A Fighter Who Forswears Killing?

[WayneLigon]

Arcana Unearthed has a mage varient of this, a feat called Peaceful Mage. It allows you to put the Subdual template on spells (spell templates are also discussed in a Dragon article), allowing damaging spells to deal subdual rather than actual damage.

 

[Will]

The big thing to keep in mind is that if the REST of the party doesn't have the same code, you have potential problems.

 

[Darklone]

Going by knightly epic tales, some former crusaders chose to fight with a wooden sword or a iron stick to avoid killing ...

KPG has an Improved Subdual feat as well.

 

[rbingham2000]

Other than having our Kenshin-esque fighter invest in a merciful weapon as soon as possible, you could also put some feats into Improved Disarm (if he's the swashbuckling type) or Improved Sunder (if he's of the big meaty powerhouse persuasion). Relieving an opponent of his weapon or making that weapon useless is one of the surest ways to end a fight without killing someone.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Duh, should have mentioned this before. Exalted Deeds also has a feat (Subdual Substitution?) that allows mages to do non-lethal damage with their spells. Perhaps even better, if you're a Good-aligned mage and the rest of your party is also Good-aligned, there are some feats to make your spells deal NO damage to Good-aligned creatures, half damage to Neutrals, and full damage to Evil creatures. Rockin'.

 

[Stormborn]

How does he feel about others in the party killing? IIRC the BoED's vow of peace demands that if you knock people out you have to take them captive or let them go.

I think its a cool concept, but probablly more workable with just the previously mentioned standard feats.

 

[Sejs]

2 PrCs.

Shou Disciple from Unapproachable East. It's an FR PrC, granted, but the extend of the tweaking it requires to be droppable in any campaign is really just to remove the regional requirements. Shou Disciple is a good PrC in my oppinion - it lets you have a character that is very skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but without the ki, medatative insight, mystical abilities and eastern flavor of the monk class.

Reaping Mauler from Complete Warrior. The meat to the shou disciple's bread; both nice on their own, but so much better when put together. Reaping Mauler is a PrC focused on grappling. It does it, and it does it well and since wrasslin is universal it should fit right in as-is.



Also of note would be the Justicar PrC, again from Complete Warrior. The Justicar has good solid base of abilities that center around doing subdual damage, particularly with weapons. The down side being that it's very focused as to what type of character it thinks should have access to those abilities. Namely the lawful track-'em-down and take 'em in alive type bounty hunter, and it doesn't lend itself to well to being flexible in that regard.