I want to deal LESS damage

[rel]

strange request I know.
I'm looking for feats and other effects that reduce the damage dealt by attacks.

[Gruftzwerg]

strange request I know.
I'm looking for feats and other effects that reduce the damage dealt by attacks.

easiest way would be throwing shuriken in your offhand imho (low weapon dmg + 1/2 Str bonus).

add any kind of strength zapping magic if needed.

or maybe custom item "-2 cursed shuriken"?

[heavyfuel]

Hmm, not really less damage, but dealing non-lethal damage essentially doubles the amount healing spells cure AND it basically ensures people won't die from your attacks

When a spell or a magical power cures hit point damage, it also removes an equal amount of nonlethal damage.

Also, anything that reduces your attack bonus diminishes your damage per round as well, so there's that

[Inevitability]

Take the Thrall Bred feat and deliberately avoid your charge. It's good for a -2 penalty on damage rolls.

[Barbarian Horde]

I got one... Improvised weapon, use it. DO not take the feat for it. You'll get that 1d4 damage with -4 to hit. I promise your damage output just got low.

[Afgncaap5]

Is there a mechanical reason, with some other mechanical benefit you want to gain? Or is it a roleplaying reason where, narratively, it might be more satisfying, fun, or worthwhile to do less damage, such as in an interrogation or while training martial artist students who can't keep up with your crazy damage output during sparring?

If the former... there are many ways. I'd get a Cleric or Wizard to cast Bestow Curse on you for the former, with a chosen effect of -6 to your Strength score with a duration of Permanent. If it's something even weirder, like, say, you want to always do a certain amount of damage no matter the circumstances... I'll second the suggestion for Shuriken, but be a small-sized creature (doing 1 point of damage instead of having to roll) thereby giving a fixed "base" number of 1 damage.

If the latter... nonlethal is the easiest way to go, since it's sort of a "second health bar" that's related to the main pool of HP but distinct from it. For special circumstances like the sparring with students example, you might be able to work with a DM to create a third method of damage that's better suited to representing your situation (like, say, giving everyone in the sparring match an amount of health equal to their constitution modifier, and you always reducing exactly one amount of health whenever you hit them, using something like a skill check (Perform (Martial Technique)?) to represent your attack).

[heavyfuel]

While Im pretty sure this isnt RAW, I think most DMs would allow to simply not hit as hard as you can. Maybe just using this is enough for you to get a minus whatever you want to hit, and 1 damage per hit, which is the minimum

[Lizard Monarch]

Arcane Duelist has an ability, Dextrous Attack, which is like the opposite of power attack, subtracting from damage and adding to accuracy.

[Cruiser1]

I'm looking for feats and other effects that reduce the damage dealt by attacks.

There are actually RAW rules that allow you to intentionally reduce the damage of your attacks. CA p176 has rules for spell duels, which allow casters to voluntarily make their spells less lethal. There's nothing special or magical about the duel environment, so casters can do the same at any time. The following two things can be done:

• Spells cast can be chosen to be "pulled", dealing half normal damage. Only applies to spells with descriptors of any energy, Force, or Shadow.
• Spells can be made non-lethal, even without the Nonlethal Substitution feat. Only applies to spells with melee attack rolls, and they take -4 penalty to attack.

However, the two things above don't always work, in which a 1 on a d100% roll means the spell deals full damage or lethal damage as normal. These actions apply to spells, but presumably similar things can be done with melee (at least as a houserule if it's not RAW somewhere). For example, choosing to hit with the side of your sword (to hit like an improvised weapon), or just choosing to not swing as hard (which would give you an effective lower STR bonus, decreasing your attack roll and reducing your damage).

[rel]

Thanks for the suggestions people.

Since people are curious, the goal here is to rewrite some of the classic monsters to do less damage so PC's don't have to be super optimised and combat lasts longer and is more fun.

[Inevitability]

Thanks for the suggestions people.

Since people are curious, the goal here is to rewrite some of the classic monsters to do less damage so PC's don't have to be super optimised and combat lasts longer and is more fun.

How do you feel about a houserule doing exactly that?

[tedcahill2]

Thanks for the suggestions people.

Since people are curious, the goal here is to rewrite some of the classic monsters to do less damage so PC's don't have to be super optimised and combat lasts longer and is more fun.

Why would you need a rule for that? If you're rewriting a classic monster you're already making house rules, so why not just house rule their damage to be lower?

[Elkad]

Give them all a wasting disease that lowers Str (Devil Chills, Red Ache, or similar)?

[rel]

I want to stick to the 3.5 idea that monsters are built like PC's and their abilities flow from their stats HD feats and so forth.

So simply saying the monster does less damage is not really what I want.

Reducing strength can work but an orc barbarian with 8 strength is a bit... odd and has flow on effects to things like to hit, grapple, the ability to lift that greataxe and so on.

I'm interested in seeing the house rule Inevitability mentioned.

[Inevitability]

I'm interested in seeing the house rule Inevitability mentioned.

The 'houserule' is just telling your players: 'as a general rule, all monsters have a certain penalty on damage rolls, which I do to make combat last longer and is more fun'. If everyone agrees, why make it harder than it needs to be?

[Malroth]

Give everything and everyone 4x as many HP and the ability to negate any failed save by spending 1/4 of their max HP. Combats will last forever, DPS classes will be much more effective and Save or Loose spells will only come into play to finish off an already weakened opponent.

[Vogie]

The Merciful enchantment for Pathfinder increases damage by 1d6, but makes all damage by the weapon nonlethal.

This is... kind of what your looking for. On a certain level. Ish