[revival] How to describe combat with large size differences?

[Chriskaballa]

This is a subject I brought up here about a month or two ago and am doing so again to get more responses and to help all the DMs out there who might need this information. (Me being ne of them. )

A big problem I've hit on in D&D is describing combat. Not the kind where you have two gladiators dueling, but the kind where the party finds a huge dragon, wets their pants, then proceeds to draw their axes, maces, and swords.

Referring to the above example. How and where is a fighter or whatever going to kill a creature bigger than his own house? And how can the dragon use its bite attack without simply eating him whole and using his greatsword for a toothpick?

Any advice or help or examples or anything of the like is wlcomed and greatly appreciated.

~Chris

 

[Henrix]

Avoid describing all hit point loss as wounds.

Think of the troll scene in the LotR movie. I'd say most of the characters lost some hp there.

 

[Snoweel]

Very good point.

And I agree wholeheartedly.

Svenne.

 

[Chriskaballa]

I thank you for that answer, but unfortunately I never got a chance to see the LotR movie. If you could describe the scene, I'd be grateful.

~Chris

 

[Snoweel]

No-one actually lost any skin, despite everyone having a few swings.

 

[Henrix]

You never got to see the movie? Well, you should!
They've got a cave troll!

Think of any other good fantasy action movie (uh, well think of some fantasy action movie) you've seen, and, well, extrapolate.
Don't describe successful to hit rolls as dealing grievious wounds, describe how the character narrowly escapes but gets bruised.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've had similar issues. How do you describe the barbarian landing the deathblow on the blue dragon with his greataxe...

When the barbarian can't reach above the dragon's ankle?

So far, I've found ways to fudge it. Maybe the barbarian hit the dragon's head as it was coming in to bite, or the shot on the leg made the dragon topple, allowing the barbarian to deliver a second (not "real") attack to the neck, or some such thing.

But it's difficult. It really shouldn't be possible to kill a dragon over a certain size with a sword or an axe. It'd be like trying to kill a rhino with a butter knife. Even if you break the skin, you won't reach anything vital.

So no, you're not the only one struggling with this.

 

[Dust]

Abstracts

This is how I've always thought about it:
DnD is all about abstracts so you don't have to worry about things like this. If I wanted to deal with hit locations and such, I'd use a combat system like GURPS', and I don't mean that in a negative way at all. Part of what I've always liked about DnD combat is that I don't have to worry about specifics to such an extent.
I know this suggestion may not help with all large monsters, but I think it might with dragons at least. Dragons, once they get to be that large (younger ones are more on the scale of elephants), have big old DR's that prevent normal weapons from getting through. I think it's something along the lines of 20/+3 or so for adult dragons. In this case, the only thing that's going to seriously hurt one of these things is a magic weapon of considerable power... something that will #*$@ it up whether it's a hit on the leg or the neck. Also, keep in mind that large things tend to have equally large numbers of hit points (something like 350 or so for an adult dragon, I think). Proportionally, 15 points from a greatsword isn't that much... you could think of it as some cuts on the leg. It'd take a whole lot of such cuts to bring it down. Even a very small knife could kill a large person, if you hacked their legs off with it.

 

[InvaderSquoosh]

There's a pretty cool fight between a Dragon and a party of adventurers in the Anime series, Record of Lodoss Wars. I don't remember exactly how it went. I believe that the main fighter was flung across the room once or twice. The party members were moving all over the place, and the Dragon was certainly dishing out the pain. It ended when the Dwarf leaped into the air (quite a jump) and embedded his axe in the Dragon's skull. He held on to the axe and was flung around as the Dragon's head snapped to and fro, then he was tossed across the room as the Dragon collapsed.

Come to think of it, my DM has this tendency to rule that a critical hit knocks people over and away if the size difference is large enough. He does it more for dramatic purposes than for realism.

 

[Chriskaballa]

Bump.