Subdual Coup de Grace

[evilmarshal]

Last game session a situation arose that one PC wanted to Coup de Grace a Held character with subdual damage and cause him to fall unconcious. Now as the description for CdG specifically states a Fort save or die, this was not allowed.

Thinking back though it seems as though a workable solution could be found.

My idea is to keep the Fort save etc as is by failure results in unconciousness for X rounds. My only concern was how many rounds X should be.

Does anyone have any ideas?

EM

 

[CRGreathouse]

Idea 1. Death = -10 hit points, subdual unconciousness = 10 points more subdual damage than hit points. You remain out until you heal (a few hours).
Idea 2. Unconcousness = Assassin death attack = 1d6 rounds

 

[evilmarshal]

I like the look of Idea 1. Thanks for the input.

EM

 

[kreynolds]

I'm surprised at you, CRGreathouse. Bending the rules like that. They could also just use a magic subdual weapon. They would have to in my games because I don't allow moves like that. Too unbalancing. There's a good reason you can't just knock someone out anymore.

 

[Dieter]

Having witnessed (and been part) of a few fist fights, it's really hard to knock someone out. You'd be surprised at the amount of abuse John-Q-Public can take. That's also the reason why boxing matches last as long as they do. In D&D terms, everyone is basically waiting for the critical attack.

 

[Hadraniel]

isn't a sap for the purpose of knocking people out? Sometimes I get game systems all mixed up. But I think in the players handbook the sap can choose to do subdual with no penalty to attack roles and such. Just have your guys carry a sap around.

 

[Dieter]

We actually had a magical sap in a game I played in. For every 1pt of damage done, they was a 5% chance of knocking the person unconscious.

 

[Omegium]

A sap is in the game, at the martial weapons. 1d6 subdual, blunt. Can be magically, to do 1d6+5 subdual.

 

[kreynolds]

isn't a sap for the purpose of knocking people out? Sometimes I get game systems all mixed up. But I think in the players handbook the sap can choose to do subdual with no penalty to attack roles and such. Just have your guys carry a sap around.

A sap cannot deal lethal damage at all, unless you have magical enhancements on it, like flaming, frost, etc.

 

[DM_Matt]

I'd have it do the normal amount of subdual dmg + the creature's current hp.