D&D 5E Non-Lethal Damage in 5E?

[redrick]

Yeah, definitely have to declare before-hand.

That being said, getting rid of "non-lethal damage" as a concept is a welcome simplification for me. Players still have to be in melee for it to work, which is something of a limitation, particularly for groups that rely heavily on ranged and spell attacks for a lot of their damage.

Personally, I'm all for encouraging player characters to leave opponents alive for questioning, etc. I don't have any reason to discourage or penalize a little extra role-play. That being said, if it became a problem, adding a penalty like what [MENTION=6786839]Riley37[/MENTION] suggests might be the way to go.

I also bring in PC-style death rules for NPCs whenever it makes sense. It's easily done, and since most opponents aren't walking around with cure wounds spells, it only ever works to the advantage of PCs. (For instance, if PCs want to question an opponent, I'd let them tell me this before making a ranged attack. Then I'd say, "the goblin is bleeding out. You have 3 rounds to stabilize him before he dies.")

 

[GMMichael]

"Non-lethal damage?" Tell that to someone who died from being punched. (We talk to the dead, right? We're roleplayers.)

"All damage is non-lethal until you hit zero" is a really good rule.

You might also consider that the purpose of Non-Lethal Damage (NLD) is to help PCs end a battle without fatality. Why should this be a problem? Aren't most people and creatures interested in not-dying? Well, in D&D, you're either not hurt or you're dead. This is why orcs don't notice that they're about to die; they feel just fine until they receive a deathblow. So...

Instead of NLD, use a Near Death condition. It can occur whenever you want, probably somewhere after 1/2 HP remain. Character gets disadvantage on EVERYTHING. That should be a decent incentive for someone to allow himself to be taken prisoner. Or to stop running away. Et cetera.

 

[bganon]

I was looking at possibly converting the Undead Bloodline for the Sorcerer from Pathfinder to a Sorcerous Origin for 5E when I noticed that the PF version had resistance to non-lethal damage. Not sure how or if that can be translated to 5E?

Not a Pathfinder expert at all, but my recollection is that resistance to nonlethal damage pretty much never comes up except in cases of damage from environmental effects or due to exhaustion. So if you wanted to translate the feature to 5e, maybe just do that directly? Let the character ignore the effects of the first level of exhaustion and maybe have advantage on CON checks (or a flat bonus) when enduring lack of air/food/whatever?

 

[Shiroiken]

Unlike earlier editions, all damage is lethal, but you may choose to "not kill" a creature with what would otherwise be a killing blow. I do require my players to declare that they are doing so before attacking and not after finding out their attack reduced the creature to 0.

It's also worth noting that you can apply the death and dying rules for PCs to NPCs fairly easily.

I do the same. This gives the opponent a notion of the attacker's intentions. If they attack to subdue, a fanatic may run away to avoid capture. A good aligned enemy may realize that you have little to fight over (except perhaps a misunderstanding). By having the declaration before the attack, it opens up a new realms of combat RP.

 

[Shiroiken]

Its actually the same rule as in 4th edition.

Actually, it isn't.

In 4E you could subdue with ANY attack. In 5E it is ONLY melee attacks. You can't subdue someone with a Fireball, for example, but in 4E you could.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Not a Pathfinder expert at all, but my recollection is that resistance to nonlethal damage pretty much never comes up except in cases of damage from environmental effects or due to exhaustion. So if you wanted to translate the feature to 5e, maybe just do that directly? Let the character ignore the effects of the first level of exhaustion and maybe have advantage on CON checks (or a flat bonus) when enduring lack of air/food/whatever?

Thank you, BGanon.

I find this very helpful.

 

[fewilcox]

Since we only play D&D at Encounters we play it by RAW, but apply the GM's brain to it. Take for example the fight with four bandits who had captured a bear in chapter 1 of Princes of the Apocalypse. Our druid froze the hinges so the bear could free itself. It mauled two of them, dragging one off into the woods to be lunch. They are obviously dead. I hit another with Eldritch Blast (1d10+3 + 10' push), intending to knock him out by throwing him into a tree, but overdid it and accidentally cracked open his melon instead. So that's another one dead. In hindsight it was a pretty stupid way to try and subdue someone, but she does tend to be pretty impulsive, so things like that happen a lot.

I have used that spell several other times to successfully subdue guys for questioning, but burning hands tends to not work out so well. Naturally, if that bear had been the druid rather than a real bear, she could have mauled them into submission. So new rules aren't really needed as long as you take advantage of the fact that the game is adjudicated by a human being rather than a computer.

It took quite a lot of arm twisting to get me to first try D&D 4e since I don't generally like class-/level-based games, and especially because I loathe 3e and its descendants, but one of things I really like about the last two editions is the lack of special rules for subdual damage. We now run it the same way in all of our campaigns (mostly GURPS but sometimes HackMaster 5e).

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

HP are representations of both actual damage you can take and also a whole bunch of little nicks, dodges out of the way, weapon being turned onto the armour at the last second, exhaustion, luck, etc.
The last few hit points (maybe even just the last one) represent the fatal damage. Let's say you whittle a monster down from 45 HP in a fight and he's now on 5HP remaining. The 40 damage you dealt him could have included a dozen nicks, one unpleasant but nonfatal puncture, five nasty bruises, a raft of notches in his armour, and a broken thumb. But when you roll damage now and it comes up 5 or more - that's when you can decide to set your phasers to stun or kill, so to speak.
You'd tell the DM, "I want to knock him out" at that point. Or, if you don't speak up, the DM will describe for you how beautiful the crimson jet of blood is that spurts from the hole in your foe's throat. So, best be quick!

 

[Riley37]

Barrelhouse, can chiding damage be nonlethal?