Who Is Ellen - 111 - HD
Added 2023-03-23 03:46:11 +0000 UTCMechanical clarification.
Commentary
Poor Larry's just "um, I asked the question. Shouldn't I be focused on in panel two?"
And I'm just "NO. This is actually about Nanase for some reason."
Comments
Nonlethal damage was, if I recall correctly, introduced in one of the many optional supplementary volumes in 2nd ed. But that was a really long time ago and I'm likely to get confused in the specific details of how it was implemented between that and other games I was playing at the time, so I'm not going to attempt to explain how it worked, other than to say it wasn't exactly like it was in 3e.
Some Ed
2023-03-24 02:44:09 +0000 UTCYeah, tho it's not much of a stretch to play hp as a sort of endurance that when you run out of, you collapse. So a fireball overheats and goes bang, thunderwave does knockback and taser-like effect, ice finger chills and uses up their blood sugar to stay warm...
Crissa Kentavr
2023-03-23 20:50:58 +0000 UTCIt's pretty much a 5e standard, yes. Although it's technically only with melee attacks. The 5e Player's Handbook as stated on nonlethal damage: "When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable." That being said, while rules as written state only melee applies, most everyone agrees that "Rule 0" trumps everything, ie "These are just guidelines and the DM gets the final say on any rulings." So in Ellen's case here, it's a perfectly valid house ruling, especially since George agrees
KC
2023-03-23 18:09:53 +0000 UTCYeah, a DM can always work around it if they want to. The wizard that cast fireball not realizing that it only does lethal damage might find that the guy he didn't want to kill isn't just naturally tall, but that he actually has some orc blood in him, as Relentless Endurance kicks in to pop him back up at 1 HP.
AstroChaos
2023-03-23 15:22:32 +0000 UTC@ Jason P. If you were explicitly trying to go the PG route, you could let spells like fireball somehow have kinetic energy, like a giant flaming bowling ball of sorts. You know, kinda like how firebenders work in Avatar: the Last Airbender. Admittedly, it'd be rather hard to kid-ify spells like Power Word: Kill or Disintegrate, but the DM doesn't necessarily have to let those spells exist in their world if they don't want them to. If the group wants play a certain way, you can always adjust the rules to fit their play style. The rules, after all, are just a guideline, not laws set in stone. All this being said, I do agree with you completely.
wargrunt42
2023-03-23 14:15:48 +0000 UTCIn 5e you can declare it, but you still have to be doing some kind of attack that could actually be non-lethal. A fighter can decide to smack an enemy up side their head with the butt of their sword, but a fireball is still gonna burn someone to a crisp, no matter how loudly the wizard yells that he didn't mean to π
AstroChaos
2023-03-23 11:50:02 +0000 UTC> In D&D, you always have the choice to declare your attack to be non-leathal. Is this a 5e thing? In 3e, you could declare it, but unless your attack was unarmed or using something specifically designed to knock someone out, like a sap, you took penalties to hit to do nonlethal damage with ordinarily lethal damage. Attacks were generally assumed to be lethal, unless otherwise specified. 2e didn't even have a nonlethal damage system, but rather a very small percentage chance of knocking someone out on the unarmed combat table. I don't recall how 4e handled things.
Daryl Sawyer
2023-03-23 11:39:03 +0000 UTCThe first RPG I ever played was a game called Shadowrun. If you've never heard of it, it's like role playing in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, but with magic and meta-humans! Physical and Stun damage were tracked separately and in the edition I played, everyone had the same amount of health on both trackers. If you wanted to be non-leathal, you had to specifically spec into the right equipment or magical powers to do so. In D&D, you always have the choice to declare your attack to be non-leathal. While this choice is usually left up to the players, the DM could rule that unless otherwise specified, all damage is non-leathal by default. To me, killing an enemy in a TTRPG is not morally different from killing an enemy in a video game. Personally, I enjoy the imaginary violence, thus I tend to play characters that indulge my inner murderhobo. It all depends on the style of play you want to have. As long as everyone is having fun, that's all that matters.
wargrunt42
2023-03-23 10:31:06 +0000 UTCI found out a bit late that, despite everything RPGs had taught me in the past, killing people was actually frowned upon in our modern societies. It is a good thing that this point is being raised in this discussion.
RΓ©my
2023-03-23 09:11:11 +0000 UTCIt's like a camra sweep this way you feel the elusion of the third dimension.
James David White
2023-03-23 06:49:54 +0000 UTC
