Merciful?

[Von Marshal]

Did you not used to be able to deal nonlethal damage with spells or melee strikes, just by choosing to do so?
Did that rule ever exist or am i dreaming?
Why do you have to have feats now to pull a punch?

[TriOmegaZero]

Combat wrote:

Nonlethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Lethal Damage: You can use a melee weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage instead, but you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll.

Source.

[Von Marshal]

Cool so you can still do it with melee weapons.
But you have to use a feat to nonlethal a spell.
Looks like a rod of merciful spell (lesser) maybe a good purchase.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Or just use stuff like grease, entangle, web, sleep, color spray, hold person, etc... to subdue someone w/o doing damage at all.