Limit on Non-Lethal damage

[Paul Grogan]

This discussion cropped up a couple of years back in my group, and I ummed and arred over it for a while but never reached a good answer.

There doesnt seem to be any limit on the amount of non-lethal damage a character can take in the RAW.

My players wanted to knock out a prisoner so that they wouldnt come round by dealing non-lethal damage, and the more damage they deal, the longer he will be out, but the question of there being a limit came up.

My initial idea was to not have any limit, and they can just deal as much as they want - the more they deal, the longer he will be out for.

My other option is to have a limit on it, either a fixed amount, or something related to the number of Hit Points they have. Either have this as a fixed limit with any more not doing anything else, or have it become lethal after a certain amount.

Anyone any thoughts / ideas?

 

[javcs]

By RAW, there is nothing to limit the amount of non-lethal damage a creature can have on it, unless it is immune to non-lethal damage.

In the Book of Exalted Deeds, it gives an example wherein a you knock balor with so much non-lethal damage that it won't be conscious again for a week.

I suppose, though, that one could say that after non lethal damage equal to 2x normal hit points +10 (or normal hit points below death in non-lethal damage) you started dealing lethal damage would be reasonably well balanced as a house rule.

 

[moritheil]

No limit. I might require heal checks in order to not accidentally deal lethal damage beyond a certain point when the number gets huge (assuming this is not a regenerating or fast healing creature.) That's a houserule, though.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've always played in so that once nonlethal damage has knocked you out, all subsequent damage is lethal damage - is that not in 3e? Maybe it is a holdover from another game then.

Regardless, it makes a very sensible and practical rule. After all, IRL if you kick someone unconcious and keep kicking them, it doesn't just make them KOed for longer - it starts killing them.

Cheers

 

[The Souljourner]

Plane Sailing - that's not in the rules, but it's a common house rule. It's fine for a gritty game, but I think for most D&D games, I don't want the 10th level barbarian, who is being a good doobie and doing non-lethal to the misguided 1st level peasants attacking him, to accidentally kill one because he punches it too hard.

Now, I would agree that on occasion, if the PCs are being vicious about how much non-lethal they're dealing, the DM might want to have one of their victims die of internal bleeding.... but that should be the exception, not the rule.

The thing is, in D&D it often happens that people will be just barely knocked out (within a few hitpoints of 0)... which often means they'll wake up in an hour since you heal your level in non-lethal damage every hour. So if you want to make sure someone is out for a couple hours, you should probably give him at least one more kick after he's unconscious.... which although in the real world would be pretty mean, in D&D is just good tactics.

-Nate

 

[mvincent]

I've always played in so that once nonlethal damage has knocked you out, all subsequent damage is lethal damage

That is how damage from many enviromental effects are worded, but that is not how it works normally.