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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4544374" data-attributes="member: 29398">This comes from the distant past, distant enough that I don't know if it originated in a Dragon article, a rulebook, or was something we dreamed up on our own; but for as long as I can remember we've had it that you can do non-lethal damage to anything simply by stating such before you swing (and then, of course, succeeding on your hit roll) provided you're using a weapon that *can* deal non-lethal damage.  Swords and daggers can if you strike with the flat of the blade, or the hilt.  All bludgeoning weapons can.  Arrows cannot, nor rapiers, nor any damage-causing spell.  Also, if you're fighting something like an ooze or construct or undead that does not go unconscious you can't do non-lethal damage to it.When your foe reaches 0 (or -10, depending on system) s/he is knocked unconscious rather than killed, and thus can be taken prisoner or whatever.  Non-lethal damage is half temporary, half real - thus if you take 30 points non-lethal damage you automatically get back 15 of it in a relatively short time (we use about 10 minutes to half an hour but I've no idea if that's "official" or not).As a side effect, this affords goodly-type characters a method of winning lots of battles without leaving a trail of corpses behind them...And the best part: a system like this for non-lethal (or subdual) damage is a trivially easy thing to add to any edition, with virtually no knock-on effects.Lanefan</blockquote>

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