Subdual Damage is vastly misunderstood.

 

 

 

 

When they worked out the damage system in second edition, the subdual rules were rather crazy and poorly worded, so they got a reworking in third that mostly made it useless. Subdual damage is tracked separately from regular damage. You not only have to reduce the target's hit points to zero, but then you have to do an additional point of damage for every point of endurance they have.

 

Once done, the target would then be out cold for a number of minutes equal to every point past that threshold with a minimum of one minute. This made it completely impractical and thus something only NPCs or players who needed to take a target alive would use. That is until they published the revised artificer's handbook and added the weapon special ability, Merciful

 

Weapon special abilities are something that go above and beyond simply making it easier to attack. It can let a weapon do extra elemental damage, grant special attack modifications, or any of a wide range of effects. The problem is that most of the extra damage abilities are applied separately. All you need is five points of elemental damage reduction and most extra damage WSAs become useless.

 

Enter the WSA Merciful.

 

Merciful makes all damage the weapon does the same damage type, subdual. It also does two extra dice of damage to compensate for the need to overcome the target's endurance. Also, since the weapon is now subdual it syngerizes well with the WSA vicious. That makes a weapon do double damage, at the cost of doing a random amount of damage to the wielder with each hit. Not much damage to the user, mind you. Maybe half a dozen at most. Fortunately, it's subdual, and if you happen to have five points of damage reduction like Andrew has from being within thirty feet of Miriam, then it would take quite a while before you accumulate enough damage to knock yourself out.

 

I'm pointing this all out, because immediately after Andrew removed the curse his invisibility dropped. The interloper repaid Andrew for his kindness with a knife inserted directly into Andrew's spleen. Whereupon Andrew reflexively retaliated with a twenty-first-level unarmed fighter's double damage merciful punch to the face.

 

 

The little elf girl wasn't waking up any time soon.

 

 

"FRICKIN' HELL!" Andrew exclaimed as he yanked the knife out of his chest, "I thought the damage system was binary!" He held a hand over the sucking chest wound as he cast a spell, "{Major Cure}" He paused as the spell fizzled, "Crap! Damn wound penalties!"

 

Miriam looked puzzled as she touched him on the ear, "{Trivial Damage Reflection}" The wound stopped bleeding as Miriam gained a bruise on the back of her hand, "What the Hell is wrong with you? Why would you attempt such a high-level cure when you just got wounded? You act like you've never been stabbed before!"

 

 

"I HAVEN'T!" He stopped gritting his teeth as the pain subsided. He followed up with another cure spell. This time, the wound closed properly.

 

Miriam blinked, "What? I... thought you knew everything about 'this game'." His voice had a tinge of sarcasm to it.

 

Andrew eyed the hole in his outfit and the blood stain around it, "From books! Not first hand. Damn it, I never expected the wound penalty to be so high. Damnit, concentration just got bumped to the top of my to-purchase pile."

 

Miriam was quiet as she thought about this, then spoke in a subdued tone, "Sorry. I just... assumed." She settled on the ground next to the girl, "When you take a wound like that, you should use a minor heal of some sort first. I took a point of damage for you, so that would stop you from bleeding as well as offset the pain." She looked concerned, "Everyone knows when dealing with a spell caster, any wound will disrupt their concentration. The higher circle the spell, the harder it is to cast, so if you have the time, even a trivial cure spell would be enough to clear your head for more serious spells, and since trivial heal is a zero-circle spell, it isn't something you can fail."

 

"{Cantrip: mending/cleaning}" Andrew proceeded to repair the hole in his clothes and remove the blood stain before kneeling next to their prisoner, "What the heck? She's just a kid." He scratched his head as he examined her, "Fairly messed-" He paused as he pushed her hair away and looked at the claw tattoo on her forehead. He frowned, "Crap." He ran his thumb over it, "{Erase}" It vanished.

 

Miriam fluttered closer, "What's wrong?"

 

Andrew pulled out his rope and tossed it into the air, "Rope-a-dope" The activation word triggered the item and the extradimensional hidey-hole shimmered briefly about five feet off the ground, "Get in" He commanded Miriam as he lifted the child over one shoulder, grabbed the rope with the other, and tossed her in like a sack of potatoes.

 

Miriam looked like she wanted to say something, but instead just fluttered up, grabbed the rope, and rolled inside.

 

Andrew took one last glance around, then joined them, pulling the rope inside as well. He sighed, "That was a wizard sigil. Wizard sigil plus curse means-" He was cut off by someone shouting nearby.

 

"TIRI!"

 

Miriam looked puzzled and was going to investigate when Andrew held a finger to his lips and shook his head. They both remained silent.

 

The sound of a woman came running into the area. She wasn't immediately visible, as the viewing window only looked in one direction and couldn't move. She repeatedly called out, "TIRI" as she tried to track down the child they were hiding with. She she got closer, she came into view and was searching the ground. She was an elf, also wearing rags and looking just as haggard and sickly as the child. She came to a stop where the child last lay. She seemed confused, then started looking around, even skyward.

 

"Elyin!" The sound of several others was not far off. Four male humans had arrived. Three were dressed in leather armor and appeared to hold themselves as rangers. The fourth one wore loose-fitting robes and man rings. He was a short, pudgy man who obviously took charisma as a dump stat. He just screamed wizard to Andrew's experienced eyes.

 

The fat wizard huffed as he tried to catch his breath, "Any sign?" The woman shook her head and kept scanning the area. The man sighed, "Ah well. The mark went inactive. Something must have eaten her, starting with the head. No point looking for her now."

 

The woman looked like she was unwilling to accept that and put her hands to her mouth to shout, "TIRI!"

 

"{Elyin: Strangulation}"

 

Upon the man uttering those words, the woman grabbed her throat, and shortly after fell to her knees. The wizard circled her to look her in the face, "Whatever it was, it obviously came down and snagged her in this clearing. I'm not about to lose a second slave tonight. Now shut up and head back." He looks at his fellows, "Looks like meat is off the menu. More dry rations." He sighed before stating, "{Elyin: release}

 

The woman collapsed down on all fours, gasping for air. After a bit to catch her breath, she slowly stood up, looking utterly devastated. The five slowly started to walk off.

 

As soon as Andrew thought they were too far away to hear, he whispered to Miriam, "Go after them. Follow at a distance invisibly. Do not enter their camp unless you use autohypnosis to convince yourself that you mean them no harm. They'd be fools to not use an alarm spell. Find out what you can, then come back. Autohypnosis yourself into feeling terror if you need me to come right away."

 

Miriam nodded and started to leave. Before she could toss the rope out, Andrew held up his hand to stop her, "Just so you know, I plan on murdering every last one of these motherfuckers. I hope you are good with that."

 

Miriam stared at Andrew to gauge his resolve. She said nothing and instead gave him a single head nod as a reply before leaving on her mission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miriam had no problem AT ALL.