Did the king do the right thing?

marshalljames1

I had A rather unusual Dnd Dream last night and I have a question

In my Dnd Dream was the king right to send his 14 year old heir to negotiate with foreign invaders that he knows have a code of honor that will not allow them to harm a child?, not even a child that's a member of the royal family of a country their invading

marshalljames1

I was referring to the fact that was it right of him to send a 14 child that thanks to magic was a fully trained diplomat to negotiate with foreign invaders that he knows have a code of honor that will not allow them to harm a child, not even a child that's the heir to the throne of a country their invading

ElMuggs

So it's not really a matter of 'right' because using a child as a pawn is never going to be a ethically ok.

However the better question is 'is it a smart move?' - again this would be NO because even though the child itself may not be harmed the king has just given over a very powerful asset. 

While they won't harm the child just HAVING the child means that at some point the child will grow into a adult - who they can then harm, or use to their own wims - eg. turning the child to their side.

Plus another important thing to figure out for your setting is the 'age of becoming a adult' because this varies in time/place/setting - in Australia it's 18, in Medieval Europe it was 14, in some cultures a 13 year old girl can be married... however biologically one does not become a adult until at least 20. 

Regardless it's not really a smart idea to give over the heir to the throne - because this is a 'high value target'. Nor would it be smart to leave the negotiations to a child - regardless of how well trained they are.

marshalljames1

With regards to what ElMuggs said I would guess that the king wasn't thinking straight and that he decided to try and go for the scenario that was the 2nd to worst, the invaders holding his heir and using the fact that their holding his heir to control his country without conquering it, rather then the scenario that is the worst, a war he knows he can't win

Theirs also the fact that thanks to magic his 14 year old heir is as good at diplomacy as a adult in their mid 50's, so she's as good as someone that's roughly 4 times her age, and she has the added bonus that because she's a child the invaders code of honour means they won't harm her

I will say that d even though the dream didn't specify the level of the Spell tin my opinion A spell that powerful must have been A 6th level Spell and I suspect that the spells unique to the setting the dream happened in