Undead and Nonlethal Attacks

[TheViolinCon]

GM here running a campaign with undead and a Bard carrying a whip and a sap. If a zombie is struck with a whip or a skeleton with a sap, and these attacks reduce it to zero through nonlethal means, is the creature destroyed or does it continue to act as if at 1 hp until it takes a point of lethal damage?

[Aratorin]

Undead have no immunities to non-lethal damage. When it's reduced to zero hit points, it is destroyed.

[Gary Bush]

Unless the GM has some reason to keep the undead "alive" it is effected by non-lethal damage like living creatures.

[thenobledrake]

The relevant text is on page 459 of the core rulebook, under "Knocked Out and Dying": "Creatures cannot be reduced to fewer than 0 Hit Points. When most creatures reach 0 Hit Points, they die and are removed from play unless the attack was nonlethal, in which case they are instead knocked out for a significant amount of time (usually 1 minute or more). When undead and construct creatures reach 0 Hit Points, they are destroyed."

[Captain Morgan]

At least some constructs are immune to nonlethal damage though. So this means you couldn't hurt them with a nonlethal weapon without taking a -2 penalty, right?

[Ascalaphus]

Captain Morgan wrote:

At least some constructs are immune to nonlethal damage though. So this means you couldn't hurt them with a nonlethal weapon without taking a -2 penalty, right?

Yes. Constructs often have this immunity - undead mostly lost it in the new edition. Meaning it can be worth it to just punch your way through skeletons if your sword isn't working well.

[HammerJack]

Yes. That doesn't generally apply to undead, but you do see immunity to nonlethal come up with constructs, and that does leave you needing to deal lethal damage, even if it means taking a penalty to your attack roll.

[Perpdepog]

Ascalaphus wrote:

Captain Morgan wrote:

At least some constructs are immune to nonlethal damage though. So this means you couldn't hurt them with a nonlethal weapon without taking a -2 penalty, right?

Yes. Constructs often have this immunity - undead mostly lost it in the new edition. Meaning it can be worth it to just punch your way through skeletons if your sword isn't working well.

This is as it should be. The amount of skeleton-punchery in TTRPGs has been lamentably low in recent years.