D&D 5E KO with melee attacks only...?

[Plaguescarred]

I'm fine with knocking a creature out only on melee attacks.

 

[transtemporal]

Remember that "damage" in DnD is an abstraction and "HP" is not a measure of how much blood you've got. Hell, attacks don't even draw blood until somewhere around 1/2 HP. I would put the burden of justification of why the ranged attack does non-lethal damage on the PCs but I can think of several scenarios I'd be willing to accept. "I'll wing him in the arm" for example. It does damage, but an arm wound isn't likely to kill it outright.

AoE attacks would be more difficult to justify, probably.

 

[HazMatt86]

Well this actually makes since spellcasters typically focus on int wis and cha and typically aren't the strongest physically.

 

[Thaumaturge]

Mearls mentioned this blog post on twitter. He specifically called out the house rule on knocking out NPCs as a good one.

Knockouts
After the killing blow, must make a DC 12 INT Check to avoid accidentally killing enemy. If using a bludgeoning weapon, this is made at Advantage.

I thought this might be an interesting place to put the link. It may be a slight derail. If the OP wants me to move it I will.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Re-reading the Basic PDF, it occurs to me that it specifically calls out that only melee attacks can be changed from lethal to non-lethal.

From a narrative and perhaps even 'realistic' standpoint, this makes sense to me. But poor archers and spellslingers...

Well archers - unless they can talk the DM into letting them have Green-Arrow boxing-glove arrows or something - casters can always just prep Sleep or other non-lethal spells.

Has anyone hand-waived this rule for their own campaigns? I know 4e basically did this.

4e took it a bit further in that you didn't have to declare non-lethal until you dropped an enemy. I'd let players get away with describing things other than a KO, as well. Like the old disarmed-with-your-blade-to-his-throat or frozen into place with a mere ray of frost, or whatever. Nothing wrong with a little creativity.

In 5e (Rulings not Rules!), the /rules/ may say you can only KO with a melee attack, but the DM can say whatever he wants. Come up with a cool narrative description and your DM just might let you do it. Well, or have you not only fail to KO the guy, but negate the attack, letting the enemy have another round to bring you down. You never know.

Reason I ask is because I'm running a game with a decidedly lighter, cartoonish tone but where bad things can and do happen (kinda Ghostbusters-y in tone) and it just seems a shame that half our team can no longer effectively KO opponents... like how a simple Ray of Frost turns our timid Halfling into a cold-blooded killer.

As you're the DM, you are entirely within your rights to let players KO (or otherwise defeat in a cartoonish way) regardless of the type of attack. Not just because 5e says "Rulings not Rules" somewhere, but because absolutely nothing stops you from doing so, with any ed, or any system.