What options exist for creating a character focused on doing solely non-lethal damage? Are there ways to have increased damage output compared to a lethal-damage-dealing characters by accepting the restriction of being only able to do non-lethal damage as a trade-off? Can a character that only deals non-lethal damage be built as a "high damage" character, relatively speaking?
[RPG] Options for leveraging non-lethal damage
character-creationdamagednd-3.5e
Related Solutions
There's a few different things going on here, so I'll go through them in order.
Standard Action Attack
If you use a standard action to attack, you get one attack at your highest base attack bonus. It doesn't matter how many weapons you are holding, or which hand they're in. You can pick the one you want to use for this attack.
Full Round Action Attack
If you use a full round action to attack, you can get extra attacks. Those extra attacks occur at BAB +6, +11, and +16 for a Fighter. Each extra one is -5 from the previous one.
So a level 6 fighter has 6/1, and on a full attack action gets two attacks. The first is using BAB +6, the second +1. At level 11, it would be +11/6/1. These are shown in the detail for each class in the Players Handbook, here is the Fighter one.
If you happen to be holding two weapons, you can use either, or both of them, for those two attacks. If our level 6 Fighter is holding a Shortsword and a Dagger, he gets to roll two attacks. He can do both with one weapon, or one with each weapon. This is not considered Two Weapon Fighting in the rules.
Full Round Attack with Two Weapon Fighting
In this case, you are explicitly using Two Weapon Fighting. You still get the attacks you would get for a full attack, except you need to pick a "main hand" weapon during the action and all those attacks use that weapon.
In addition, you get one additional attack at your highest base attack bonus, with your second weapon (the "off hand" weapon). All attacks in the round take a penalty, which depends on if you have the Two Weapon Fighting feat and the weapon category of your offhand. If you have the feat and a light weapon in your off hand, the penalty is -2.
You only get one offhand attack no matter what your BAB is. The feats Improved Two Weapon Fighting and Greater Two Weapon Fighting grant you additional off hand attacks.
So your example fighter with BAB +7/2 would on a full round attack get two attacks with his main hand, one attack with his off hand, and an additional attack with his off hand if he has the Improved Two Weapon fighting feat. Total of four attacks. Those attacks would be at BAB +5/0 and +5/0, due to the -2 penalty for two weapon fighting.
Note that characters, in the rules, do not have a "main hand" outside of this specific case. That means you don't always have to pick the same hand or the same weapon to use as your "main hand".
Natural Weapons
You didn't ask this specifically, but to avoid confusing you later - natural weapons (claws, bites, and such) don't work the same way. Those do not get additional attacks from BAB. Monsters as they get more powerful just get more natural attacks, and they can use all of them at once with a full round attack.
The monster's attack entry in the Monster Manual or SRD has these things factored in already, so if you follow those you will be fine. :)
Yes, it slows things down
Two weapon fighters (like Rogues) can very quickly get to several attacks, and that means a lot of rolling. It does slow things down. Once you understand how it works it slows things down less than when it's new, but it can make combat slow. If you hit with those rolls you'll also get multiple damage rolls to work out as well. If you have different colors of dice, you can roll all the attacks (and damage) simultaneously, which can make it move a bit faster.
It's useful for the DM to know the armor class of the enemy being attacked, so when the fighter rolls you know quickly if it's a hit or not. For the fighter, his character sheet should list his multiple attacks with the math for their rolls already done, so he can just look at his sheet and know "oh my second attack is at +3" rather than having to do the math every time.
It's also worth noting that those attacks don't have to be against the same target. If you kill something with your first attack in a full attack and another enemy is in range, you can switch to attacking that enemy with your remaining attacks. You can't move to do that, so they have to already be in range.
Use the spells delay death and beastland ferocity
The 4th-level Clr spell delay death [necro] (Spell Compendium 63) says
The subject of this powerful spell is unable to die from hit point damage. While under the protection of this spell, the normal limit of –9 hit points before a character dies is extended without limit. A condition or spell that destroys enough of the subject’s body so as to not allow raise dead to work, such as a disintegrate effect, still kills the creature, as does death brought about by ability score damage, level drain, or a death effect.
The spell does not prevent the subject from entering the dying state by dropping to –1 hit points. It merely prevents death as a result of hit point loss.
If the subject has fewer than –9 hit points when the spell’s duration expires, it dies instantly.
The spell targets 1 creature within close range as a standard action and has a duration of 1 round/level.
The 1st-level Drd spell beastland ferocity [ench] (Spell Compendium 25) says
The subject becomes such a tenacious combatant that it continues to fight without penalty even while disabled or dying. While between –1 and –9 hit points, the creature gains a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength. If the creature is reduced to –10 hit points, it dies normally.
The spell targets 1 touched creature as a standard action and has a duration of 1 minute/level.
Both are low enough level to fit in wands, and some prestige classes can even cram them into potions.
A legalistic DM may kill the creature affected by both spells when the creature hits –10 hit points anyway, as per the spell beastland ferocity, but the effects of the spell delay death should alter what would otherwise be dying normally for the affected creature. Nonetheless, before whipping out this strategy at the table, I strongly urge first clearing it with the DM.
Related Topic
- [RPG] What classes are based on intelligence but not reliant on magic/supernatural power
- [RPG] What’s the optimized single-class 17th-level melee PC for maximum consistent damage
- [RPG] How does the double-bladed scimitar compare to using two weapons with the Dual Wielder feat and Two-Weapon Fighting fighting style
Best Answer
Nonlethal Damage
Core
It's actually quite simple to do this. In the SRD, you'll see a rule that allows you to deal nonlethal damage with any weapon that normally deals lethal damage:
... which makes sense. You have to take much more care not to kill someone with a sword and just knock them out. But the option is there for you! And it makes for very cool character fluff, in my opinion.
Also, as @GMJoe kindly pointed out, there is a core enchantment in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide (pg. 225) called Merciful for only a +1 bonus. You'll certainly want this (assuming you don't use one of the weapons which already deals nonlethal damage):
Other Source Books
The best sources for nonlethal damage in books outside of core come from the Book of Exalted Deeds:
Optimal Build (?)
So, really, it looks like your best bet would be to become a traditional, overpowered spellcaster, take the Nonlethal Substitution feat (which will allow you to use your spells to deal nonlethal damage), then use the various Vow feats to increase your other statistics. That looks like maximum leverage to me. I don't know of any other source books that would really contribute much to this effort.
Addendum
As far as dealing more damage than a normal damage dealer, that is likely next to impossible without being very, very creative. For starters, there just aren't that many sources of nonlethal damage in the core rules. If you look in the Environment section, it might be possible for you to make some homebrew rules with your DM based on these (i.e., cold effects which numb instead of kill). If you want to stay strictly within the RAW, though, I think your best bet for having a highly functioning nonlethal character would be to have a spellcaster of some kind who only utilizes sleep spells, hold person spells, and the like. I didn't include this in the main answer because these effects don't technically deal damage, but it's an option which may appeal to you.