Undead and Critical Hits

[Kai Lord]

Does anyone else find it silly that Undead are immune to Critical Hits? In almost any movie or story featuring Vampires, Skeletons, Zombies or whatnot, a clean beheading or stab through the heart takes them right out.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

Because a skeleton and zombie is not killed by losing their head.

As for the vampire- there are no called shots, and their internal organs take as much beating as they need to before the pesky adventurer is dead.

FD

 

[Kai Lord]

Critical hits represent hits to vulnerable parts of a creature's anatomy. Vampires should be subject to them. And Skeletons and Zombies have been being killed by beheadings from Jason and the Argonauts all the way to Resident Evil.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Ok, so, since vampires only have one vital piece of anatomy- their heart- you are going to have any crit kill one?

That is find- it goes along with movies like From Dusk til Dawn, but I want my vampires to be tougher then that.

I really don't see a reason why not to allow them to take criticals- it is not going to hurt anything. Err.. beyond the undead.

I just don't think it is silly. Crit's are not chopping off heads or piercing specific body parts- they are hitting a vital area. Hitting- not destroying. And most undead don't have vital areas to begin with.

FD

 

[Kai Lord]

Ok, so, since vampires only have one vital piece of anatomy- their heart- you are going to have any crit kill one?

No, but it'd be a cool way to royally piss one off.

 

[Alariel]

Well, if you take the Supernatural Blow feat from MotW with a ranger who has taken Undead as a Favored Enemy, you get to crit undead... of a sort.

 

[Caliban]

Critical hits represent hits to vulnerable parts of a creature's anatomy. Vampires should be subject to them.

Vampires only have one vulnerable spot. Most critical blows wouldn't affect them any more than any other undead. Only criticals with a wooden stake that pierce the heart would have an added effect (and that only if you accept the hollywood vampire stereotype).

By the core rules, you can only stake a vampire when he's helpless. At any other time he's able to twist and manuever enough that you won't target his heart, even with a critical strike.

I could see adding a house rule that allows any critical with a wooden piercing weapon to have a 25% chance of striking the heart (and thus staking the vampire). It's something to discuss with your GM, although it does weaken vampires.

And Skeletons and Zombies have been being killed by beheadings from Jason and the Argonauts all the way to Resident Evil.

Most zombies and skeletons only have a few hit points, so any blow that kills them in one shot can be defined as a beheading a minor undead.

Also, in many of those fights with the undead in the movies they trade several blows before the final beheading. That matches the abstract nature of the D&D combat system, where most of your hit points don't really represent great physical damage, but rather near misses, or potentially life-threatening blows turned into minor wounds as your greater experience allows you to twist aside.

 

[Xarlen]

That's because Hollywood is visual.

Imagine a Zombie not as a biological organsim (Ala Resident Evil), but instead as magical energy animating something. Just like animating a statue, so too is a zombie; just a zombie is easier to destroy, as aposed to a statue. So, you could animate a zombie, even if it doesn't have a head. Or an arm. Or is missing a jaw.

Furthermore, on this same vein, you could shoot an arrow through it's eye, and it just hits dead tissue. If it were a Human, and that was a critical hit, and it did enough damage, sure, they dead. However, the zombie isn't phased (Unless the amount of damage killed it).

You chop off a zombie's arm, he keeps on coming. You chop off his leg, he keeps it up. You have to just wear him Down. Zombies that are affected by critical hits would likely be those in Demon Night, and Resident Evil.

Heck, I think it'd be cool to animate just PART of a skeleton. Imagine simply skeletal arms which are animated; put a lot of them in an underwater passage, and you have yourself a defense.

 

[gfunk]

Vampires only have one vulnerable spot.

Actually, in addition to their heart, vampires can be slain by beheading. Check out the Vorpal description in the DMG.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A really big zombie pretty much needs to be thorougly broken into little bits to die. No crits there.