How does the Merciful Spell metamagic affect the Cloudkill spell? The text of the feat is that all damage inflicted becomes non-lethal damage.
You can alter spells that inflict damage to inflict nonlethal damage instead.
It doesn't restrict itself to hp damage: it just says damage. But Cloudkill is a weird case because it either kills you or causes Con damage.
These vapors automatically kill any living creature with 3 or fewer HD (no save). A living creature with 4 to 6 HD is slain unless it succeeds on a Fortitude save (in which case it takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud).
A living creature with 6 or more HD takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage on your turn each round while in the cloud (a successful Fortitude save halves this damage).
I think you would change "slain/kill" to "knocked unconscious", but there's no such thing as non-lethal ability damage. Would that mean if you made your save, you suffer no effects? Or do you still lose Con, only the lost hp are non-lethal damage?
The feat doesnt work on cloudkill because it doesnt deal hit point damage.
by RAW this ^
Con damage is always lethal. In order to make cloudkill non-lethal, it would need to have Con damage converted to some other ability score.
What about the SoD aspect? That can very easily be converted to "unconscious".
By RAW, I guess it's technically not damage so it wouldn't work. By RAI, though, it might make for a reasonable house rule.
Yeah, it's a fair houserule to allow it to work as knockout gas. If Merciful Disintegrate works (and I think it does) then this could be made to work.
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Honestly you could just rule that in this instance the con damage is only knocked out and not dead.
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What about the SoD aspect? That can very easily be converted to "unconscious".
By RAW, I guess it's technically not damage so it wouldn't work. By RAI, though, it might make for a reasonable house rule.
Instead of trying to shoehorn a cloudkill spell with the merciful feat, why not just research a new spell that does what you want?
Instead of trying to shoehorn a cloudkill spell with the merciful feat, why not just research a new spell that does what you want?
Costs, mostly. My wizard will have the Merciful Spell feat, but whether or not she takes Cloudkill will depend on what my GM says. I'll use the feedback in this thread to help make a proposal.
Researching a spell would certainly work, but it would probably sit at L4 or L5 (using Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill as the bounds) and thus cost at least 4-5k by RAW. But it's my plan B ... assuming it's worth that much to me.
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A non-lethal method of taking out mass targets is a pretty appealing option. I think it stands on it's own merits.
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I'd allow it as a houserule, with half the target's HD in nonlethal damage per round (nonlethal equivalent of 1 Con damage, minus effect on Fort saves). The reduced effect compared to d4 Con balances out the fact that it's more advantageous than researching a new spell.
Instead of trying to shoehorn a cloudkill spell with the merciful feat, why not just research a new spell that does what you want?Costs, mostly. My wizard will have the Merciful Spell feat, but whether or not she takes Cloudkill will depend on what my GM says. I'll use the feedback in this thread to help make a proposal.
Researching a spell would certainly work, but it would probably sit at L4 or L5 (using Stinking Cloud and Cloudkill as the bounds) and thus cost at least 4-5k by RAW. But it's my plan B ... assuming it's worth that much to me.
You can sell the spell after creation to recoup the cost. You'll have some upfront costs, sure, but it should sell like gangbusters to every LG wizard around, as well as to governments, etc. Anyone that wants to potentially pacify a population without harm. Which is pretty much everyone.
For merciful ability damage, you can use ability penalty. If Con penalty goes to matching or exceeding Con score, they go unconscious. Recovery is faster than for damage, just like recovering non-lethal. Say 1 penalty per hour. [Slower or faster to taste.]
/cevah
That makes me think of something. Can you use merciful spell on say, finger of death since it does hp damage in Pathfinder instead of just killing them?
Finger of Death:
This spell instantly delivers 10 points of damage per caster level. If the target’s Fortitude saving throw succeeds, it instead takes 3d6 points of damage + 1 point per caster level.
Merciful spell:
You can alter spells that inflict damage to inflict nonlethal damage instead.
Can't see any reason that wouldn't work.
The example I gave before - Merciful Disintegrate - is a little harder to parse because: "Any creature reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by this spell is entirely disintegrated, leaving behind only a trace of fine dust."
As far as I can tell, knocking someone out with nonlethal damage does not reduce them to 0 hit points because "When you take nonlethal damage, keep a running total of how much you’ve accumulated. Do not deduct the nonlethal damage number from your current hit points. It is not “real” damage. Instead, when your nonlethal damage equals your current hit points, you’re staggered (see below), and when it exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious."
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Once non-lethal matches total hp, it becomes lethal, even if Merciful.
Too much non-lethal damage can kill.
/cevah
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Well, yes. As a 7th level spell it would have done minimum 11d6 points of damage, for an average of 38.5 points nonlethal.
A 1st level warrior with 12 Con and a slightly above average HP roll gets 7 HP, meaning they'd take 31.5 points of lethal damage, leaving them at -24.5 and very dead.
In fact, a 2nd level warrior is still, on average, instantly dead; with 13 HP, they take 25.5 nonlethal, leaving them at -12.5.
Interesting note: if you stop attacking once your opponent is unconscious, your chances of accidentally leaving them bleeding out or killing them outright are no greater than your odds of leaving them unconscious or dead after a single lethal attack (since a character taking only nonlethal damage needs to take at least HP+Con damage to go from conscious to dead).