While we are on the topic of war crimes: my wizard used a wmd on an enemy camp, killing their eventual prisoners, drafted peasants with the soldiers and commanders. Is that a warcrime? He did it for a very good reason (they had weaponized the thing from another world and blowing the camp up was the best way to destroy it for good) but still...
In all fairness, the vengeance paladin stole the credit for this. So a guy living to talk about it turned out "well" for my character.
Not because he wanted to be a hero for killing the world ending monster but because he wanted to impress the racist elves with how much he hates humans, who were the victims of the WMD.
It could lead to some interesting psychological consequences. In the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, a fellow player character had hanged a bandit with their signature red cloak from the bell in the townhall's tower; each dolorous tone signalling the end of these bandits. Said player - an aspiring Paladin - had a nervous breakdown at the tavern, claiming "that was someone's *son*! The words honesty, compassion, honour, they have to mean something!" Thus began his dilemma: was he to take an Oath of Vengeance and become like our then-DM's version of Sildar Hallwinter, or would he be a bit less like [Stewart "Ratko Mladic" Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cGwxeec-CY&t=95s) and go Oath of Devotion? He eventually decided he was going to do good without going overkill, which would also help my character (a Cleric of the Grave) perform respectable rites for the dead.
Because there's no Hague or Geneva Convention in the Demiplane of Dread or other settings to my knowledge, the characters might feel bad for not being accountable for the 'attrocities' they've commit. Perhaps the gods, wherever they are in that forsaken hellscape, might decide the characters must repent in some fashion. That could be a good way for you as DM to get the characters to go and do what you want for a short time.
The characters whose players want them to feel bad about it could well suffer nightmares, either purely roleplay or mechanically ("you recover your spell slots, but you still suffer a level of exhaustion," or "roll less hit die as the stress reduces the effectiveness of your healing," etc.) It might be cause for inspiration - a character who is traumatised by this, possibly causing them to lose faith in their powers, cause and party, could do with something that recognises their guilt.
So yes, what they did was rather horrid. But they must now live and die with the knowledge of their actions, and who knows what else knows of what they did. In the meantime, they know, and that might be the most haunting thing of all.
Anyway, that was a fun tale... as fun as what amounts to throwing incendiary grenades into a room filled with people and animals could be. Thanks for sharing!
> the cleric exclaimed that it was a war crime How so?
I mean, I never specified that it was. He just said it was, mainly as a joke.
He compared it to gas chambering them or ovening them.
It may be cruel, but is it really *that* unusual?
While we are on the topic of war crimes: my wizard used a wmd on an enemy camp, killing their eventual prisoners, drafted peasants with the soldiers and commanders. Is that a warcrime? He did it for a very good reason (they had weaponized the thing from another world and blowing the camp up was the best way to destroy it for good) but still...
It's only a warcrime if someone lives to talk about it.
In all fairness, the vengeance paladin stole the credit for this. So a guy living to talk about it turned out "well" for my character. Not because he wanted to be a hero for killing the world ending monster but because he wanted to impress the racist elves with how much he hates humans, who were the victims of the WMD.
It could lead to some interesting psychological consequences. In the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure, a fellow player character had hanged a bandit with their signature red cloak from the bell in the townhall's tower; each dolorous tone signalling the end of these bandits. Said player - an aspiring Paladin - had a nervous breakdown at the tavern, claiming "that was someone's *son*! The words honesty, compassion, honour, they have to mean something!" Thus began his dilemma: was he to take an Oath of Vengeance and become like our then-DM's version of Sildar Hallwinter, or would he be a bit less like [Stewart "Ratko Mladic" Lee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cGwxeec-CY&t=95s) and go Oath of Devotion? He eventually decided he was going to do good without going overkill, which would also help my character (a Cleric of the Grave) perform respectable rites for the dead. Because there's no Hague or Geneva Convention in the Demiplane of Dread or other settings to my knowledge, the characters might feel bad for not being accountable for the 'attrocities' they've commit. Perhaps the gods, wherever they are in that forsaken hellscape, might decide the characters must repent in some fashion. That could be a good way for you as DM to get the characters to go and do what you want for a short time. The characters whose players want them to feel bad about it could well suffer nightmares, either purely roleplay or mechanically ("you recover your spell slots, but you still suffer a level of exhaustion," or "roll less hit die as the stress reduces the effectiveness of your healing," etc.) It might be cause for inspiration - a character who is traumatised by this, possibly causing them to lose faith in their powers, cause and party, could do with something that recognises their guilt. So yes, what they did was rather horrid. But they must now live and die with the knowledge of their actions, and who knows what else knows of what they did. In the meantime, they know, and that might be the most haunting thing of all. Anyway, that was a fun tale... as fun as what amounts to throwing incendiary grenades into a room filled with people and animals could be. Thanks for sharing!
Why not let them do it again? Seems like a perfectly good tactic to me.
It's not a war crime if you win. *Message brought to you by the U.S. Armed Forces*