Rules-wise, is there ANY way to lose a limb or become crippled?

I use a system based on Crits and Damage greater than Con being used to determine injuries

Damage >Con = Wound
Damage>2xCon = Maimed
Damage>2xCon (Crit) = Crippled

Wounds (roll 1d4)
1 Bleeding -1 HP per round
2 Dazed
3 Blurred vision (1d6 rnds) - 4 Attack Opponents gain +2 to Attack
4 Nauseated

Maimed (roll 1d6) All affects are temporary
1 Blinded 1d6 rounds
2 Broken Arm
3 Broken Leg
4 Knocked Out
5 Internal Injury -2 Con
6 Major Wound -2 Str

Crippled (roll 1d6) All affects are Permanent (can be restore with magic eg regeneration)
1 Blinded
2 Severed Arm (Dominant) - 6 dex, Attack
3 Severed Arm (Offhand) - 4 dex, Attack
4 Severed Leg -6 Dex, Speed 1/2 base
5 Internal Injury -4 Con
6 Major Wound -4 Str

I'm certain there is a bird creature that has a special ability to pluck out the eye of an opponent. I think it's a giant raven or something like that. Since we only have MM and CC, it's got to be in one of those 2 books. Ok, maybe it's in the FRCS if that has monsters, but I doubt it.

I thought ability damage was crippling. Losing 4 points of Dex or STR is a pretty big loss of ability. Just give the reason for the loss and the character is crippled.

Here is a quick and dirty system that I came up with:

If you are brought below zero by a slashing weapon you loose a limb. If it drops you below zero and neg ten, you just got beheaded.

If its a blugeoning weapon a limb is rendered useless. If it drops you below zero and negative ten your head just got crushed.

If its a piercing weapon you don't loose a limb. If a piercing weapon drops you below zero and negative ten, you just got it through the eye, mouth, throught, or nose.

optionally you can say that any damage a piercing weapon does in the negs also counts for half a point (i.e. subtract one from higher stat, then another from other stat, alternate until neg damage is accouneted for) of permanent con and str loss due to pierced organs.

1d4
left arm
right arm
left leg
right leg

Critical hits in combat that do not drop the character into negative hit points chop off fingers, destroy eyes, leave scars, or leave no apparent mark.

1d4
1. eye lost
2. finger(s) lost
3. scar
4. No noticeable damage.

healing: All these rules work with the currenthealing rules...

piercing weapons may become a bit more dangerous.

Considring the ammount of times D&D characters go into the negative hit points and the frequency of missing limbs in medieval combat, this pretty much works.

Aaron.

Okay, I think we're into house rules now.

My input: I don't want any called shots or lost limbs. If the PCs get to do it, the NPCs do, and they get to attack me much more than I get to attack them.

Not really.

Unless the DM rules it based on specific events (arm gets crushed trying to reach for your bull-whip under a rapidly collapsing wall), or if you add house rules for hit location (like Cyberpunk 2020 FNFF) and max damage to location per limb etc.

A few pointers:

-Critical charts are generally too random and make limb loss much more common than in, say, movies with lots of fights.
-Falling to 0 hp means you're dead, which never necessarily results in losing limbs.

It can be deduced then that these two things are both very bad ways of handling maiming and crippling. I personally prefer a little good old-fashioned judgement on the part of the DM. When a player is wounded in a fight, describe the wound. Then decide from there if you want to make it permanent. Would it increase the drama of the fight scene? Unless you're near the end, probably not. Lightsaber duels and groovy chainsaws aside, heroes just don't get maimed.

Re: A few pointers:

Jack Daniel said:

-Falling to 0 hp means you're dead, which never necessarily results in losing limbs.

Click to expand...

Hey it works for a system as abstract as HP. And by the way, you are dead at -10 in most games. Negatives mean you are unconscious and dying.


Aaron.

Darkness said:

It also has rules what kind of penalty you get for missing all these body parts...

Click to expand...

Unfortunately the rules only consider damage to one of those body parts rather than actually missing them - otherwise you end applying only a -2 penalty to juggling when both hands have been severed !! (it specifically says DON'T double up penalties if both hands affected LOL!)

Dinkeldog said:

Okay, I think we're into house rules now.

My input: I don't want any called shots or lost limbs. If the PCs get to do it, the NPCs do, and they get to attack me much more than I get to attack them.

Click to expand...

The thing that seems a bit bizarre to me is the 7th level cleric spell "regeneration", which allows you to regenerate lost bits of your body... but nowhere in 3e are there any rules to cover the losing of bits of your body!

I wonder what circumstances the designers anticipated this spell being used