Rules-wise, is there ANY way to lose a limb or become crippled?

[Green Knight]

Is there anything that allows for dismembering people? Hacking off an arm or a leg? Taking out an eye? Leaving someone with a crippling wound? Any supplements out there have rules for things like this? Just wondering...

 

[Crothian]

Not that I've seen. Weapons like wounding that did that in early editions were taken out.

 

[Green Knight]

Sort of makes a magic item like the Arm of Nyr from Defenders of the Faith pointless, as it's a replacement for a severed arm, unless the PC asks the DM to have his characters' arm cut off for RP reasons. Not something that'd ever happen in-game on its own.

So no one, no D20 publisher, has produced something like the critical hit tables from Player's Option: Combat & Tactics?

 

[thundershot]

Strange how all of the weapons of "sharpness" were removed, yet Vorpal is still there.

And you can still lose a limb, just not in regular combat. Say you get captured and they decide to cut a leg off... boy are YOU screwed. I know my players would say "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST KILL ME SO I CAN BE RAISED!?!? ARRRGH!"



Chris

 

[Mouseferatu]

May I suggest a house rule I've been considering?

I've been thinking of saying that any time you're dropped below 0 hit points, you receive a permanent scar or injury. I haven't decided precisely how to determine if it's just a scar or if you actually lose a limb or something--maybe a Fortitude save, based on the amount of damage you took in the injury that dropped you below 0. And of course, the wound would have to make sense; you can't cut someone's arm off with a club, but you could shatter the bones.

I haven't decided to implement this yet, because it does make combat a lot more dangerous. But it's a thought.

 

[Grazzt]

Could use the "Good Hits and Bad Misses" article from Dragon #39 (if you can find it; I guess its probably on the Dragon CD compilation TSR did several years ago). The critical charts had many opportunities for removing limbs.

 

[Olive]

well, there are ways this could happen, just not during the normal cut and thrust of combat.

i had a character ahve an eye removed by orcish devotees of grummush... and the DMG has rules for what would happen if a limb or what ever was lost.

 

[Someone]

May I suggest a house rule I've been considering?

I've been thinking of saying that any time you're dropped below 0 hit points, you receive a permanent scar or injury. I haven't decided precisely how to determine if it's just a scar or if you actually lose a limb or something--maybe a Fortitude save, based on the amount of damage you took in the injury that dropped you below 0. And of course, the wound would have to make sense; you can't cut someone's arm off with a club, but you could shatter the bones.

I haven't decided to implement this yet, because it does make combat a lot more dangerous. But it's a thought.

Those are the rules of Warhammer Fantasy RPG. You start suffering critical hits when you run out of hit points.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

There are some rules in the DMG regarding damage to specific locations. That would be the only "official" 3E rules that I know about.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Swashbuckling Adventures

Swashbuckling Adventures has a very complete system of rules for loosing limbs and eyes and such. They even have rules for primitive prosthetics and what type of weapons do what sort of injuries.

The basic principal is that if someone crits on you and they do as much or more damage than your constitution then you have the option of reducing the damage to the least amount possible and loosing a limb or organ of your choice from off a set list.

The attacker who scores the crit can make a similar choice if he fullfills the damage requirement and then makes a reflex save against the victim's dexterity score. If the attacker succeeds then the damage is reduced to minimum and the victim rolls for a missing limb from off of the list.

I think it's a pretty nice system and encourages your pcs to develop a little heroic scarring.