D&D 5E Aimed Shots

[Arctic Wolf]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to ask you all what you do if someone wants to do a called shot to try and kill an enemy quickly? From my first look of the PH, I didn't see anything and would like to add that mechanic in there. I was thinking that you would call if it was aimed or not and then do a normal at roll and if it hits it then be rolled on a chart I am making for criticals, but if you miss then the enemy can counterattack with an aimed shot at you if you fail. Let me know what you think and if there is a better way to do it if possible.

 

[Paraxis]

Not every successful attack is a hit to the flesh. You have to look at hit points differently, the attack that drops the target to 0 h.p is a shot to the vital areas.

If a player wants to do extra precision damage there are class abilities like that, rogue sneak attack and ranger colossus slayer.
There are also feats like sharpshooter where the character can take a -5 to hit for a +10 to damage, I describe this as a called shot most of the time.

If a character wants to do some kind of special effect with a called shot, what I do is apply disadvantage to roll and ask what they want to accomplish things that I have let them do mimic some of the fighter battlemaster things like disarm an object, blind an enemy for a round (there was a save), stuff like that.

If you let people say "I shoot it in the head for a kill shot" everyone will do that all the time, especially against the PC's just don't open that can of worms.

 

[EvanNave55]

The problem with that is: what if they are ranged and the enemies have no way to hit there's no real penalty.

Also what sort of chart are you thinking, a hit chart? or some sort of chart for severity?

Atleast in previous additions they had a system in which it'd be a penalty to hit based on how big the thing your aiming at is, for example to hit a limb such as an arm or leg it might be a -5 penalty, and something tiny like an eye would be -15. However in this addition they've tried to stay away from huge bonuses and penalties to hit like in 3.5/pathfinder. So maybe disadvantage for limbs such as arms/legs (as (dis)advantage has been equated with +/- 5 in passive checks. Then for every size smaller than that a cumulative penalty along with disadvantage. For example

Player: "I make an aimed shot at the cyclops' eye to blind it."
DM: "Alright that's a -3 penalty with disadvantage."
Player: "Wait, why?!"
DM: "Well that's a large creature so add one size increment to each body part and an eye is size 3 body part which makes it size 2. That means disadvantage with a -3 penalty as well."

Too clarify the rules (which I just thought up so edit as you need)
called shots mean disadvantage and cumulative -3 penalty for size rating and for each size category above medium add 1 to it, each size below subtract 1 to a minimum of a normal hit.
Body part l Size rating l penalty to hit
general body l 0 l 0
large limb1 l 1 l disadvantage
small limb2 l 2 l disadvantage and -3
anatomy3 l 3 l disadvantage and -6

1: arms, legs, etc
2: head, hands, feet, etc.
3: specific parts of body like eyes, achilles tendon, etc.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Not every successful attack is a hit to the flesh. You have to look at hit points differently, the attack that drops the target to 0 h.p is a shot to the vital areas.

If a player wants to do extra precision damage there are class abilities like that, rogue sneak attack and ranger colossus slayer.
There are also feats like sharpshooter where the character can take a -5 to hit for a +10 to damage, I describe this as a called shot most of the time.

If a character wants to do some kind of special effect with a called shot, what I do is apply disadvantage to roll and ask what they want to accomplish things that I have let them do mimic some of the fighter battlemaster things like disarm an object, blind an enemy for a round (there was a save), stuff like that.

If you let people say "I shoot it in the head for a kill shot" everyone will do that all the time, especially against the PC's just don't open that can of worms.

Can't really sum it up better than this.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

There are feats like Sharpshooter that let you increase your damage for an accuracy penalty that resemble the called-shot mechanic. Otherwise, just accept that the battle mechanic in D&D doesn't work that way. It's not meant to resemble reality, it's a structure for playing out fantasy combat. There's a difference.

 

[Li Shenron]

Stuff like feats or class abilities address the issue only on the long-term, so they are good for players who want their PC to employ this tactic regularly. But they don't provide an immediate solution, basically you're just telling the players "No, you can't. Not you, not now".

However the problem IMO is more interesting when you have a game where occasionally it would be cool to be able to do a call shots. It might seem that called shots rules are useful in games with a lot of called shots based tactics, but they are actually more needed for the occasional occurrence, so that PCs don't have to take those feats.

If there is no specific rule available for called shots in this edition, I'd make up something based on the principle that you would trade probability of success for increased effect. Something as simple as setting a much higher AC, due to your target being a smaller part of the creature. But if you miss, you miss, you don't hit the creature around the target.

 

[Nebulous]

Not every successful attack is a hit to the flesh. You have to look at hit points differently, the attack that drops the target to 0 h.p is a shot to the vital areas.

If a player wants to do extra precision damage there are class abilities like that, rogue sneak attack and ranger colossus slayer.
There are also feats like sharpshooter where the character can take a -5 to hit for a +10 to damage, I describe this as a called shot most of the time.

If a character wants to do some kind of special effect with a called shot, what I do is apply disadvantage to roll and ask what they want to accomplish things that I have let them do mimic some of the fighter battlemaster things like disarm an object, blind an enemy for a round (there was a save), stuff like that.

If you let people say "I shoot it in the head for a kill shot" everyone will do that all the time, especially against the PC's just don't open that can of worms.

By far the best way to do it. Disadvantage, then a short term penalty the DM describes, and a chance to resist it. Keeping it simple is really the way to go in this sort of abstract combat system. If you think something is particularly tricky, or the result is especially debilitating, add a -1 to the disadvantage roll. 5e doesn't encourage +1/-1 penalties like that, but it's certainly within the bounds of the game and has its uses.

 

[Wolfskin]

This is how I look at it: an "aimed shot" would be a critical hit- it's implicit your character is trying to deal maximum damage to his target, but since the target is trying to avoid being hit, you can't just state "I attack to bypass the armor" because that's what your character is doing in-game.

However, if you really want to model called shots on the mechanical level, I suggest this: the called attack roll has disadvantage, and on a hit you deal maximum damage (i.e. 10 on a 1d8+2 roll)

 

[Nebulous]

This is how I look at it: an "aimed shot" would be a critical hit- it's implicit your character is trying to deal maximum damage to his target, but since the target is trying to avoid being hit, you can't just state "I attack to bypass the armor" because that's what your character is doing in-game.

However, if you really want to model called shots on the mechanical level, I suggest this: the called attack roll has disadvantage, and on a hit you deal maximum damage (i.e. 10 on a 1d8+2 roll)

Good idea. Penalty with a tradeoff, nice and simple. I guess though, to play Devil's advocate, anytime the player has Advantage, he can cancel the Disadvantage, roll normally, say it was an aimed attack and deal maximum damage. Just something to consider. Or, you could simple rule that you can only try it if you have Disadvantage.

 

[Sage Genesis]

This is how I look at it: an "aimed shot" would be a critical hit- it's implicit your character is trying to deal maximum damage to his target, but since the target is trying to avoid being hit, you can't just state "I attack to bypass the armor" because that's what your character is doing in-game.

Exactly this. Every single attack is an "aimed shot" already because it represents spotting, creating, and exploiting openings well enough to score a meaningful enough blow. Bypassing armor is what the d20 roll is already for and there are numerous other mechanics already in place to measure especially damaging attacks (e.g. sneak attack).

D&D is simply not the kind of game where you're supposed to dispatch a high-level foe in a single lucky or skilled strike. If you want that kind of action, there are plenty of other RPGs out there that can do this for you. D&D is a decent game but it's not the only game. Play to its strengths rather than trying to go against the grain. I find that gaming becomes much easier if you use specialized games that aim for a certain kind of action rather than trying to contort D&D into some sort of generic universal game.