Called Shots?

I've looked around in the rule books and can't seem to find anything, and same for the other threads in the forums (but there isn't a search function), so any help you can provide will be appreciated.

Is there an official rule or house rule out there that will deal with PCs making "called shots"? For instance, in our game our archer PCs like to make "Called shots to the head!" We applied a -4 mod to the hit roll, but I couldn't think of what specific game effects could be applied to a successful "head shot". At the time in our last game, I ruled that the arrow grazed the warlord's skull both times, as the arrow damage wasn't enough to kill him, but I'd like to be better prepared to make a creative ruling for our next session (that doesn't provide them with an instant kill, thank you very much).

Has this come up for other gaming groups?

Power attack sacrifices accuracy for a more deadly strike, which is usually the desired reason for 'called shots'.

HP are supposed to keep you alive when you are struck in combat. When someone hits you for damage, they already were trying to kill you by going through whatever soft spot they could strike at. Thats why normal damge is considered lethal.

I do allow called shots, Take a -4 to hit and decide what limb you want to sever, ruin or crush etc. If you hit and the damage takes the victim to 0 or fewer HP, the result you wanted has occured. Otherwise the would was not severe enough and they were only wounded [lost HP as normal]

I don't like the idea, m'self. Trying to bypass the HP system like that brings with it a mess of problems.

As it happens, one of the 3e designers has an essay on the subject:
http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/rants/calledshots.html

I only allow called shots to the nuts. And only on the players themselves. Now that makes for some interesting PvP.

Seankreynolds does make some excellent points in his essay, there comes a point when adding more realism back into abstraction can create some problems. However, I think there is a compromise.

I'll quote him, "There is a way to handle called shots in dnd, the critical hit."

So for example, perhaps the player could take a -4 to his attack and double his critical range. This could represent a dedicated attempt to hit a vulnerable spot. However, I wouldn't go further away from the abstraction than that. If you get into specifics like head shots, body shots and the like the system becomes clunkier.

DMG pg 27 has a variant rule on dmg to specific areas.

In a game I used to play in we had called shot rules that multiplied the AC depending on the size of the part that you wanted to hit. ( I think i've posted about this before.)
IIRC a heat shot was like 2x AC, and other parts in between 1x AC and that.

The logic behind that versus as simple -4 to hit or seomthing is to make it harder to just "called shot to the head" the BBEG, but also allows for the stereotypical awesome archer decimating weaker foes. so like, to call shot an orc or something in the head (what, ac 14? ) would be ac 28, not unreasonable for a midlvl archer, and certainly helps for clearing out mooks. But vs something roughly your own lvl, like say something with AC 25, puts that up to AC 50, not impossible but nothing you'll try every round to do. But then True Strike + called shot to the head is a fun thing to do to the BBEG

You could probably just use the standard size bonus to AC chart to figure a static bonus for each part if the math was a PITA.

Table: Size Modifiers
Size Size Modifier
Small (torso?) +1
Tiny (arm?) +2
Diminutive (foot/hand/head?) +4
Fine (eye?) +8

If it seems especially appropriate, I allow "damage to locations" by the DMG in place of extra damage on a critical hit. Usually, it's just asking for trouble.

Stalker0 said:

Seankreynolds does make some excellent points in his essay, there comes a point when adding more realism back into abstraction can create some problems. However, I think there is a compromise.

I'll quote him, "There is a way to handle called shots in dnd, the critical hit."

So for example, perhaps the player could take a -4 to his attack and double his critical range. This could represent a dedicated attempt to hit a vulnerable spot. However, I wouldn't go further away from the abstraction than that. If you get into specifics like head shots, body shots and the like the system becomes clunkier.

Click to expand...

WOW. That is awesome, Stalker. That is exactly the kind of idea that I was looking for. I had no problem with how to assign hit penalties for the specified attack, but I needed something concrete and simple as the actual benefit for the successful attack.

For instance, darthkilmor, what did you have for the effect of successfully hitting the doubled AC?

thanks for your ideas.

Swashbuckling Adventures by AEG has a called shot system that can be used instead of a critical. A variant can be used as an option for a player when a critical hit would otherwise kill his/her character outright. I have used this in my Steampunk games, and am considering a variant for Spycraft - in both cases it also entails the expenditure of an action die/point.

The Auld Grump

Stalker0 said:

So for example, perhaps the player could take a -4 to his attack and double his critical range. This could represent a dedicated attempt to hit a vulnerable spot. However, I wouldn't go further away from the abstraction than that. If you get into specifics like head shots, body shots and the like the system becomes clunkier.

Click to expand...

What I've done is adapt the Massive Damage Threshold: When you make a called shot to a limb, you suffer a -4 penalty on your attack. If the damage from your attack is larger than the target's Con score, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 15). If they fail the save, the targeted limb is incapacitated until the damage is healed.

The other idea I've been playing with is using the Power Attack mechanics to represent called shots to vital organs or the head (where your goal is to deal maximum damage). They work pretty well: Subtract X from your attack roll (representing the difficulty of your called shot) and add X to your damage roll (representing the increased damage from hitting your shot). If I implemented this, I'd probably implement it as a -2 penalty to attack rolls for a +1 bonus on damage (so that Power Attack would essentially act as an "Improved" version of this general mechanic).

Your idea of doubling the critical range, though, is inspired.