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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 1804064" data-attributes="member: 3400">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.</blockquote>