In such circumstances a few weeks ago, our gnome ranger/monk who was out of view and quaffed invisibility potion used bull-rush to push the halfling bandit away from the hostage - but it was made possible because the hostage was carried by another character instead of being held by the bandit himself.
Disarm by invisible character seems to be the best option.
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Does the cleric have hold person memorized? Try to win initiative PCs in my current game do not negotiate with terrorists. Your PCs may be different though. They could let the head bandit go in exchange for the NPC's life. I would prefer to role play it out myself. Some of the answers above are kind of gamey for my taste. The whole "he can only do 1D4+str mod" is something that really breaks immersion for me at the table.
The whole "he can only do 1D4+str mod" is something that really breaks immersion for me at the table.
And potentially the GM too, that's why you have to be careful saying it at the table. In case he pulls out Rule0 or some obscure rule, of just has lots of sneak attack?
Attack, if the girl dies and you feel bad for her then in just a couple levels (aka a few in game weeks probably) you can rez her.
He isn't flanking her and if she struggled or pulls against the knife at all she isn't flat footed, so no precision damage. If he just stabs her once for 1d4+3 or whatever, there is no way he can take off enough of her HP that a cleric couldn't heal her.
Well, he did say she was helpless, so we must assume unconscious or bound. I would go with bound because a conscious prisoner can scream for help, and that will humanize them to the party. This adds SA back into the mix and makes insta-death level dependent. A rogue with a d4+3 and even 3d6 SA has an average of sixteen points of damage. Just enough to make death a reality for a Commoner 1. Sounds like he has a readied action and a helpless (read flat-footed) target. Would good PC's risk that?
Important questions: Is the Bandit leader alone? Are the PC's good? Does anyone have diplomacy or maybe even intimidate?
I will presume the bandit is alone as you have not stated otherwise and that the PC's are good or this would be a poor ploy. That only leaves a hopeful Diplomacy check - Intimidate if they are desperate. Talk your way out of this.
The bandit is in a Mexican stand off situation. Even if he orders the PC's to disarm, the wizard and cleric still have spells ready. He cannot abandon his hostage. If he kills her, he will most likely die. If he didn't think that, he probably wouldn't have resorted to a hostage to begin with. A good Diplomacy or Intimidate check may get him to surrender or trade his escape for the hostage. Better to let him go than kill an innocent. Right? That compromise may even be possible without a diplomacy check, as that is really the only thing he can ask for anyway.
Does this bandit leader perhaps have the prisoner "pinned", as the condition? Then he could perform a coup de gras as a full action (bound is included in the list of conditions that make you "helpless", and pinned states that the person is "bound"), but only if he wins initiative (he can't ready a coup de gras as you can't ready an action outside of combat, and you can't ready a full action anyway).
Nothing in the description of pinned states that you have to have the person on the ground, leaning on them with all your weight. The point here is the drama of the situation: the PCs have to make an impossible choice, or try something super risky to save the day. In this case, if the RAW don't support a character being able to present this kind of threat, the GM needs to be free to step outside the rules and say this is going to happen.
The OP asked for IC strategies to deal with the situation, not OOC justifications that the players can give the GM to say why his dramatic situation can't work according to the rules. In that light, I'd suggest that the thief going invisible is a good strategy. The thief would get one good sneak attack against the bandit leader, then possibly another when the bandit leader attempted his coup de gras (provokes AoO - now that's a completely off-topic questions...if your first action in combat provokes an AoO, are you still considered flat-footed against said AoO?). As many PCs as possible winning initiative is crucial here, and everybody throwing whatever they've got at the bandit leader, hoping that something breaks up the situation is important, too.
Without knowing the full situation it is difficult to offer too much advice, but since the party has an invisible rogue in the room I would have the other party members back out of the room and have the rogue wait for an opportune time to surprise the villain (should be able to get in 2 sneak attacks with surprise round and good initiative on round 1) while calling out for the PC's to come charge into the room. Good luck!
Invisible/stealth disarm is your best bet.
Otherwise maybe a trip? A lot depends on the stealthy one in that situation.
If you have a bard, I think there's a feat in either UM or UC that lets you hide your spells with bardic performance (forget what it's called). That might allow you to cast something without provoking a readied action.
As for all the "this situation couldn't work" arguments: Did anyone ever say the helpless girl was currently at full hp? In my experience NPC prisoners are hurt to the point of barely retaining consciousness more often than they are kept in good condition, and it takes very little to drop one.