A question about knocking a character out.

[PolterGhost]

Off topic, maybe. The thing is, even in E6 a character advances as normal until they hit 6th level. Fact remains, play by the rules of E6 or not, that 8th level Fighter you mentioned is still a legend amongst his peers.

For a bit of ground to stand on here, most non-player characters in Eberron (which on its own is mostly a low level campaign setting) are 3rd level or under, and the higher in levels you get the fewer people you meet of your own level. An 8th level Fighter in any setting is a force to be reckoned with.

Edit: So, uh, my point is that an 8th level Fighter is a high level, even though to most people it's still pretty low ("That's not even halfway to 20, how could he POSSIBLY be powerful?" Well, let's count the things this guy can slay single-handedly and what kind of crazy crap he can survive...)

 

[radmod]

Well, I have to admit thinking that 8th isn't really all that high (for most people; in my worlds, 9th is the 'official' high level point). I was also thinking about the City build PCs/NPCs from the DMG. "Certainly, you would have a lot more high level characters than 8th!" But then I remembered exactly how large a number it is if you're higher than 99% of everyone else. That's always been my problem (derived from a statistics background). That number seems small but it really IS large.
For example, a 10K pop city in the DMG, could easily have (and probably would) two fighters of higher level. Yet, when you combine all the PCs/NPCs you get less than 50 that are higher than 8th (e.g. <0.5% of pop). Only if you considered levels 6-8 (or so) as roughly equivalent (and, hence, equally 'heroic') would you reach that watermark of 1%.

I should remember that,because one world I have (slow growth), the focal point is a large metropolis (>100K) and with intentionally buffed NPCs, there's no way that PCs aren't higher level than 99% of the pop. I'd imagine it's closer to 99.5% and higher.

 

[Andion Isurand]

maybe you could implement a massive damage variant rule for non-lethal damage that simply knocks a target out, increasing the nonlethal damage on a failed save to match their remaining HPs and effectively knock them unconcious.

 

[Dross]

You know, I'm reading this and am wondering:
What would happen if (with enough STR) one of the PCs did this to a commoner or someone more noteworthy/plot required?

OP: Would you as a DM allow this?

 

[BrickBronze_E-Genasi]

The character with 32 strength was the bar owner, and the drunk elf that managed to stay up after drinking dwarven spirits asked him to hit him in the face. Al the other players who's characters were conversing and enjoying an ale while trying to decide were to go next agreed with my ruling. They agreed that a character with that much strength and about twice your size punching you while your completely wasted would easily knock you out. It was a 30th level Dragonkin who had retired to being a bar owner and the elf was a 4th level ranger who had been wounded befor coming into the bar.

 

[PolterGhost]

Partly unrelated, but if I was level 30 the last thing that I'd own would be a bar. I'd try a continent first, and maybe try to achieve status as a demigod.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Level 30 vs level 4? In that case, I think DM was charitable in allowing the dragonkin to simply knock out the elf and not completely vaporize his head!