why not getting rid of coup de grace?

[Geron Raveneye]

Heh, if you add replacement limbs to the game, there'll be people lopping off their limbs voluntarily, depending on what cool powers they offer.

 

[Celebrim]

Simply put, because removing all the simulationist thinking from a game leaves you with something that is about as emmersive as checkers.

 

[Klaus]

Heh, if you add replacement limbs to the game, there'll be people lopping off their limbs voluntarily, depending on what cool powers they offer.

Surely.

But I'd rule that grafts are bulky and perform *just* as well as the original, in the best case scenario.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I don't like effects which kill intantly.

Coup de Grace attacks should just place a person at -1 hit points (or the 4E equivalent), rather than kill. It is still close enough to death, but not instant death.

I think it is far more dramatic, fun, and even realistic if the team healer has a chance to try to save a person in the few moments between taking a fatal blow and dying.

Of course, this complaint is just a subset of my general dislike of the way death operates in D&D, where the line between "perfectly healthy" and "dead" is a mere ten hitpoints, 9 of which are spent unconscious. So much dramatic potential and so many gameplay possibilities are wrecked by that system...

 

[Klaus]

I don't like effects which kill intantly.

Coup de Grace attacks should just place a person at -1 hit points (or the 4E equivalent), rather than kill. It is still close enough to death, but not instant death.

I think it is far more dramatic, fun, and even realistic if the team healer has a chance to try to save a person in the few moments between taking a fatal blow and dying.

Of course, this complaint is just a subset of my general dislike of the way death operates in D&D, where the line between "perfectly healthy" and "dead" is a mere ten hitpoints, 9 of which are spent unconscious. So much dramatic potential and so many gameplay possibilities are wrecked by that system...

Well, with the introduction of the "Bloodied" stage in 4e, that no longer applies.

For those who don't want to update to 4e, there's always the possiblity of using the Star Wars Saga condition track in a 3.5 ruleset.

 

[Felon]

I don't like effects which kill intantly.

Coup de Grace attacks should just place a person at -1 hit points (or the 4E equivalent), rather than kill. It is still close enough to death, but not instant death.

I think it is far more dramatic, fun, and even realistic if the team healer has a chance to try to save a person in the few moments between taking a fatal blow and dying.

I envision the team leader desperately trying to re-attach his cohort's severed head. "You're gonna be fine, buddy! Just fine!"

 

[Warbringer]

Simply put, because removing all the simulationist thinking from a game leaves you with something that is about as emmersive as checkers.

Yeah, but think of all the flanking

 

[billd91]

I don't like effects which kill intantly.

Coup de Grace attacks should just place a person at -1 hit points (or the 4E equivalent), rather than kill. It is still close enough to death, but not instant death.

I think it is far more dramatic, fun, and even realistic if the team healer has a chance to try to save a person in the few moments between taking a fatal blow and dying.

I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing that with coup de grace save failure, massive damage save failure, and even death by enough damage to send the character to beyond -10. I'd consider requiring something more than just a basic cure minor wounds to prevent the death, as well.

 

[MithrasRahl]

We got a new NPC today (playing Shackled City with only 3 people, so DM is allowing us 2 player-controlled NPCs), a level 7 Warblade. 94 HP, 13/8 for 2d6+9, 17-20 crit range, power attack, etc.

The first encounter we hit, a cleric from the enemy party casts hold person on the Warblade. I roll a 12, so +8 on will (various feats, +2 cause it's a dwarf, etc) means a 20. This roll was not good enough somehow (the cleric had buffed himself with 2 spells before the casting of Hold Person), and the next action of his henchman (a rogue) is to CdG the Warblade. He deals 26 damage, and that's it for the Warblade.

Yeah, CdG is realistic. If I wanted realistic, I wouldn't be playing a fantasy role-playing game. Tell me how CdG is fun when there was literally nothing I could have done to stop it besides not taking the adventure hook, and instead spent the gaming session doing party pool maintenance and crafting weapons for sale at the market.

 

[IceFractal]

While I'm fine with keeping playability over realism in many cases, there needs to be a certain base level of reality, or the game becomes merely checkers with more pieces. It's like breaking the 4th wall - a comedy can do it, but if you tried to have a serious drama that constantly did it, it'd be extremely disruptive. Action-movie "physics", I can accept. Surrealist physics, not so much.

I mean, which statement below could be changed, while staying remotely consistent with a functioning world?
1) If someone is lying totally paralysed in front of you, you have have a sword ready, and you take your time to line up your swing, you could cause a fatal injury like decapitating them/stabbing them through the heart/chopping off their arms.
2) If your head is cut off, you die. With any wound of this nature, you have very little chance to survive.


And for that matter, being paralyzed would still result in death in most cases, even without CdG. Being power-attacked/sneak-attacked for a full round, with every strike hitting, has a good probability to be deadly. Being subject to that for several rounds turns it into a certainty, if you're facing enemies of remotely your level.