Called Shots?

[Storyteller01]

I've worked called shots as the character striking at a character of equivalent size (Arm is SMall, forearm is Tiny, etc) with a Fort save equal to the damage done for a specified attack. Armor and all other factors are still accounted for.


EDIT: Never mind. It was already mentioned.

 

[Zaruthustran]

What effect are you going for? In other words: why do you want called shots?

If you want your players to be able to describe how they're attacking, well, let them. "I hack at his neck!" + an attack roll isn't a called shot; it's a fun description. If the attack succeeds (normal roll that beats AC) but doesn't kill the target (normal damage that doesn't exceed HP), describe how the foe barely deflects the lethal blow but keeps on fighting. If the damage exceeds HP, go ahead and describe the foe's head coming clean off.

Fun!

If the player has been listening to your combat descriptions and comes up with a shot that would be particularly effective (DM: the blackguard leans over to deliver a coup de grace to your fallen comrade! Player: He's leaning over? Called shot to the back of his neck!) then go ahead and reward the player with a circumstance bonus on the attack roll. That's what circumstance bonuses are for.

If you want your players to be able to achieve specific game effects, well D&D already handles that. If the intent is to hamper the foe's ability to attack ("Called shot to his eyes!"), then have the player make an "Aid Another" check, aiding a buddy's AC. That's already in the rules. If the intent is to disarm, that's in the rules too. If it's meant to cripple, there are feats for that (Hamstring and other sneak attack feats, or the feats from PHB II that force the target to make saves or suffer Sickened, Stunned, or other conditions).

And, again, you can always impose circumstance penalties on the bad guys as a way to reward called shots:

DM: The rogue scampers up the wall, fleeing the scene of the crime!
Player: No way is he getting away! Called shot to his hands!
DM: Okay that's a -6 circumstance penalty to your attack, but if you hit and do damage he'll have the same penalty to his Climb check.

Point is, there are plenty of rules that can cover attacks that aren't vanilla strikes. Use them! And if all the players want is more detail, well, you don't need rules for that.

-z

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Well played, Zaruthustran!

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

AGoT rpg has a rather good called shot mechanism. It places a variable penalty on the DC but allows you to bypass armor. Now AGoT uses armor as DR(not the AU variant) but if you adjusted for that difference you should be able to get a usable system.

 

[Felix]

How about:

Called shot:
Standard action. Attacker takes a -10 penalty to hit. If the attack is successful, it is a critical hit. Sneak attack die are included if the character posesses this ability. This action may only be performed once per encounter, regardless of success.

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After a while -4 doesn't hurt you that much, but a -10 is nothing to sneeze at at any level. The 1/encounter will get rid of the archers continually shooting for people's eyes.

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I also suggest you take this topic to the House Rules forum, where they will provide you with a multitude of variations, and little mechanics they've worked out.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

There's a Called Shot feat somewhere (I think in some Wizards book) that works like power attack, only for ranged attacks. That's what I'm using. It's quick, easy, and doesn't play merry hell with the HP system.

 

[Infiniti2000]

After a while -4 doesn't hurt you that much, but a -10 is nothing to sneeze at at any level.

A -1 billion is meaningless if you already need a natural 20 to hit. The minus only makes sense if you use the +/- 10 variant (or +/- 20).

 

[DungeonMaester]

...And my idea goes Unoticed...

Ah well. I find that adding to AC or making penities slows combat to a dead halt, as players and dm depate what is needed to make the hit. Nurfing damage and making otherwise a normal attack makes it useful with out being broken and quick and clean.

---Rusty

 

[diaglo]

i wanna be able to call a shot on the vampire's heart with my wooden stake.

edit: no i don't really. it is just one of those things that gets mentioned in these threads.

 

[ValhallaGH]

My idea on called shots.

-Called shot idea: As a normal attack you can attack a certain part of a person's body. This does not make the person harder to hit, but it doesn't do much damage. On a hit, you only do half of the weapons damage dice (no mods from str dex or int and the such) you pick a part to add a -2 to a skill. See Dmg for what you can hit.

-Advacned called shots: This called shot is more powerful. You can hit a body part not mentioned in the DMG. You can hit such things as the tounge (Stoping spell casters prehaps?) and do other effects like slowing a person by hitting them in the knee or legs.
ACS are harder to hit with. You add 3 to your Crit range and have to roll with in the crit range with no mods. Ex: If you have a crit range of 18-20 then you have to roll 15-20 unmoded.


From hy 'Advanced 3.5' rules. Instead of trying to fugure out new acs all the time, just nurf the damage for a minus -2 to a skill.

The Advanced called shots are difficult, but have greater effectiness. You can half some ones speed, cut out there tounge, something other then a auto death effect.

Simple, elegant, and utterly abhored by most players I know. They'd rather have no called shots than something like this.