Non-Lethal Combat

Attacking Without Killing

There are times when a character wants to defeat another being without killing it. A companion may have been charmed into attacking his friends (and his friends don't want to kill him to save themselves!), an enemy may have information the PCs can get only by subduing him; characters may simply see the monetary value of bringing back a real, live monster. Whatever the case, sooner or later characters are going to try.
There are three types of non-lethal attacks — punching, wrestling, and overbearing. Punching is basic bare-fisted fighting. Wrestling is the classic combination of grappling, holds, and throws. Overbearing is simply trying to pull down an opponent by sheer mass or weight of numbers, pinning him to the ground.

Punching and Wrestling

These are the most basic of combat skills, unknowingly practiced by almost all children as they rough and tumble with each other. Thus all characters, regardless of class, are assumed to be somewhat proficient in both these forms of fighting.

*Hold can be maintained from round to round, until broken.

Punching occurs when a character attacks with his fists. No weapons are used, although the character can wear an iron gauntlet or similar item. Wrestling requires both hands free, unencumbered by shields and the like.
When punching or wrestling, a normal attack roll is made. The normal Armor Class of the target is used. If a character is attempting to wrestle in armor, the modifiers on Table 57 are used (these are penalties to the attacker's attack roll). Normal modifiers to the attack roll are also applied.
Penalties for being held or attacking a held opponent do not apply to wrestlers. Wrestling involves a lot of holding and twisting as it is, and the damage resolution system for punching and wrestling takes this into account.
If the attack roll is successful, consult Table 58 to find the result of the attack: Cross-index the character's modified attack roll with the proper attack form. If, for example, a character successfully punched with an 18, the result would be a rabbit punch (if he rolled an 18 on a successful wrestling attempt, the result would be a kick). Punching and Wrestling attacks can succeed on attack rolls of 1 or less (exceptions to the general rule).
Punch: This is the type of blow landed. In game terms, the type of blow has little effect, but using the names adds spice to the battle and makes the DM's job of describing the action easier.

Damage: Bare-handed attacks cause only 1 or 2 points of damage. Metal gauntlets, brass knuckles. and the like cause 1d3 points of damage. A character's Strength bonus. if any, does apply to punching attacks.

Punching damage is handled a little differently than normal damage. Only 25 % of the damage caused by a bare-handed attack is normal damage. The remaining 75% is temporary. For the sake of convenience, record punching damage separately from other damage and calculate the percentage split at the end of all combat.

If a character reaches 0 hit points due to punching attacks (or any combination of punching and normal attacks), he immediately falls unconscious.

A character can voluntarily pull his punch, not causing any hit point damage, or only his punch damage (without his Strenglh bonus), provided he says so before the damage is applied to his enemy. There is still a chance of a knockout.

%KO: Although a punch does very little damage, there is a chance of knocking an opponent out. This chance is listed on the table as "%KO". If this number or less is rolled on percentile dice, the victim is stunned for 1d10 rounds.

Wrestle: This lists the action or type of grip the character managed to get. Wrestling moves marked with an asterisk (*) are holds maintained from round to round, unless they are broken. A hold is broken by a throw, a gouge, the assistance of another person, or the successful use of a weapon. (Penalties to the attack roll apply to weapon attacks by a character who is in a hold.)
All wrestling moves inflict 1 point of damage plus Strength bonus (if the attacker desires), while continued holds cause cumulatively 1 more point of damage for each round they are held. A head lock held for six rounds would inflict 21 points of damage total (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6). Remember, this is the equivalent of pressing hard on a full-nelson headlock for roughly six minutes!

Specializing with Punching and Wrestling

Though everyone has a certain knowledge of punching and wrestling, so that everyone can be considered to have a "weapon proficiency", you can now Specialize in either of the two techniques.

To Specialize, you must devote a weapon proficiency slot to the technique. Any character of any class can Specialize in Punching or Wrestling (or Martial Arts, described later...) but except for the Fighting-Monk, no character other than a single-class Warrior can ever specialize in more than one of these techniques. A single-class warrior can end up Specializing in both, but may begin play Specializing in only one of them.

Specialization does not count as a Weapon Specialization. A first-level fighter could specialize in both Long Sword and Punching if he wished to. A Rogue, who cannot take any Weapon Specialization, can still take one unarmed fighting style specialization.

Fighting style specializations (i.e., Slngle-Weapon, Two-Hander, etc.) do not grant any bonuses to Punching, Wrestling, or Martial Arts combat. They're of use only to combat with melee weapons.

Punching Specialization

If a character spends one Weapon Proficiency on Punching, thus taking specialization with Punching, he gains the following benefits:

He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls when punching;

He gains a +2 bonus to all damage when punching;

He gains a +1 chart bonus with all punching attacks;

He gains one additional punching attack per combat round (both hands must be free, holding nothing, for the character to gain this benefit and if the character wishes, when he pulls his punch, he can also refuse to do the +2 damage that specialization gives him.

The chart bonus is a reflection of the character's superior accuracy with punching. As you already know, when the character successfully hits, the roll itself determines which maneuver was made.

But on a succcssful hit, the punching specialist can modify that result. If he has a chart bonus of +1, he can choose the maneuver one higher or one lower on the chart.

Example: Sir Amstard punches a troll. (He's recklessly brave, after all) He rolls a 12 to hit, and this turns out to be a successful hit. On the "Punching and Wrestling Results" chart we see that this is a Kidney Punch, doing 1 point of damage, with a 5% chance for knockout. But Amstard is a Punching Specialist with a chart bonus of +1. He can choose instead for the result to be an 11-Hook (doing 2 points of damage and with a 9% chance for knockout), or a 13-Hook (doing 2 points of damage and with a 10% chance for a knockout}. He changes the maneuver from a Kidney Punch to a 13-Hook.

Only if a character specializes in punching and thus has a chart bonus can he affect his punch results in this manner.

A character using a Cestus gets to add the bonuses to hit and damage from Punching Specialization to his Cestus damage. If he has specialized in Cestus also, he can decide from round to round which of his bonuses he will apply this round. Additionally, you may use the Cestus attack's attack roll to determine which Punching maneuver was used with the attack; you still use the damage for the Cestus instead of the maneuver, but now also have the possibility of a knockout. This can make combats with cesti a little more complicated, so the DM may disallow this rule if he chooses.

It is possible for a Warrior to continue to improve his Punching abilities: See "Continuing Specialization," below.

Normal Wrestling Attacks

Each successful wrestling move does 1 point of damage (plus Strength bonus, if the attacker desires a continued hold causes cumulatively 1 more point of damage each round than the round before.

In Wrestling combat, when two characters are wrestling, each rolls to hit the other using normal attack rolls against the opponent's AC, and utilizing Table 57 "Armor Modifiers For Wrestling" above for modifiers to hit.

In a single combat round, a character call perform Wrestling on the other character with the normal results from Table 58, the Punching and Wrestling Results table, also above. On Wrestle results from that table which are marked with an asterisk (*), the attacker, if successful, can maintain that hold until it's broken; use the Strength roll rules described above for the "Grab" maneuver to determine when holds are broken.

A character can pull wrestling damage; he can do no damage. or the 1 point associated with each successful maneuver, or the 1 point plus Strength bonus allowed to him, whichever he chooses.

As with punching damage, wrestling damage is also temporary.

Wrestling Specialization

If a character spends one Weapon Proficiency Slot on Wrestling, and thus specializes with Wrestling, he gains the following benefits:

He gains a +1 bonus to all his damage rolls with Wrestling;

He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with Wrestlng (that is, all his maneuvers will do 2 points of damage plus his Strength bonus, and continued holds cause cumulatively 1 more point of damage for each round they are held)

He gains a +1 chart bonus with all Wrestling attacks, he can choose the maneuver one higher or one lower on the chart.

He gains a +2 to Strength, only for maintaining a wrestling hold (i.e., a Strength 15 character rolls against Strength 17 when maintaining a wrestling hold, but only for that purpose), and when he chooses to pull wrestling damage, the character may also pull the +2 to damage granted by specialization.

So if, for instance, he has a +1 chart bonus, and rolls a 16 to hit (Elbow Smash), he can instead choose a Trip or an Arm Lock. He'll decide based on his current situation; If it's in his best interest to put his opponent on the ground, he'll choose a Trip, and if it's better for him to have a maneuver that allows him to hold onto his opponent from round to round, he'll choose an Arm Lock.

It is possible for a Warrior to continue to improve his Wrestling abilities: See "Continuing Specialization," below.

Continuing Specialization

This is an option that is only available to single-class Warriors, Fighting-Monks, and Monks.

If the warrior continues to devote Weapon Pronclency slots to an unarmed combat style after he is already specializing in it, he gets the following benefits. Note: The character may not take more than basic Specialization in any of the arts at first experience level; thus, at first level, he may devote one slot to Punching, or one slot to Wrestling, but not more than that to any of them. At third level, when he receives another slot, he may devote it then to improve his Specialization, for each additional slot devoted to his art:

He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls with his combat style;

He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with his combat style;

He gains a +1 chart bonus with all attacks in that combat style. With chart bonuses of +2 or more, the character can choose any maneuver within the range of maneuvers covered by his chart bonus.

Example: Cassius the Gladiator is a Punching Specialist. He Specialized in Punching at first level, put another Weapon Proficiency slot into it at third level, another at sixth, and still another at ninth.

At ninth level, he has a +3 bonus to attack rolls with Punching, a +3 to damage rolls will Punching and a +3 chart bonus.

Let's say he rolls a 16 to hit someone, and that the attack hits. This would normally be a Glancing Blow. But he has a +3 chart bonus. He can choose for the maneuver instead of just being a rolled result of 16, to be anvwhere from 19 to 13. He can choose for the maneuver to be a Wild Swing, a Rabbit Punch, a Kidney Punch, a Glancing Blow (as rolled), a Jab, an Uppercut, or a Hook.

Of these seven maneuvers, Jab and Hook do the most damage, and Hook has a slightly higher chance of knockout success, so he chooses it. With his punch, he will do a basic 2 points for the maneuver, +3 points from the damage bonus he gets for specializing, and any bonus his Strength gives him.

Overbearing

Sometimes the most effective attack is simply to pull an opponent down by sheer numbers. No attempt is made to gain a particular hold or even to harm the victim. The only concern is to pin and restrain him.
To overbear an opponent, a normal attack roll is made. For every level of size difference (1 if a Large attacker takes on a Medium defender, for example), the attack roll is modified by 4 ( +4 if the attacker is larger; -4 if the defender is larger).
The defender also gains a benefit if it has more than two legs: a -2 penalty to the attacker's roll for every leg beyond two. There is no penalty to the defender if it has no legs. A lone orc attempting to pull down a horse and rider would have at least a -8 penalty applied to the attack roll (-4 for size and -4 for the horse's four legs). If the attack succeeds, the opponent is pulled down, A character can be pinned if further successful overbearing attacks are rolled each round. For pinning purposes, do not use the prone modifier to combat (See Table 51 in the Attacking & THAC0 article).
If multiple attackers are all attempting to pull down a single target, make only one attack roll with a +1 bonus for each attacker beyond the first. Always use the to-hit number of the weakest attacker to figure the chance of success, since cooperation always depends on the weakest link. Modifiers for size should be figured for the largest attacker of the group.
A giant and three pixies attempting to pull down a man would use the pixies' attack roll, modified by +3 for three extra attackers and +8 for the size difference of the giant (Huge) and the man (Medium).

Weapons in Non-Lethal Combat

As you might expect, weapons have their place in non-lethal combat, whether a character is defending or pressing the attack.
Weapons in Defense: A character attempting to punch, wrestle, or overbear an armed opponent can do so only by placing himself at great risk. Making matters worse, an armed defender is automatically allowed to strike with his weapon before the unarmed attack is made, regardless of the initiative die roll. Furthermore, since his opponent must get very close, the defender gains a +4 bonus to his attack and damage rolls. If the attacker survives, he can then attempt his attack.
Those involved in a wrestling bout are limited to weapons of small size after the first round of combat—it's very difficult to use a sword against someone who is twisting your sword arm or clinging to your back, trying to break your neck. For this reason, nearly all characters will want to carry a dagger or a knife.
Non-Lethal Weapon Attacks: It is possible to make an armed attack without causing serious damage (striking with the flat of the blade, for example). This is not as easy as it sounds, however.
First, the character must be using a weapon that enables him to control the damage he inflicts. This is impossible with an arrow or sling. It isn't even feasible with a war hammer or mace. It can be done with swords and axes, as long as the blade can be turned so it doesn't cut.
Second, the character has a -4 penalty to his attack roll, since handling a weapon in this way is clumsier than usual. The damage from such an attack is 50% normal; one-half of this damage is temporary.
Non-Lethal Combat and Creatures When dealing with non-humanoid opponents, a number of factors must be considered. First, unintelligent creatures, as a rule, never try to grapple, punch, or pull down an opponent. They cheerfully settle for tearing him apart, limb by limb. This, to their small and animalistic minds, is a better solution.
Second, the natural weapons of a creature are always usable. Unlike men with swords, a lion or a carnivorous ape doesn't lose the use of its teeth and fangs just because a character is very close to it.
Finally, and of greatest importance, creatures tend to be better natural fighters than humans. All attacks for a tiger are the same as punching or wrestling. It's just that the tiger has claws! Furthermore, a tiger can use all of its legs effectively—front and back.

[Player's Handbook & The Complete Fighter's Handbook]