Sublethal Damage

Sublethal damage is a measurement of how much non-lethal damage a character has taken. Sublethal damage can be inflicted through combat attacks, special weapons, fatigue, and other methods.

Characters have Damage Reduction against sublethal damage equal to their Endurance, though many effects, such as Disease, bypass this.

Sublethal damage starts at zero and goes up. If at any time a character's sublethal damage becomes higher than his current HP, or it is so at the beginning of his turn, that character must make a Fortitude Save (DC: 20 + the difference between the sublethal and HP values) or fall Unconscious. All actions the player takes that turn take a penalty equal to the difference between the sublethal and HP values as well.

A character cannot take more sublethal damage than his normal maximum HP. Any sublethal damage taken after this point has been reached is instead lethal damage, though it is reduced by damage reduction, as above, if applicable.

A character's Sublethal Damage total is reduced by the character's Endurance + Character Level at the end of a night (at least 6 hours) of sleep.

Using a Weapon that Deals Lethal

You can use a melee weapon which normally deals lethal damage to deal sublethal by taking a -4 to attack.