Non-Lethal/Subdual Damage - How Do You Handle?

[petespahn]

Just wondering what kind of house rules you use for this. Things like barroom brawls are such a common trope in most games that I can't understand why they don't get covered more. I know about the 75% subdual damage optional rule, but always like to see other "fixes" in case there's something more seamless. I hate math!

Here's mine:

All damage is considered subdual damage (whether by fists or weapons such as chairs, clubs, flat of the blade, etc.) that heals at the rate of 1 hp/turn except for a number of hp equal to the number of times the character was struck (so basically, every attack does 1 hp of "real damage"). If reduced to 0 hp, the character is knocked unconscious for one turn when he revives at 1 hp. If the character is reduced to 0 hp and the subdual damage was caused by a weapon, the character must make a saving throw vs. poison or else half of the damage is considered "real" (the character can only recover 1 hp/turn up to half his normal hp).

[elf23]

I handle non-lethal damage exactly the same as real damage during combat, with the one exception that it cannot kill -- a non-lethal blow which reduces a character to 0 or less hp would just knock them unconcious.

In terms of healing hp lost due to non-lethal damage, I've never come up with a specific system, but would say that characters can recover the lost hp after a short rest. Your 1hp/turn of rest sounds reasonable.

except for a number of hp equal to the number of times the character was struck (so basically, every attack does 1 hp of "real damage").

I see what you're getting at with this, but it seems pretty fiddly to me.

[greyarea]

I agree with elf23.

I also judge that lethal spells and certain weapons cannot be used in "non-lethal" ways -- e.g. fireball or lightning or arrows.

[petespahn]

I see what you're getting at with this, but it seems pretty fiddly to me.

It is, in the sense that I have to make a tick mark whenever the PC gets hit and total them up at the end. Not really a problem, but definitely something some LLs are going to find too distracting and/or unnecessary. My reasoning of course is that if you get walloped enough times, it's going to hurt, so you should take _some_ sort of "real" damage. But the way it's currently written it actually hurts a high level PC worse than a low level one in terms of recovery.

Jon the Swordsman a 10th level fighter with 80 hp gets knocked unconscious at 0 hp in a barroom brawl.

Bill the Barkeep with 4 hp gets knocked unconscious at 0 hp in the same brawl.

When Jon recovers, he's at 60 hp.

When Bill recovers a few seconds later he's at 3 hp.

Jon now has to heal 20 hp to get back to full strength while Bill is 100% after just a single night's rest. Something just didn't feel right about that. Now of course my way, means that Bill the Barkeep can only be struck a maximum of 4 times before taking enough damage to kill him, but I can live with that since he's probably only going to take one or two punches before being knocked out anyway.

[merias]

I like the S&W complete method - subdual damage is half real and half subdual, zero HP is unconscious, although with damage being half real, it is possible to actually get killed if the 'real' damage brings you below zero by itself. You get subdual damage back at a rate of 1HP/hour.