When a warrior stands at the wrong end of a crossbow...

[Sravoff]

Wy is it utterly worthless to hold a crossbow at somebody?

The hero had just flung open the door to the closet where the Baron was cowering, only to find to his horror it was empty...

"Turn around slowly and make no sudden moves..."

Our hero turns slowly to see the baron, light crosbow in hand smirking at our unfortunate hero... Or is the hero so unfortunate?

Under standard D&D rules, this is absolutly no problem for a character of higher level than say three at most, and most first level fighter types can take the bolt and roceed to give the baron a fight any way.

Has any one come up with any rules governing this?

 

[Land Outcast]

Someone mentioned situational hp... here or in WotC forums

Something like Con + Char level, for knife-to-the-throat situations

 

[Sravoff]

Is that "surprised HP"? If they taek that much they die?

or somethign else, I don't quite follow... Sorry.

 

[Imban]

Well, honestly, I think you're trying to ask for something out of D&D that the system doesn't really support. I mean, at high levels, characters can actually wade through lava, and this is explicitly mentioned in the Epic Level Handbook as something well within their power.

Perhaps you should look into either making the baron a capable opponent, or giving him something more effective than a light crossbow? A CL 9 Wand of Magic Missiles, for a random example, costs 6750 gp and deals 5d4+5 damage.

EDIT: I realize that this is the House Rules forum, but making him a spellcaster (or someone with Use Magic Device) equipped with a low-charge wand of something painful seems to be a method of handling a surprise attack like that which is more in keeping with the rest of the game's flavor.

 

[Land Outcast]

Actually is "Dramatic" hp, which is used in a situation deemed "dramatic" by the DM... Not a purely mechanical mechanic

 

[Aust Diamondew]

In most action movies when the villain points the gun at the hero the hero either,
A) Surrenders
B) After some witty banter makes a sudden movement dodging the gun shot and proceeds to run around killing all the lackeys, dodging gun fire and eventually works his way around to the BBEG (sometimes this happens in a different order).

D&D does a great job of simulating the latter, and only simulates the former if the heroes have just been fighting several battles and are low on HP.

Although opponents who get the drop on PCs do have an edge, 1 more attack action can make all the difference.

 

[Ciaran]

You could always call it a coup de grace...

On a more balanced note, if you have the drop on your target and a readied action to shoot them, I'd deny the target a Dexterity bonus. And you never know if the Baron has a few levels of Rogue, with the sneak attack damage that comes with it.

 

[Land Outcast]

Sorry, I recalled wrong information:
Dramatic hp = Levelx2

 

[Paraxis]

Crossbow from across the room, yeah never going to fear it not in D&D. The above posters have it, simply D&D does not cover this and buy its nature shouldn't, make it a rod or wand that way the players may fear him simply because they don't know what spell it is (or have the rod shot out a disintergrate ray at wall behind players for added effect before BBEG makes his presence known). Now I do use a house rule of knife to throat and crossbow to head, basicly the attacker has prepared his action to shot/cut when some action is done or not done, its an auto coup de grace that takes a standard action and the defender does not get attack of opportunity. Now very high level characters will still think about taking the hit but no one likes taking the chance of failing a save or die effect.

 

[Nyaricus]

Actually is "Dramatic" hp, situation in which the DM deemd "dramatic"... Not a purely mechanical mechanic

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