Non-Lethal Kills


Gamer Life General Discussion


1 person marked this as a favorite.

As the title says, what have been some of the most notable or favorite moments where someone was killed, directly or indirectly, using a spell, weapon, or other effect that is normally supposed to be nonlethal?

I'm still kinda new to this, so I only have two: One I saw, and one I did.

The one I saw was in Shadowrun. We were fighting a group of Dwarven terrorists in an abandoned shopping mall. One of them was lying prone in a dry fountain, so our Shaman quietly put an invisible wall of force right over the top like a lid. Good thing too, as the dwarf's next action happened to be an attempt to toss a canister of Mustard gas in our direction. As you might have guessed, it didn't end well for him.

The one I did was in Wrath of the Righteous. An enemy Sorcerer was hiding levitated near the ceiling of a cavern. Out of my normal Basting spells, I blasted him straight up with Hydraulic Push. He slammed into the ceiling, which knocked him out. Gravity finished him off.


Can't remember which adventure, but we go into a bar. I'm a level 3 barbarian. We have a level 2 paladin, and a couple of whatevers.

So we're supposed to collect information from this guy at the bar. We get in there, he accuses us of a crime, all the bar folk attack. After we realized they were all CR 1/2 commoners (first one made quite a splat) paladin implored (nagged) me into using nonlethal damage.

Next round was that barbarians first ever crit. That poor commoner didn't stand a chance.

Alternatively, ambushed at dinner table. Enormous armored warrior leaps up drawing his sword. I grab a turkey and proceed to beat him into unconsciousness two handing it.


Recent: in Skull & Shackles, my gnome sorceress regularly uses hydraulic push to knock enemies off the deck into shark-infested waters.

A while ago, a fighter in my game accidentally beat an enemy to death with nonlethal damage in a barroom brawl. It was bad-- he was arrested and charged with murder. The PCs broke him out of jail, and my urban campaign got shot to hell as the PCs became outlaws and ran for the hills.

Then there's the old "cast hold monster on a winged flying opponent trick."

Or the one-two punch of flesh to stone followed by transmute rock to mud.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

In a high-level game, the Sap Master rogue flanked a commoner in a bar brawl and hit for some 30 non-lethal damage. Unfortunately the commoner only had 11 total HP and had already taken non-lethal before. A single hit outright killed him.

Dark Archive

Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, IIRC. A dragon is sweeping in and out of the room breathing and running. Somebody points out that the corridors are kind of small, and he's breathing awful hard for such a small-looking dragon, and on the next flyby, a magic ring is noted on one of his claws. A dispel magic flies out, and sure enough, he was magically reduced in size. Returning to full size in the small corridor turned him into gooey tube-of-meat-shaped dragon giblets.

Wall of force seems like a fun way to brutally stop flying creatures moving at speed, or a cavalry charge, or bison stampede, as well. (Or wall of stone, ice, prismatic death, etc. although they are more visible.) Never did it in D&D, but did wreck a dragon in GURPS with the GURPS magic equivalent (force dome).


So far in my current campaign, each time the ranger player tried to down a target for interrogation with blunt arrows, he'd rolled a critical and then high on damage. Because of superfluous subdual damage becoming lethal, this put one baddy so far into the negatives as to preclude waking him up for days (non-magic campaign) and outright killed a night guard they were trying to bypass without killing him.

It's become a running joke that he'll tease the idea of using a blunt arrow if he really needs to accidentally a tough opponent.


Fun fact #1: Attackers scaling walls do not appreciate either Color Spray or Sleep being cast upon them. Gravity is a harsh mistress.

Fun fact #2: No, the Drow cleric does not appreciate her bodyguard making out with her in the middle of the battle. I think a second Unnatural Lust spell would have cured her of those inhibitions, but I only had one prepared. Sorry nameless bodyguard!


Just had another one in Shadowrun: my character is babysitting another PC, a somewhat psychotic young girl with a knack for explosives, the day after Christmas, when we've gotten word that a terrorist group we've beenooking for is gonna attack several Aztechnology-owned malls and Stuffer Shacks. Aztech, for their part, has beefed up security by stationing Jaguar Warriors at each location.

We figure the attack is going down when an Ice-cream truck shows up at the mall (it's the middle of freaking ' winter here). A dude comes out with a box and walks right past the elite Jaguar Guard with a box. The kid and I try to check out the truck, which is full of clown-faced thugs. After convincing the terrorists to sell us an ice cream bar, I try to force the situation by instructing the kid to pull one of her favorite tricks: giving them a teddy bear with a stun grenade in it, and retreating to what we figured was a safe distance before detonating it.

How was I to know the truck was loaded with Nitroglycerin?

We survived the blast, and the Jag earned his keep by promptly gunning down the delivery guy, who thankfully was only carrying dynamite.

Community / Forums / Gamer Life / General Discussion / Non-Lethal Kills All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in General Discussion