We have following problem:
We fought a Barbarian and I wanted to capture him.
So I dealt nonlethal damage (Around 60). My Teammates dealt normal damage.Through his rage he gains +2 HP per HD witch disappear at the end of the rage. He has 10HD. So he gains 20HP.
He had a CON of 20 without the rage.Because of the nonlethal damage he fell unconcious (0hp) and instantly died because his rage took 20 HP from him.
Now is my question: Do I still have a buffer because of the huge amount of nonlethal damage or was everything in vain?
Nonlethal damage does not reduce your hit points; you keep track of it as a separate tally and fall unconscious if it equals or exceeds your current hit points (i.e. max hp reduced by lethal damage). So if you dealt 60 nonlethal he would fall unconscious when your teammates beat him down to 60 hp; then he'd lose the 20 hp from rage and be unconscious but quite alive with +40 hp.
Of course, if your teammates sent him from 61 hp to negative hp with one blow, he's still toast.
Nonlethal damage does not reduce your hit points; you keep track of it as a separate tally and fall unconscious if it equals or exceeds your current hit points (i.e. max hp reduced by lethal damage).
If a creature’s nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage.
While it is unlikely that in this scenario they were dealing lethal with their non-lethal, it's possible; especially the mix of lethal and non lethal.
Example(s):
For example, say he had 60 HP (40 real) and had 39 lethal, 59 non-lethal; someone then does 21 non-lethal -> 1 non-lethal, 20 lethal. Now he falls unconscious, loses rage, loses 20HP, and dies.
While my example is convoluted, it's only the minimum case. If someone got a crit-non-lethal for 42 or something (which I've seen done at level 2 I believe?) there's now a lot of leeway in those numbers.
Nonlethal damage does not reduce your hit points; you keep track of it as a separate tally and fall unconscious if it equals or exceeds your current hit points (i.e. max hp reduced by lethal damage).
If a creature’s nonlethal damage is equal to his total maximum hit points (not his current hit points), all further nonlethal damage is treated as lethal damage.
While it is unlikely that in this scenario they were dealing lethal with their non-lethal, it's possible; especially the mix of lethal and non lethal.
Example(s):
For example, say he had 60 HP (40 real) and had 39 lethal, 59 non-lethal; someone then does 21 non-lethal -> 1 non-lethal, 20 lethal. Now he falls unconscious, loses rage, loses 20HP, and dies.While my example is convoluted, it's only the minimum case. If someone got a crit-non-lethal for 42 or something (which I've seen done at level 2 I believe?) there's now a lot of leeway in those numbers.
If he had 60 max HP, 39 lethal damage (hence 21 hp) and 59 non-lethal he would be unconscious already as 59 >= 21. There certainly is such a thing as nonlethal overkill, but it's tough to get by accident.
A Barbarian 10 with 20 CON has from 71 to 170 hp (avg 125), not counting FCB or Toughness feat.
Worst case: 71 hp.
Raging, he has 91.
You deal 60 non-lethal.
Once he takes 32 lethal, he is unconscious and looses 20 hp from rage.
He is now at 39 hp or less.
To die, he has to go to -20, which means he must take 59 additional hp of lethal damage.
Had he only taken 31 hp of lethal, he would still be conscious.
Therefore, the attack that took down had to do at least 60 hp of lethal damage.
Quite possible, but if you are trying to capture, not too likely.
An average barbarian would need 114 hp in the killing hit. Even less likely.
/cevah