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View Full Version : 3.5 - Ways to dismember by RAW



Jon_Dahl
2010-03-25, 07:08 AM
I'm looking for ways to dismember PC's, preferably something for 4th-level party.

Mawler from Tome of Horrors is excellent!

Any ideas are welcomed.

Mushroom Ninja
2010-03-25, 07:09 AM
I'm looking for ways to dismember PC's, preferably something for 4th-level party.

Mawler from Tome of Horrors is excellent!

Any ideas are welcomed.

Please elaborate. What exactly do you mean by "dismember".

Private-Prinny
2010-03-25, 07:17 AM
Please elaborate. What exactly do you mean by "dismember".

Cutting off someone's limbs or other body parts. A vorpal blade has decapitation, if you like that sort of thing.

Jon_Dahl
2010-03-25, 07:17 AM
Please elaborate. What exactly do you mean by "dismember".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismemberment

In other words lose parts of your body. Small as fingers are ok, but a whole leg would be better.


Cutting off someone's limbs or other body parts. A vorpal blade has decapitation, if you like that sort of thing.

Hmm, that is little too insta-death for my taste here but thanks!

Darrin
2010-03-25, 07:38 AM
Head of Vecna FTW.

Vizzerdrix
2010-03-25, 07:41 AM
Torn Asunder :Critical Hits is a 3rd party 3.0 book, but if I remember, it has everything you want.

Ormagoden
2010-03-25, 07:49 AM
Hold person + Axe

/thread

Jon_Dahl
2010-03-25, 08:07 AM
Hold person + Axe

/thread

Your RAW is strong :)

gallagher
2010-03-25, 08:45 AM
I would say sunder the body part. Give it size bonuses so arms are tiny and fingers are fine or something

Maeglin_Dubh
2010-03-25, 09:14 AM
I would say sunder the body part. Give it size bonuses so arms are tiny and fingers are fine or something

We sometimes allow called shots to certain parts with an appropriate penalty based on size, as you say here. Success in destroying the target occurred if the strike dealt over 25% of their maximum health.

My duskblade was murder. Quick-cast true strike, take a -8 to target the head, channel shocking grasp, head asplode.

Optimystik
2010-03-25, 09:53 AM
IIRC, Wu Jen have a couple of these, like Decapitating Scarf.

You could also allow called shots with weaponlikes, e.g. Disintegrate or Whirling Blade.

Ernir
2010-03-25, 09:58 AM
Pretty difficult to do by RAW. Houseruling in called shots is easy to do, hard to balance. =/

That being said, Seething Eyebane (Book of Vile Darkness), a first level spell, lets you explode your opponent's eyes. :smallbiggrin:

Aside from that... uh, polymorph your foes into hydras and sunder their heads?

wormwood
2010-03-25, 10:04 AM
the Book of Vile Darkness has a spell that rips off your target's hand and turns it into an undead that immediately beats the snot out of the poor fool who just lost it... with whatever weapon it had.

This is one reason no campaign I ever run will allow the Book of Vile Darkness again.

Human Paragon 3
2010-03-25, 10:08 AM
Tome of Battle has a lot of manuevers that can simulate this, either through stat penalties, ability damage, movement reduction, etc.

They get better after a little while, but it's pretty close. There are feats that allow sneak attack to deal bleeding damage, injure legs, etc. too in complete adventurer/scoundrel. You could homebrew an NPC/Monster only ability that makes these effects permenant.

Ormagoden
2010-03-25, 10:13 AM
the Book of Vile Darkness has a spell that rips off your target's hand and turns it into an undead that immediately beats the snot out of the poor fool who just lost it... with whatever weapon it had.

This is one reason no campaign I ever run will allow the Book of Vile Darkness again.

You have helped me in ways you cannot understand!

:runs off laughing manically:

Claudius Maximus
2010-03-25, 10:17 AM
There's a feat in the Beholder chapter of Lords of Madness that lets you use Disintegrate to disintegrate specific body parts of your target.

KillianHawkeye
2010-03-25, 05:44 PM
There's a feat in the Beholder chapter of Lords of Madness that lets you use Disintegrate to disintegrate specific body parts of your target.

I love that feat! :smallbiggrin:

randomhero00
2010-03-25, 07:36 PM
A simple way to houserule it is to make a quick table by level for the amount of damage you need to do to sever something. So like lvl 1 might be 7 damage minimum. If you do 7 or more damage the player (or DM NPC) can choose a body part to sever. I'd make it pretty high though or you'll lose a lot of parts quickly :P An even simpler way is to simply roll a nat20 (and confirm) to sever body parts.

Flickerdart
2010-03-25, 07:46 PM
Aside from that... uh, polymorph your foes into hydras and sunder their heads?
"I polymorph it into an Orge!"
"An Ogre, why? Those things are dangerous!"
"Four words: Sword of Ogre Decapitation!"

Forever Curious
2010-03-25, 07:49 PM
"I polymorph it into an Orge!"
"An Ogre, why? Those things are dangerous!"
"Four words: Sword of Ogre Decapitation!"

Thread won! :smallbiggrin:

ghashxx
2010-03-25, 07:50 PM
The Book of Vile Darkness has some ridiculously awesome things as mentioned above. The kind of spells that truly inspire maniacal laughter even from the most kind hearted of pixies. Also happens to have some of my favorite spells ever :belkar:

Teron
2010-03-25, 08:17 PM
Hmm, that is little too insta-death for my taste here but thanks!
Losing a limb would cripple a low level PC so badly he'd be better off dead so his player can replace him sooner. Unless you intend to provide free regenerate spells or to run an exceptionally brutal campaign where players aren't meant to get attached to their characters, I advise against the idea.

9mm
2010-03-25, 09:13 PM
Champions of Ruin have a couple feats like Flay foe and Snatch trophy...

JeminiZero
2010-03-25, 09:21 PM
Half Illithid template has the ability to entirely eat an enemies brain at once on successful grapple (as opposed to gradual Int damage that True Illithids do).

deuxhero
2010-03-25, 09:23 PM
Warlocks have a few, but they are all self inflicted.

Bibliomancer
2010-03-25, 09:27 PM
Half Illithid template has the ability to entirely eat an enemies brain at once on successful grapple (as opposed to gradual Int damage that True Illithids do).

I believe you have that backwards. If a True Illithid grapples a person AND attaches all four tentacles, they can make a successful grapple check to extract the brain, killing the (single-headed) creature instantly. Intelligence damage is not involved.

Alternative methods of brain extraction include taking the aberration-related tentacle feat 4 times so you can get this ability (possible for a first level human with 2 flaws) or using the Flaying Tendrils spell (Sor/Wiz 5, personal, rounds/level, Complete Mage or Arcane) to get a set of tentacles.

JeminiZero
2010-03-25, 09:51 PM
I believe you have that backwards. If a True Illithid grapples a person AND attaches all four tentacles, they can make a successful grapple check to extract the brain, killing the (single-headed) creature instantly. Intelligence damage is not involved.

Alternative methods of brain extraction include taking the aberration-related tentacle feat 4 times so you can get this ability (possible for a first level human with 2 flaws) or using the Flaying Tendrils spell (Sor/Wiz 5, personal, rounds/level, Complete Mage or Arcane) to get a set of tentacles.

Dang. It appears we are both confused. Its the Illithid Tentacle feats that do Int Damage. Both Half Illithids and Full Illithids can perform insta-brain axtraction.

Jon_Dahl
2010-03-26, 01:09 AM
Losing a limb would cripple a low level PC so badly he'd be better off dead so his player can replace him sooner. Unless you intend to provide free regenerate spells or to run an exceptionally brutal campaign where players aren't meant to get attached to their characters, I advise against the idea.

So you think these are unplayable and "good as dead"?:

Too big picture to insert here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLLAS/PirateShip50sC.jpg

http://www.scavengeinc.com/images/legavenue/captain-hooker-costume.jpg

Come again?
If player would refuse to play a character with a hook hand or a wooden leg, I would be more than happy to let him or her find a new game somewhere else.

Shalist
2010-03-26, 01:40 AM
If player would refuse to play a character with a hook hand or a wooden leg, I would be more than happy to let him or her find a new game somewhere else.

Yeah, what's wrong with a few missing limbs, or eyes, or whatever else? If they complain, just give them a consolatory parrot animal companion that spends all day pooping on their shoulder, and call it good :P

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/familyguy/images/4/4a/Seamus1.JPG

Jon_Dahl
2010-03-26, 01:50 AM
Well I'd say that after two hacked off limbs it would be fair to say that the character can be discarded but not before that. After all getting a limb hacked off is a rare event and after a certain point PC's are able to cast or buy regeneration or use ring of renegeration (which is really friggin' boring if you ask me).

Shalist
2010-03-26, 02:05 AM
I'm not usually this spammy...last post in this thread for the night, I swear...but there is a very, very cheap alternative for non-combat regeneration--with this, you can try to lop off limbs regularly, without worrying too much about their PCs.

Dukar hand coral:
Slotless item thats implanted into your hand. With it, you will regenerate a lost eye in 1d2 days, and a missing limb in 2d8 days (well, unless the hand its implanted in is lopped off). It also accelerates the natural healing process, adding your HD to your daily healing, and helps you hold your breath longer.

2600 CoV 64

Omegas
2010-07-04, 10:50 PM
I use the following method for severing limbs in battle.

The simplest method is to use Sunder. Granted it defines sunder as "held items" but it is a small leap to include unarmed foes. Honestly "Unarmed" is listed as a weapon and is included in all of the weapon based feats. First the targets real weapon / shield has to be dis-arm or sundered to destruction. Then the player can sunder the targets unequipped arm as if it where a physical weapon with Hp, and do it before the foe is helpless.

The limbs AC is the Targets full AC + 2 AC for limb size. I attempted to have then sunder through the armor as well but this made severing too tedious and players lost interest, and my players are the ones who want to be able to sever limbs in the first place.

The trick is drawing the line for the Hit Point on a limb. I run with the rule that any limb is disabled at 1/8 the targets max Hp and severed or broken at 1/4 the targets max HP ( always rounded up). Basically if you divided yourself up into your 4 limbs that would be a close hit points total for each limb, excluding the torso. (Creatures with more limbs divide by more and modify for light weight limbs like wings). HP per limb has to be tracked separately but every point of damage done to a limb is applied to the targets current HP. Tracking limb damage is only to determine the amount of damage the limb has sustained.

The advantage / handicap is that you can NOT exceed the 1/4 of max hit points per limb.
Example If a player scores a critical hit to sever the limb of a Gnoll with a max HP of 11, and 1/4 of 11 Hp is 2.75 rounded up to (3), then any damage exceeding 3 pts is wasted. This makes severing work on low CR monsters.

I also draw a line for classes that mostly use unarmed strikes, like monks. Basically any character or monster with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat increases to be disabled at 1/4 and severed at 1/2 max Hp.

If an attacker is interested in sundering legs - I would say they need to have a clear shot like the target has to be have no shield or off hand weapon and they oppose a circumstantial attack of opportunity vs the target, that is not negated by the improved sunder feat.

As far as effects - disabled means disable - If your arm is disable you can only attack with one of your other limbs. If your leg is disabled then you are prone or sitting and can only crawl (Base land speed = 10 with a crutch.)

If a limb is missing it represents a traumatic injury so I treat it like being hit with a weapon of wounding -1 Constitution until stabilized - heal check Dc 15. Con HP damage reduces both current and max HP so they continue to take damage ever other round, and they can even die (bleed out) if not attended to.

I do have all enemies shield bash or aid ally like crazy after they lost a limb. This keeps them mostly effective and does nerf the foes. In the case of beast = they commonly hobble away or take no real negatives until they lose a second leg. Claw attacks are reduced by one only in full attacks.

An injured player requires more team work from the group, as cure spells will not regenerate a severed limb or broken bone and only 1/4 of any cure spell applies to a disabled limb unless their limb damage = their current damage. Disabled limbs can not be used until fully healed and if a character is regaining heath by resting then the limb is the last to heal.

In my experience my players have never had to track more then one limb at a time and the tactic balances out. If they focus on severing limbs then they can disable a target in 3/4 of the time - much like focusing on any combat skill. If they have not built their character for sundering then (with the exception of a good Crit) most targets take the same amount of time to die. Basically they are taking extra time to disable the target vs straight out attack.

Clerics can reattach or regenerate lost limbs, for a moderate fee, so it is not that unthinkable to have characters/foes lose limbs in battle. It will force them to think on their feet (or foot in this case) and adjust their tactics accordingly. It also presents the players with more options to diversify their character development, and brings a little realism to the game.

This is a small adjustment that follows most of the core rules. As far as sundering the head I believe that should be a called shot which is a whole different ball game.

Kindest Personal Regards
Omegas

Grifthin
2010-07-04, 11:36 PM
Pretty difficult to do by RAW. Houseruling in called shots is easy to do, hard to balance. =/

That being said, Seething Eyebane (Book of Vile Darkness), a first level spell, lets you explode your opponent's eyes. :smallbiggrin:

Aside from that... uh, polymorph your foes into hydras and sunder their heads?

Now I just have to cast this on a beholder.

Mystic Muse
2010-07-05, 12:17 AM
So you think these are unplayable and "good as dead"?:

Too big picture to insert here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v470/bananaphone5000/GORILLLAS/PirateShip50sC.jpg

http://www.scavengeinc.com/images/legavenue/captain-hooker-costume.jpg

Come again?
If player would refuse to play a character with a hook hand or a wooden leg, I would be more than happy to let him or her find a new game somewhere else.

Well, if taking off a limb destroys a character's concept then yes, they're better off dead. My DM wants to use Torn asunder in 4E and if he does, and I lose an arm, since we don't have anybody with a ritual that could replace my arm my character is useless. 3 of my 4 feats (going to be five since I gained a level but still) Rely on me being able to a specific 2 handed weapon. If I lose an arm halfway through a dungeon and we don't have some way of regenerating limbs then yes, I am better off dead so that I can make a new character who can actually contribute to combat.

If somebody uses a character with a similar concept they're screwed by limbs getting cut off too.

EDIT: and if you get a leg chopped off halfway through a dungeon, your land speed per round will be about 5 feet at most for normal movement I'd think.Assuming you don't have a good way to make a peg leg.