Maiming Your PCs

[mac1504]

The adventure I ran yesterday, one of the PC's had his arm ripped off by an Umber Hulk. The PC was the group's Ranger (actually Wildlander in the Midnight Campaign Setting), and the player is actually handling it rather well. He is determined to keep playing the character, which I was hoping he would do. Of course, there is now the challenge of imposing penalties and such for his loss of a limb, not to mention inability to wield a longbow anymore or two weapon fighting.

Just wondering if any other DM's have maimed any of their PCs in adventures before, and what penalties (game mechanics) you imposed and how the characters (and players) dealt with their new handicap.

 

[Knoxgamer]

I have done so twice in recent memory, both during a d20 Star Wars campaign. One character lost an eye due to a critical hit, and another lost an arm during a lightsaber duel. In both instances, I had presented the topic to the players before hand, asking their thoughts on it and whether or not it would make them dislike playing their characters. Both players were comfortable with the idea, and in the long run very much enjoyed the result. One acquired a cybernetic implant for his previous eye, the Jedi simply continued through life without an arm.

Not about to severely penalize a character that is already at a disadvantage, I had the primary arm remain intact so as to neatly avoid penalties. Effectively, the character could do anything he could before that only required 1 hand.

I have been in games, however, where the players have reacted very negatively to being so maimed. In one game I participated in, the dwarven cleric permanently lost his hand in the first adventure he played in. Immediately losing the ability to weild hammer and shield as the player had wanted, the character did not reappear in subsequent games (there were no readily available remedys). It seems that, more often than not, the player will move on to something new instead of playing a maimed character.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I have been in games, however, where the players have reacted very negatively to being so maimed. In one game I participated in, the dwarven cleric permanently lost his hand in the first adventure he played in. Immediately losing the ability to weild hammer and shield as the player had wanted, the character did not reappear in subsequent games (there were no readily available remedys). It seems that, more often than not, the player will move on to something new instead of playing a maimed character.

This is close to my feeling on the subject. Having the DM impose permanent penalties on my characters does not appeal to me. Indeed, it drastically reduces my enjoyment of the game. I'd have such a character set out to start a new, non-adventuring life and roll up a new character that wasn't penalized.

I have, however, as a DM maimed a PC before. For some time, I'd wanted to give out an Arm of Nyr in one of my games. But I could never justify it. What sort of person would want to hack off their own arm? It didn't seem realistic for a PC to want such a thing, even if a powergaming player did.

So I devised an ancient machine that was created by a forgotten race. It sucked in a nearby PC, ground off his arm, and replaced it with an Arm of Nyr, which was used as a key to the fortress it was found in. (The device had originally given the prosthetics to slaves so they could interact with the fortress.)

So I did technically maim one of my PCs, although he regained full-functionality, along with some neat extras, mere moments after he was maimed.

 

[dreaded_beast]

I believe that PC maiming is something that should either be discussed with the players as part of their story or explained to the players as a possibility before the campaign starts, so that the players don't have any nast surprises. In the end, get player input as to whether or not they want to include maiming in the game.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm developing a very simple set of maiming rules, and of course I'd run it by the players in advance. I like the sense of danger it adds to combat (though even under this sytem, it wouldn't happen often). Of course, if PCs are really bothered by the maiming, it's not too hard to find someone who can cast a regenerate spell.

 

[Quasqueton]

Back when I DMed AD&D1 (when 0 hit points meant death), I had a house rule:

When a character receives a killing blow, there was a 25% chance that the attack reduced the character to 1 hit point, and resulted in some kind of maiming. A fatal sword stroke could sever an arm instead of killing the PC.

[Note: that campaign was low-magic.]

This rule allowed maiming of characters, but was actually a good thing to many Players, because it was usually better than the death of the character.

With this house rule, we saw:

A character loose an arm to a bite attack; loose sight in one eye because of a mace strike; a broken jaw (could only mumble words) from the back side of an axe; loose a hand in a blade trap; and got a permanent disfiguring scar from a fireball.

All of the above characters continued to adventure.

I'd love to work out a similar house rule for D&D3, but with the wide gap between disabled and dead (0 to -10), such a rule is not easy to work out.

Edit: Oh, yeah, in a recent D&D3 game, a PC was paralyzed by an evil treant. The treant wanted a living captive, so he broke the PC's legs rather painfully, to keep her from running away. She was rescued, and fixing her legs was a matter of using the Heal skill to set the bones and cure spells to fix the damage.

Quasqueton

 

[Gronin]

Over the years I have both maimed (as a DM) and been maimed (as a player) and without exception it was taken well. We all knew the risks going in (a rather involved set of critical and fumble tables -- I kinda miss those - the d20 system of critical seems so sterile) and it actually added some real flavour to the game.

I will never forget the ranger grabbing her right arm up off of the ground and beating the hill giant (who had severed it) to death with it. Likewise, I hold a certain fondness for my drarven fighter who fumbled fighting a lowly orc and cut off his own shield hand - he refused to have it regenerated as a reminder to be less arrogant.

 

[Style]

I have lopped a hand off here and there as a DM, but nothing too major. Most of the maiming in my D&D games was done by one character - a thief, er, locksmith called Soulkicker. He got hold of a sword of sharpness and never had much luck with it, except one two or three occasions when he was charmed or mentally dominated into attacking other PCs with it. At those times, the player's rolling would go through the roof, resulting in two severed arms (from different people) and one rather fatal beheading.

I also ran a Mage/Vampire Dark Ages game with a couple of magi whose Arete increases were linked to the loss of body parts - eye, hand, tongue, heart. Worked out pretty cool too, although nobody seemed interested in pursuing the tantric paths I kept introducing to the game.

Hmmm, that was a cheap shot. And it was a lie too. Bad Style.

 

[the Jester]

Just wondering if any other DM's have maimed any of their PCs in adventures before, and what penalties (game mechanics) you imposed and how the characters (and players) dealt with their new handicap.

Maimed pcs??? Hell, all the time! Lopped off limbs, put out eyes, ripped off lower jaws- you name it, I've done it! Since the advent of the 3e crit system, however, it happens a lot less- you likely need to do over half of a target's current hp to really cause anything to fall off with my present 'colorful critical hit' system.

Two great examples:

Dexter- now the Jesus figure of the main monotheistic religion imc, Dexter lost both of his eyes! Rather than giving in, he spent a number of proficiency slots to be relatively capable despite the blindness and ended up with a couple of powers that helped (psionic sight link, for instance) and a homunculus. Made it hard to see.

Drelvin- loses legs almost every major combat. (Not so true as in older editions, darn it!) Makes it hard to run.

 

[Elrik_DarkFury]

Any good rules for chopping the pcs?plz..
Hell, i found a reason to DM once again after a long time


(damn,who needs rules about so simple things anyway )

____________
The Wizard