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4 years ago ::
Mar 08, 2009 - 1:14AM
#71
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Date Joined:
Aug 29, 2008
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How would you guys go about making a pacifist character in 4e? I was thinking through the implications and wanted to get some input. Cheers!
See Stanley for the best pacifist character ever.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 10, 2009 - 9:26PM
#72
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I've been thinking about making my wizard a sort of pacifist. It's not so much that she hates seeing people kill evil people, it's just that she can't bring herself to do it herself for various background reasons. The reason she left Wizarding School X was that her wealthy parents were killed by a group of bandits. She feels that its her mission in life to make sure other people don't suffer the same fate by doing her part to rid the world of such evil.
She refuses to kill because she doesn't want to become like the bandits who killed her parents without mercy. She doesn't judge those around her that kill, but she won't participate. If they try to harm a surrendered enemy, however, she will beat the hell out of them and she will kill if she absolutely has no choice. A recurring villain, demon, or evil dragon would definitely be fair game.
Of course, she has diplomacy and insight and will use the knockout option liberally.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 11, 2009 - 2:51PM
#73
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Date Joined:
Sep 22, 2005
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A good option for a pacifist type character would be a wizard specialized in Psychic powers that apply the "disable the opponent at 0 HP" rule.
I think it is easy to figure him as a sort of benevolent trickster that never spill a single droplet of blood, but it is still able to defend himself by clouding the mind and the senses of aggressors and ultimately leaving them on the ground, sleeping.
Since his "combat spells" are merely illusions there should be no risk of contraddiction with common sense when using the knockout rule.
Go with the illusions of Dragon 364 at the eroic tier, adding a couple of other non-lethal flawored spells (such as color spray and its variation), from legendary to epic tier the PHB has enough psychic wizard spells to build a good character.
Psichic Lock would be a great legendary tier choice, expecially with the illusory abush at-will you can considerably disable the enemies offensive power to reach a stalemate, a surrender or until you put their minds in a well-deserved sleep.
Probably an even better option would be a bard.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 11, 2009 - 8:25PM
#74
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D&D is all combat (especially 4e)
what is an adventurer but a glorified bandit?
a hero to one is a villian to another.
Adventurers kill sentient entities and take thier stuff,
guess what, so do bandits?
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4 years ago ::
Mar 15, 2009 - 12:57PM
#75
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Date Joined:
Aug 27, 2007
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It's perfectly possible to have a pacifist character, as long as the DM is willing to have that type of campaign, which really doesn't play to the strengths of D&D. Basically, a pacifist character only works in a campaign when almost all problems can be solved without fighting, and where all the players are willing to try to solve problems in that way.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 15, 2009 - 8:33PM
#76
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Date Joined:
Dec 23, 2007
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I also happen to be playing a pacifist character in a game. The system is 3.5, though it has quite a bit of 2E and homebrew elements. The character is a cloistered cleric (domains are Good, Healing and Knowledge), and she's devoted herself to the art of divine healing. She follows an oath that is pretty much the magical equivalent of the hippocratic oath. Therefore, while she acknowledges that force of arms are often necessary (she's a retired war veteran herself), she has vowed to her god that she will never harm a living being as part of her vows in exchange for her powers. As for why a pacifist is adventuring, she simply happened to be staying at the same inn as the other PC's the night a bugbear attack came, and since has joined them in unraveling a conspiracy within her church. Remember, not all PC's are adventurer's by trade, some of them are thrust into the role.  Unfortunately, as much as I love 4E, it's very difficult to play a "never do harm to anyone" character; I don't consider non-lethal damage to count. That said, a character who only fights in self-defense and doesn't kill (always using the knock-out-at-0-HP option) is perfectly viable, even moreso now that there is no differentiation between lethal and nonlethal HP damage. While I do think 4E simply can't handle a truly pacifistic character as well as 3E, I will say it's not exactly easy to make such a character in 3E, considering how many variants my character uses (level 5 cloistered cleric, several unique magic items to specifically let her heal more times a day, and a homebrew ability to replace Turn Undead). Frankly, the character was a downright pain until level 3, simply because she usually ran out of spell slots before the end of a battle and would have no meaningful way to contribute. In that regard, if a good pacifist fix could be made for a 4E character, it'd probably be easier, simply due to the spell slot problem.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 18, 2009 - 11:47PM
#77
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Date Joined:
Mar 19, 2009
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Take a look at the bard, now that the PHB II is out. There are a number of options you can take that do things other than damage.
The other thing to look at is that HP isn't their life value. It's a combination of their determination, energy, enthusiasm, life, courage, etc. So dropping them to 0 could effectively be them going "f*ck this, I'm out" and walking off the battlefield or just giving up and surrendering.
Just a thought.
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4 years ago ::
Mar 20, 2009 - 7:57PM
#78
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Date Joined:
Apr 10, 2008
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i had a player pull off the complete pacifist in 3.x. he played a cleric who refused to harm a living being... granted he also got himself killed when he got surrounded by a nest of dragons.
My thinking is that it would be almost impossible for 4e because i dont see any class which can go without targeting a hostile creature. Maybe the Bard could pull it off.... maybe....
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4 years ago ::
Apr 11, 2009 - 5:16PM
#79
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Date Joined:
Feb 19, 2009
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I've found a nice way to work in an NPC experiment along these lines into my current campaign.
There's a high-level NPC cleric who is completely non-violent, but who is attempting to ally his divination skills and wisdom with forces of good in order to preserve peace and balance in the land. Currently, the party in opportunist hack-and-slash mode are unwittingly the pawns of an evil plot to provoke widespread war in order to weaken more civilized powers. The NPC cleric has warned that this will lead to a great invasion of evil.
The campaign is still early, but with nearly every milestone the adventurers get clues. Eventually they will meet the pacifist cleric, who will help them piece their clues together. When the real threat is revealed, the characters will recognize that their early marauding against hapless goblins and the like actually fed a growing imbalance - the vacuum left by slaying petty local evil was filled by much more sinister and dark forces with grander designs on the land.
Of course, the pacifist NPC, though powerful, still will not directly engage in battle. He acts instead as a trusted advisor and ally to the characters as well as local political leaders. The characters are challenged with essentially correcting the imbalance they introduced by going after much more powerful foes, retrieving artifacts of power held by liches and necromancers, etc.
This will give me an opportunity to develop a pacifist cleric NPC's deity, worldview and a few key skills and divinations. Afterward if a player is intrigued that may serve as a basis for introducing a pacifist cleric class into the game. This can be an opportunity for the cleric in the party to convert if he's intrigued, adopting a pacifist paragon path at about the right level.
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4 years ago ::
Apr 11, 2009 - 5:31PM
#80
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Date Joined:
Feb 19, 2009
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i had a player pull off the complete pacifist in 3.x. he played a cleric who refused to harm a living being... granted he also got himself killed when he got surrounded by a nest of dragons.
My thinking is that it would be almost impossible for 4e because i dont see any class which can go without targeting a hostile creature. Maybe the Bard could pull it off.... maybe....
Yeah I'm assuming this requires a homemade extension to the Cleric class, the rules as they are assume the Cleric is always the author of damage, even for protective or healing prayers.
On the problem of getting killed off as you describe - a prayer or feat idea I had was an invulnerability state that a pacifist character could enter. As long as the cleric has properly observed the path - not been violent or attacked any of the enemies or their allies, or directly aided those who are attacking the enemy during the encounter - there should be a Sanctuary-like encounter or daily prayer, or perhaps even at-will power, which confers invulnerability to attacks so long as the cleric refrains from any aggressive or interfering action. In your scenario as long as the Cleric did not directly attack the dragons or directly aid those attacking them, the dragons would essentially ignore him.
I'd rule that if the Cleric, during the encounter and in visibility of the enemy, uses any power to help those in direct combat with the enemy (shielding, blessing, healing, etc.) this power is lost for that encounter. And perhaps to balance the cleric's turn undead abilities the undead aren't susceptible to this - they'll always attack the pacifist cleric, and damage done to the undead isn't prohibited since after all that isn't really killing. 
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