Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Bowmore 01-21-07, 07:26 PM	I love the concept of non-lethal damage, but sadly, regular ol' D&D doesn't use it very much. What are some ways you've incorporated nonlethal damage into your games?
Spellfire_junkie 01-21-07, 09:39 PM	I allow characters to offset fatigue and exhaustion by taking d2 or d4 non-lethal for a round, no DR. It seems fairly balanced so far, but I'm only in a mid-level game right now with this HR.
stargate525 01-22-07, 12:00 AM	Allow them to take a feat that gets rid of the -4 penalty, and have instances where the quarry MUST be captured alive. You're right though, nonlethal damage is far underused.
LiefKarakse 01-22-07, 12:14 AM	interegation(sp?) ...it works wonders how giving them a little info gets them to be creative
Tim4488 01-22-07, 05:18 PM	Interrogation. My players have used that too. I had a player with a Swashbuckler/Fighter with the Subduing Strike feat, which he pretty much always applied. The party almost never killed anyway, but they had captives out the wazoo.
Relic 01-24-07, 09:30 AM	I use a variant form of armor damage reduction that converts some damage to non-lethal damage. You can bludgeon the fully-armored blackguard for hours but eventually he will be so bruised and banged up that he will succumb.
Neutronium_Dragon 01-24-07, 09:30 PM	A big part of the problem is that non-lethal damage is flat-out inferior to normal damage. Not only are there many things which are immune to it, but you're expected to suck up big penalties or have to waste feats and/or use a higher level spell slot than normal in order to inflict it, so there's very little reason to do so.
LiefKarakse 01-24-07, 09:35 PM	A big part of the problem is that non-lethal damage is flat-out inferior to normal damage. Not only are there many things which are immune to it, but you're expected to suck up big penalties or have to waste feats and/or use a higher level spell slot than normal in order to inflict it, so there's very little reason to do so. i actually gave one of my PCs a merciful weapon. also i made it so they couldn't choose, which was pretty neat. he was actually stoked about it
meatpuppet 01-25-07, 01:21 PM	For a couple of months we used the "slower magical healing" variant from UA (cure wounds spells transform actual damage into non-lethal damage). But then we decided to drop it; too much additional management for our taste.
JustinA 02-08-07, 01:31 AM	A big part of the problem is that non-lethal damage is flat-out inferior to normal damage. Not only are there many things which are immune to it, but you're expected to suck up big penalties or have to waste feats and/or use a higher level spell slot than normal in order to inflict it, so there's very little reason to do so. Here's a thought: What if you gained a +2 bonus to damage when dealing nonlethal damage with a lethal weapon? Even when this is indistinguishable from lethal damage (because your PCs will simply slit the throats of anyone they knock unconscious), it still only translates to a +2 bonus to damage in exchange for a -4 penalty to your attack roll. This is weaker than Power Attack, and even if you allow a feat to cancel out the penalty that feat is only equivalent to the bonus granted by Weapon Specialization (+2 to damage with no penalty to attack) and comes with a bunch of restrictions. (I've actually been allowing a +1 damage for -2 penalty trade-off to model called shots, so the comparison with Power Attack is A-OK with me.) The only area of question which comes to mind is the monk: They deal lethal unarmed damage but can deal nonlethal damage without suffering the -4 penalty. Should they get the +2 damage bonus when dealing a nonlethal unarmed strike? Personally, I don't see any problems with it. Thoughts? Justin Alexander http://www.thealexandrian.net