Hit for less

[My Self]

If a player was able to hit for 2d6+18, but only wanted to hit for 4 damage, how do you handle this? If they want to hit for an exact and/or smaller amount than their minimum damage, do you let them? If, say, an Orc Fighter 1 wanted to keep their Half-Elf Commoner 1 target alive, but couldn't even hit nonlethally for fear of slaying their target with nonlethal damage, are there any reasons to not let them deal less than lethal damage?

[Ms. Pleiades]

Use a gauntlet for a weapon instead of a greatsword with power attack.

[GM Rednal]

I don't think this is in the rules, per se, but as a GM I'd allow people to take the same penalty as nonlethal damage to hit for less than the amount they roll (and if they have things to make nonlethal hits easier, that'd also apply). This makes it easier to do things like capture foes and take them alive should the PCs wish to do so, and I am emphatically in favor of increasing the narrative-affecting abilities of players. XD

[Lord Wimpy]

Grappling is also an option, if the fighter carries rope he can bind the target.

[avr]

Agree with Rednal, but if you want a RAW answer - you could use a greatsword as an improvised bludgeoning weapon easily enough.

[My Self]

Thanks for the quick answers, guys!

[Deadalready]

Non lethal is the way to go, you take -4 on your attacks but deal all your damage as non lethal instead. At the end of the day the person hit will still become unconscious once he runs out of hp anyway.

[Rennaivx]

Non-lethal turns to lethal once they're knocked out, though, so you can still kill someone with a strong enough non-lethal hit. Like Rednal said, I'd probably go with using the same penalty as non-lethal damage to let them ignore their static damage bonuses or something - it seems the simplest solution, and appropriate.

[Snowblind]

Rennaivx wrote:

Non-lethal turns to lethal once they're knocked out, though, so you can still kill someone with a strong enough non-lethal hit.

...

I actually had this happen last session. One of my PCs, an unmonk with dragon style, decided to non-lethally coup de grace a sleeping enemy(I ignored the fort save vs death, because that is silly). They dealt 50+ non-lethal damage...to a crappy 13 hp mook. We played it as if the monk "accidentally" snapped the guy's neck with a karate chop.