Playing the other day and we had a conversation about the rule regarding knocking opponents out as they drop to zero HP. The rules seem to say that when an attack reduces an opponent to zero you can choose to knock him unconscious. In melee this is I suppose an abstraction that makes some sense but does this extend to ranged attacks? Can a player knick a monster unconscious with a javelin or an arrow? That seems an abstraction too far perhaps. Or am I missing something?
As per the Player's Handbook, page 198 (or here), in the paragraph "Knocking a Creature Out", the wording is "When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out." Emphasis mine.
So, ranged attacks are out. Note, however, that melee spell attacks (such as the one delivered by Shocking Grasp) still count.
Playing the other day and we had a conversation about the rule regarding knocking opponents out as they drop to zero HP. The rules seem to say that when an attack reduces an opponent to zero you can choose to knock him unconscious. In melee this is I suppose an abstraction that makes some sense but does this extend to ranged attacks? Can a player knick a monster unconscious with a javelin or an arrow? That seems an abstraction too far perhaps. Or am I missing something?
As per the Player's Handbook, page 198 (or here), in the paragraph "Knocking a Creature Out", the wording is "When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out." Emphasis mine.
So, ranged attacks are out. Note, however, that melee spell attacks (such as the one delivered by Shocking Grasp) still count.
As onyx said, it has to be a melee attack.
Ah, my bad. Thanks for that.