Make them declare nonlethal damage before the attack roll, then treat it as “temporary damage” that all goes away as soon as they wake up or pass their death saves. The players will stop when villains start standing up again.
I appreciate and admire the suggestions about how to roleplay these captive interrogation encounters. That's not really my issue. Let's try this- a fighter with a great axe checks his sheet makes sure he is using every modifier he can to attack and damage because he has to put this guy down else the party might lose. And wham -solid hit- great damage roll- the bad guy goes down and THEN the player tells me "I just want to knock him out". It is that easy. it lacks realism and frankly encourages lazy gaming,
I never allow retcons like this unless it was a genuine oversight on the player's part. Your players clearly use this knock-out strategy a lot so they obviously know it's an option; asking to undo the severity of the blow after the fact strikes me as metagaming. If you don't do it already, I suggest you tell your players you're making a new rule that they must declare whether they are attacking non-lethally before they roll to hit, otherwise it's a fatal blow.
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Make them declare nonlethal damage before the attack roll, then treat it as “temporary damage” that all goes away as soon as they wake up or pass their death saves. The players will stop when villains start standing up again.
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I never allow retcons like this unless it was a genuine oversight on the player's part. Your players clearly use this knock-out strategy a lot so they obviously know it's an option; asking to undo the severity of the blow after the fact strikes me as metagaming. If you don't do it already, I suggest you tell your players you're making a new rule that they must declare whether they are attacking non-lethally before they roll to hit, otherwise it's a fatal blow.