What is the total net bonus when attacking an unconscious creature?

Question

I've been thinking about unconsciousness and performing a a coup de grâce lately. It came up in our game this past week and I want to make sure I'm understanding it correctly.

Unconscious reads:

While a creature is unconscious it is helpless, it can't take actions and it takes a -5 penalty to all defenses.

Helpless reads:

While a creatures is helpless, it grants combat advantage.

Combat advantage grants a +2 bonus to attack rolls.

I read this as a net +7 bonus to an attack roll (or -7 penalty to all defenses, however you read it) to Coup de Grâce. Is this a correct reading?

Answer 1

In many instances it's a net +7 to attack, but not all.

The variable is Combat Advantage. There are a number of ways to get Combat Advantage (any attack vs. Helpless, melee vs. Prone, melee vs. flanked, surprise, attacking from Hidden/Invisible, zones, save-ends debuffs, until-next-turn debuffs, among others) but they do not stack. No matter how many ways you have CA, you only get a +2 to attack. So if the attacker is already flanking the creature with an ally, it's only a net +5 to attack.

That said, as Erik Burigo said, Unconscious is extremely nasty.

Answer 2

Yes, it is.

You can't read it as a -7 to all defenses (bonuses on attack rolls and penalty to defenses are two different things), but you got the math.

Unconscious is a really nasty effect, and almost all attacks are auto-hit.

Remember also that, in most cases, an Unconscious creature is also Prone; and a prone creature has a +2 to all defenses against range attacks that originate from a non-adjacent source.