Non lethal damage not working?

[Aukyron]

Is it not working for ranged attacks?

[Aukyron]

Actually even a melee attack did a kill. Non lethal damage worked only for one person out of 4. Am I doing anything wrong?

[Army of Optimists]

Nonlethal damage only applies to physical melee attacks. Not ranged, not spells, and I'm pretty sure if your melee attack does a non-standard damage type like fire or force, it can kill.

That said, 99% of the time, the game thinks you murdered the target anyway so I'm not sure it's worth using the feature.

[Aukyron]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Nonlethal damage only applies to physical melee attacks. Not ranged, not spells, and I'm pretty sure if your melee attack does a non-standard damage type like fire or force, it can kill.

That said, 99% of the time, the game thinks you murdered the target anyway so I'm not sure it's worth using the feature.

Well I tried to  avoid killing the people that have witch Ethel masks but when you remove the mask from them they die (if they were stunned). 

So I'm even more confused now.

[Army of Optimists]

That's funny. When I knocked them out, the game just told me I couldn't remove the masks at all. When I came back later, they'd all vanished from the game.

Not to rant, but this is one of my major criticisms of the game. Everyone says you can solve things however you want, but half the time the game ignores it or breaks. I'm terrified to do anything creative anymore because I feel like it'll tweak the game out and break things.

[ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰]

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Nonlethal damage only applies to physical melee attacks. Not ranged, not spells, and I'm pretty sure if your melee attack does a non-standard damage type like fire or force, it can kill.

That said, 99% of the time, the game thinks you murdered the target anyway so I'm not sure it's worth using the feature.

thats all it is, people dont understand how it works

you cant use a skill you have to either punch them or use pommel strike or some other form of cc.

any skill that does any kind of damage will kill them

[Noctoculus]

Originally posted by Aukyron:

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Nonlethal damage only applies to physical melee attacks. Not ranged, not spells, and I'm pretty sure if your melee attack does a non-standard damage type like fire or force, it can kill.

That said, 99% of the time, the game thinks you murdered the target anyway so I'm not sure it's worth using the feature.

Well I tried to  avoid killing the people that have witch Ethel masks but when you remove the mask from them they die (if they were stunned). 

So I'm even more confused now.

Yeah, we tried the same thing. Larian just wants you to kill them I guess.

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

Originally posted by Aukyron:

Well I tried to  avoid killing the people that have witch Ethel masks but when you remove the mask from them they die (if they were stunned). 

So I'm even more confused now.

Yeah, we tried the same thing. Larian just wants you to kill them I guess.

You don't have to kill them, but the only way past them non-lethally is to wear the masks, avoid being controlled, and walk past them. If you take the masks off them, there's a chance they just die - or not, I've heard some people have it succeed. And if you don't take the masks they're considered dead even if you knocked them out.

[Aukyron]

Originally posted by ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰:

Originally posted by Army of Optimists:

Nonlethal damage only applies to physical melee attacks. Not ranged, not spells, and I'm pretty sure if your melee attack does a non-standard damage type like fire or force, it can kill.

That said, 99% of the time, the game thinks you murdered the target anyway so I'm not sure it's worth using the feature.

thats all it is, people dont understand how it works

you cant use a skill you have to either punch them or use pommel strike or some other form of cc.

any skill that does any kind of damage will kill them

So only basic melee attack works? The feature definitely lacks in game description in any case....

[Army of Optimists]

Originally posted by Aukyron:

Originally posted by ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰:

thats all it is, people dont understand how it works

you cant use a skill you have to either punch them or use pommel strike or some other form of cc.

any skill that does any kind of damage will kill them

So only basic melee attack works? The feature definitely lacks in game description in any case....

RAW, it's supposed to be with any melee attack, but Larian seems to have coded it to only work with basic melee attacks and a few special attacks that are always nonlethal (Pommel Strike and Flourish, I believe, are always nonlethal.)

[CometGuy72]

Im trying to knock out an important character to save him. Barbarian. No weapons. Bare hands. Basic attacks. Not raging. Still killing every single time. The toggle is straight up not working.

[EricHVela]

That's weird because I've saved several characters with an unarmed Barb, even some I didn't think could be saved. (Someone was thankful that I didn't kill some side character who I didn't think could be saved.)

It's (straight up) working for me.

[seeker1]

Spoiler Warning.

So, here's the thing. Yeah, trial and error have had me notice this. There's one companion you have to KO (Minsc) and now it seems, another (Minthara). Besides possibly wanting to KO some NPCs (like Duke Ravengard).

It must be melee weapons doing the nonlethal damage. Fists are fine, too. You can have added damage from force, fire, if those are weapon properties. Don't sweat that. But no ranged attacks. No thrown weapons. No spells. Those can kill.

And one other issue to watch out for - don't use weapons that have poison, acid, or attacks that inflict bleed or similar "DoTs" - those will still kill the person you are trying to KO.

Yeah, I believe Pommel Strike is totally safe.

When you KO Minthara, your journal still describes her as dead. That's a journal bug, not an ability bug. (I think this happens in other cases.)

[EricHVela]

Originally posted by seeker1:

And one other issue to watch out for - don't use weapons that have poison, acid, or attacks that inflict bleed or similar "DoTs" - those will still kill the person you are trying to KO.

This. Anything that does an extra damage type is risking a second dose of damage after the enemy is downed. Once downed, almost any damage is lethal regardless.

Be aware that armor sometimes deals extra damage (and sometimes an "additional" damage of the same type).

There's a move that does two attack rolls with their own damage. Be aware that the second damage can happen after reaching the downed state.

[Aukyron]

Originally posted by seeker1:

So, here's the thing. Yeah, trial and error have had me notice this. There's one companion you have to KO (Minsc) and now it seems, another (Minthara). Besides possibly wanting to KO some NPCs (like Duke Ravengard).

Please put a spoiler on your post

[seeker1]

Done. I don't think it needs tags, it's very low on specifics, but fine.