But if you accidentally get her to zero nonlethally, will she get up and negotiate with you? Or will she just lay there forever and/or immediately resume hostilities to the death?
In other words, what's the difference between using non-lethal attacks vs using attacks that just don't do a lot of damage?
I've never actually tried this with Ethel, but I guess she might work the same as Fezzerk (sp?), the lead goblin at the windmill, if you fight him with Wyll. If you hit him with a melee attack that would have killed him without the non-lethal toggle on, it will trigger his surrender dialogue (ie the same dialogue that you'd get if you reduced his HP below a certain threshold without killing him).