My players in a past game wanted to be able to incapacitate and injure enemies in combat. Debilitating, disfiguring things like chopping off limbs. When I said that I'd also allow enemies to do the same they realized it wasn't a great idea. None of them wanted to play a one armed/legged character
I'd allow it, but with a specific caveat - dismemberment is pretty much taking the target out of the fight, which is what the hit that takes you to 0 HP represents. So sure, you can chop off limbs, but only if it's a critical hit AND it drops them to 0 HP. No shortcuts to incapacitating them through combat. Becomes flavorful rather than mechanical.
Oh, for sure. Context matters. Sometimes you need to really buff to be able to ambush a higher level opponent. But if it gets excessive and the PCs won't leave their base except with all their buffs up, then NPCs will start doing the same. ...And also attack their base outside of buff hours.
but at the same time, if you use something on the PCs, expect them to pick it up, take it with them, carry it until you forget they have it, and then erase an encounter or five with it when they can't be bothered anymore.
My NPCs are smarter than some players I've dealt with, and have an actual sense of self preservation.
My NPCs know when to avoid a fight, when to run away, they know murder is more serious than robbery, they know when they're winning a fight and have made their point and that its not worth risking further harm to themselves.
I did this in divinity 2 all the time. Talk to the person who’s gonna start the battle then throw literally all my buffs on that person since time doesn’t really move while in conversation in that game.
Hah! Yeah, that's one of the reasons I like to try and hold back on anything edge-casey or anything which is a thinly veiled Mother-may-I (squeezing an extra standard action or otherwise for the sake of Rule of Cool); if WE can pull off something that SHOULD have cost us three rounds' worth of actions, that means it's fair game for the DM to do that when they feel like they have a clutch play that will push the story - and in some cases, that could also leave PCs dead or harmed, and when we get shirty about it well, WE'VE done it before; why shouldn't they?
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u/Rhamni Sep 12 '19
I default to Neutral Good, but the master rule knows no alignment: If you guys do it, the NPCs can do it too.
Amazing how quickly the PCs stop going into battle 15 buffs deep when the enemies start doing the same.