So I had a situation recently where I’ve had to make a new house rule. My players early into a campaign asked if they could capture a target to interrogate them. I foolishly said I don’t see why your trained adventurers couldn’t do so. Now, they’ve become full kidnap hobos and capture anyone during combat to get answers. Tie onto that…they all have pretty bad persuasion and intimidation rolls. So it inevitably turns into capture the bad guys, ask them questions, fail, ask them the same questions in a different manner. I don’t want to just shutdown the roleplay aspect of capturing people but I do want them to put more thought into it or at least reduce it.
a player may find they have need to capture a target. Maybe they are wanted ALIVE, or perhaps they wish to interrogate them. If they choose to try to capture an enemy, they have 2 physical options aside from story and role playing; they can either KNOCK THEM OUT or DETAIN them. To knock an enemy out, you must audibly say you are trying to do so and then reduce them to 3 HP or less to knock them out, to aid in this endeavor, you may also say you aim to knock them out BEFORE your attack roll and in success, halve the damage of your damage rolls (if a character NAT 20s the attack and it would, even halved kill the target, they are instead reduced down to 1 HP and KNOCKED OUT). To DETAIN an enemy, you must first HAGGARD (a creature is BLOODIED when their HP is half their max HP, furthermore, they are HAGGARD once they are reduced to 10% their max HP) an enemy and then GRAPPLE them. While an enemy is grappled, another creature must assist in DETAINING them by rolling a DC CAPTURE RATE check (D20+ Str or DEX +Prof Bonus; they must also have some way to detain them IE rope, manacles, etc.).
Note: some enemies REFUSE to be taken alive, and will fight past being KNOCKED OUT or will have a difficult DC CAPTURE RATE check to DETAIN (BBEG, Zealots, crazed, enraged, etc)
I’m curious what anyone has to say about this rule, any advice to modify it, or any other tips for capturing enemies. I’d also enjoy reading about some other people’s house rules, how they affect gameplay, and why they were implemented.
That sounds pretty fair to me. You have made it difficult but not impossible. You could also make the local authorities frown on kidnapping/torturing/interrogating people
When I was a kid they had similar rules for subduing a dragon.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
By RAW, you can knock a creature unconscious by declaring you are doing nonlethal damage with a melee attack. Only melee, not ranged, and only attacks, nothing that forces a saving throw. Here’s the bit from the 24 PHB, which is about the same in 14:
When you would reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with a melee attack, you can instead reduce the creature to 1 Hit Point and give it the Unconscious condition.
I realize you are saying you are developing a house rule, I just wanted to make sure you understood the RAW. Then, once you knock them out like this, they start a short rest, at the end of that, they regain consciousness. Unless someone heals them, which can wake them up more quickly.
So, a few things to keep in mind is that mechanics-wise, only melee attacks work, and then the party is sitting around for an hour waiting for them to wake back up. Then, again by RAW, that enemy would almost certainly have the hostile condition, so any attempts to influence it would be at disadvantage (which is basically what an interrogation is, influencing them to say things they don’t want to say).
And, you’d be perfectly within your rights as DM to decide an enemy is considered “unwilling” and no amount of rolling will get them to talk. On that, it seems like you might be giving them multiple tries at the intimidation check. Only give one. They can’t just line up and each try a skill check until someone passes. Pass and fail needs to mean something. So, as far as die rolling, it’s pretty easy to shut it down, by RAW, and just say they don’t say anything.
Then, in terms of role play, you can consider who they’re talking to. The bandit captain might know about the bigger plans, but it’s safe to say the lower-ranking guys don’t actually know anything they could talk about, even if they were willing.
Also, just curious, what do they do with people after they interrogate them? If they just kill them anyway, word will get around about these folks leaving no survivors, and people will be even less willing to talk. Conversely, if word gets around they let people go if they talk, enemies might be more open to telling them things.
So I had a situation recently where I’ve had to make a new house rule. My players early into a campaign asked if they could capture a target to interrogate them. I foolishly said I don’t see why your trained adventurers couldn’t do so. Now, they’ve become full kidnap hobos and capture anyone during combat to get answers. Tie onto that…they all have pretty bad persuasion and intimidation rolls. So it inevitably turns into capture the bad guys, ask them questions, fail, ask them the same questions in a different manner. I don’t want to just shutdown the roleplay aspect of capturing people but I do want them to put more thought into it or at least reduce it.
a player may find they have need to capture a target. Maybe they are wanted ALIVE, or perhaps they wish to interrogate them. If they choose to try to capture an enemy, they have 2 physical options aside from story and role playing; they can either KNOCK THEM OUT or DETAIN them. To knock an enemy out, you must audibly say you are trying to do so and then reduce them to 3 HP or less to knock them out, to aid in this endeavor, you may also say you aim to knock them out BEFORE your attack roll and in success, halve the damage of your damage rolls (if a character NAT 20s the attack and it would, even halved kill the target, they are instead reduced down to 1 HP and KNOCKED OUT). To DETAIN an enemy, you must first HAGGARD (a creature is BLOODIED when their HP is half their max HP, furthermore, they are HAGGARD once they are reduced to 10% their max HP) an enemy and then GRAPPLE them. While an enemy is grappled, another creature must assist in DETAINING them by rolling a DC CAPTURE RATE check (D20+ Str or DEX +Prof Bonus; they must also have some way to detain them IE rope, manacles, etc.).
Note: some enemies REFUSE to be taken alive, and will fight past being KNOCKED OUT or will have a difficult DC CAPTURE RATE check to DETAIN (BBEG, Zealots, crazed, enraged, etc)
I’m curious what anyone has to say about this rule, any advice to modify it, or any other tips for capturing enemies. I’d also enjoy reading about some other people’s house rules, how they affect gameplay, and why they were implemented.
That sounds pretty fair to me. You have made it difficult but not impossible. You could also make the local authorities frown on kidnapping/torturing/interrogating people
When I was a kid they had similar rules for subduing a dragon.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
By RAW, you can knock a creature unconscious by declaring you are doing nonlethal damage with a melee attack. Only melee, not ranged, and only attacks, nothing that forces a saving throw. Here’s the bit from the 24 PHB, which is about the same in 14:
When you would reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with a melee attack, you can instead reduce the creature to 1 Hit Point and give it the Unconscious condition.
I realize you are saying you are developing a house rule, I just wanted to make sure you understood the RAW. Then, once you knock them out like this, they start a short rest, at the end of that, they regain consciousness. Unless someone heals them, which can wake them up more quickly.
So, a few things to keep in mind is that mechanics-wise, only melee attacks work, and then the party is sitting around for an hour waiting for them to wake back up.
Then, again by RAW, that enemy would almost certainly have the hostile condition, so any attempts to influence it would be at disadvantage (which is basically what an interrogation is, influencing them to say things they don’t want to say).
And, you’d be perfectly within your rights as DM to decide an enemy is considered “unwilling” and no amount of rolling will get them to talk. On that, it seems like you might be giving them multiple tries at the intimidation check. Only give one. They can’t just line up and each try a skill check until someone passes. Pass and fail needs to mean something. So, as far as die rolling, it’s pretty easy to shut it down, by RAW, and just say they don’t say anything.
Then, in terms of role play, you can consider who they’re talking to. The bandit captain might know about the bigger plans, but it’s safe to say the lower-ranking guys don’t actually know anything they could talk about, even if they were willing.
Also, just curious, what do they do with people after they interrogate them? If they just kill them anyway, word will get around about these folks leaving no survivors, and people will be even less willing to talk. Conversely, if word gets around they let people go if they talk, enemies might be more open to telling them things.