Bashing two heads together - how would you do it?

[jgsugden]

This type of 'cinematic' combat can be fun, but the character got ahead of itself. He is only 4th level. He isn't a combat machine, yet. He is just an experienced warrior. It is a fine idea to encourage this type of artistic combat, but not until the PC is strong enough to pull it off. 4th level is just too early to be 'knocking heads'.

As for how you do it, there are no official rules, so nything that seems fair to you is fine. It should never work against a foe that is close to evenly matched to the PC, so the rules don't matter much ... he shouldn't be trying it unless he could take out his foes with little or no difficulty using regular methods.

 

[The Little Raven]

Here's my system for my campaign. It falls under the rules for grappling, since you have to grab the opponent to bash their skull into their buddy's. Stick the following "head bash" entry under the "If You're Grappling" section on page 156 of the PHB.

Head Bash: You can attempt to grapple a second creature if you possess the Improved Grapple feat. If you successfully grapple the second creature, you may make a single grapple check (which both creatures oppose) in order to deal unarmed damage to both creatures. Creatures that suffer damage from a head bash are dazed for one round. The second creature is automatically released from the grapple upon making a head bash.
Special: This maneuver can be used against a creature with more than one head. The creature suffers twice the normal damage.

 

[Painfully]

I should add some important details that I purposely left out of the original post.

First, the half-orc was invisible. This, I felt, was enough to allow for a simultaneous head-grabbing. I used the grappling rules and gave the half-orc two touch attacks to represent her advantage rather than an attack bonus for being invisible. Also, as a result of the invisibility, the half-orc was not vulnerable to AoO during her attack.

After successfully touch attacking both halflings, one of them did escape successfully with an opposed grapple check (the half-orc didn't roll very well against a natural 20, but I did allow her to roll off separately against each halfling).

Finally, the one poor halfling that did get caught was severely damaged for 1d3+11 , while the other desparately fought on for a couple more rounds against another party member.
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In the end, I think it went very well. Now I just have to remember how to deal with this on a regular basis in case the half-orc starts getting cocky.

I think I'll be looking closely at AoO and will enforce requiring two attacks per round for the half-orc to do this in the future (unless she's invisible again).

Thanks everyone for you input.

 

[Vaxalon]

I'd much rather reward a player who tries an unusual maneuver by granting them some unusual bonus, an opportunity to gain an unusual benefit.

What do you do when the maneuver stops being unsual, when they're doing the unusual thing on a usual basis, in order to get the bonus?

 

[Pagan priest]

A BAB of 6 or higher is not needed for this tactic! Several people have stated, quite erroneously, that the character is too low level to perform this maneuver. This is a maneuver that can be done by a 1st level. What is being done here is not an itterative attack, but a use of the off hand to make a simultaneous attack.

The feats that would apply would be Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Grapple. As far as throwing somebody, I would call that a grapple to pick them up plus a strength check to throw for distance. I think a recent Dragon magazine had rules for this sort of thing. There is also the feat Great Throw, which is missing from the Oriental Adventures handbook.

Sigh... I wish I could get my players to try stuff like this. If it is not spelled out in the Player's Handbook, they don't even want to think about it!

 

[Gort]

Heh, I read the title of this post as:
"Bashing two heads together - how would you do it?"
"Painfully"

 

[Pielorinho]

What do you do when the maneuver stops being unsual, when they're doing the unusual thing on a usual basis, in order to get the bonus?

With the mechanics I gave, this maneuver wouldn't be very common. First, it would require two opponents with similar heights standing adjacent to one another and both within the attacker's threat zone. Second, the attacker suffers two AoOs. Third, the attacker has to succeed on various dice rolls against the opponents in order to succeed.

Two AoOs. Most players that i've seen avoid AoOs strenuously.

It's a cool maneuver, but not one that'll be useful all, or even most of, the time. I'm all about allowing folks to try cool things, even at low levels. Cinematic combat is way fun.

Daniel

 

[der_kluge]

I think the grapple is the way to go here. I would have used the off-hand penalty for the second grapple, and allowed two attacks with that penalty, if both grapples were successfull (allowing two attacks off opportunity from both rogues), then he could have smashed their heads together for 1d6 + strength subdual damage.

 

[eryndel]

What do you do when the maneuver stops being unsual, when they're doing the unusual thing on a usual basis, in order to get the bonus?

Start playing Exalted?

 

[Darklone]

I had a halforc barbarian in one group once who loved to do unarmed overrun attacks against several opponents...

He did the same stunt once, simply attacked with both hands at -4/-8 (wrong post above). Both touch attacks to start the grapple were successful, in rage he won both grapple checks (I applied the TWF penalty too) ... knocked both enemies out with his huge strength bonus.