First of all this isn't a paladin thread :P I'm working on my magus debuffer and I typically don't debuff but doing something different. My issue comes down to if I do nonlethal damage until someone drops...and then finishes them off or if I use the slumber hex to knock someone out and then kill them...I feel like I might be crossing a moral line. Not saying this would be the typical answer but if you know someone is evil..better to get rid of them before they come back to attack you. Granted this is for pfs and no evil class...I'm figuring neutral...Was gonna do neutral good but would that apply to this character?
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Killing incapacitated enemies is the act I have seen the most gms call out as an evil act.
I would either change the character concept to not kill things that are not a threat and write that into the backstory. Or, find a really compelling reason why this is not evil.
You could worship Shyka. One of her areas of concern is reincarnation you might be able to swing this with some gms.
Is there any other means by which you could get them out of the battle without killing? Maybe you could shackle them and "bring them to justice." Or tie them up and leave them to the fates. Keeps you from making that harsh, evil decision, but also takes enemies out. There is the risk that they could come back, but that's the risk of good and law.
I could imagine a party going through a dungeon with an army of chained and shackled, defeated enemies trudging along behind them, rather than leaving a wake of dead bodies.
One thing I'm thinking is unless a heal check or spell is cast there really is no way to tell if someone/something is dead. I know on battlefields they used to finish off a opponent that was down if they ran across them. I'm not saying that would be something he would do..at least not all the time, just monsters and "really evil" people.
Just worried frostbite might come back and bite me in the rear...But it is so nice when you can hit and give fatigue/shaken and entangle. Maybe I'm over thinking it since most will barely notice the 1d6+lvl damage
Usual time tables in adventures don't typically give enemies time to "wake up" from being knocked out via non-lethal damage and still remain an immediate threat to the players. By all means, knock them out, take their stuff and leave them to their fate. Unless your character is actually representing legitimate authority and is bound by duty to bring the "evil doers" to justice, don't bother.
I am not saying it is a good thing to do this. It is not. However, it is not an evil action, either. It is decided neutral in alignment. If you want to be thorough, hire some NPC warrior types to come along behind you and gather up the fallen to cart back to jail. If you must use sleep, coupe de grace the enemy with a non-lethal attack (which just becomes an automatic critical hit) or better yet, let the rogue do it to get that extra sneak attack onto the non-lethal. The enemy won't be waking up soonish.
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I've played both a paladin and a debuff magus who used mostly non-lethal damage. Both were devotees of Sarenrae, and so they would leave combatants unconscious but alive unless there was a very good, and very specific, reason they needed to be killed. The magus particularly enjoyed arcane marking humanoids with Her symbol and leaving a note in a language they could understand, giving directions to the nearest Temple of Sarenrae should they want some assistance in forging a new path, and very explicit threats if they make the mistake of returning to their old ways.
My vigilante, on the other hand, enjoys opening combat with a single nonlethal hidden strike just in case the party should find they need some questions answered after the combats over. Much simpler than a Speak with Dead. And if they don't, well ... leaving an enemy breathing seems unnecessarily risky, dontcha think?
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Wait, what?
Killing incapacitated foes, in and of itself, is nowhere close to an evil act.
It is, at best, a neutral act. If they were evil, it may very well be a good act. If they are goodly people, then in that case, it is probably an evil act.
I will say it simply.
Killing someone who is evil is NOT an evil act. It is a GOOD thing.
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Killing an evil person is not, in and of itself, a good act. That leads to the serial killer paladins slaughtering productive law-abiding citizens because they ping on evildar for having selfish motivations.
Anyways, once you've incapacitated an enemy, why do you even need to kill them? It's fine to take prisoners, or even let folks go. Genocide is not a productive route to heroism.