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Sinaz 06-23-06, 05:28 PM

Yup... hit a PM size limit. So I am posting it as a topic. You mentioned in a thread on treasure troubles that you have a house rule about items, armor and weapons becoming damaged over time. Would you at all be able to share a more detailed description of this house rule with me? I would like to implement something similar in my upcoming campaign but not quite sure exactly how. Thanks. Oof. Yeah. I hope I don't run into a post size limit. First off, I broke down the body into zones. And they relate to a D20: 1 - Head (-4) 2-4 - Upperbody/shoulders (-1) 5-7 - Midsection/Groin (-1) 8-9 - Left Arm (-2) 10 - Left Hand (-4) 11-12 - Left Leg (-2) 13 - Left Foot (-4) 14-15 - Right Arm (-2) 16 - Right Hand (-4) 17-18 - Right Leg (-2) 19 - Right Foot (-4) 20 - Fatal (represents an auto-crit to an artery or organ) (note the penalties... comes up later) (n/a) I have a little drawing that I use that blocks it out, so it looks more natural. Here's a little mock-up I made for you (mine has the numbers scribed in the boxes for easy reference): Hit Blocks (http://www.jonathanstraw.com/common/DandD/HitBlocks.jpg) Ok, so. When do you use this chart? A PC, NPC, or creature can either just do a general attack "The orc advances hacking his sword violently..." or can make a called-shot "The orc swings his sword in a mighty arc attempting to sever your arm!" If its a general attack and it deals 25% of the target's health, then the target is wounded. Since the shot wasn't called, you roll a D20 to find where in the body it hits. The results are as follows: If the weapon is bladed, it causes a bleeding wound. Bleeding wounds deal 1 point of damage per round until stabalized using a heal check. Also, the area of the body that incurred the wound suffers a penalty based on the PHB localized damage rules. I usually just ad-hoc it to -1 for anything that would involve that body part. If the weapon is blunt, it causes a fracture. Fractures basically render limbs useless incurring a -3 penalty for anything using that body part until it heals. Wounds stack on each body part, so track them. Now, if the location roll is a 20, then it is like dealing a critical hit - only you are causing a fatal wound... apply the critical multiplier only to the wound effect (ie - bleeding 2 Hp per round, and suffering -2 penalty for a cut.) If the attacker decides to call a shot, they incur the penalty on thier attack roll listed in that chart up there, but if they hit, it is an automatic wound. Note that you cannot target fatal... but causing a confirmed critical hit on a called shot forces a fatal wound (as well as the critical damage). Ok... that's the foundation. How this applies to armor is as follows... whenever a PC, NPC, or creature suffers a wound, it damages the armor, tacking on a -1 penalty to armor checks. This stacks... and continues to stack as if the armor is getting dented, frayed, crumpled in such a way that it is more a hinderance than an aide. A similar thing happens with weapons. If a player performs a critical fumble, I don't rule they drop the sword, instead, I rule that they slammed it into the stone floor, or caught a shield in a bad way. This tacks on a -1 to its effectiveness that stacks. (this is just one of the things I may do... sometimes I cause the player to make an involuntary 5 foot step and incur an AoO.) Weapon and armor smithing can reduce this penalty by 1 each day if they spend thier preparation time repairing it. Especially with armor, this tends to become overwhelming, as I don't let my players simply say "oh, we rest for four days to repair our armor" in the middle of an adventure. Check the SRD for repairing rules... remember it requires tools... and if they fail a check, they basically failed to make any significant improvements that night. I think I covered everything. I should mention real quick about healing... since wounds tend to really start stacking up. A player will naturally heal +1 of any penalties incurred from a wound on each body part per week. This accellerates to +2 per week if healing via bed-rest. There is a variation to heal spells. In regards to HP restoration of heal and cure spells, if cast in general or in haste, will simply restore HP. But if cast on a wounded body part, will completely regerate all wounds on that body part (in adition to the restored HP.) This means if a player has a wounded arm, leg, and head, it will take 3 heal spells to restore him to full health. Regeneration, however, will completely heal all wounds no matter how it is cast. One final comment... I ad-hoc roleplayed damage to weapons and armor too. If, say, a player tumbles down a flight of stairs in full-plate, that full plate takes a beating. If a player goes wading through brackish water, and never bothers to re-oil his chainmail, I may start tacking on penalties. If a player tosses a weapon to a team mate and he misses the catch letting the sword clatter off a balcony... oops. Again, this is ad-hoc, and I am not all that consistent with it. I typed this all up off the top of my head since I don't have my notes. But I hope it helps you out.