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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 6104905" data-attributes="member: 92305">(Note: I wrote this in reference to my Conan RPG game, which is based on 3.5 d20. D&Ders should easily understand the two examples though I expressed them in Conan terms.)The basic 3.5 rule for non-lethal damage has always bugged me a bit because it allows a gang to collectively clobber a person with 100% certainty that the victim will only take non-lethal damage. I've always felt that there should be some chance of beating a person to death when you're trying to just beat them unconscious.To that end, here's a rule tweak that I'm going to try out in my game. The standard non-lethal damage rules apply except for these two points:1. Critical damage is always applied as lethal damage.2. Non-lethal damage applied to an unconscious character is considered lethal damage.Using this rule tweak, there is now a small chance that a victim can be beat to death inadvertantly. For example, let's say Paul the Pict has 3 HP left, and his adversary, Carl the Cimmerian, wants to capture Paul in order to interrogate him about the location of Paul's tribe. Carl the Cimmerian is going to use the flat of his sword in order to deliver nonlethal damage and capture the Pict. Carl takes the -4 penalty to hit, per the rules, but he rolls a natural 20 on the attack throw. The Critical is checked to indicate that Carl does double damage with his weapon.Damage is rolled and applied to Paul as lethal damage, possibly killing or severely injuring the Pict. This illustrates the first exception noted above.Another example would be Carl the Cimmerian, fighting with his bare hands, against Paul the Pict. Carl, using a full action to attack with both fists, attacks Paul, who only has 3 hp left. Carl is attacking unarmed, so any damage he does is considered nonlethal, as described in the rules. Both of Carl's attacks hit, the first doing 5 points of damage, and the second doing 4 points of damage. Thus, the first attack renders Paul unconscious, with a total of 3 HP and 5 Nonlethal Damage Points. At this point, Paul is considered unconscious, though, so the second hit does lethal damage (4 points). Paul end the round at -1 HP. This is an example of the second rule tweak shown above.Now, with this tweak, players can no longer be 100% certain that they can subdue the dragon!  Keep an NPC's hit points secret, and knocking somebody out becomes a problem more reflective of real life.</blockquote>

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