Grandmaster Greytalker
Joined: Jul 09, 2003
Posts: 1408
From: Tennessee, between Ft. Campbell & APSU
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Thu Aug 14, 2025 11:39 am
Pacifist PCs and NPCs
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While coming up with a spell, "Damper Damage" ( ) for entirely different reasons, it occurred to me that it (or a feat, as some suggest) would be really handy for a pacifist character, which in turn got me to thinking about pacifists as PCs or NPCs. I once played in a campaign where one of the other players had a sort of caricature pacifist cleric PC. I have created a quite a few NPCs with pacifistic tendencies. (Some of the commentary below is specific to D&D 3X, but the previous and later editions have equivalents e.g. AD&D 2 class kits).
Pacifist PCs would work in any campaign whose opponents are non-sentient monsters or the undead. In other campaigns, they could be the healbot, but there could be tension (as there often is with clerics or paladins).
The deities who would be likely to have pacifistic followers that pop to my mind are Zodal and Rao, but maybe Pelor. Maybe Lydia? I could see "good time party" deities like Wenta or Olidammara having some pacifist followers. Prosperity deities: Mouqol, Sotillion, Zilchus, Uvot (from the Touv pantheon). Xerbo stikes me as a little too belligerent somehow. The buccolics: Atroa, Merikka, Berei, maybe Phyton? The romance deities: Hanali Celanil and Myhriss. Phyton might fit into this category, too. Wee Jas, maybe not.
For something exotic, I've been thinking of an Evil-aligned pacifist. He won't take your life, although he might make you wish he had...  Or maybe just a meanie type who enjoys manipulating people without physically harming them.
Pacifists tend to get dumped into the general "Priest" e.g. cleric, healer, cloistered cleric, favored soul, etc, but monks, magic users, and rogues, could all work. A ranger or barbarian who hunts to eat but not sentient creatures is plausible. What about a paladin who specializes in fighting undead? The only classes that would be really hard to justify would be fighter, marshal, and for previous editions, assassin, but I'm sure someone could come up with a plausible justification. Maybe they became pacifists after their training and/or experience. For the NPC classes, commoners, experts, and adepts all could work. Not so much aristocrat or warrior.
Unearthed Arcana, p. 91: The flaws "Non-Combatant" (-2 on melee attacks) and "Shaky" (-2 ranged attacks) would be useful to a pacifist character. They were probably meant to simulate a lack of skill, but they could just as easily represent a psychological aversion to killing. I used the Non-Combatant flaw that way for a (non-pacifist) PC of mine. I've used both for NPCs.
Book of Exalted Deeds, pp. 47-48: I think the feats of "Vow of Non-Violence" and "Vow of Peace" would be appropriate, although I haven't used either yet.
Dragon #324, p. 89 has notes on pacifism.
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