Knocking PC's out

[Christian]

[House Rules]
Some DM's use an extension of the coup-de-grace rules, allowing subdual damage to knock helpless characters unconscious in a similar manner as normal damage would kill a helpless character.
[/House Rules]

 

[hong]

[House Rules]
Some DM's use an extension of the coup-de-grace rules, allowing subdual damage to knock helpless characters unconscious in a similar manner as normal damage would kill a helpless character.
[/House Rules]

Actually, I don't see any problem with that even by the book. You can't CdG in a couple of circumstances:

- against a creature immune to crits (constructs, undead, etc)
- against a creature with regen, and you have a weapon that converts to subdual

Neither of these technically apply to CdGs with an attack against a creature that _doesn't_ regen, even if your attack does subdual in the first place. So go right ahead and knock that guy out with your sap.

 

[Ernst]

If thay are a sleep, treat it as a cupe degra, but subduel.

make them make a fort save vs dam from blackjack, if thay fail, thay are unconisus.( not dead sins you did subduel dam)

 

[Cloudgatherer]

[shameless plug]

Or you can have an enemy spellcaster cast Knockout Cone!

Knockout Cone
Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting]
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: Cone
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A powerful force crushes the minds of any humanoids in the area of effect, rendering the subjects unconscious for the duration of the spell. A restoration or heal spell can end the duration of the spell, as well as a successful dispel magic.

[/shameless plug]

 

[0-hr]

I thinks it's a bad idea to have your story line depend on everyone getting captured in a given scence, but if I were going to try it with roughly 10th level folks, I'd go the poison route:

Dragon Bile: Fort(26) or lose 3d6 Str

If you have a bunch of shurikens coated with that stuff, you should be able to take out the non-fighter types. Works great in an anti-magic field too .

And really, the stuff is contact poison, so you just need the PCs to touch it (or better yet, touch about 10 doses simultaneously).

You'll need a restoration-enable cleric around to wake folks up though. Probably a good idea to have hm cast Delay Poison on the attackers first too, just to prevent accidental self-poisoning.

This same cleric could be useful to Hold the fighter types as well (the ones that might just make the saves).

 

[Christian]

Actually, I don't see any problem with that even by the book. You can't CdG in a couple of circumstances:

- against a creature immune to crits (constructs, undead, etc)
- against a creature with regen, and you have a weapon that converts to subdual

Neither of these technically apply to CdGs with an attack against a creature that _doesn't_ regen, even if your attack does subdual in the first place. So go right ahead and knock that guy out with your sap.

The only problem, as far as the letter of the rules goes, is that the book doesn't say anything about unconsciousness-if the target misses the Fort save, it's dead. I suppose you could do enough subdual damage with your auto-crit to render it unconscious and hope it doesn't miss the save, but it doesn't seem like a good thing to count on ...