[d20 Modern] Nonlethal damage

[Dextolen]

OK, if I read this correctly, a melee weapon can be used to cause nonlethal damage. The damage is compared to the opponent's CON score. If the damage is less than his CON score, no effect.

So basically, an average strength character brandishing a club can never knock the average opponent unconcious in this manner w/o scoring a critical hit?

 

[DanMcS]

Yep. If that bothers you, you could just do subdual damage like in 3e, sum it and if it exceeds hps remaining, they're out cold.

 

[kreynolds]

What DanMcS said. Subdual damage doesn't exist in D20 Modern, which is kind of a shame, but I understand why they pulled it out. In an abstract hit point system, subdual damage really doesn't belong.

Personally, I'll be using my variant VP/WP system. It already includes thinks like being fatigued, staggered, knocked out, etc. Subual damage still exists for the most part, but how its applied is a bit different. An old version is in House Rules, but I have a revised version that I have yet to post over there. It's adaptable to both D&D and D20 Modern.

If you're interested, I'll post a link as soon as I post it in House Rules.

 

[takyris]

It took a bit of thinking to get past my D&D mindset, but I actually don't mind the knockout rules now. Frankly, I think that it SHOULD be harder to knock someone out without the danger of killing them.

I don't imagine that a lot of fights in the street result in random injuries that knock someone out without any possibility of hurting them permanently -- when something like that happens, it's likely to be because someone really wanted that to happen, and was sacrificing other chances to hit in order to do so.

Really, when a first-level Strong Hero (16 Str) using a baseball bat with two hands can do:

1d8 +4 Str +1 Melee Smash +1 Power Attack

...The real concern is going to be massive lethal damage, not knockouts. About half the time he hits, he's forcing Fort saves on targets with average Con scores.

(Note: Just made up the baseball bat as a large club...)

-Tacky