Will death knell kill a troll at or below -1 hp

[Gaiden]

Yes or No?

 

[kreynolds]

From the SRD:

If the subject fails its saving throw, it dies...

I'd have to say that's a big fat "Yes".

 

[Nareau]

Assuming it fails its save...

SRD sez:

Upon casting this spell, the character touches a living creature with –1 hit points or lower. If the subject fails its saving throw, it dies

 

[hong]

Yes or No?

Yes. The trick will be taking it down to -1 hp or below, however. To do that, you'll essentially have to keep whacking it with flaming or acid attacks. And if you can do that, you might as well CDG it when it's down....

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Re: Will death knell kill a troll at or below -1 hp

And if you can do that, you might as well CDG it when it's down....

Ah, but you get such a spiffy +1 caster level bonus and some other neato stuff if you use the spell instead.

 

[Hejdun]

Yes. The trick will be taking it down to -1 hp or below, however. To do that, you'll essentially have to keep whacking it with flaming or acid attacks. And if you can do that, you might as well CDG it when it's down....

You only need it to be down for one round, and then there are obvious reasons why Death Knell is superior to a CDG. It will make you more powerful, it will work if you don't have any acid/flaming, and... well, that's all, but I don't see why CDG it would be better than Death Knelling it.

 

[Gromm]

You only need it to be down for one round, and then there are obvious reasons why Death Knell is superior to a CDG. It will make you more powerful, it will work if you don't have any acid/flaming, and... well, that's all, but I don't see why CDG it would be better than Death Knelling it.

Remember that subdual damage (ie anything but fire or acid) greater than your hit points is NOT the same as having -1 hps.

So for example if you beat a troll down with swords and the like, doing 500 points of damage thats 500 points of subdual damage. It still has ALL of its hit points, and thus Death Knell would do nothing to it.

So you can Death Knell it if you acid and fire it till its dying, but its not really an advantage over any other creature.

Also for the record, you can't CDG a downed troll, unless you are somehow using fire or acid to do it. (As per the Regeneration description in the DMG).

 

[Gaiden]

Yeah, completely slipped my mind about the subdual damage not being equivalent to the -1 HP.

That completely negates the effectiveness of what I was planning to do (have my warrior friends smack the thing into submission with their weapons and then go suck the life from it).

But thanks all, appreciate the info.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

You get an "A" for effort.

 

[Gaiden]

thanks zoom

(by any chance have you ever heard the birthday song by zoom from the moon?)