Question about called shots

[darthkilmor]

Ok, I havent been able to find anything in the phb or dmg about this but maybe i just cant look things up well. What are the rules for called shots? And If I call a shot to the head of an opponent, how much dmg do I have to do to instantly kill them, for example? We house-ruled soemthing up awhile ago when we couldnt find anything , basically that the AC increases for called shot as a percentage of the part you're trying to hit. limbs are like 50%, torso 25%, head 75%, an eye(or soemthing similarly small), 100%. so for a pidly little critter with 10 AC, to stick your sword or arrow in its eye is only 20AC, but as things get tougher its harder to do, like something with an AC of 30 , it would be AC 60 to stick an arrow in the eye. Is this similar to anything published or ?

 

[Darklone]

The DMG has some optional rule variants that allows to damage limbs for penalties...

Nothing similar to what you describe in the corebooks. Lotsa similar stuff in non core books.

 

[darthkilmor]

So there's nothing in the books for like, if you take 20 dmg to the head, you fort save seomthing or die ?

 

[Plane Sailing]

No, nothing like that.

 

[shilsen]

So there's nothing in the books for like, if you take 20 dmg to the head, you fort save seomthing or die ?

As Plane Sailing said, no, there isn't. And the reason there isn't is that allowing one to by pass hit points completely is generally a very bad idea from a balance perspective. Some of the combat mechanics such as sunder, trip and disarm do allow one to bypass hit points and an opponent's skill in one sense, but at least they don't allow automatic kills. Which, as I mentioned, is a bad idea in D&D. YMMV.

 

[darthkilmor]

Well, there is the rule about taking 50 hit points in a single round(or is it attack?) and having to save or die, right? Or is that an optional rule ?

 

[smetzger]

Well, there is the rule about taking 50 hit points in a single round(or is it attack?) and having to save or die, right?

Yes, DC 15 Fort, and its for a single attack.

Or is that an optional rule ?

No, its not optional.

But that has nothing to do with 20hp damage 'to the head'. By core rules there is not location specifics for hp damage.

That being said, many Feats emulate 'Called Shots' in an abstract way. A called shot is used to target a specific (usually vital) area and get an advantage by doing so. Power Attack is a good representation of a Called Shot because it gives up accuracy for damage.

 

[billd91]

2nd edition AD&D had some optional rules on called shots and a variety of Dragon magazine articles have appeared over the years with called shot suggestions.
I think many people found that called shot rules could get badly abused and so the designers left them out of 3E. And that's fine with me. D&D isn't about particularly realistic combat or crippling and maiming characters. With massive hit points and characters taking sword blow after sword blow, it's about reaching for high fantasy combat like in Conan, John Carter, Elric, or Fafhrd/Grey Mouser books.
If you do want something with more deadly potential, check out the vitality point/wound point ideas in Unearthed Arcana. If criticals go directly to a character's wound points, bypassing the level-based vitality, then you could argue that they're hitting seriously vital places and any skill or weapon power that increases the crit threat range is the character getting better, over time, at hitting called shots.