Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Pandesmos 02-11-07, 03:37 AM	Greetings. I have always woed that there arenīt any rules for attacking, for example, the defenders arms, legs, torso, etc. Because of this I took the liberty of creating the rules for targeting and attacking limbs and appendages of the humanoid body. Due to the fact that homemade rules and classes are indeed more likely to be off-balance I would like you to post some comments and thoughts about these rules. ----------------------------------------- Organ failure at -10 HP (Minor organ failure at -5 HP) - for arms only Organ damaged at ― HP If a major organ (torso or chest) is reduced to -10 HP the total HP, whatever it may be at that moment, is instantly set to - 1 HP, bleeding. Head AC: Base + Dex + magic + 3 from Diminutive + possible armour HP: Total HP/ 10 When this fails... : Bleeding and death at 0 HP, decapitation and instant death at -10 HP When this is damaged... : cumulative penalties to all actions Special: Every time a head takes damage, there is a possibility (10%) for that damage to occur inside the head. This brain damage may not be treated without special equipment (of at least artifact level) or curative magic. Damage to the brain may also permanently lower the Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma score of the victim by 1 (10%). This damage may be cured with a maximized restoration spell, though. Should the Intelligence score drop to zero due to brain damage the victim is brain-dead and will not recover from it without the use of a raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, miracle or a wish spell. A brain-dead victim will die due to lack of oxygen in 10 rounds if he/she is left untreated. Should either the victimīs Charisma or Wisdom score drop to zero, he is now in a permanent vegetative state. While this doesnīt acutely endanger the victim it is without doubt lethal if he is left unattended. A person in a vegetative state survives for 2d4 - 1 days before succumbing to the lack of nutrients and dehydration. Creatures without a brain, such as incorporeal creatures or oozes, are naturally immune to this kind of special damage. Note: Critical hit to the head tripples the chances for brain trauma. Chest AC: As normal HP: Total HP of the creature When this fails... :Bleeding and death When this is damaged...: penalties to moving, attacking and virtually anything requiring physical movement or effort. Special: Upon every critical hit a seperate roll should be made as there is a possibility for the blow to strike right through the victims heart, causing it to fall unconscious in 1d2 rounds and start bleeding without a save. (5%) Creatures immune to critical hits ignore this possibility altogether. Arms AC:Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 4 When this fails...: The arm ceases to function due to broken bones or damaged nerves. Anything that would require the use of both arms is now virtually impossible, actions where the other arm would help suffer penalties. If reduced to -10 HP the arm is cut off entirely and requires a succesful Fortitude save to stay conscious (DC 15 + damage taken to the arm). The arm will start to decay immediately and will rot to a useless piece of flesh in 2d6 - 2 weeks depending on the surrounding environment. Freezing the arm will prevent decomposition. A lost arm will require a regeneration, true restoration, miracle, wish, metamorphosis or similar spell/power in order to grow back. When this is damaged...: Attacks may suffer penalties (depending on which arm is damaged). Otherwise any action that requires the use of the damaged arm suffers penalties Torso AC: Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 2 When this fails...: Bleeding and death When this is damaged...: penalties to moving in a greater extent, attacking and virtually anything requiring physical movement or effort. Special: Because the humanoid torso contains many large blood vessels there is a chance for the piercing/slashing blow to sever one of them, causing major blood loss. If the torso is struck by a critical hit a roll (10%) should be made to check if the blow is a threat to the arteries. Should one of these vessels be damaged a haemorhage will occur. This imposes a -2 penalty to all bodily actions and limits movement to walking only. A person suffering a haemorhage will lose HP on a steady basis, their total HP/10 per round. This bleeding will not stop until the victim has received proper medical attention or at least a single point of healing from curative magics or psionics. Legs AC: Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 4 When this fails...: The now-crippled leg cannot support the weight of the body, collapsing prone to the ground. Only kneeling is possible. Movement is limited to limping (1/4 of full speed, no charging or withdrawing). Should both legs be reduced to or bellow 0 HP the victim is only able to lay prone and crawl slowly forward (1/10 of full speed). If one or both legs are reduced to -10 HP the leg in question is cut off and requires a succesful Fortitude save to stay conscious (DC 15 + damage taken to the leg) Losing one or both legs will make the usage of some skills entirely impossible or more difficult. A lost leg will require a regeneration, true restoration, miracle, wish, metamorphosis or similar spell or power in order to grow back. When this is damaged...: even greater penalties to movement, lesser penalties to attacking. Some skills will suffer penalties. ------------------------------------- I tried to add some sort of realism into it but too much of it would slow the combat down drastically. Iīm no master of biology (not that I wouldnīt be good in it :D) and D&D isnīt completely for realism but the flavor this brings is a sufficent reason to make things slightly more complicated. So I think. As you can see, the penalties caused by injuries are yet to be determined. This should pose no significant problems, however. Should someone post something not-trollish here, the person has already my thanks. This was my first post at these forums, by the way.
Neutronium_Dragon 02-11-07, 04:25 AM	Before proceeding with this idea, you should read SKR's (D&D designer) rant about why called shots (which is what this is) are a bad thing for the game. I see the very same problems he's talking about appearing in this proposal: http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/rants/calledshots.html
Qwicksilver 02-11-07, 03:02 PM	I personally understand the idea that called shots should not be instituted. However, I have always wondered if rules do or did exist for attacking and hacking body parts of gargantuan sized creatures. Probably not preferable in battle, but it'd be nice to know if you could de-limb a creature, cut eyes out, provided they're large enough to be a viable target. So rather than asking about called shots for creatures of smaller size, i was wondering if rules for particularly larger sized creatures are instituted?
ShinoAburame 02-11-07, 03:41 PM	I had a fairly simple idea, with a succesful attack, a player or GM depending on who's attacking rolls a d12 to see where they attack thier foe. 1-Left foot 2-Right foot 3-Left hand 4-Right hand 5-Left arm 6-Right arm 7-Left leg 8-Right leg 9-Chest 10-Head 11-Crotch 12-Neck Notice as the roll gets higher, the spot you hit becomes more valuable. Well, really the crotch isn't all that valuable, but it'll deffinitely hurt the most... A good side rule is if they roll 11 or higher to have them make a fortitude save of 10+damage dealt or become shaken for 1d8 rounds. As well as an additional prone for a round. Getting shot in the legs, chest, or head, makes you prone for a round but not shaken.
Hazkali 02-12-07, 02:47 PM	Whilst any idea of this vein increases realism, it will inevitably unbalance the game against the PCs. This is for one simple reason: Hit points can be cured from 1st level, but limb loss requires powerful magic- Regenerate is a 7th level spell! Whilst this doesn't matter for monsters (they're only there to die anyway), a PC who gets one or more limbs lopped off is seriously weakened in a permanent way. Realistic? Yes. Fitting in regular, "high fantasy" D+D? Not really. The only way to make this feasable in the standard D+D setting would be to lower the level of Regenerate or allow spells such as Restoration to regrow lost limbs. Or you could play a gritty, realistic setting but be aware PCs will eventually (and rightfully so) want to avoid combat wherever possible. To ShinoAburame, the higher rolls have the same probablility as lower ones, the fact that they have a higher number does not affect their chance of being rolled (as much as it seems when you search for that ellusive nat. 20). As such, in your system the chance of being hit in the hand is the same as that of being hit in the chest, which whilst simple is less realistic.
Pandesmos 02-13-07, 11:34 AM	Thank you for the one message which really was about the system I tried to make. As I stated before: flavour. Flavour is the only reason why I wish to have some rules governing the loss of arms, heads, etc. I acknowledge that this attempt might and most likely will be doomed to fail in a most spectacular way. Nevertheless I wish to see it through to the end and try it in one of our gaming sessions. Unless someone wants to share their opionions about my idea of "called shots" feel free to hijack this thread. As if I would mind. P.S Thanks for the link... got me thinking.
marine1 02-13-07, 01:00 PM	Greetings. I have always woed that there arenīt any rules for attacking, for example, the defenders arms, legs, torso, etc. Because of this I took the liberty of creating the rules for targeting and attacking limbs and appendages of the humanoid body. Due to the fact that homemade rules and classes are indeed more likely to be off-balance I would like you to post some comments and thoughts about these rules. ----------------------------------------- Organ failure at -10 HP (Minor organ failure at -5 HP) - for arms only Organ damaged at ― HP If a major organ (torso or chest) is reduced to -10 HP the total HP, whatever it may be at that moment, is instantly set to - 1 HP, bleeding. Head AC: Base + Dex + magic + 3 from Diminutive + possible armour HP: Total HP/ 10 When this fails... : Bleeding and death at 0 HP, decapitation and instant death at -10 HP When this is damaged... : cumulative penalties to all actions Special: Every time a head takes damage, there is a possibility (10%) for that damage to occur inside the head. This brain damage may not be treated without special equipment (of at least artifact level) or curative magic. Damage to the brain may also permanently lower the Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma score of the victim by 1 (10%). This damage may be cured with a maximized restoration spell, though. Should the Intelligence score drop to zero due to brain damage the victim is brain-dead and will not recover from it without the use of a raise dead, resurrection, true resurrection, miracle or a wish spell. A brain-dead victim will die due to lack of oxygen in 10 rounds if he/she is left untreated. Should either the victimīs Charisma or Wisdom score drop to zero, he is now in a permanent vegetative state. While this doesnīt acutely endanger the victim it is without doubt lethal if he is left unattended. A person in a vegetative state survives for 2d4 - 1 days before succumbing to the lack of nutrients and dehydration. Creatures without a brain, such as incorporeal creatures or oozes, are naturally immune to this kind of special damage. Note: Critical hit to the head tripples the chances for brain trauma. Chest AC: As normal HP: Total HP of the creature When this fails... :Bleeding and death When this is damaged...: penalties to moving, attacking and virtually anything requiring physical movement or effort. Special: Upon every critical hit a seperate roll should be made as there is a possibility for the blow to strike right through the victims heart, causing it to fall unconscious in 1d2 rounds and start bleeding without a save. (5%) Creatures immune to critical hits ignore this possibility altogether. Arms AC:Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 4 When this fails...: The arm ceases to function due to broken bones or damaged nerves. Anything that would require the use of both arms is now virtually impossible, actions where the other arm would help suffer penalties. If reduced to -10 HP the arm is cut off entirely and requires a succesful Fortitude save to stay conscious (DC 15 + damage taken to the arm). The arm will start to decay immediately and will rot to a useless piece of flesh in 2d6 - 2 weeks depending on the surrounding environment. Freezing the arm will prevent decomposition. A lost arm will require a regeneration, true restoration, miracle, wish, metamorphosis or similar spell/power in order to grow back. When this is damaged...: Attacks may suffer penalties (depending on which arm is damaged). Otherwise any action that requires the use of the damaged arm suffers penalties Torso AC: Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 2 When this fails...: Bleeding and death When this is damaged...: penalties to moving in a greater extent, attacking and virtually anything requiring physical movement or effort. Special: Because the humanoid torso contains many large blood vessels there is a chance for the piercing/slashing blow to sever one of them, causing major blood loss. If the torso is struck by a critical hit a roll (10%) should be made to check if the blow is a threat to the arteries. Should one of these vessels be damaged a haemorhage will occur. This imposes a -2 penalty to all bodily actions and limits movement to walking only. A person suffering a haemorhage will lose HP on a steady basis, their total HP/10 per round. This bleeding will not stop until the victim has received proper medical attention or at least a single point of healing from curative magics or psionics. Legs AC: Base + Dex + magic + 1 from Small + possible armour HP: Total / 4 When this fails...: The now-crippled leg cannot support the weight of the body, collapsing prone to the ground. Only kneeling is possible. Movement is limited to limping (1/4 of full speed, no charging or withdrawing). Should both legs be reduced to or bellow 0 HP the victim is only able to lay prone and crawl slowly forward (1/10 of full speed). If one or both legs are reduced to -10 HP the leg in question is cut off and requires a succesful Fortitude save to stay conscious (DC 15 + damage taken to the leg) Losing one or both legs will make the usage of some skills entirely impossible or more difficult. A lost leg will require a regeneration, true restoration, miracle, wish, metamorphosis or similar spell or power in order to grow back. When this is damaged...: even greater penalties to movement, lesser penalties to attacking. Some skills will suffer penalties. ------------------------------------- I tried to add some sort of realism into it but too much of it would slow the combat down drastically. Iīm no master of biology (not that I wouldnīt be good in it :D) and D&D isnīt completely for realism but the flavor this brings is a sufficent reason to make things slightly more complicated. So I think. As you can see, the penalties caused by injuries are yet to be determined. This should pose no significant problems, however. Should someone post something not-trollish here, the person has already my thanks. This was my first post at these forums, by the way. I Concur that being able to strike different parts of the body will add more realism to combat. Your system however only creates an ac and hp for body parts. For true realism the attacker would need to take a penalty for a called shot for it is harder to hit a specific part of the body then it is to take a random shot and get what the defenders defense gives up. I have always enjoyed random hit placement. As an example of what I am saying in melee combat let's say an attacker swings aiming for the defenders torso. The defender sees the attack but instead of taking a shot to the torso the defender moves an arm in the way. While the attack is a success the attacker didn't hit it's intended target. Don't get me wrong I agree with the basic theory of your idea; I simply believe it needs more refinement.