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<blockquote data-quote="Prestidigitalis" data-source="post: 5193866" data-attributes="member: 74496">DEFCON 1: I've always pictured subdual as more like &quot;you pull your punch&quot; -- you hit the guy with the hilt of your sword instead of impaling him.&nbsp; I know, it's hard to translate that to fireballs, but it's still the picture I have.&nbsp; So it's easy to see why a DM might say &quot;You didn't tell me you were pulling your punch, so you didn't.&quot;The problem is that you can go into a combat encounter with (for example) the chief lieutenant of the BBEG, intending to subdue him or her so that you can question and find out what the BBEG's plans are, and then forget at the last moment -- which might not even be obvious due to the lack of clarity on how close someone is to death -- to say &quot;I'm trying to subdue.&quot;&nbsp; Oops, in the heat of the battle, you forgot, and now it's too late.It might be argued that this is a good thing -- that it simulates the heat of battle and the fact that an enraged combatant might indeed forget to keep a prisoner alive.Anyway, I'm really just interested in how people play it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Prestidigitalis, post: 5193866, member: 74496"] DEFCON 1: I've always pictured subdual as more like "you pull your punch" -- you hit the guy with the hilt of your sword instead of impaling him. I know, it's hard to translate that to fireballs, but it's still the picture I have. So it's easy to see why a DM might say "You didn't tell me you were pulling your punch, so you didn't." The problem is that you can go into a combat encounter with (for example) the chief lieutenant of the BBEG, intending to subdue him or her so that you can question and find out what the BBEG's plans are, and then forget at the last moment -- which might not even be obvious due to the lack of clarity on how close someone is to death -- to say "I'm trying to subdue." Oops, in the heat of the battle, you forgot, and now it's too late. It might be argued that this is a good thing -- that it simulates the heat of battle and the fact that an enraged combatant might indeed forget to keep a prisoner alive. Anyway, I'm really just interested in how people play it. [/QUOTE]

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