No cost to Knock Creatures Unconscious?!

[Mal Malenkirk]

Mal, I don't think it's wise to mix "reality" with D&D, especially 4th edition.

Not wanting to mix reality and 4th ed is one thing. But then if you say :

2) What would be a reasonable cost? You're essentially fighting with your blunt side rather than your sharp side of your sword.

You are describing something that is never done, either by real life swordsmen or by fantasy hero, and saying that it should be harder than fighting normally. Of course it should, except nobody fights like that in the first place, even in comic books and movies!

But that's just the specific case of sword.

In a more general manner, you are also assuming that the default result of any attack is killing the victim unless some kind of penalty was taken to make the attack non-lethal. But it's not nearly true. Throughout history, all the way down to our era of fireamrs and bomb, the wounded have always greatly outnumbered the KIA.

If the PCs wish for some of their victims to surive, you are hardly bending the laws of probability by conceding that several of their opponents can be patched up, revived and interrogated. That's just rolling along with the story.

Unless maybe you want to inflict a -2 to the attack rolls of your PCs to make sure the last blow is ALWAYS accurate enough to be a killing blow? Because if you ask me, always killing your opponent in the course of the fight is a freakishly hard thing to do.

 

[DracoSuave]

I'm actually used to roleplaying games where it cost you to kill the opponent, rather than not kill the opponent.

 

[Mort_Q]

I'm actually used to roleplaying games where it cost you to kill the opponent, rather than not kill the opponent.

I'm planning on running a 4e Ptolus campaign once the PH2 drops... and I want the players to think twice about killing people versus killing monsters.

Consequences, consequences, consequences. Murder, law, & vengeance.

I like the flexibility of the new system.