a called shot idea

[_felagund]

hey guys,

i'm planning to enable called shot as a free action ability in my game. what do you think?

Called Shot:
PC can target any part of enemy for extra damage but doing so gives a penalty (1 to 10 i.e.) to attack roll (like power attack). Damage can never exceed max critical score of the weapon. Can not used with True Strike spell or cleave like ability.

(Melee) chop head is sometimes allowed if:
1. if the monster's current hit points are above any critical hit threat, atack roll needed is pure 20
2. if critical hit may kill the monster, atack roll needed is critical hit dice - (1 to 3)
3. if normal damage may kill monster, atack roll penalty is (1 to 3)

[limejuicepowder]

What do you mean by increased hit dice? Increasing hit dice is the method to advance monsters without character levels - hit points, saves, BAB, and sometimes size goes up.

I totally don't understand your rule.

[_felagund]

actually it must be "to hit dice", sory for bad grammar


What do you mean by increased hit dice? Increasing hit dice is the method to advance monsters without character levels - hit points, saves, BAB, and sometimes size goes up.

I totally don't understand your rule.

[prufock]

I totally don't understand your rule.

I agree. Deconstructing

PC can target any part of enemy for extra damage but doing so increases (to?) hit dice (1 to 10 i.e).
What is are "to hit dice" and how is increased from 1 to 10? This is not a concept in 3.5 as far as I'm aware.


Damage can never exceed critical score of the weapon. Can not used with True Strike spell.
This part makes a little sense at least. I assume you mean damage is capped at the max critical damage for the weapon.


(Melee) chop head is sometimes allowed if:
1. if the monster's hit points above any critical hit threat, (to?) hit dice is pure 20
2. if critical hit may kill the monster, (to?) hit dice is critical hit dice - (1 to 3)
3. if normal damage may kill monster hit dice is toHit + (1 to 3)

So if I understand correctly: 1) damage is based on how much hp the target has, 2) less hp = less damage. This is counter-intuitive. Why would the target's hp affect the damage or hit bonus?

[_felagund]

So if I understand correctly: 1) damage is based on how much hp the target has, 2) less hp = less damage. This is counter-intuitive. Why would the target's hp affect the damage or hit bonus?

because D&D lets you use Power Word Kill (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Power_Word_Kill) when target's hp is below 100. so this is not counter-intuitive. i call it "combat flavor".

i re-editted my post, hope its more clear now...

[limejuicepowder]

Let me see if I can make sense if this by running through an example -

A level 1 human fighter is fighting a bugbear.

The fighter has 18 str, weapon focus, power attack, and cleave, and he's wielding a greatsword.

Since the fighter is already hurt, he wants to end combat quickly and calls a head shot.

The fighter's maximum damage with a crit is 2d6+8 x2 (using power attack), for a maximum damage of 40 damage. The bugbear has 21 hit points, so theoretically the fighter could kill it in one swing. Thus, with the called head shot he must roll a 15 or better (since his normal crit range is 19-20, subtract 3 from that number since a crit could finish the fight).

If the fighter succeeds.....what happens? Is it autodeath by decapitation? Or does the fighter just score a crit?

Let's say it was an bugbear with some PC levels, bring his hit points to 50 - now, the fighter can't drop the bugbear even with a maximize crit. Now if he calls a head shot, he can only succeed on a 20. Again, what happens? Would he just get a crit, or would it be instadeath?

Couple problems I see with this rule - if head shots cause instadeath, it's going to make combat a lot harder for PCs. Now, every low level mook just declares a headshot (their chance to hit is going to be so low they minds well). If 20 mooks attack in one round, it statistically guarantees a dead PC, regardless of level.

If a headshot is not death, but just a crit, what's the point? If you can only hit on a crit anyway, no difference is made. If you have a high chance to hit, you're better off just swinging normally. The only way it helps is if the chance to hit is roughly equal to the chance to succeed on the called shot. Also, this would only be of use when fighting something you could theoretically one-shot - again, something you're probably better off just taking a normal swing at.

How would you handle called shots against other parts of the body? Legs, arms, hands, that sort of thing. Also, head shots is not the only deadly thing - heart, lung, kidney, spine, and throat are kill shots IRL.

Why do you feel the need to add such a rule?

[Glimbur]

Normally, a standard goblin is no threat to a level 20 fighter. He has the AC and the to-hit to cleave through a great number of them until he finally runs out of hp due to hits with nat 20's. That can be dealt with via DR or fast healing or whatever. The point is that a level 20 fighter can kill at least a hundred goblins.

With your rule, on average twenty goblins can kill anything they can get melee attacks on. The PCs are less likely to take advantage of this, because being in melee with things you have no business fighting tends to lead to death, but this rule changes combat significantly. Vorpal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#vorpal) is probably overcosted at +5 equivalent, but giving it to everyone for free does wonky things to game balance.

Edit: Limejuice said the same point more thoroughly.

[limejuicepowder]

Normally, a standard goblin is no threat to a level 20 fighter. He has the AC and the to-hit to cleave through a great number of them until he finally runs out of hp due to hits with nat 20's. That can be dealt with via DR or fast healing or whatever. The point is that a level 20 fighter can kill at least a hundred goblins.

With your rule, on average twenty goblins can kill anything they can get melee attacks on. The PCs are less likely to take advantage of this, because being in melee with things you have no business fighting tends to lead to death, but this rule changes combat significantly. Vorpal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#vorpal) is probably overcosted at +5 equivalent, but giving it to everyone for free does wonky things to game balance.

Edit: Limejuice said the same point more thoroughly.

Won't even have to be melee - after all, a javelin in the head it pretty deadly too.

In fact, with no additional qualifiers, 20 goblins throwing 20 rocks = dead (really power creature) :P

[nedz]

I recommend testing all such rules thoroughly before introducing them into a long running campaign.

Otherwise it could easily go something like:
Fight — TPK — Err, it was all a dream — (DM drops bad rule)

[_felagund]

first of all thanks guys for replies,

my players having so much fun when they chop heads & draw blood etc :) so i just wanted to make game more fun for them. this rule is only available for PCs, so there wont be a 20 goblin threat.

and yes if chop head called shot is made, that means an instant death. i will calibrate this acording to enemy strength, i.e if PCs figting a dragon, i probably wont allow instant death.

other parts of the body also acceptable, i.e barbarian may call a shot to chop of arm of the enemy thus disabling him. in that case i will consider about atack penalty. as we all know monsters are free, joy of players are priceless :)

[prufock]

because D&D lets you use Power Word Kill when target's hp is below 100. so this is not counter-intuitive. i call it "combat flavor".

i re-editted my post, hope its more clear now...

It makes much more sense now, thanks. How do you determine the penalty to hit?

Personally, I don't like called shot rules of any sort. I just flavour critical hits and sneak attacks to reflect particular body parts. Often I let the PCs describe their own blows. Some "called shots" are actually combat maneuvers. For example:

Called shot to a leg: This is a trip attempt. If you have improved trip, you're also doing regular damage. There are also feats for rogue sneak attack that specifically target the legs (Hamstring comes to mind, but I think there's another one as well).
Called shot to an arm/hand: This is a disarm check. If you make an attack against an arm or hand without trying to disarm, it's simply a regular attack.
Called shot to vital organs: This is either a sneak attack or a critical hit. You don't need to call it. There are sneak attack feats for specific vital organs like eyes and throat.
Called shot to head: Again, just a critical hit. You don't call it, but if you score a critical you hit the target in the head.

[_felagund]

How do you determine the penalty to hit?


yes that's the tricky/hard part. penalty must be hard enough to achive but also considerable. luckily my players trust me and i believe i can manipulate the penalty even in session.

[Andezzar]

Besides the obvious balancing problems mentioned already there is a systematic problem as well: D&D is not equipped to use hit locations. Just a couple of examples why not:
- creatures only have one hitpoint total. Doing arbitrarily high amounts of damage to a target's finger would not normally kill it, it would make the finger useless pretty quickly though. With the HP mechanic killing someone by hitting his fingers would be easily possible.
- equipment is not designed for hit locations. Many suits of armor do not have helmets, greaves or gauntlets. How do you take care of that?
- Generally creatures fight in peak condition until they are at -1 HP. The benefit of hitting certain locations is usually to give your opponent a disadvantage.

So you would need to change a lot more than giving the attacker a penalty if you wanted to incorporate such mechanics in your game. I don't think you would gain much, even if you managed to get that fairly balanced.