a paladin means you have to be pants-on-head retarded.
It's a sort of cynical idea that being "honorable" means you're either a naive gullible twit or you have to knowingly let people screw you over.
It also applies to combat since "oh a paladin would never set an ambush or attack from behind" screw you these are standard military tactics that any fighting man would employ, A paladin might now suckerpunch a guy or stab an enemy in the back in an alleyway but the idea that the only acceptable combat tactic is "i announce myself loudly and rush headlong at them" is fucking retarded. As is letting an enemy who is still a threat go, At the very least if you're a recognized paladin you'd be able to drag the guy into local law enforcement and give a statement with a shit ton on weight behind it.

we took the bad guys arms and leggs. He had robotic ones his only "real" parts where his torso and head.

This!
#NotAllGoblins

*teleports behind you*
Pshhht. Nothing personnel.

I always show mercy, even when I play evil characters. You can bring back the dead (except when you can, but still).

I always show mercy.

>I always show mercy, even when I play evil characters.

I tend to always play the honorable knight/soldier so yeah, first asking them to surrender, if they refuse... Well, we'll bury them acording to their beliefs and keep on with out travel. Their gods will sort them out or call for vengeance i have work to do.

>kabalite party member.
So, how many menial laborers he killed to satisfy his thirst?

An evil character would never actually show mercy. However, there are certainly circumstances where he might do something that looked like it.

He might decline to kill a defeated opponent out of a personal distaste for violence, to ransom him as a prisoner, to be owed a favor, to foster a false reputation as being heroic.

There's that old cliche about the evil overlord defeating the good guy and then letting him live, to reinforce to the public that the good guys are such a non-threat that he doesn't have to kill them. That's terrible policy, but if done right it's strong PR. Sometimes martyrs and legends are better than real men.

On that point, what if the opponent really WANTS to be killed? We all know the guy who throws himself at monsters, to win glory either in victory or in death. Worst thing you can do is force him to live on under the humiliation of defeat. Except, of course, defeating him over and over and over.