Suffocation as a tactic

[PolterGhost]

Interesting question to players and DMs: Have you or were you allowed to ever do anything involving suffocating the opponents, such as through spell effects or through something more simple such as strangulation?

The main reason I ask is that I'm going to be running an assassin character in a game, and one of his main weapons of choice is a garrote. I figured that if I could get behind the foe and choke them to death their friends would be in for a major world of hurt as they're stumbling around wondering what happened to Bob.

It also makes for an interesting battle tactic to drag away whomever I can get my hands on, leave them at near-death in the corner for interrogation later, and use a scroll of Disguise Self to look like the guy and backstab his buddies.

 

[Croesus]

I can't tell from your post what edition you're using, so I can't address RAW.

That said, as a GM, anything like that would have to fit within the framework of the system. For example, in HERO, that would be a no-range NND attack. If D&D, a garrote would require a standard to hit roll and do hit point damage, including sneak attack damage if the initial attack is by surprise. While the garrote is in place, I could see not allowing the target to communicate vocally (assuming a humanoid), but you'd still have issues of the target trying to shake off its attacker, kicking stuff over, etc.

What I would not do is allow a garrote to bypass the hit point mechanic, turning it into some kind of save or die effect. D&D has too many of those already, and in some versions, those become far too powerful, especially at higher levels.

I'd also watch any other impacts of allowing garrotes and choking attacks - if I found that they were used too often, I'd know some more tweaking was needed. If, on the other hand, they weren't used when it would make dramatic sense (such as taking out the guard stealthily to infiltrate the enemy camp), I'd question the players to find out why and tweak as needed.

 

[fireinthedust]

I'd say D&D legacy likely intends 3e, but I can't say so 100%

I don't know if suffocation is a heroic action, but this is a good question for villains as well.

If it was Pathfinder, I'd say some kind of combat maneuver attack (CMB vs. CMD) would be needed.

You'd basically be maintaining a grapple for several rounds, as long as it takes for that NPC to suffocate according to the rules. That's several rounds of rolls, not an instant save or die. You'd have their action including trying to escape the grapple, plus failed rolls on your part (the malignant 1) setting them free.

Also, each round you'd need some sort of opposed Stealth check, to grapple them in a way that doesn't make noise. Or you could Stealth vs Perception of the NPC companions, with a substantial DC because the NPC is struggling.

If it were a PC being strangled, I'd give them the option of using their action to escape or to make noise. ...hmmm, I think I just made up my villain!

 

[anest1s]

garrote, then sneak attack every round?

(I mean that special garrote which locks after being placed...)