Society and killing in combat

[Achal]

I have one particular GM who has this thing about dead dead NPC's
I have a bloodrager built for damage (as one does with a raging class)
On multiple occasions this GM has threatened me that if i kill an NPC in a fight i will be mark down as evil

He forces me and others to "deal non lethal damage" or not attack things that are not dead but "close to death (read still alive and fully able to kill MY party memebers)

Recommended we spend gold on "getting a mercy enchant so we can go nuts, but still be careful as negative double con can still kill someone"

On each occasion it was not him trying to nudge us to get that last prestige, just some random fights with random things.

On one occasion the NPC he "saved" was one that had 2 rounds prior took on of us to -10 HP but was "on his last leg" (not even staggered, but close to death)

And he always ends fights in such a way that he almost forces party resources to keep the dead npc's alive, be it real healing or at least a stabilize.

He is one of the higher up GM's in my are so i am not sure what to do.

[BigNorseWolf]

There are some NPC's where it would be pretty evil to kill them given the circumstances, but not a whole lot...

(as a side note, non lethal kicks over to lethal at your hit point total, not hit point total +con, so you die at (HP X2)+Con)

You can try to kick it up the chain of command, or tell him to take a look at this convo and see if the unwashed masses can sway him.

As always, there's usually two sides to this kind of thing, so save the torches and pitchforks till we have the whole thing. (then dibs on a torch!)

[Michael Hallet]

Killing people who are trying to kill you is generally not evil.

If you go around randomly killing people who are no threat to you, then maybe, depending on circumstances. But there is no rule that says Pathfinders can't kill.

[BigNorseWolf]

Michael Hallet wrote:

Killing people who are trying to kill you is generally not evil.

Well, keep in mind that pathfinders do a lot of armed breaking and entering, at which point people ARE trying to kill you and trying to kill them back is evil.

For anyone but pathfinders that wouldn't fall under generally but..well.. pathfinders.... :)

[Michael Hallet]

Well, keep in mind that in Golarion, like most fantasy universes, certain races are generally considered monsters and don't have the same rights as those who are considered not monsters. There may be regional differences, but usually if you go and slaughter all the goblins, no one is going to bat an eye.

When you are involved in political or religious turmoil, your actions are more akin to acts of war. While some moral scales consider all acts of war evil, they don't make for interesting fantasy games.

[Achal]

The first time it happened we were in a church fighting cultists. One of which had almost killed an ally. While Raging with zero other information, we had all failed a perception check but it would not have change the outcome just let us maybe notice an invisible creature
Right as I was about to roll to hit
"you are about to willingly commit and evil act and i will mark you down as evil."
No notice. If you attack. You are now evil.
A Raging barbarian. Attacking a cultists. Who just killed a team member.
Also the kind of gm who hides stabilize rolls (which is fine) so my character was perfectly in the green to return the favor.
That killed the game for me. Ruined the end. I basically removed myself from the game. Destroyed all the fun.

[Nefreet]

This really isn't something that should be discussed here on the Forums.

We as posters were not there, and only have one point of view to go off of.

I would suggest bringing it up with the GM in question, and if that doesn't work then work your way up to the local Venture Officers.

Nothing good comes from having these discussions here.

[TriOmegaZero]

Talk to the GM about it. If you can't come to an agreement, I recommend avoiding his tables.

[Angel Hunter D]

Also, I'm pretty sure it takes several evil acts to shift alignment and you need to hit actual evil before it does anything real. Sounds like your GM needs to brush up on alignment rules, I don't see them much so it's understandable that someone not be up to date on them (including me if I'm way off)

[Fromper]

Killing in self defense, or the defense of others, isn't an evil act. Killing bad guys is a very large part of the game. If this GM doesn't like that, then he's playing the wrong game.

I agree that this should be dealt with locally, but I'm fine with him asking the rest of us to weigh in to give the OP some ammo in his conversation with the GM.

[Philippe Lam]

Speaking about these problems here do may create problems like others said but trying to grab other inputs is not wrong.

The GM has a flawed view of how it works. Forcing the players to get inline to his style of play is not ok. If you don't want to take specific caution in not saving opposite NPCs in a fight, it's fair. What is not fine is to decapitate after death, desecrate or killing for the purposes of reanimating.

If it's a matter of life or death, him forcing the players to deal nonlethal when the NPCs are due to kill the PCs give the formers an unfair advantage and then forcing to use resources to keep them alive, all the resources spent for that should be marked for possible refunding. He does not run the fights as written.

Marking a PC as evil for something normal is a clear abuse.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

Steven Schopmeyer wrote:

Talk to the GM about it. If you can't come to an agreement, I recommend avoiding his tables.

Seconding Stevens excellent suggestion. It might also be worth to have a chat with your local VO if this happens at public events.

[Achal]

Also begs the question for this trait

Soul Drinker

There is a dark hunger in you that rejoices when you or an ally slays a foe. Once per day when an enemy creature is killed, you may, as an immediate action, gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the slain foe’s Hit Dice. These temporary hit points last for 1 minute. This is a supernatural ability.

That states killed, not unconscious, which would require full on death

[The Great Rinaldo!]

It is possible that the GM in question has a misunderstanding or has misread something in the Guide. I recommend asking your local Venture-Officer for assistance, so that it is handled locally and with ample chance for him to explain his reasoning.