What happens when characters take massive amounts of non-lethal damage? Specifically, I'm thinking of the brown mold dealing 3d6 non-lethal but what happens once a character is knocked unconscious? Do they just keep taking non-lethal damage and stay unconscious until they are pulled out or die of thirst? Does non-lethal damage turn lethal at some point? What happens when the mold doubles in size from a careless flame and is now covering the character? I'm just wondering how other DMs have handled this in game. Thanks in advance.
What happens when characters take massive amounts of non-lethal damage? Specifically, I'm thinking of the brown mold dealing 3d6 non-lethal but what happens once a character is knocked unconscious? Do they just keep taking non-lethal damage and stay unconscious until they are pulled out or die of thirst? Does non-lethal damage turn lethal at some point? What happens when the mold doubles in size from a careless flame and is now covering the character? I'm just wondering how other DMs have handled this in game. Thanks in advance.
From the SRD: "Cold and exposure deal nonlethal damage to the victim. This nonlethal damage cannot be recovered until the character gets out of the cold and warms up again. Once a character is rendered unconscious through the accumulation of nonlethal damage, the cold and exposure begins to deal lethal damage at the same rate."
Since the Brown Mold deals nonlethal damage due to cold, this is probably what should happen. Being rendered unconscious by the cold means they'll be taking lethal cold damage until they're either removed from the effect or killed.
Also from the SRD: 'A character who takes any nonlethal damage from cold or exposure is beset by frostbite or hypothermia (treat her as fatigued). These penalties end when the character recovers the nonlethal damage she took from the cold and exposure."
Basically, if the brown mold drops the whole party into negatives, they are to kiss their characters good-bye.
Case in point: See Age of Worms Obituaries...and find my post therein :)