loss of limb

ok so its gone cant use magic to get it back should there be a HP loss to the player and if so ... how much for a hand/foot, half a limb or the whole limb 2nd ed had such things at halp your HP i think thats a little much so whats your thoughts
 

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There really are no rules for this so for me it would depend on the game. Is the lose of limb meant to really hinder the character? While it cannot be gotten back now, can it ever be gotten back with the use of a wish for instance?

I doubt I'd make it a HP lose. I would give minuses to certain skills and things depending on the limb in question.
 

For most limbs I'd go with Dex loss: -2 should be sufficient (which is -1 to all Dex based skills)

But have a feat to get it back
 




Normally, disfiguring a PC is one of those "never do it" rules of thumb. (for you obstinant folks, yes, there are exceptions).

However, determining game impact is quite a different thing. I would be concerned about adding injury to insult (yes you read that right).

HP: normally represents a bunch of "just a flesh wound" hits, and not a representation of the physical body. I'd be wary of trimming HP for limb loss, because, once healed, the PC is just as dodgy, tough as normal, there's just less target

AC: there's less target, one could argue there's less to hit. Considering size modifiers deal with this for Medium to Small creatures, there's some merit there. However, being one limb smaller is a not a significant change compared to a full size change.

Dex: I don't think PC would be less dextrous. But, they would have difficulty doing some things, in a similar fashion as wearing armor impacts certain skills. Maybe make a -1 Armor Check penalty (or whatever it's called). Enough to impede certain skills. Not enough to impact AC in combat or saving throws.

Without affecting any game stats, losing an arm has some obvious game effects. For one, you can't hold two items at once. This means no dual weapon, no shield & weapon, no weapon & potion. Changing items is definitely more tedious, justifying AoO's. All the two-handed weapons are unusable (barring a Feat to do otherwise).

I'm a big fan of not jacking with a PC or their stats. If a PC loses a limb, just letting the obvious non-game stat effects take place will more than likely alter that PC in many ways (as I describe above). it also gets the DM out of being a rules designer, which is risky business if done poorly.

Lastly, in the old days there were folks who wanted STR penalties for female PCs because they were weaker. We got away from that mentality, which pleased all the body-building women who could kick the average gamer's arse. I suspect the one-armed folk of the world would also appreciate not having the game system portray them as "lesser" entities compared to other folks, otherwise. I'm not advocating being PC to appease anybody, just saying, let's not make rules to figure out how much having one arm makes your PC suckier than mine. There's some obvious impacts, otherwise, leave it alone.
 

The PC in question should have a -1 or -2 to skill checks that involve the use of two hands (assuming its an arm or hand), be unable to use a two handed weapon or a shield and a weapon. If a leg thent he PCs movement should be reduced by about 1/4th and should have penalties to Climb, Jump, and some Perform checks. This is assuming that a beg leg is available. The skill check penalities should go away after 1 level or X number of in game days as the PC gets used to his new condition. But thats it.

I would also ask:
- How did this happen in 3rd edition DnD, and if using a variant system why doesn't it account for that?
- Why wont magic work? What magic, just cure spells or what?

If I did this in my game, and I do have a player that would like it, I would immediatly set up a quest to find someone who could either regrow the limb through a special spell or an artificer type who could make a magical prothesis. A cleric with a well made replica of an arm, Craft Wonderous Item, heal, and animate object should be able to make one; or an arcane type with Craft Construct.
 


- How did this happen in 3rd edition DnD, and if using a variant system why doesn't it account for that?
it was a pc concept ..player wanted to start out like that i dont think it should affect hp but one player thought it should so i asked yall to see what u thought can always count on enworlders for a repley .
Why wont magic work? What magic, just cure spells or what?
its an eberron campain there low level 2nd level they dont have accsess to that kind of ower or the people that do
 

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