Often forgotten until the party is faced with a human shield, nonlethal damage is more than just an annoyance to be overcome. It is, in my opinion, something we should all be using a great deal more of in our games.
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| The champ's never lost a fight. Not only that, he's never killed anybody. |
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How Does Nonlethal Damage Work, Again?
Most of us don't actually bother reading up on nonlethal damage, so a refresher is probably a good thing to have at this point. The short version is that nonlethal damage is its own category of damage, tracked separately from your lethal damage. When your nonlethal damage meets your current hit points, you are staggered, and when it exceeds your current hit points you fall unconscious.
So far so normal, right?
What you'll notice, though, is that non-lethal damage doesn't cause someone to bleed out. Additionally, nonlethal damage that exceeds a creature's current hit point total just rolls over and becomes lethal damage (barring regeneration, which is a special case). Additionally, nonlethal damage heals at a different rate than lethal damage does. Nonlethal damage heals at a rate of character level per hour, as opposed to per long rest. Not only that, but spells and abilities which heal damage heal lethal damage, and then an equal amount of nonlethal damage.
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| No worries, I'll be right as rain in no time. |
Okay... So What Do You Do With It?
At first blush, nonlethal damage seems like one of those extraneous things you'd never bother with. Sure, it's a good way to represent damage done by harsh environments and forced marching, but for a lot of players it feels like just one more thing to track. After all, if you're going to roll initiative, why would you bother with beating and bruising an enemy?
And the answer to that question is one that opens a lot of doors... for players and Game Masters alike.
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| I told you... stay down. |
How many times have you, as a Game Master, wanted to capture the party rather than killing them? And if you've found yourself in that scenario, how easy was it to mess up and to do too much lethal damage, outright killing them before your bad guys could tie them up and haul them off (especially if your group rolls in full view)? Well, if you focus on nonlethal damage (or a generous mix of lethal and nonlethal damage) you can knock the PCs out without worrying about them bleeding out on you. Not only that, but if you use this as a prequel to a jail break or escape arc, then you won't have to wait for literal weeks of in-game time as their bodies knit together; even a brutal beating is going to heal up in no more than a day or so, allowing you to get back into the action while the bruises fade.
Nonlethal damage is also particularly good for changing up your challenges without worrying about going too far. For example, say you've got party members who want to train with one another. Or they just want to throw down to settle a grudge. Using nonlethal damage is a good way to have that fight without needing to get the cleric involved afterward. You could even use this for prize fights, public duels, or other challenges that are meant as an aside or a distraction. Bar fights are also a good place to bring out nonlethal damage, allowing your party to get in on the action without worrying about cleaving through half a dozen townsfolk with every blow.
Lastly, there are a number of valid character builds one can use involving nonlethal damage. Perhaps the most infamous is the Sap Master feat tree, which gives bonuses on sneak attack damage to those using bludgeoning weapons to deal nonlethal damage (which can be paired with the feat Bludgeoner to expand your range of weapons). Another handy use is the Enforcer feat, which allows you to make an Intimidate check against a foe as a free action whenever you deal nonlethal damage with a melee weapon, leaving them shaken for a number of rounds equal to damage dealt. Not an insignificant thing, if you want to give enemies long-term debuffs that will haunt them for an entire combat.
The difficult part is, of course, that you need to plan for using nonlethal damage. Whether it's carrying a nonlethal weapon like a sap, having a weapon enchantment that allows you to deal nonlethal damage at-will, or getting a feat like Bludgeoner or Improved Unarmed Strike (or just the class feature from monk or brawler) are a few examples. Everyone else has to take a -4 penalty on attacks, because it's harder than you'd think to use a lethal weapon to incapacitate someone than to just kill them.
It's All The Rage in Kintargo Right Now, Though!
While a lot of Pathfinder games utterly eschew nonlethal damage, it's proven extremely useful in my current Hell's Rebels campaign. Aside from undead, outsiders, and NPC antagonists who were utterly evil and debased beyond the point of redemption, one could count the number of NPC deaths in this campaign on one hand. Which is saying something given that we've led jail breaks, smashed the base of support for the Chelish Citizen's Group, destroyed a cult, and have done enough damage to the city's police force that they utterly refuse to go into an entire district without hellknight supervision/backup.
Incidentally, for those who are curious, the Silver Raven Chronicles has 4 installments at time of writing. I'd like to keep it going, but that requires readers and demand... so check it out if you're of a mind!
- Part One: Devil's Night: A mysterious vigilante prowls the streets of Kintargo.
- Part Two: From The Ashes: A protest becomes a riot as the new "mayor" attempts to establish control.
- Part Three: The Raven's Nest: The burgeoning rebellion establishes a secret base.
- Part Four: Circles in Salt: The Ghost joins the Silver Ravens, striking a blow against Thrune.
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My new low-level Gloomblade has been running Enforcer tricks. He just picked up Bludgeoner which should kick them into high gear as he won't need to be swapping weapons - it feels like a bit of a feat tax for using Intimidate in combat, but it should work out better than Hurtful in the long run, I'm thinking, which was my other option. (I was thinking Hurtful + Dazzling Display, but weapon focus isn't ideal for a Gloomblade).
ReplyDeleteBoy I'm a bit late to the party on this one. I've made good use of nonlethal damage on a few of my builds. Being able to knock someone out without risk of death is pretty handy for RP reasons of course, but I've always had some builds using it. Both involving Rogue, funny enough.
ReplyDeleteEnforcer pairs insanely well with the Thug archetype of Rogue, whose 1st level ability lets them replace a shaken effect of 4 rounds or longer caused by intimidate with 1 round of frightened instead, and whose 3rd level ability lets you drop your sneak attack damage by a die to inflict sickened. -4 to all rolls (-2 to damage rolls) and being forced to retreat if not cornered is a hell of a thing, and you can get frightened on hit at level 1 with this build. Take the Fiery Glare Ifrit race trait (possibly through Adopted) and you can take 10 on intimidate checks, which can guarantee it against some enemies. Nasty combo. I combined this with a whip-focused build to make a sort of phantom thief style character, and though it wasn't as well put together as I could've made it, being able to sicken, shaken, trip, disarm, and/or debilitating strike foes consistently meant I did a dang good job with crowd control without ever having to kill anyone unnecessarily.
For Sap Mastery, I tend to get both Swashbuckler archetype Rogue (not to be confused with the Hybrid class!) and Scout archetype. Scout lets you treat the target as flat-footed at the end of the charge, guaranteeing the doubled SA dice, and Swashbuckler gives you a martial proficiency and the option to pick Combat Trick one more time for the extra combat feat. I use a Hooked Shield Boss on a Light Shield and get Light Shield Bash proficiency, the former letting me Trip using the shield to attack, but instead of inflicting Prone, it inflicts Flat-footed. Sap wielded in the other hand, and eventually Greater Trip and Combat Reflexes, makes for a lot of nonlethal damage. If I get to play this build, I hope to eventually add on Combat Patrol for fluff-appropriateness and to get another option for Sneak Attacks (8th level scout lets you SA on your next attack in a round if you move 10 ft first, great synergy).
The fluff of the latter is a reformed criminal working as a member of the city guard, plying their experience in the underworld and with nonlethal take downs to undo some of the damage they feel they helped cause.
Nonlethal damage is especially helpful if your opponent is a friendly person under possession. It's also good if you want prisoners for reward or interrogation.
ReplyDeleteThe thug archetype of rogue works well in combination with the Enforcer feat.
If you are a wildshaping druid, the Frostbite spell adds fatigue, 1d6 + level of nonlethal cold damage, and (if you use Rime metamagic feat/rod) entanglement to each natural attack. Depending upon GM interpretation, that might qualify for the Enforcer feat as well.
If you like blast spells, consider the Merciful metamagic feat/rod at +0 levels or 1500 gp. I use this when I can't get a clean shot (due to e.g. a rash barbarian teammate or a hostage situation); drop a fireball into the room and sort clean from dirty later. It's also a sound tactic when regular foes are in melee against immune friendlies; send in the undead to engage, then nonlethally fry them all.