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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr_Ruminahui" data-source="post: 5215518" data-attributes="member: 81104">Except for one encounter where I had a 3 way battle (and where the PCs attempts to capture the enemy 1 just made it easier for enemy 2 to coup de gras the potential captives), I'm quite happy with how the subdual rules have played out. For my own group, the biggest limitation to taking prisonners is the player's own disbelief at a certain attack being used nonlethally - for example, Flaming Sphere is difficult for them to conceptualise as being non lethal. If they don't think it can, and I can see how it might I will suggest as much (I the above 3 way I suggested that Stinking Cloud could be used to create a tear gas like effect), and if the party/player agrees, it will be non lethal, if not, then its still lethal. Of course, this approach isn't really a limitation if your players are more focussed on the mechanical effects of the rules than the fluff ones. If you do have such mechanically inclined players, you could get a similar effect by declaring by DM fiat whether a power can be used non-lethally or not. The second biggest limitation is that I require the player to declare whether they want it to be nonlethal when they use the power, and said effect lasts for the entirety of the power's duration. This has two results. First, it prevents players from tossing a Fireball into a room and doing lethal damage to everyone but the hostage. Second, it means for persistent effects (like Stinking Cloud), that the player needs to say its non lethal when it is first cast - if its been out there for several rounds, when you finally drop a baddie its too late to suddenly say "Oh, it only knocks him out". Last session, this rule bit the players in the butt a bit, as it meant that the assassin with the most information was incinerated rather than interogated. Either/both of these changes may better lead to the results you want with only some very minimal changes to the rules - IMHO, they also have the benefit of being simple to apply, simple to remember, and fair to both the DM and the players - though in those regards, YMMV.</blockquote>

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