Good garrote rules?

[Celebrim]

Does anyone have some suggestions regarding garrote rules and strangling in general?

Striking a balance between too powerful and too weak has always seem particularly troublesome.

 

[Nagol]

I use a combination of grappling and suffocation to simulate a garrote.

I treat the garrote as an exotic weapon that doesn't increase unarmed damage.

Attacking a flat-footed victim halves the number of rounds the character can hold its breath before making checks and gives a +4 bonus on the grappling check to keep the pressure on.

Between the unarmed damage and the eventual suffocation, it seems to work reasonably well. It also provides a character multiple opportunities to escape reasonably unscathed so it works well as a scary but modestly impotent threat against PCs.

 

[Celebrim]

I treat the garrote as an exotic weapon that doesn't increase unarmed damage.

Attacking a flat-footed victim halves the number of rounds the character can hold its breath before making checks and gives a +4 bonus on the grappling check to keep the pressure on.

That's probably three times as long as strangulation realistically takes, and is ages long in game terms, since most combats in my experience once they go to melee usually are over in 3 rounds or less.

 

[Nagol]

That's probably three times as long as strangulation realistically takes, and is ages long in game terms, since most combats in my experience once they go to melee usually are over in 3 rounds or less.

Yes garrotting should take 2-5 rounds instead of 10+. If you want a shorter time, use 1 + Con modifier instead of Con for the onset and set the DC at 20.

It is very long time in combat, but that's because it is a very poor tactic to attempt in a melee. Even at the more realistic time, it is too long for combat time. It works better as an assassination manoeuvre.

 

[delericho]

It works better as an assassination manoeuvre.

This. And this being the case, I'd treat it as a use of the Assassin's death attack.

(Which sucks, because it means that only members of that PrC can effectively use a garrote, and because I don't believe PrCs make sense anyway. But given the way the 3e rules are laid out, this seems to be the best available fit.)

 

[Nagol]

This. And this being the case, I'd treat it as a use of the Assassin's death attack.

(Which sucks, because it means that only members of that PrC can effectively use a garrote, and because I don't believe PrCs make sense anyway. But given the way the 3e rules are laid out, this seems to be the best available fit.)

I let anyone try to use the weapon which is why it is exotic and takes as long as it does. It can still be a great assassination tool in the right hands since it only requires a touch attack to start and low-level characters tend to fall in 2-3 rounds from the unarmed damage anyway. High level characters tend to be able to put up a heroic struggle before going down, but a garrotter who is both stealthy and has a good grappling score can be frightening.

 

[Traxe]

I recall reading somewhere some alternative rules for a garrote that had garrotes deal 25% hp damage (of the target's max HP) each round. Thus, a max HP target would be at 0 HP in 4 rounds. For an exotic weapon that has an extremely limited and circumstantial use I'd be okay with that.

 

[Celebrim]

It is very long time in combat, but that's because it is a very poor tactic to attempt in a melee. Even at the more realistic time, it is too long for combat time. It works better as an assassination maneuver.

The goal is to get a set of rules that not only could be used for assassination but work at least as well as other violent attacks, but which are not particularly effective in combat. And in general, I'd like a generic set of strangulation rules so that I can have monsters that attack with strangling attacks and it be relatively balanced.

I don't allow a special Assassin class at my table (and don't allow any PrC for that matter), and I have a general rule called, "Celebrim's playground rule", which states that if you could imagine a five year old attempting to perform the action against another five year old (horrific though that may be in this case), then you are certainly allowed to attempt the action as a PC. You might suck at it, and you might be clumsy at it, but you can try it with at least as much chance of success as the 5 year old. Siloing off 'strangling someone' as a thing that can only be unlocked by a special character is a non-starter.

 

[Nagol]

The goal is to get a set of rules that not only could be used for assassination but work at least as well as other violent attacks, but which are not particularly effective in combat. And in general, I'd like a generic set of strangulation rules so that I can have monsters that attack with strangling attacks and it be relatively balanced.

I don't allow a special Assassin class at my table (and don't allow any PrC for that matter), and I have a general rule called, "Celebrim's playground rule", which states that if you could imagine a five year old attempting to perform the action against another five year old (horrific though that may be in this case), then you are certainly allowed to attempt the action as a PC. You might suck at it, and you might be clumsy at it, but you can try it with at least as much chance of success as the 5 year old. Siloing off 'strangling someone' as a thing that can only be unlocked by a special character is a non-starter.

I think the faster version of garrote meets your requirements, generally.

It is an effective assassination method. The victim is held and prevented from raising an alarm while it is in effect. The basic damage will drop "normal" (depending on how you define normal and their effective hp total) people in a round or three (1d3+Str mod damage per round automatic). The special effect will drop adventurer types in another 30 seconds or so.
It is at least as effective as base grappling in that you get the same damage a grapple provides as well as the added casting restriction.
You gain a bonus compared to grappling if you can attack by surprise.
You gain a moderate term special effect that results in unconsciousness and death if you can maintain the effect for a few turns. (DC20 Con save of fail unconscious that gets harder every round once Con modifier rounds have elapsed). The primary purpose is to shorten the duration the hold requires to drop even high-level characters to less than a minute.

It is less effective than combat techniques/equipment specifically designed for mayhem in a mayhem environment (doing unarmed damage compared to weapon damage and being part of a grapple).

To make it a bit more generic, I suggest adjusting the DC for the type of constriction: Hand or equivalent DC 10, Rope or equivalent DC 15, wire of equivalent DC 20 and maybe increase the base damage per round to 1d4 for rope and 1d6 for wire.