Non Lethal Damage

[Rusty]

Cres has come up with the framework for a Non Lethal damage implementation, so we need a quick discussion on how this ought to work in-game.

Nonlethal Damage
Dealing Nonlethal Damage

Certain attacks deal nonlethal damage. Other effects, such as heat or being exhausted, also deal nonlethal damage. 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, and when it exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious. It doesn’t matter whether the nonlethal damage equals or exceeds your current hit points because the nonlethal damage has gone up or because your current hit points have gone down.

Nonlethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Lethal Damage

You can use a melee weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage instead, but you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll.

Lethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Nonlethal Damage

You can use a weapon that deals nonlethal damage, including an unarmed strike, to deal lethal damage instead, but you take a -4 penalty on your attack roll.

Staggered and Unconscious

When your nonlethal damage equals your current hit points, you’re staggered. You can only take a standard action or a move action in each round. You cease being staggered when your current hit points once again exceed your nonlethal damage.

When your nonlethal damage exceeds your current hit points, you fall unconscious. While unconscious, you are helpless.

Spellcasters who fall unconscious retain any spellcasting ability they had before going unconscious.
Healing Nonlethal Damage

You heal nonlethal damage at the rate of 1 hit point per hour per character level.

When a spell or a magical power cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.

[darrenhfx]

Are we looking at this primarily from a weapons point of view? The mention NLD due to heat, exhaustion and cold has me thinking about environmental effects.

[Thangorn]

Yes please can we have the lot.

I want people to spend money on furs and rings of cold resistance on the Moonsea when the Moonsea freezes over in winter..

Subdual damage is key to the guard system I want to implement in the big three Moonsea cities (Zhentil Keep, Hillsfar and Mulmaster) where the guards are mostly vicious, corrupt @55holes.

Subdual damage is also key to my plane-touched proposal ie. High WF = Good possibility of being locked up.

I need to have scripting set up whereby if a PC switches to lethal damage during a subdual combat, then the NPCs in combat also switch to lethal.

Also it would be beneficial to look at "non-lethal" mode for NPC casters that being where casters use non-damage causing spells only eg. Sleep, Hold Person, Entangle, etc. that seems pretty difficult to implement but I can start by preparing a list of "non-lethal" spells for NWN2.

[Rusty]

Also it would be beneficial to look at "non-lethal" mode for NPC casters that being where casters use non-damage causing spells only eg. Sleep, Hold Person, Entangle, etc. that seems pretty difficult to implement but I can start by preparing a list of "non-lethal" spells for NWN2.

Not sure I understand this, Thangorn. Why would you need non-lethal damage for spells that don't do damage? Do you mean a sort of 'non-hostile' version of them for 'controlling PCs'?

[ç i p h é r]

If the nonlethal damage is handled independent of the source, we should be able to hook into this from any other system, be it for environmental fatigue or bar room brawling. Hopefully Cres coded it with that in mind. I'll look at this once we get our work for LIVE out of the way.

[Creslyn]

Haven't gone into resistances/immunities/dr as yet, but the basic handling is just by variables for tracking/updating NLD. Don't see someone doing up a few extra functions for environmental NLD as being a problem.