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.
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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.