101 Colorful Combat Wound Descriptions

[dragonlordofpoondari]

As a protracted combat-heavy session wears on, I sometimes find myself at a loss for captivating wound descriptions. I hate it but, in spite of my best intentions, I find myself slowly gravitating towards

The vile cultist Nasbir takes 23 points of damage ... to the left arm ... and says 'ouch.'

Reflecting on my weak-ass versimilitude maintenance, the idea for this thread struck. If a big list of wonderfully descriptive combat wound descriptions was right at my elbow, I could use it as a crutch when my blood glucose level drops after hour 4 of DM'ing. Good idea, yes?

So let it rip! Gimme your bloodiest, nastiest, most descriptive stuff! Don't hold back. Face-melting magic effects are fair game too!

 

[Kwitchit]

Your blow destroys your opponent's shoulder joint almost totally – the arm hangs limply, a mass of tattered and pulpy flesh with protruding fragments of bone. By chance, one of the bone splinters has severed a major artery, and after a fraction of a second your opponent collapses, with blood pouring out from the ruins of his shoulder. Death from shock and blood loss is almost instantaneous."

"Your opponent's head flies off in a random direction, landing 2d6 feet away"


All courtesy of WFRP1...

 

[Hjorimir]

I generally only describe the bigger hits (or the really, really tiny ones if I'm feeling comical).

 

[Moon-Lancer]

four successful attacks. actually happed in a game I was playing. My character took down one of those four armed gorillas in 1 round with a hasted whirling frenzy. My description too. I changed it to a dm perspective.

3: "You split the creatures chest wide as the weapons arc continues on its path like a whirling a tornado of steel, cutting the creatures rotten pimply knees. It staggers painfully to the ground at the same time your weapon sheathes itself into his neck."

4: "your foe lays limp on the ground. You lift him up forcefully by the hair on his head. His body is limp, but his eyes are wide with fear. You cut his throat so deep that it lacerates his spine. his neck bleeds a river of dark blood"

coup de grace with some paralyzed effect.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Trying to put a little bit of formatting into this as well as a little inspiration from Tad Williams:

5.
Blow: Killing
Attack Type: Piercing Weapon
Opponent: Humanoid / One with a single discernible head
Description: "You intentionally stumble forward catching your opponent momentarily off guard. Thrusting upwards, the point of your weapon drives directly through your opponent's jaw exploding out the back of it's braincase. "

*Italics description is purely to set the scene and can obviously be omitted.

[I love these types of threads - I'll try to post a few more].

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Moon-Lancer]

6:

"Your fist collides with your opponents stomach causing him to double over. With a mighty heave, you push into him tossing him into the air. you take a step forward and with your other foot crush his chest with a backwards roundhouse as he falls to the ground. "

stunning fist followed by a successful trip or power attack.

7:

"You leap on to the giant creatures back and plunge your weapon as deep it can go. The creature turns to see you, it does not look pleased. It raises to hits full hight and slams against the rocky ceeling, crushing your bones into sawdust and crumpling your armor like aluminum between its body the the stone."

that would be the "things dont go as planned" scenario.

 

[ThatGuyThere]

As he draws his hands up, trying for a crushing overhead blow to take advantage of his overwhelming strength, you quickly run your weapon along his abdomen, and a red sheet of blood pours out, throwing off his stance and causing his blow to sweep downward weakly, sparing your life.

As you hear the meaty "thump", you don't actually feel much pain, but looking down, you seem to have grown an arrow in the belly. You can't help but think that's a bad thing.

A glancing blow - but really, with a greataxe, what more do you need? The cutting edge tears the man's shoulder off, and the immense force of the follow-though sets him off-balance...

Recently, I scared the hell out of a player in a "moderately low-magic" world. He got hit dead-on with an arrow for max damage, and before giving a number, I said, "You're dead."
The player responded "What? How much damage?"
"Doesn't matter. Arrow wound to the gut. You have - maybe - ten minutes to live."
The player blinked.
"Well," I said, "You can't heal that kind of wound. Arrow to the gut? You're doomed."
"Oh. Well, I better kill him fast, then."
...it worked exactly like I wanted. Getting hit get the character furious, and the player was more interested in having been *wounded* than crossing off HP.

 

[Slife]

11. The ground rushes up to meet you. Or maybe it's just the ogre's fist. Amazing sensation, flight.

 

[Jacob the Impaler]

Some particularly tasteless and disturbing critical hits/kills I've described:

12) With a mighty swing, you rearrange your enemy's jawbone.

13) The ogre opens himself up, and you sheath your greatsword in his gut.

14) The orc flops to the ground with your arrow in his eye.

15) The halfling didn't know the blur was a spiked chain until it took his face off.

16) You hold the gnoll underwater and feel his last painful breath shudder through him.

17) You snatch the fallen spear and make a goblin kabob.

18) The bandit's brains paint the rocks as he hits the ground thirty feet below.

 

[Imperialus]

I've found that it helps to abstract the combat system even further to allow for better descriptions. Just because your fighter is swinging a +2 sword doesn't mean that every blow that does damage has to come from it. Depending on how desperate the fight is fists, knees, elbows and foreheads can be used as weapons too.

For example, say the fighter rolls a one on his damage, that could mean that he was unable to get a good swing in with his sword so instead opted to kick at his opponent instead or drive the rim of his shield into his face.

Also the rules as written assume that unless you actually attempt to grapple your opponent you simply sit there politely trading blows until one of you falls down. Real combat would see a lot of grappling. The easiest way to control a sword is to control the sword arm so I tend to assume that a certain amount of grappling occurs during the course of normal combat. Only when you are literally rolling on the ground wrestling do I use the grappling rules.

19) You parry his blow with your sword and pivot into it smashing the crossguard into his face, blood and broken teeth erupt from his mouth as you mangle his jaw.

20) he brings his forearm up and uses his gauntlet to block the blow, you still hear a grunt of pain and the gauntlet is now deformed with a thin trickle of blood flowing between his fingers.

21) you twist your body, avoiding his swing and use the momentum to drive your spear into his stomach.

22) Your hammerblow smashes into his shield, splintering the oak, you also hear the distinctive crack of a forearm bone breaking.

23) discarding the style your fencing masters taught you, you drive his sword to one side, stepping inside his guard and driving your knee into his groin.

24) He overextended himself on his last swing so you smash your heel into his knee and drive your sword into the unprotected side of his torso when he doubles over in pain.

25) You manage to catch his blade in your gauntlet so you step into his guard and drive the point of your dagger into his unprotected belly.

26) You scream as you grasp your sword in both hands and swing with all your might, your shout startled him and he doesn't even have a chance to get his guard up as your blade carves clean through his helmet and into his brain.

27) You hear the sickening crunch of ribs being broken as your mace crushes his breastplate and the organs that it was supposed to protect.

28) He flinched out of the way at the last moment so what would have been a leathal blow is deflected by his pauldron, he seems to be favoring that arm now though so you've probably done some damage.

29) You put your shoulder behind your shield and use it to force his guard open, your opponent's own shield is forced out of position and you thrust the point of your sword into the opening cutting deep into his thigh.