Nonlethal Damage

[Water Bob]

A 1st level fighter is knocked unconscious due to nonlethal damage. It will be one hour before he regains consciousness, according to the rules.

No magical potions or healing spells or any type of non-natural, sorcerous healing is available.

Is there any way, per the rules, to wake this dude up before the hour is up?

Will the heal skill work?

Can you shake him to wake him?

I know I can house rule anything I want. I'm just curious of how the rules handle this situation.




Let's say two 1st level fighters get into a brawl in the local tavern. One knocks the other unconscious (nonlethal damage from his fists). The barmaid runs over to the downed man and pours a pitcher of water over the downed fighter's head. Is he still unconscious? Does he have to wait the hour, per the rules?

 

[Vegepygmy]

Is there any way, per the rules, to wake this dude up before the hour is up?

If your accumulated nonlethal damage exceeds your current hit points, you're unconscious.

So anything that removes nonlethal damage or increases your current hit points will wake you up. I can't think of any non-magical ways to do that except wait for time to pass, but if there, they should work.

 

[Nebten]

Per the rules, no. Heal skill only stabilizes unconscious characters. It can assist in Long Term Care, but in the end an hour is the soonest a character can heal nonlethal damage.

Remember, the guy got knocked unconscious by trauma, he's not taking a nap you can snap awake with a slap across the face or splash of water.

 

[Greenfield]

Someone suggested something in another thread that almost makes sense.

Soak his head in water. He automatically fails his drowning check, so he immediately goes to zero hit points. This clears his accumulated subdual damage, though it costs him all of his actual hit points. He's now conscious, at zero.

Hey, you only said you wanted him conscious.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Someone suggested something in another thread that almost makes sense.

Soak his head in water. He automatically fails his drowning check, so he immediately goes to zero hit points. This clears his accumulated subdual damage, though it costs him all of his actual hit points. He's now conscious, at zero.

Hey, you only said you wanted him conscious.

Not only works mechanically, but great RP as well. Dunk the guy's head in a bucket for 6 seconds, than pull him up. Nice.

 

[Water Bob]

Actually, the fighter I wrote about in the OP could be out for a lot longer than one hour.

Let's say he's got 11 hit points. He takes 4 points of nonlethal, then another 6 points, then a whammy of 7 points. That's 17 points of nonlethal damage.

That's 6 hours before the dude awakens.

 

[Vespucci]

As a player, I have abused these rules. "OK, we keep hitting the unconscious guards for a few more rounds - we're aiming to put them out for a couple of days."

The notion of nonlethal damage is badly implemented in D20. You can patch it, but when hit points simply "measure how hard you are to kill", there's something suspicious about tracking non-lethal damage separately. You are easier to kill when you've had the stuffing beaten out of you by a gang of toughs, even if they weren't trying to do the deed. IMO, the difference between killing blows and disabling ones is probably better sorted out at the back end (around unconscious/incapacitated/dying).

*: Note that this description from the 3e PHB is erroneous: AC & Saves are part of that same measurement.

 

[domino]

I wonder if the drowning method would work for sticking a knife into him very gently a few times until he wakes up, thus ensuring that he never goes into negative hp.

 

[Water Bob]

As a player, I have abused these rules. "OK, we keep hitting the unconscious guards for a few more rounds - we're aiming to put them out for a couple of days."

For me, the problem with the rule is that the player controls whether the damage is nonlethal or lethal. This should be determined by some other method because, in real life, it's hard to control whether you beat someone to death or just beat them unconscious (and that unconscious person is likely to have some real damage to him like broken bones and internal injuries).

And...

I just see that you've said the same thing in the rest of your post....that's what I get for writing before finishing the whole thing.

I wonder if the drowning method would work for sticking a knife into him very gently a few times until he wakes up, thus ensuring that he never goes into negative hp.

Under the coup de grace rule vs. helpless defender, the weapon does auto max damage and critical hit, and any DM worth his salt would hide the NPC's hp from the players.

That might be a risky proposition.

 

[domino]

But a coup de grace is a full round action, different from a normal attack. Not just any attack against a helpless opponent. So you can just make regular attacks, without needing to be forced to crit.