Options for leveraging non-lethal damage

Question

What options exist for creating a character focused on doing solely non-lethal damage? Are there ways to have increased damage output compared to a lethal-damage-dealing characters by accepting the restriction of being only able to do non-lethal damage as a trade-off? Can a character that only deals non-lethal damage be built as a "high damage" character, relatively speaking?

Answer 1

Nonlethal Damage

Core

It's actually quite simple to do this. In the SRD, you'll see a rule that allows you to deal nonlethal damage with any weapon that normally deals lethal damage:

Nonlethal Damage with a Weapon that Deals Lethal Damage

You can use a melee weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage instead, but you take a –4 penalty on your attack

... which makes sense. You have to take much more care not to kill someone with a sword and just knock them out. But the option is there for you! And it makes for very cool character fluff, in my opinion.

Also, as @GMJoe kindly pointed out, there is a core enchantment in the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide (pg. 225) called Merciful for only a +1 bonus. You'll certainly want this (assuming you don't use one of the weapons which already deals nonlethal damage):

The weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of damage, and all damage it deals is nonlethal damage. On command, the weapon suppresses this ability until commanded to resume it. Bows, crossbows, and slings so crafted bestow the merciful effect upon their ammunition.

Other Source Books

The best sources for nonlethal damage in books outside of core come from the Book of Exalted Deeds:

• pg. 34, Nonlethal Weapons: Contains, as you might expect, a broader range of weapons which only inflict nonlethal damage. Can be upgraded per the normal magic item rules and you don't need to take the -4 attack bonus associated with the above rule. Includes...
  • Truncheon: 1d8 nonlethal, bludgeoning, martial, one-handed melee weapon
  • Entangling Pole: 1d4 nonlethal, piercing, exotic, two-handed melee weapon
  • Grasping Pole: 1d4 nonlethal, bludgeoning, exotic, two-handed melee weapon
  • Lasso (yee-haw!): special, --, ranged weapon (10 ft.)
• pg. 40, Feats: There are a couple of feats which will allow you to deal nonlethal damage more effectively. Again, all of these come at the cost of the feat, so they will still essentially make you less effective than someone doing lethal damage (who at least has one feat up on you).
  • Subduing Strike: No penalty when dealing nonlethal damage; rogue’s sneak attack deals nonlethal damage
  • Holy Subdual: Transform bonus and smite damage to nonlethal
  • Nonlethal Substitution: Transform spell’s energy damage to nonlethal
  • Vow of Nonviolence: +4 to spell DC if it does not deal real damage
  • Vow of Peace: calm emotions aura, +2 natural AC, +2 deflection AC, +2 exalted AC, some normal weapons shatter when they contact you, +4 Diplomacy

Optimal Build (?)

So, really, it looks like your best bet would be to become a traditional, overpowered spellcaster, take the Nonlethal Substitution feat (which will allow you to use your spells to deal nonlethal damage), then use the various Vow feats to increase your other statistics. That looks like maximum leverage to me. I don't know of any other source books that would really contribute much to this effort.

Addendum

As far as dealing more damage than a normal damage dealer, that is likely next to impossible without being very, very creative. For starters, there just aren't that many sources of nonlethal damage in the core rules. If you look in the Environment section, it might be possible for you to make some homebrew rules with your DM based on these (i.e., cold effects which numb instead of kill). If you want to stay strictly within the RAW, though, I think your best bet for having a highly functioning nonlethal character would be to have a spellcaster of some kind who only utilizes sleep spells, hold person spells, and the like. I didn't include this in the main answer because these effects don't technically deal damage, but it's an option which may appeal to you.

Answer 2

If you are looking to build a non-lethal melee build to keep up in comparative damage to lethal combat, I recommend the Justiciar Prestige Class. Found on pages 47-48 of the Complete Warrior source-book, The Justiciar is a full base attack progression class with good will saves. Appears to be intended for rogue or ranger classes (Entry reqs include the Track feat/class ability and 5 ranks of Gather Information, as well as Skill Focus- Gather Info) who want to play the period-appropriate "cop" (must be lawful alignment) or the "Worth more alive than dead" bounty hunter type. This class, for a 1-level dip, offers "Bring them Back Alive" and 1d6 "Nonlethal Strikes" which functions as (and stacks with) Sneak Attack, but only applies when using "Bring em back alive".

Bring ’em Back Alive (Ex): Whenever a justiciar attacks with a melee weapon, he can deal nonlethal damage with the weapon instead of lethal damage with no penalty on the attack roll. Normally, attempting to deal nonlethal damage with a weapon in this way incurs a –4 penalty on the attack roll.

Pair this class with a class like rogue, ranger, or scout, the "Merciful" ability applied to any 2-handed weapon, a mid-range Intelligence score, and other standard melee build styles, and you should at least be able to keep pace damage-wise with a melee ranger.

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As an added potential use, I used this PrC with a Razorclaw Shifter Rokugan Ninja/Scout build and the Vow of Poverty feat with the Vow of Nonviolence and Vow of Peace from BoED. The party Arcane Hierophant cast Greater Magic Weapon on my unarmed strike/claws and used permanency to make them stick. I followed up this class with levels of Kensai to improve my natural weapons. I ended up working as the "Royal Bounty Hunter", bringing Criminals back to the Capital for trial through 3 kingdoms...