D&D 5E Attacking a Creature Engulfing A PC (or in a Grapple, I suppose)

Kalshane · Feb 25, 2015

shidaku said:
True, but the main point is still the difficulty in the representation of two different parts of the body being able to take the same hit and suffer more or less damage respectively. I'm reminded of the body-charts from Deadlands (or any other RPG with a body-target chart) wherein certain parts of the body take increasing damage and can potentially one-shot your character when their damage is maximized. If you're not familiar, in Deadlands each body section has a fixed amount of HP and your die-roll represents which body part takes damage. Maxing the damage to the leg or arm can result in a "dead leg" situation, damaged beyond repair but still attached or completely severed, depending. But if the gut, head or chest take maximum damage, you're DEAD, boom right there dropped DEAD.

Shock and blood-loss are well-represented by the SSSoD system of death saving throws already.

I'm just saying that for a system like D&D 5E where the game doesn't (generally) pay attention to hit locations, it's probably not worth adjusting the damage based on where the creature is attached. Especially since losing your leg (or even just having the femoral artery punctured/severed) can make you just as dead as your friend accidentally stabbing you in the eye could.

Trevalon Moonleirion · Feb 25, 2015

Roger said:
You might consider how the Animated Object -- Rug of Smothering's ability of Damage Transfer works, for the RAW implementation of this concept.

Cheers,
Roger

This is exactly the kind of simple I was looking for--annoyed I missed this during my flip through the books. Thank you!

And thanks to everyone for the consideration and replies!

Sunseeker · Feb 25, 2015

Kalshane said:
I'm just saying that for a system like D&D 5E where the game doesn't (generally) pay attention to hit locations, it's probably not worth adjusting the damage based on where the creature is attached. Especially since losing your leg (or even just having the femoral artery punctured/severed) can make you just as dead as your friend accidentally stabbing you in the eye could.

True, I wouldn't mind having a "body chart" for characters though. Perhaps some kind of system of AC +X, so matching the AC is just a general body hit, AC+1 could be a specific limb, AC+2 could be some other part and so on. Then add damage mondifiers per section. +1d4 for a limb, +1d6 for groin, +2d8 for head, etc...

would be an interesting mod rule.

Kalshane · Feb 25, 2015

shidaku said:
True, I wouldn't mind having a "body chart" for characters though. Perhaps some kind of system of AC +X, so matching the AC is just a general body hit, AC+1 could be a specific limb, AC+2 could be some other part and so on. Then add damage mondifiers per section. +1d4 for a limb, +1d6 for groin, +2d8 for head, etc...

would be an interesting mod rule.

Sure. You can certainly mod in some kind of Called Shot system. I was just arguing that absent such a system already being in place, only adding it in when someone's got a giant leach stuck to their head or whatever probably isn't worth the bother. That level of specificity is unnecessary for something that's likely to be a corner case. (Well, unless you've got a PC with the Flaw "I can't resist sticking my head into dangerous places.")

Sunseeker · Feb 25, 2015

Kalshane said:
Sure. You can certainly mod in some kind of Called Shot system. I was just arguing that absent such a system already being in place, only adding it in when someone's got a giant leach stuck to their head or whatever probably isn't worth the bother. That level of specificity is unnecessary for something that's likely to be a corner case. (Well, unless you've got a PC with the Flaw "I can't resist sticking my head into dangerous places.")

Right, I'm not running this current game, but I really get the feeling that a lot of the "carried over damage" is being made up on the fly, and not in a consistent manner. Someone does 1d8 to a creature, the grappled guy takes 4d6 with no rhyme or reason. lolwut?