Mercy On

[Agent_137]

So, I run with this on always. But I noticed others don't. I was wondering why. I don't see -any- advantage to having it off, ever, unless you're toggling it on to kill something for good.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Advantage?  No.  But the mercy command represents a conscious effort to try to spare the life of your opponent, beyond just failing to immediately deal the killing blow after they drop.

I once had a half-giant who proved victorious in a certain battle, and I was quite surprised when his final blow proved to be very ungiantly.  Then I realized that I would have never done so little damage if mercy wasn't on.

Mercy is a great command but even without it on there's still a chance your opponent will live.  I don't see any problem with letting that chance fall to the chaos of battle as well as the code rather than mandate it yourself, -especially- considering how lenient the recovery code is.

[Agent_137]

So you're saying that "mercy on" doesn't just stop you from stabbing something when it's passed out, but weakens your attacks as the thing gets closer to dying?

Interesting. That would be a good reason to turn it off.

So I know it's getting a little codey, but i'm pretty sure my character would know if he was easing up on the enemy or just not stabbing him when he's down.

So yea, is that your impression, or are you pretty damn sure that's the way it works?

[EvilRoeSlade]

I'm not sure to what extent it weakens blows, but I'm positive that under normal circumstances, half-giants don't deal the kind of blows that my final hit was.

[Vesperas]

Unless, you know, you just like to do kinky stuff.

[Tarx]

I turn mercy off whenever in a situation that would require killing the opponent, or leaving a "safe" place.  After reading over this post, I suppose keeping it on all of the time won't have much of a disadvantage--and logically, if you are in a situation in which you are "witholding" a killing blow, then you can just as easily not withold it, eh?

[jstorrie]

You can still botch a merciful blow. Many a Bynner has learned that lesson the hard way.