Does rogue sneak attack always count as lethal or can it be non-lethal?
In the campaign that I'm in, our party sometimes disables enemies instead of killing them. For those situations, I rely on melee weapon attacks. I would appreciate either input from others or reference to any prior threads that I may have missed.
D&D does not really distinguish between lethal and non-lethal damage as separate damage types.
However, the rules glossary in the Player's Handbook does have a section about knocking out a creature. It says that when you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can choose instead to reduce them to 1 HP and render them Unconscious. This can be any melee attack, regardless of damage type, and it doesn't matter what extra effects (like Sneak Attack) might be in play. But it can't be done if the creature is reduced to 0 HP by a ranged attack, or by anything that's not an attack at all.
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Does rogue sneak attack always count as lethal or can it be non-lethal?
In the campaign that I'm in, our party sometimes disables enemies instead of killing them. For those situations, I rely on melee weapon attacks. I would appreciate either input from others or reference to any prior threads that I may have missed.
D&D does not really distinguish between lethal and non-lethal damage as separate damage types.
However, the rules glossary in the Player's Handbook does have a section about knocking out a creature. It says that when you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a melee attack, you can choose instead to reduce them to 1 HP and render them Unconscious. This can be any melee attack, regardless of damage type, and it doesn't matter what extra effects (like Sneak Attack) might be in play. But it can't be done if the creature is reduced to 0 HP by a ranged attack, or by anything that's not an attack at all.
pronouns: he/she/they