Keen and Vorpal ability...

[Celtavian]

I think this is how I am going to change the Keen and Vorpal abilities for my campaigns. Let me know what you think. I was trying to go for the old super sharp epic movie feel like being able to cut easily through stone or steel and severing parts rather than just the head.

Keen Ability: This ability increases the critical threat range by 1 and subtracts five from the hardness of an item before determining damage.

Vorpal Ability: This ability increases the critical threat range by 1 and subtracts 10 from the hardness of an item before determining damage. If a critical is rolled, there is a chance that a body party is severed:

1. Hand
2. Arm (1-3 at elbow/4-6 at shoulder)
3. Foot
4. Leg (1-3 at Knee/4-6 at hip)
5. Torso (Make Fortitude save DC 10 plus damage dealt or be cut in half. If save is successful, you are not cut in half. If save fails, you die in 1d3 rounds.)
6. Head (1 Neck/2-3 Disfiguring such as ear, nose, scalp or major scar/4-5 Eye/6 Both Eyes) Special: Neck (Automatic death) only occurs on a natural 20.


Effect of Loss:

Hand: Loss of off-hand use. May still use Shield, but not off-hand weapons and may not retrieve or pick up items while weapon or item in remaining hand.

Arm: May not use shields and as above.
Foot: Speed Reduced to ¼. Lose Dex bonus to AC.

Leg: Speed reduced to hopping at 5 feet per round. Lose Dex bonus to AC and Reflex Saves.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Anyone have an opinion on this change?

I was trying to go for the feel of swords like Perseus's vorpal shortsword in Clash of the Titans or Excalibur in the movie Excalibur. They could easily sheer through stone or steel they were so sharp and severe appendages.

I don't know if someone has already made such a change to Vorpal and Keen, but I would love someone to give me their opinion on the changes.

Thanks in advance to anyone responding.

 

[Zhnov]

Celtavian,

I'm somewhat leery of the d6 roll on your vorpal chart... if you insist on using a chart, I'd recommend just a few points:

- I'd recommend changing the order of the target areas, starting with (typical) average relative proximity to the vorpal blade bearer: hard, arm, head, torso, leg, foot.

- You should give different numerical possibilities of each happening, perhaps d12:

1-3 hand
4-6 arm
7-8 head
9-0 torso
11 leg
12 foot

Perhaps oversimple for the 20 seconds of thinking I put into it, but I hope you read my concept. I played with something similar to what you are attempting for both 1E and 2E, gave up on it for 3E (instead going for a modified Crit and Called Shot system).

Not sure I understand your direction on the effect of losing a hand or arm. Do you wish to take into account which arm might have been lost (primary or off-hand)? Your description almost appears to assume use of a martial weapon and shield by the target.


I must admit that overall, I'm not keen on vorpal weapons, instead treating vorpal weapons as DoubleKeen... giving the effect of Keen, plus an incremented critical damage multiplier.

Yeah, vorpal weapons as written give color to the game, but then again, I make a strong attempt to give my players dramatic descriptions of ongoing combat, including gloriously gory details of killing blows used against their opponents.

OP

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I am planning to do some more work on the effects of losing an appendage. My main desire is to capture the feel of vorpal weapons from stories and movies. Cutting limbs off, cutting easily through stone or steel.

I would also like to make the Regenerate spell and Regeneration ability useful. The spell does nothing in 3rd edition and I wonder why it was even included. I think it would look cool having regenerating creatures regrow limbs while in battle.

Anyhow, what modified crit and called shot system do you use?

 

[Zhnov]

Re: Re

Anyhow, what modified crit and called shot system do you use?

Here is a recent update to something we have tried to migrate from a 2E HR. Thanks for asking...
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55009

Orlic

 

[Staffan]

A while ago someone suggested making keen and improved crit both give +1 threat range instead of doubling it (I think it was over on the "Threat ranges don't stack" thread in General). I was quite against it there, however, on account of it vastly benefitting heavy-crit weapons over often-crit weapons.

Comparing a scimitar (1d6/18-20/x2) to a pick (1d6/20/x4), for example: Both increase their average damage by 15% due to crits (scimitar: 15% chance of 100% increase, pick: 5% chance of 300% increase). If you double both threat ranges, you end up with both weapons getting 30% extra damage instead of 15% (30% for +100% vs. 10% for +300%). However, if you increase the threat range by 1 instead of doubling it, the pick gets the same bonus but the scimitar is reduced to +20% - much worse than the pick.

If you want picks and scythes to be better than scimitars and falchions, go ahead and change. If you want to maintain balance between weapons that are supposed to be equals (martial weapons of the same size), don't.

 

[Angcuru]

thses changes sound good, but I think a save should be allowed against vorpal hits. A high DC, but a save still. I think Fortitude save DC 10+DMG dealt or Reflex save DC Attack roll should work. Either you take the hit but it doesn't cut all the way through, or you avoid enough of the blade to avoid limb/head/whatever loss, but still get cut real bad.