The merciful fusion only matters if it makes the killing blow, so it would just be insurance against utter failure anyway.
If one wants to be a healer, one shouldn't have to worry about hurting your allies with the tool.
A merciful fusion doesn't stop you from hurting, just killing with a final blow.
If one wants to be a healer, one shouldn't have to worry about hurting your allies with the tool.
A merciful weapon is nonlethal, not harmless. You're still hurting them with it. If that final blow would drop them down to bleeding out and at risk of dying, then it instead just leaves them unconscious and vulnerable. Otherwise, there's no difference.
|
I understand that, but nonlethal doesn't deal HP damage until the target is unconscious. Nonlethal Damage is healed when a target is healed or after a full rest. It makes the threat much lower than if I had to deal lethal damage, heal the damage I dealt and what ever damage was on before.
That's not how it works in Starfinder.
I understand that, but nonlethal doesn't deal HP damage until the target is unconscious. Nonlethal Damage is healed when a target is healed or after a full rest. It makes the threat much lower than if I had to deal lethal damage, heal the damage I dealt and what ever damage was on before.
That's no longer true. Nonlethal damage is now exactly the same as lethal damage, and not tracked separately. The only difference is on the knockout blow.
You are thinking in pathfinder rules. In starfinder nonlethal and lethal are pretty much equivalent. The type of damage on the last hit only determines if you are knocked out but stable, or if you are dying.
Ninja'd hard
Yes, by RAW that is what would happen.
Based on the First Contact PDF preview monsters, there are still things like Construct immunities, Undead immunities etc. could be that some of those will provide defense or immunity to non-lethal as well? Hard to know until Alien Archive comes out.
It was mentioned in the PFS Scenario clarification/errata thread I linked in my earlier post that undead immunities does include an immunity to nonlethal damage.
I see. Thank you all for the clarification. If that is the case why even have a distinction between the two, if you can just decide at the end to kill or not kill them? (Serious question. I am not that bright)
Where does it say you get to decide to kill them or not at the end? As far as I know, you don't get the choice at the end to kill or not kill them. See page 250 of the CRB.
If you deal lethal damage to drop them to zero hit points, they are bleeding out and in danger of dying unless they stabilize somehow (up to the GM, and generally within 3 rounds). If you use non-lethal to drop them to zero hit points, then that doesn't happen.
I see. Thank you all for the clarification. If that is the case why even have a distinction between the two, if you can just decide at the end to kill or not kill them? (Serious question. I am not that bright)
Same reason why less-than-lethal weapons exist in the real world; so that you can incapacitate somebody with much lower risk of killing them or sending them to the emergency room. If you're doing that, you probably want your whole party using merciful weapons.
Or maybe get everyone a bunch of weapon with the Stun quality. With them, you get to choose exactly how lethal you want to be.
Or maybe get everyone a bunch of weapon with the Stun quality. With them, you get to choose exactly how lethal you want to be.
Merciful works the same way, fortunately. Much handier than the Pathfinder version.