Can you deal nonlethal sneak attack damage with a lethal weapon when wielding it nonlethalally?
That is, you're taking the -2 nonlethal penalty to hit, and are NOT wielding a weapon with the nonlethal trait.
I've encountered a PFS GM that says my rogue cannot deal sneak attack damage with his dagger, even when used nonlethally. He insists that I must have a weapon with the nonlethal trait in order to deal nonlethal sneak attack. I've checked both Sneak Attack and Precision rules, but I can find no such rule as the GM describes.
He also said that the druid's animal companion can't deal nonlethal damage because it wasn't trained to do so. Is that true?
It's important as a king has been mind controlled into attacking us, and we have no desire to kill him, in a multipart scenario where our decisions have long running consequences.
The druid's cat has already disemboweled a king's guard over this clustercluck.
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If you choose to deal non lethal damage with a weapon, all the damage of the weapon becomes non lethal. If I recall correctly, this is a PF1 rule that your GM is bringing in PF2.
The GM has the right to decide that something is too complicated for your animal companion but I doubt dealing non lethal damage is such kind of thing. And Training was a PF1 rule again, in PF2 there's no such rule for Animal Companions.
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You don't separate damage into nonlethal or lethal, that distinction doesn't really exist in PF2.
Here's what the CRB says about nonlethal in the damage rules:
You can make a nonlethal attack in an effort to knock someone out instead of killing them (see Knocked Out and Dying). Weapons with the nonlethal trait (including fists) do this automatically. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to the attack roll when you make a nonlethal attack using a weapon that doesn't have the nonlethal trait. You also take this penalty when making a lethal attack using a nonlethal weapon.
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)
So if you make a nonlethal attack, and that attack would drop someone to 0 HP, they don't die or become dying. There's no separation, an attack is either nonlethal or not.