New ways to pwn people

[Rystil Arden]

Well, getting hit for one big strike by a charging horseman, or diamond nightmare blade, or any other (relatively) mundane attack is easy. It's still basically a physical attack, just with bigger numbers. Even implosion isn't so bad, because it's still physical damage even if it's not measured via hit points. Hence no conceptual difficulty.

Something like prolonged immersion in lava would be trickier, as would energy drain, Con drain, drowning, etc. I'd just play those by ear. In the end, it comes down to whether an excuse plausible to the group can be found for why you might survive.

This could be important, as there's a chance the group will be fighting Con-draining vampires sometime in the next few sessions.

Hmmm, for Con drain, maybe when you hit 0 Con from the drain, the Con is restored but you are under the vampire's power (no Will save) and have contracted a curse of vampirism that will slowly transform you into a vampire yourself if it isn't removed.

For the lava burning you up, maybe the character blacks out and is horribly burned and disfigured, and somebody puts them in a big suit...a big black suit with life support, and then says "Rise Lord <Insert PC's Name>." Extra points for a campy and silly sounding "Nooooooooooooo" from the PC

 

[IamTheTest]

rad.

 

[Mark CMG]

(. . .) without having to go through the rigmarole of declaring nonlethal attacks.

Yup. Sometimes I just run something as a normal combat but declare the whole thing as non-lethal damage, if the players agree or instigate it with that intention. Saves a lot of time.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Consider that stolen - it fits my D20 modern game perfectly.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I applaud the original poster's intent. This is a case where what benefits the story and game as a whole takes precedent.

Another option, too, would simply be to have the opponent become exhausted to the point that they can't fight any more.

 

[Trench]

I'm running a Ptolus game that, in their first adventure, had a car(riage) chase scene. Most of the PC's are City Watch, so half the time they're using non-lethal damage anyway. This could be a very good adaptation.

 

[Erywin]

Hong, I like this and might use it for my next campaign. In the current campaign I have implimented a "mortally wounded" state. Basically this means said bad guy is "dead" ala -10 hp but is still able to give his dying words to the PC, or curse them/whatever. This is only used for the BBEGs or thier high ranking minions, basically in an attempt for the PCs to be able to talk with the NPC before he kicks it.

Cheers,
E

 

[blargney the second]

That's funny - we just implemented the exact same thing in our campaigns about two weeks ago. We call it "mortally wounded".

Great minds, fools, and all that.
-blarg

Edit: *chuckle* Erywin beat me to it.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Apparently the new Star Wars 'Saga Edition' has rules for limb severing - I'm guessing it is for lightsabre users - on a blow that would have killed an opponent, you can declare that instead you do half damage and sever an arm/hand/foot/leg, turning a mortal blow into a defeating blow (would that be dis-arming? heh)

Cheers

 

[hong]

Apparently the new Star Wars 'Saga Edition' has rules for limb severing - I'm guessing it is for lightsabre users - on a blow that would have killed an opponent, you can declare that instead you do half damage and sever an arm/hand/foot/leg, turning a mortal blow into a defeating blow (would that be dis-arming? heh)

Cheers

That reminds me of when a PC got whacked in the arm by a chaos beast, and started turning into a chaos beast himself. The other PCs grappled him and tried to cut the arm off. "Make opposed attack rolls," I says. "Why?" they says. "You're trying to disarm him", I says.