How severe would you rule the damage done?

[Jhaelen]

Well, basically, there is no clear rule for maiming a character. So it is up to DM, you, whether if it considered to be a loss of body part or a simple injury.

IMHO, what more important is, if you want to let the PC pay extra cost for the player's RP (or your story).

If you don't like to punish the PC (and thus the player) for this, you can either let him cure with usual cure spells, or, give him opportunity to get regeneration for free.

Seconded!

 

[akbearfoot]

As a GM, I wouldn't let the PC use his teeth to initiate a martial maneuver, unless he posessed a natural bite attack. Most PCs do not natural bite attacks.

I wouldn't even let improved unarmed strike work, or a monk do it, unless there was some sort of RP reason to allow it...like specialized monk school that mimics Pihranna style or somesuch

But if one were to allow it, then I'd say that it would have caused actual damage....I would probably have had it do enough damage to drop him to exactly 0 hitpoints and then a fortitude saving throw or drop to -1hp and bleeding. However if he managed to survive, I don't see a reason why a normal cure wouldnt work...Cure light wounds can heal broken bones and cure internal bleeding. Why can't it reset some dislocated teeth, as long as he still has access to the lost teeth. Only very specific things are immune to cure spells, such as lost limbs. And most of the things that could remove limbs were taken out in 3.x....ie weapons of sharpness.


I have to admit the whole premise of this post is....unseemly. I get squeamish at the thought of playing a game where torture is anything more than background. 'You save the prisoners, and its obvious they've been tortured' sort of thing. I definitely wouldn't have handled a session like that well, where the GM actually subjects the PCs to torture. Decapitations and executions are 1 thing, but I think torture is irredeemably evil and inhuman. Thats just sort of a whole new dimension to fantasy that I will never want to delve into. It may be realistic, and probable since the PCs are usually fighting against the evil inhuman BBEGs, but its not in the realm of what I consider to be anything close to fun. It's the main reason I've never played a female character in any rpg....the fear of what a GM might do to her if she were ever captured, and the inevitable 'sorry guys this isn't the right gaming group for me' that would follow.

 

[The_Warlock]

As a suggestion, make it about options...

He has severly injured and effectively crippled his mouth, breaking and re-arranging teeth, and likely ripping and scarring flesh inside the mouth.

Let's use the old Clay Golem as a fabulous resource for "Wounds that Don't Heal Normal-like"

The Mouth injury can be healed by the following methods:

Any Cure spell or the Heal spell can rectify the damage, so long as the caster of the Cure spell rolls a Caster Level check vs. DC 30. They receive a special bonus to the roll equal to the spell level of the Cure spell cast.

Impossible for a low level priest to do, but an 8th level cleric with a Cure Serious Wounds spell has a chance.

Restoration and Greater Restoration can undo the damage with a DC 25 level Caster Check, no spell level bonus, since as described it's not currently an Ability Drain effect.

In both instances, if the caster level check fails, that priest can't cure the wound without using a higher level spell or gaining a level.

Regeneration works straight up.

Now it's a quest in and of itself to find a priest of a friendly faith who can acheive the cure, and meeting his price or quest demands.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I think people here are suggesting you treat it as ability drain , not just damage, charisma drain to be more precise.

Which doesn't heal naturally, and can be cured by a Restoration spell.

Are there existing examples of normal physical trauma dealing ability drain in the game already? I can't think of any, and it seems odd.

Seconded!

I don't like making PCs pay for RPing, but he readily admitted it wasn't the smartest thing to do. And before I even talked about finding a caster to help him, he had already looked up the price for a level 7 spell and was ok with paying it. And it's a far cry from the expense of a raise dead spell or similar. Really, he got pretty into the whole scene in general. After doing that, he kept demanding the main NPC to just execute him already (using the mind link). I had the NPC reply, "Being too hasty is what left you like that, don't you ever learn?" and tried to RP with the other players, but he just wouldn't shut up about it. Finally, I just had the NPC kick him in the head to knock him out. It was weird, the player was both very happy about how he got to "flesh out his character" but at the same time at one point exclaimed, "Wow, Artemis [his character] is psychotic!" I guess he surprised himself.

As a GM, I wouldn't let the PC use his teeth to initiate a martial maneuver, unless he posessed a natural bite attack. Most PCs do not natural bite attacks.

I wouldn't even let improved unarmed strike work, or a monk do it, unless there was some sort of RP reason to allow it...like specialized monk school that mimics Pihranna style or somesuch

I usually am pretty lenient in allowing things that shouldn't be possible by RAW.

But if one were to allow it, then I'd say that it would have caused actual damage....I would probably have had it do enough damage to drop him to exactly 0 hitpoints and then a fortitude saving throw or drop to -1hp and bleeding. However if he managed to survive, I don't see a reason why a normal cure wouldnt work...Cure light wounds can heal broken bones and cure internal bleeding. Why can't it reset some dislocated teeth, as long as he still has access to the lost teeth. Only very specific things are immune to cure spells, such as lost limbs. And most of the things that could remove limbs were taken out in 3.x....ie weapons of sharpness.

Granted, but I just don't really like the idea of all injuries going on the same hp system and being easily cured. I realize 3E doesn't support that so well, and I'd never want things like called shots in combat. But this was not combat, and was a pretty major injury. Also, I don't think what happened should necessarily leave someone automatically dying.

I have to admit the whole premise of this post is....unseemly. I get squeamish at the thought of playing a game where torture is anything more than background.

That's why I warned about people reading about the scenario.

'You save the prisoners, and its obvious they've been tortured' sort of thing. I definitely wouldn't have handled a session like that well, where the GM actually subjects the PCs to torture. Decapitations and executions are 1 thing, but I think torture is irredeemably evil and inhuman. Thats just sort of a whole new dimension to fantasy that I will never want to delve into. It may be realistic, and probable since the PCs are usually fighting against the evil inhuman BBEGs, but its not in the realm of what I consider to be anything close to fun.

Small rant of a reply
[sblock]I understand. And I do enjoy a typical good-guy game where such graphic things don't get depicted. But the current game is an evil party, mostly religious-based for its motivations, the ultimate goal being complete deicide (except for the one they follow; and half the party may very well turn on said god before then because they don't want any gods) and destruction of existence...so it can be redone, better. Suffice to say, it's a dark game. They've taken joy in murdering innocents, and will undoubtedly do raping and torturing of their own with time. Being evil, they also don't have much to hold them together as allies, so I'm presenting the main opposition as fiercely dogmatic as possible. I also want to put them through hardship and difficulties, to kind of help bring them together, both out of need and (hopefully) eventually friendship. The ones doing this to them now are (hopefully still) good, and are only doing what is necessary to try and reverse what they've done -- getting them to renounce their god would have helped in that regard. None of the tortures went far enough to do long term or really serious damage. Being good guys, they don't really have the stomach for that. If the party ever gets captured by Vecna's followers, say... it would be significantly worse for them.

Far as the current party... two are utter religious fanatics of their deity, willing to do anything at all they think is his will, asking questions of if it's morally wrong being down-right blasphemous. One seeks ultimate power for himself and enjoys arson and watching people get burned alive. The last (jello-mouth) is a raving psycho who thinks all the gods are a blight on man and considers killing innocent people just fine...as long as you give them a proper execution. In terms of karma, they deserve everything they get. [/sblock]

It's the main reason I've never played a female character in any rpg....the fear of what a GM might do to her if she were ever captured, and the inevitable 'sorry guys this isn't the right gaming group for me' that would follow.

[sblock]That's just a silly reason to me. Not all games are like that, and if the game is, it has nothing to do with your character choice. Also, D&D is quite gender-neutral. Surely there are gay enemies, psychotic drow women with strap-ons, and smelly burly ogres that see anything man-sized as "feminine" out there that would gladly defile a male PC. [/sblock]

As a suggestion, make it about options...

Good baselines, I may end up doing that. Since they didn't even start the escape yet, I won't really need to figure out what spell is needed for at least another week and a half.

Now it's a quest in and of itself to find a priest of a friendly faith who can acheive the cure, and meeting his price or quest demands.

There really aren't many friendly faiths for the party, which makes it all the more fun. I could even see them trying to find a kindly old priest and try to get a free healing by using bluffs to make Artemis sound like sound kind of hero that fought off bandits or similar. The party really does seem to like lying, even when they don't have to.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

To update: They did a lot more roleplaying than I expected and thus instead of starting the escape the middle of the session the torture occured in, it wasn't until the middle of this week's session. To compund matters, they have managed to bungle through every square inch of the labyrinth-like prison while escaping, even at one point reaching a split path, picking the one that wasn't trapped, but then getting so confused at which way to go... went back down the way they came -- down the trapped corridor! I'm so happy all my work trapping the place hasn't gone for naught!

[sblock]They have no ranks in Survival (to auto-intuit true north and figure out if they're going in a circle) between them, no trapfinder, no elf (detect secret doors), no dwarf (stonecunning), and none of them seem interested in mapping their path so...it's been rather comical for me so far. Don't feel bad for them -- they're all gestalt, they have no excuse for being so ill-prepared for such scenarios.[/sblock]

So, anyway...it'll take at least to the end of next week's session to even escape, and the rate they're going...it'll take a lot of effort to manage that. After that, game's off for 3 weeks due to holidays and vacations, so I really won't have to deal with this for a while.

We did reach a solution, though. The player likes the idea of turning it into an adventure and will run one to cure his character soon after we escape. (It is rotating DM, I'm just the one in charge. I have a PC among the party suffering the escape along with them right now.)

 

[roguerouge]

I second the restoration of ability drain damage, although I kind of like a temporary fix option of a really high heal check.

 

[billd91]

I'd just have a cure spell handle the basics of the damage - like cure is supposed to do - fixing the jaw, the mangled gums, the cracked teeth still in place, etc. But of course, that wouldn't regrow lost teeth or fix chips. It would just fix him back to his new "normal" as far as his healthy mouth goes, with a lot more gaps in his smile.
Regeneration would fix the rest, but at that point I doubt it would be worth it.