how less effective can things get for weapons that do a d4 damage? say you're fighting a creature that is resistant to piercing, but not bludgeoning, and you have a dagger and your player says I want to use my dagger to hit it with the pommel and do bludgeoning damage effectively making it an improvised weapon to do bludgeoning damage. Wouldn't it do a d4 damage?
What happens when that same character hits a creature with his dagger and would have killed it, but the character says," I just want to knock it unconscious." Would you describe that as a pommel strike for the narrative, or would you have him pierce the creature in some non-lethal, but knocking unconscious way?