Help! Body location hit rules?

[Caliban]

Re: Re: Help! Body location hit rules?

You could:

1. Work it like the old Carrion Crawler. Give one AC for attacking the face and another AC for general attacks.

2. Work it like "Striking an Object". Or, specifically, like striking a worn helm that isn't actually there.



Treat a head like a Tiny object. The final AC will be 10+Dex bonus+armor bonus if wearing real helm+2 for Tiny "object". And definitely make this attack provoke an AoO.

3. Use a random hit location table with each strike (tip: use a different table for piercing attacks).

4. Make it so a natural 20 = head shot.

If you are going to do this, I would also include the +5 AC for an object that can be moved around. (Usually this only applies to things like wands or rings, but I would put any body part other than the torso in this category. )

Just note that this system really breaks down at higher levels, when fighters have a high enough attack bonus to be able to target an opponents eyes on every shot.

And this should definitely go to house rules.

 

[magnas_veritas]

Re: Re: Re: Help! Body location hit rules?

Just note that this system really breaks down at higher levels, when fighters have a high enough attack bonus to be able to target an opponents eyes on every shot.

Yep. While appropriate to some fiction, it's not really that appropriate to d20/3e. I believe the idea is that's what critical hits are for.

Now, if you *have* to do it, for a spell, say, then using the size chart would be a simple idea...maybe with a blanket penalty (2? 4?) stacked on top due to your not going for whatever's available.

Brad

 

[dkilgo]

I could quite possibly talk kreynold into posting the locational damage house rule up on this thread. Since, it is still in the testing phase he probably won't want to do, but I will try anyway.

 

[Li Shenron]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Help! Body location hit rules?

I believe the idea is that's what critical hits are for.

It's exactly what I say to every beginner D&D player: the first idea they usually ask about, in their first attack of their first combat of their first adventure, is if they can target the NPC's face or eye or throat or in-between-the-legs (I have some wicked friends ).

Adding details on hitting specific body parts was carefully avoided by the core rules, and suggested only as a variant in the DMG IIRC, it really gets easily VERY complicated without adding that much fun. The PCs become much more frequently subject to the same kind of damage, and you have to rule something about how lower level cure wounds spells are able to repair such damage, or you're very soon have a party of blind, one-legged, handless, evirated, brain-damaged PCs...

 

[Tiberius]

Sean K. Reynolds has a rant on his site as to why this is a bad idea. Here it is. I happen to agree with him, and see little need for such things.

-Tiberius

 

[Hollywood]

Sean K. Reynolds has a rant on his site as to why this is a bad idea. Here it is. I happen to agree with him, and see little need for such things.

-Tiberius

Well, thankfully its just an opinionated rant. While I generally tend to side with most of his rants, this one is the exception. There can be fairly simple abstract Called Shot rules, I've been working on such and hope to debut it soon in the group, that keep in line with the "D&D combat system assumes that your armor and shield protect your entire body equally" and the abstractness, i.e. instead of trying to figure out what part of bodies are or aren't armored, it simply takes your AC and based on size of location/object you are trying to it makes it harder to hit. And sense its abstract, basically you need to do in one blow the victim's Con score in damage and if you do, they suffer the -2 location penalties as in the DMG.

Bottom line, there are already Called Shots in D&D 3rd Ed. What do you think you are doing when you attack a weapon or object attached to someone? A called shot of course!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

These rules never work. Where do you hit a megapede? It has how many legs? And since it has a rectangular face rating...

What would the astral dreadnought? Corpse gatherer? Air elemntal?

 

[Hollywood]

Where do you hit a megapede? It has how many legs? And since it has a rectangular face rating...What would the astral dreadnought? Corpse gatherer? Air elemntal?

Rolling for random body location per standard attack is probably more work than its worth as you'd need to come up with body location "maps" and the chance to hit each area. A pain, no?

Rather, if you simply relegate attempts to hit certain areas to a "called shot" mechanic, then the player can request to hit a certain area and its up to the DM if he allows it and what happens. Helps to have a few simple guidelines though. After all, just because an swordsman takes out ONE of a megapede's legs, doesn't mean it can no longer run!

These rules never work.

Yes, actually they do and have. WEG:SW's combat system was really no less abstract than any of the editions of D&D, yet I used successfully for years a "hit location/called shot" mechanic that was very successful and worked well. 'Sides, "never" is an awfully long time.

 

[Caliban]

Unfortunately, the true strike spell makes most "Called Shots" absurdly easy to make, even at low levels.

 

[IceBear]

Yeah, I think for most campaigns called shot rules aren't worth it. If you like the idea of PCs missing eyes, ears, hands etc and have done the work to determine how the cure spells would handle stopping the bleeding (hmmm, need those rules now too) of a missing hand or a broken leg then I could see it working.

I used to use the rules in the 2nd Edition Player's Options books, but I don't miss them now. Less dice rolls is just better than more.

And as Caliban pointed out, all that will happen is the PCs will wait until they are under the influence of True Strike before attacking (and possibly killing outright) their opponent.

IceBear