Subduing Guards

[TIPOT]

Does anyone know of any way to non-lethally subdue a guard quickly, silently and reliably? Other than rogue sap sneak attacks.

[Eldariel]

Cast a spell like Sleep, Color Spray or something else that knocks 'em out for long enough to tie 'em up and gag' em.

[Darrin]

"I have a pass signed by your commander." Hand him paper + sepia snake sigil. Ref save negates.

Sleep Smoke (25 GP, Waterdeep City of Splendors). Cheap area-effect Fort save DC 15 vs. unconscious for 1 minute. You can hedge against the low save DC by throwing multiple globes.

Drow Arrow Poison (140 GP per dose, Savage Species). Injury poison, but the Fort save DC 17 is higher than typical drow poison and most other sleep-effect poisons. Use a poison ring (Dragon Compendium) for a melee touch attack.

Two doses of Kammarth (80 GP per dose, Lords of Darkness p. 183) triggers an overdose effect: 1d4 damage and paralyzed for 2d4 minutes, *NO SAVE*. It can be used as a contact poison, so there are several delivery methods you can use: poison ring (Dragon Compendium) gives you a melee touch attack, mister (Drow of the Underdark) can be used as a 5' ranged touch attack, and a sprayer (A&EG) is a 5' x 10' area effect.

Glyph Seal (1000 GP, MIC) + aquatic escape. Or use some other spell-storing item that triggers when touched/broken (Chardalyn, Shallantha's delicate disk, etc.). Can also use Channel Spell shenanigans via Ordained Champion or Spellsword. Basically, force the guard to be the target of a "personal" spell effect that renders them helpless, as this avoids whether they get a save. Lesser spider form (Drow of the Underdark) or tree shape (PHB, but dismisses as a free action) might also work.

[ShurikVch]

Throw to them a stone affected with Silence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/silence.htm) spell; then party's warrior charge them (while carrying another Silenced stone) and hit non-lethally (either by unarmed strike, Merciful (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#merciful) SA, or just with -4 attack penalty (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/injuryandDeath.htm#nonlethalDamage))

[Zaq]

"I have a pass signed by your commander." Hand him paper + sepia snake sigil. Ref save negates.

Sepia Snake Sigil isn't silent. Per the spell text, "If it succeeds, the sepia snake dissipates in a flash of brown light accompanied by a puff of dun-colored smoke and a loud noise." Clever ideas other than that, though.

If the guard is low enough level, there's plenty of low-level enchantments that will get them out of your hair for a while. Hypnotism and Hypnotic Pattern are fun (HP is technically illusion, but whatevs), Suggestion can work if you can afford to speak the suggestion aloud ("go and check if your friend at the other side of the building needs to be relieved from his post" or "count all the pebbles in this jar and don't do anything else until you finish" or even just "take this bribe and act like you never saw me"), Sleep and Deep Slumber are classic, and so on.

[Fouredged Sword]

A bard using fascinate with a non-audible preform check could do this.

[Telonius]

The Overwhelm spell will deal subdual damage to a single creature equal to their current HP. It is a level 6 spell. Will save and SR: Yes, though.

Otherwise, just hand your Fighter a Merciful weapon, cast Silence on his shoelaces, and point him at the guard.

[Necroticplague]

An Assassin's Death Attack can paralyze someone instead of killing, giving you enough time to non-lethally Coup-de-grace them to keep them unconcious.

[SilverLeaf167]

Sepia Snake Sigil isn't silent. Per the spell text, "If it succeeds, the sepia snake dissipates in a flash of brown light accompanied by a puff of dun-colored smoke and a loud noise." Clever ideas other than that, though.

Mind the context: that's what happens if the target's Reflex save succeeds, as in, the spell fails. A failed save (a.k.a. a successful spell) is presumably silent.

[Zaq]

Mind the context: that's what happens if the target's Reflex save succeeds, as in, the spell fails. A failed save (a.k.a. a successful spell) is presumably silent.

Huh. That's ambiguous. I agree that your reading is more likely the one that is intended, but it's not the only possible way to parse that sentence.

You're probably right. But it's a little eyebrow-raising that it was so easy for me to reach my first interpretation.

[Dagroth]

A bard using fascinate with a non-audible preform check could do this.

As long as it's not "Perform (Sexual Acrobatics)", we're okay.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Choke hold feat in OA will let you choke guards out if you can hold a pin for 3 rounds. Takes a decent grappler or a fair level gap, though.