My players took a Necromancer prisoner. They were smart about it, shackles that prevent spell casting, stripped him to a loincloth, gagged him just in case.
The problem is this Necromancer sacrificed twenty children to Orcus in an attempt to become a lich. The PCs want to bring him back to the predominantly lawful good city and make him stand trial for the sacrifices and repeated undead attacks on the city.
My question is: What sort of punishment would a lawful good system in dnd met out to this bastard? I would think burning at the stake or boiling, but both seem to go past "executing evil" and into "barbaric."
Any thoughts? Should it be a simple "Off with your head" or what?
Tl;dr: what kind of capital punishment would a lawful good society met out?
I don't know, this man has committed crimes against man AND nature. Whatever happens, his body should be burnt to ash and scattered to the wind to stop him ever rising again.
Camden Parker
I don't think there are many, if any, nations in the world where the penalty for 20 child murders isn't death, assuming the death penalty is legal there.
Matthew Price
Decapitation. Hanging if they want a spectacle.
Josiah Long
Did he already achieve lichdom?
I'd say make a decently sized box, seal it up, put as much magic on it as possible and just keep him in it still bound with as much anti magic shit to keep him from casting any spells and forgotten.
Dominic Fisher
I don't know, I think a public execution where he has time to concentrate makes it possible for him to do all sorts of nasty magical shit. Say what you like about setting people on fire, but at least it stops them from concentrating.
Thomas Ross
Here's the thing, i mean we would say that is brutal, with our modern sensibilities, but those punishments are really far from the worst thing mankind has done to criminals in the past. I say trot out the worst punishments of our barbarous past for a truly deserving individual.
Bentley Miller
Three years in prison, and he gets out after four months due to good behaviour.
Luis Rodriguez
Community service at the orphanage.
Aiden Roberts
Nope. Tried and failed.
Ayden Collins
Put the necromancer through trial by combat. Martial combat only no magic allowed as for a fair fight.
Austin Morgan
Unsupervised. We need to show him we trust him to build his self esteem as a good citizen.
Andrew Sullivan
And then what if he wins? Just gets released with no other punishment? Or uses magic anyway, and uses this opportunity to just teleport the fuck out of here.
Hunter Walker
Being lawful good doesn''t mean being weak like a lot of people are implying. You can be a lawful good society and still execute people because they don't hold to your brand of law.
regardless, make the box slightly smaller and proceed as planned
Ryan Young
Well he is the dishonorable sort so keep him gagged and depending on the setting have the battle take place in some sort of antimagic circle. As for the necromancer winning the combat, I assume he isn't the sword swinging type and his judge/ opponent is.
Side note what rule set is this? Kind of curious because how long does a wizard's spells stay prepared?
Daniel Carter
They're in a major city? A Lawful Good city?
This man has committed many crimes against his fellow man, nature, good and divinity.
So what do we do? There's a good chance this Necromancer's soul won't just go strait to Hell for punishment, or maybe he'll actually GAIN power in Hell.
Execute him in a holy ritual that will seal his soul and essence into, I dunno, his skull? A box? A gem?
Anyways, bless and bury that shit under the cathedral and shit.
Sure, in like, a couple hundred years he might try to bust out and resurrect himself, but that's good adventure material!
Burning, obviously. Then Concentrate the ashes with holy water and scatter them.
We wouldn't want him coming back from dead
Austin Ortiz
>Tl;dr: what kind of capital punishment would a lawful good society met out?
How powerful is the nations/countries most powerful on hand wizard?
I suggest the necromancer be punished by being permanently reincarnated/polymorphed into twenty individual babies.
Provide time to fatten him up if he's too thin to adequately be broken down into at least 20 healthy babies.
Elijah Gutierrez
Boil him alive, strip the skeleton of all flesh and then re-animate it to serve as an undead civil servant I'm a huge fan of necromantic rehabilitation
Carter Garcia
>but both seem to go past "executing evil" and into "barbaric." Barbaric isn't in the alignment system, do as you wish.
Middle ages (or any period where TV wasn't available) was pretty metal. Example : Ravaillac's execution for the murder of Henry IV. Tortured for hours and then literally torn apart by the crowd that thought his punisment to be too lenient.
>what kind of capital punishment would a lawful good society met out? Depends entirely on the society. To be honest, I haven't thought about it myself. In my setting I have a few LG societies:
Military society: Decapitation followed by burning the corpse. No magic involved. Not-Paladin society: literally igniting their skull with an holyfire mace, then burning the corpse with more holyfire. Organized Religious Society: Lashing then burned in a pyre whether alive or not. Spiritual society: Magically bind them in every way, drug them with special potions, then return them to the earth in hopes of allowing them redemption. Lawful stupid society: Hang them and leave the corpse for the vermin, what could go wrong?
Christopher Miller
Life inprisonment with frequent visits by clerics and paladins that attempt to teach him the error of his ways, teaching him how to stop being a murderous psycho and start being a productive and peace-loving man.
If he reforms, he can get out of prison and live a proper life.
Andrew Allen
Just put him to a fucking sword right there you nincompoops. Simple and efficient.
Julian Powell
I would just return him into the earth and all his undead like a good druid would. Death give way to life. Or is there a Crafter in your group that want to make something out of him, like soup, bone medicine, or other stuff like a flesh/bone golem?
Nathan Gonzalez
Any method of execution that DOESN'T involve evil magic to bind or destroy his soul leaves out the possibility of him getting resurrected. Seeing as he's a powerful necromancer(after all, he nearly managed to become a lich), not only is that a real possibility, it's also an unacceptable risk. The only reasonable punishment, therefore, is either imprisonment for life(possibly with measures taken to ensure that he won't be able to cast spells even if he manages to escape, somehow) or execution with spells that speed up his ageing.
Levi Diaz
Unless they have a spellcaster of sufficient power to trap his soul, the best that mortal powers can do is kill him, burn the body to ash, and then put the ash in a box, fill the box with holy water, and put it in somewhere that is mildly guarded but not actually important or likely to be filled with death energies or some shit. So maybe a tax office, or a holy orders stronghold.
Hunter Cook
In medieval (stasis) life is cheap, soubly so for childern life. It does not amtter if he cacrificed a single life or 200 - it's the fact that he didi it for Orcus that matters.
John Russell
>"-where are the children, Nagash ?" >"-A little bit here, a little bit there..."
