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Set Swords to Stun: Difference between revisions
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** 2nd edition featured an optional rule that allowed standard weapons to do nonlethal damage (normally the province of unarmed combat and a few particular weapons) in exchange for an attack penalty, since you're purposely using your weapon wrong in order to ''not'' seriously harm your enemy.
** 3rd edition made the optional rule a normal one, included a magic property that let any enchanted weapon do it without penalty (and deal extra damage) and topped that by including feats that allowed casters to do non-lethal damage with their spells, allowing them to knock out enemies with fire, showers of blades, or contortions of gravity. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] because, y'know... [[A Wizard Did It|magic]].
*** Most "d20 system" based games retained the non-lethal rules, but ''[[D20 Modern]]'' changed to a system where non-lethal damage either KOed an enemy instantly or did nothing (most likely nothing), and was so unworkable most supplements forgot it existed and referenced non-lethal damage as though it still worked the way it did in 3rd Edition.
*** The sole spinoffs to do away with it were the ''[[Star Wars]]'' based ones, since that universe has plenty of dedicated less-lethal stun weapons and stun settings on most (but not all) blasters. Rather than a reduced to-hit chance and easier healing, stun damage does reduced damage but inflict greater penalties for (temporary) injuries inflicted.
** 4th edition finally simplified it all by allowing a player to declare whether a monster is killed or unconscious when reducing its hit points to zero. [[MST3K Mantra|Just let the players make up a reason for why it works]]. 5th edition maintains this change.
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== Video Games ==
* Games in the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series. ''Soul Calibur 3'' is an especially bad offender, considering that Sigfried uses an [[
** Not only that, but any throw would be fatal. Any throw. And yet, it takes roughly six or seven to "K.O." your opponent (and sometimes more than that). To clarify, Siegried/Nightmare (either or both, depending on the game) throws his opponent by ''ramming his 6 foot long, 2 foot wide [[
*** The cake goes to Ivy Valentine in ''II'' - her throw from behind involves wrapping her bladed whip around her opponent's neck, kicking them to their knees, and stomping on their back, causing their spine to very audiably snap. [[Refuge in Audacity|Then they get back up and fight.]]
*** Taki has one by the same virtue. One of her throws has her grab her opponent by the neck and shove her sword straight through their neck clear to the other side.
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* ''[[BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger]]'', ironically, subverts the hell out of this - each and every fight that the players play can not only result in a character's death, but can be argued to be canonically possible as well. The reason? {{spoiler|The entire game is stuck in an insanely long [[Groundhog Day Loop]]. Any killed characters simply return once the loop resets.}} This being said, the particular brilliance of this isn't present in the sequel, ''Continuum Shift.''
** This varies. In story mode quite a few characters survive the battles against other characters (indeed, some of the alternative plot lines can only be accessed by losing certain battles). In fact, some characters are canonically "defeated" by having the player character hold their own in the battle (even though they still have to be beaten the same way). For example Rachel ''never'' suffers any harm from being defeated and either leaves or kicks the character out of her garden when she's met in story mode, Arakune always flees or is spared at the end of a battle (or Litchi appears and talks down whoever defeated him) while the best any character can hope for while fighting Nu-13 is to survive long enough to note that their attacks haven't been doing anything before being killed {{spoiler|Or suffer a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] in Ragna's case}}. The most amusing example is probably Bang (who every other character treats as an annoyance), who fails to beat ''anyone'' (sometimes justified, for example; by Ragna basically muttering about how [[I Let You Win|he let Bang defeat him]] so he wouldn't have to kill him).
* A version occurs in the ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' series. Enemy creatures are 'knocked out' by such things as steel claws, [[Improbable Weapon User|spiked balls hung from the horns]], [[Improvised Weapon|hurled dwarves and imps]], [[
* Played straight and averted in ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'', with story/quest important characters merely being "knocked unconcious" rather than killed, no matter if they got mauled by a bear, gored by a minotaur, or gutted by bandits. You can ''try'' to kill them, but that'll just piss them off. Non-vital characters are all fair game though.
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', during your escape from Vault 101 in the beginning,you cannot kill Amata. No matter what. Shooting her in the head five times at point blank range renders her "unconscious."
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