Stealth Help

[irdeggman]

(Recently, my 7th level rogue started a combat without his weapons. Rather than spend a turn retrieving them, he started punching opponents with his fists, since the sneak attack damage is most of the damage he does, regardless of his weapons.)

Well unless your rogue has unarmed strike the sneak attack damage done via an unarmed strike (or using a sap) is non-lethal damage.

PHb pg 50

With a sap (blackjack) or an unarmed strike, a rogue can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. She cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the -4 penalty, because she must make optimal use of her weapon in order to execute a senak attack.

 

[udalrich]

Well unless your rogue has unarmed strike the sneak attack damage done via an unarmed strike (or using a sap) is non-lethal damage.

He doesn't, but unless there's a healer around, non-lethal damage is just as effective as lethal against humanoids. (It doesn't matter if you have -1 hit point and no non-lethal damage or 49 hit points and 50 lethal damage: you're still unconscious.) In fact in our group, it's slightly better, since my group tends to prefer to capture and turn over to the authorities rather than just killing villains. It's also makes interrogation easier if you don't have to worry about them bleeding out while you finish the fight.