PDA

View Full Version : Keep them Alive!



Cowboy_ninja
2008-12-24, 02:17 PM
If you are an exaulted character how can you keep your allies from killing things. Particularly the ones who refuse to hold back.

Mechanically its not fair to ask your friends to take a -4 penalty to keep it non-lethal, nor to use up one of their precious feats to enable them to keep it non lethal.

so ideas. any AOE spells/devices/abilities that will enable me (exalted) to keep my vow of non-violence and get the job done without getting on my friend's nerves?

idealy something where if an enemy is dealt lethal damage ( putting them at/below -10hp) they are instead at -9 HP and stabalized.

Gamebird
2008-12-24, 02:28 PM
Your main problem is a conceptual one, not mechanical. I'm sure there are various mechanical solutions (Raise Dead, Death's Door, Revivification, etc.), but you need to look at the concept here. An exalted person with a vow of non-violence is spending his time with people who expect and intend to commit lethal violence.

Why?

And what about your answer isn't reflective of a deep desire on the character's part to nag and correct the other characters in their behavior? Because that moral superiority crap gets old fast.

You are essentially playing a paladin in a gang of evil thieves. Either you have to turn on them, you have to leave them, or you fall. The other players will not appreciate you interfering with them and I'm sure you don't want to lose your exalted status. That leaves... leaving. There are so many other ways your exalted character could contribute to the world, so many innocents who need helping, so many wrongs he could right. Why does he have to go with the PCs and interfere with them? Especially if there are more morally clear situations he could be dealing with?

Tengu_temp
2008-12-24, 02:31 PM
There is a feat that let you deal non-lethal damage with no penalty.

Also, as Gamebird said, mixing exalted and non-exalted characters is not a good idea.

Glyde
2008-12-24, 02:36 PM
A spell called Stabalize, heals 1 point to everything in a large AOE. That might help a little bit.

But as already said, you can't mix exalted and non-exalted without conflict (Non-violence/peace and normal characters is even worse.)

Or you could change the fluff so you can keep all your benefits, as long as *you* don't do the killing. And simply tolerate the rest of your party, as I'm sure you're adventuring for some very important reason.

Telonius
2008-12-24, 02:42 PM
Right, this is a situation that should have been brought up with the DM and other players beforehand. Personally I think that anything with the Exalted label on it can potentially lead to problems within the game unless everybody's on the same page.

As it is, you're kind of in a bind. Either your character continues to annoy the other characters (and possibly the other players), or he falls, or he leaves. I'd suggest going to the DM and explaining the situation - you didn't realize how much of a problem this would be when you drew up the character, and you want to make sure that everybody's having fun. Ask him for input, or possible houserules, to help the situation.

Simply houseruling to ignore the -4 penalty to dealing nonlethal could be a quick and easy fix - it's possible the other players are dealing lethal because they're worried they won't hit otherwise. Be aware that there might not be an easy way to handle it if the players and/or DM don't want to houserule things - the "easiest" solution might be for you to stat out a new character.

Lentava-Heppa
2008-12-24, 05:38 PM
Merciful (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#merciful) is only +1 weapon enchantment, lets you deal 1d6 untyped extra damage and deal all damage nonlethally. Problem solved.

That aside, not all damage dealt needs to be nonlethal. If the opponent takes even 10 points of nonlethal damage he will drop down at 10 hp. So you risk killing him only on damage of 20 per hit and even that if he happens to drop exactly to 11 hp before that hit. And if your fighter does 20 damage easily, that first 20 hp would have been nonlethal so the minium damage needed to kill him after one nonlethal hit would be 30 hp... To say it otherwise, after the high hitter has dealt him nonlethal damage once, there is no risk at all (without criticals. With them there is a tiny risk if you have absolutely horrible luck) to kill him. Asking the fighter take -4 for one attack with his highest bab once (still likely to hit) shouldn't be THAT unfair to ask?

(and the wizard can be even more efficient using non-damage spells, such as hold person, blindness, etc. so avoiding killing isn't an issue for him)

Aside from those... Reread what YOUR vow actually demands your PARTY to do. Nothing. Your roleplaying aspect naturally should try to keep them from killing enemies but that can be worked around. Afterall, even if only you deal nonlethal damage it is much better than if everyone dealt lethal damage. So your peace loving character still can adventure with them and just try to get them merciful weapons, less lethal tactics, etc.

Flickerdart
2008-12-24, 05:41 PM
I love the image of a Vow of Peace character buying his allies weapons. Even better if he doesn't tell them they're Merciful. "Oh, thanks for the greataxes, Hank! Us barbarians were sure wrong about you. Now let's go kill something."

Jack_Simth
2008-12-24, 05:57 PM
Or you could change the fluff so you can keep all your benefits, as long as *you* don't do the killing. And simply tolerate the rest of your party, as I'm sure you're adventuring for some very important reason.That actually is the listed mechanics.

If you neutralize an opponent, and render them Helpless (Hold Person, nonlethal damage in excess of their HP by way of a Nonlethal Fireball, and so on), then there are problems... for the person who does the lethal blow. A penalty to attack rolls, as I recall.

If you hinder an opponent (Web, Glitterdust, et cetera), and your companions deal a lethal blow in the middle of a battle... nothing happens.

If you hurt an opponent directly (regular Fireball), you fall.

Waspinator
2008-12-24, 10:41 PM
An exalted Artificer who "borrows" his friends weapons for a bit of enchanting could be funny.

Dyllan
2008-12-24, 11:41 PM
So what class type are you? If you're a caster, there's a non-lethal substitution metamagic feat that allows you to deal subdual damage with any spell... get that and fireball everyone, so the fighter types are more likely to knock them out than kill them with their lethal damage.

Basically, you need to deal out as much non-lethal damage as possible, before the rest of the party kills things. Then it's just a matter of convincing the party that the Hobgoblin/bandit/necromancer/etc will no longer be a threat/is worth more alive/will come back as a lich if we kill him/etc.