D&D 5E Pulling your punches

[NotActuallyTim]

Just set a DC and make a strength check. If you want something to be simple, make it simple.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Thanks for the suggestions - it seems like there's not much support for my 1/4 total HP directed to the head (specifically) idea and that's fine . I'll experiment with some of these options the next time the opportunity arises.

Generally its the same issue as any kind of "called shot" system: its a really fine balancing act between "too hard to attempt" and "easiest way to kill everything."

If something is truely a "grunt"; i.e. only a level specific challenge in mass numbers; this is most likely already the case. I'm not sure there really needs to be a rule for this. If the knockout is so trivial one hit will do, just handwave it; if it isn't, subtract the damage and progress naturally from there. Naturally, the subduer should be informed of the trivality, or lack their of, after the attack. #YMMV

Ah. No. I meant "grunt" in terms of a more generic NPC rather than a named or important one. The Rogue isn't going to be one-shotting the BBEG, but Assassins certainly can take out foes who would be more than just massed chaff.

 

[Warbringer]

When playets roll damage ask them how much if that damage do they actually want to do? If they bring a monster to -Con (or some other value of your choice) the damage is enough to kill the monster.

Make sure to communicate how bad the monster looks (should anyway)... Trade off, take the risk it's not enough to knock it out, or risk killing it

 

[Sword of Spirit]

As a player, it feels pretty crappy when you accidentally kill an ally or decapitate innocent guards during a misunderstanding. What is it you are looking to add to the game through adding in a chance of random unintentional homicide?

If they are forcefully hitting someone with the sharp and pointy ends of deadly weapons, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect they might accidentally kill them.

Generally, when you don't want to risk killing someone, you punch them or grapple them, or at least hit them with something less lethal than a few feet of sharpened steel.

So I'm personally leaning toward saying that crits always do lethal damage unless you are fighting unarmed or treating your weapon as an improvised weapon to do non-lethal damage.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yeah - I'm not interested in applying massive damage. I just want players to have the ability to bonk a target on the head and knock them out for a short period of time. They don't have to go into a coma!

It's a pretty common occurrence in adventure stories but seems especially hard to do in the game.

Sure, where it's often used as a fairly heavy-handed device to capture the hero or let a villain get away or otherwise move the plot along...

I think it's especially useful when encountering humanoids which is quite often.

Make it an attack with disadvantage (so better to sneak up on someone if you want to do it). Have the target make a CON save, DC 8 (or less) + attack bonus. If it fails, it's down & stunned or unconscious, save each round, on a success it recovers. Set a relative level and/or damage and/or size threshold if you want an extra layer of difficulty, or use them to determine stunned vs unconscious vs some lesser condition, and feel free to consider many sorts of foes immune (ie, make it more a weakness of humanoids than an immunity that everything else gets).

 

[Kalshane]

I don't think there needs to be a separate system beyond what's already in the rules. As others have said, if you make it too difficult to knock someone out (and having a risk of accidentally killing them falls into this category) no one will ever attempt it. If you make it too easy, then it becomes the solution to any combat. (ie Knock them out and then slit their throat while they're unconscious.)

If the PCs are involved in an infiltration scenario with a bunch of low-level guards that they can kill in one or two hits anyway and they want to knock them out instead, just let them roll for an attack under the normal rules and if they hit, they knock the guy out. If they're dealing with someone who couldn't be taken out in one or two hits, then that person is "too savy" for them to get the drop on them like that and there's going to be a struggle (aka combat) to determine if they can knock them unconscious.

 

[Solandros]

Why not simply allow them to call 'non subdual' damage? it seems far simpler then coming with some complicated mechanism that might just slow the speed of the game? A rogue with sneak attack would be more then capeable of downing unsuspecting guards that way