I had a party captured recently. It went pretty well on a couple of accounts. First, and perhaps most importantly, I had a clear reason why I needed them captured--I had to get the rapier of warning that was ruining our dramatic tension away from them. Second, during the capture fight, I was able to telegraph that baddies were dealing non-lethal damage, so players knew that more was happening than a combat. Third, in the aftermath, there was a bunch of treasure in the dungeon they found themselves in--making up somewhat for what they had lost. The biggest difficulty was spellcasting foci, but I used the trick of, "In this room you find all your belongings minus your magical items (which, their captor was a wizard so he would have known the value of magical items)." I can add in a number four as well in that one character did have the ability to use invisibility, and so was the only one not captured, and we got split scenes for a while, but everyone's abilities came in clutch. I think also, the plot point benefited from how earlier on we established that the city was run by powerful wizards, and how they represent the end-game antagonists. I have some awesome players who are playing into that theme of growing into the powers that will shake the world...
I had a party captured recently. It went pretty well on a couple of accounts. First, and perhaps most importantly, I had a clear reason why I needed them captured--I had to get the rapier of warning that was ruining our dramatic tension away from them. Second, during the capture fight, I was able to telegraph that baddies were dealing non-lethal damage, so players knew that more was happening than a combat. Third, in the aftermath, there was a bunch of treasure in the dungeon they found themselves in--making up somewhat for what they had lost. The biggest difficulty was spellcasting foci, but I used the trick of, "In this room you find all your belongings minus your magical items (which, their captor was a wizard so he would have known the value of magical items)." I can add in a number four as well in that one character did have the ability to use invisibility, and so was the only one not captured, and we got split scenes for a while, but everyone's abilities came in clutch. I think also, the plot point benefited from how earlier on we established that the city was run by powerful wizards, and how they represent the end-game antagonists. I have some awesome players who are playing into that theme of growing into the powers that will shake the world...
Just curious how a weapon of warning was "ruining your dramatic tension"? The only thing the weapon prevents is surprise when combat starts. The PCs can still be ambushed. Until a creature decides to make their attack, the weapon doesn't warn of anything. It doesn't warn that there are folks in a bush or that the party is surrounded by hidden creatures. It doesn't tell the party that a rock is actually a roper or that the plants are actually a horde of twig blights.
A weapon of warning does three things - gives advantage on initiative rolls to its wielder, prevents creatures within 30' from being surprised (all that means is that they get their turn as normal on the first round of combat) and it will wake up naturally sleeping characters when combat starts. It doesn't wake characters if someone goes through their camp, searches their stuff and poisons their food and water.
I find that surprise comes up pretty rarely to be honest so I really don't see how it ruins dramatic tension unless the weapon is being given far more capability than the rules indicate. Ambushes aren't that common, some characters typically have a high passive perception or the Alert feat that will often prevent surprise in the first place except vs particularly stealthy creatures - so adding in a weapon of warning doesn't really change very much in practice but maybe you are running the weapon of warning differently that I do?
Personally, I find very high passive perception scores (in the mid-20's for example) to be a bit more of an issue and more likely to disrupt "dramatic tension" since these characters are very capable of noticing almost everything. (but even then it just takes a bit more narrative finesse and situations where it isn't that important that one character notices all the details).
I had a party captured recently. It went pretty well on a couple of accounts. First, and perhaps most importantly, I had a clear reason why I needed them captured--I had to get the rapier of warning that was ruining our dramatic tension away from them. Second, during the capture fight, I was able to telegraph that baddies were dealing non-lethal damage, so players knew that more was happening than a combat. Third, in the aftermath, there was a bunch of treasure in the dungeon they found themselves in--making up somewhat for what they had lost. The biggest difficulty was spellcasting foci, but I used the trick of, "In this room you find all your belongings minus your magical items (which, their captor was a wizard so he would have known the value of magical items)." I can add in a number four as well in that one character did have the ability to use invisibility, and so was the only one not captured, and we got split scenes for a while, but everyone's abilities came in clutch. I think also, the plot point benefited from how earlier on we established that the city was run by powerful wizards, and how they represent the end-game antagonists. I have some awesome players who are playing into that theme of growing into the powers that will shake the world...
Just curious how a weapon of warning was "ruining your dramatic tension"? The only thing the weapon prevents is surprise when combat starts. The PCs can still be ambushed. Until a creature decides to make their attack, the weapon doesn't warn of anything. It doesn't warn that there are folks in a bush or that the party is surrounded by hidden creatures. It doesn't tell the party that a rock is actually a roper or that the plants are actually a horde of twig blights.
A weapon of warning does three things - gives advantage on initiative rolls to its wielder, prevents creatures within 30' from being surprised (all that means is that they get their turn as normal on the first round of combat) and it will wake up naturally sleeping characters when combat starts. It doesn't wake characters if someone goes through their camp, searches their stuff and poisons their food and water.
I find that surprise comes up pretty rarely to be honest so I really don't see how it ruins dramatic tension unless the weapon is being given far more capability than the rules indicate. Ambushes aren't that common, some characters typically have a high passive perception or the Alert feat that will often prevent surprise in the first place except vs particularly stealthy creatures - so adding in a weapon of warning doesn't really change very much in practice but maybe you are running the weapon of warning differently that I do?
Personally, I find very high passive perception scores (in the mid-20's for example) to be a bit more of an issue and more likely to disrupt "dramatic tension" since these characters are very capable of noticing almost everything. (but even then it just takes a bit more narrative finesse and situations where it isn't that important that one character notices all the details).