Broken/severed limbs

[Epoch]

Something I've been curious about introducing into my table's combat rules is the possibility of players/monsters having their limbs broken or severed from a particularly fearsome attack. I was just wondering if anyone had any house rules for such an occurence, or is it something that you make up in the moment if it fits your narrative?

[SouthpawSoldier]

Not a DM, though I've thought a great deal about how I would incorporate it into games when I finally get a group together.

A mix of DMG p. 272-3, and FATE/FUDGE. Descriptive narration of combat leads to explaining injuries, and can encourage players. Instead of "I attempt a Disarm" a player describing a method of Disarming (cutting tendons on the inside of the wrist) can lead to an ongoing crippling should the opponent survive.

The same goes for other injuries; a BM Ranger's Hawk attacking the face of an enemy doesn't just mean they're distracted; they're also potentially blinded in one eye.

I first learned this lesson in a 3.5 game. Using a slain bear's den as a campsite resulted in half the party becoming ill. In another incident, a fumble of a [Fire] spell caused wild magic and destruction of the BBEG's Necklace of Fireball; the resulting maelstrom nuked all the melee characters. Since one of them was related to the caster, the caster developed PTSD towards [Fire] spells, and from then on had a penalty when using them. DM gave them Cone of Cold and related spells as bonus spells (one for each spell level) with an equal bonus modifier, so the player didn't feel crippled. I suggested a Will save during memorization of [Fire], but the penalty was simpler and easier to implement.

It all boils down to the group. If effects and descriptions go both ways, it will encourage players to be imaginative. If you're crippling players, and you don't make the injuries INTERESTING, you're gonna have a bad time.

[Mr.Moron]

I generally introduce a house rule that lets players accumulate special points that can be used for a variety of purposes, one use is getting to call plot armor and downgrade a death into "Something Else". Depending on the exact tone of the game a lost/broken limb has been pretty good "Something Else". So I guess my way kind of falls under the doing it as the narrative demands method.

If I was looking to create some kind of consistent rule for that kind of thing I'd probably say that a Nat 1 on a death saving throw indicates an injury then just have some kind of table.

[Slipperychicken]

DMG page 272, injuries variant. It has decent rules for permanent and semi-permanent injuries, complete with a table and guidelines for when to roll on it.

Personally though, I just want to port in the mortal wounds table from ACKS.

[MadGrady]

I actually introduced a Variant for inspiration:

- If a player has inspiration, they may use it to perform a particularly devestating attack
- Player must choose to spend the inspiration before making the attack roll - it is spent regardless if they hit or not
- Player selects a partiular target (feet, head, arms, legs, hands, or eyes). If the attack hits, it does normal damage, but it also adds a certain effect based upon hit location (blindness for eyes, reduced speed for feet, prone for legs, drop weapons/disadvantage on attacks with arms/hands, etc).


This has worked well - kept it from happening ALL the time, and it gave me more reason to hand out inspiration, and for them to use it. My players have really enjoyed this house rule.

[jkat718]

DMG page 272, injuries variant. It has decent rules for permanent and semi-permanent injuries, complete with a table and guidelines for when to roll on it.

Yeah, I was going to suggest the Injuries or Massive Damage rules (pages 272 and 273, respectively). The DMG suggests rolling for lingering injuries after taking a crit, dropping to 0, and/or rolling a 5 or below on a death save. The massive damage rules suggest rolling for massive damage after a DC 15 CON save, triggered by "[taking] damage from a single source equal to or greater than half [one's] hit point maximum." There are tables for both, but I won't post those here.

As for my own table, I tend to use a system borrowed from 3.x's critical hit confirmation mechanic: If you roll a crit, roll again. If the second roll passes the target's AC, ignoring their dexterity bonus, I roll for lingering wounds. If I had the time, I would use the below method. If you use a VTT, the math there should be relatively easy to code into a macro, but I don't think it's feasible for meatspace play.

The way I describe hits is based on a creature's AC calculation. How I do this is by ranking AC bonuses by size, smallest to largest, then going down the list, finding the first one where the attack would've hit, if not for that bonus. Here's an example, using my favorite generic mook, the goblin:

AC: 15 (leather armor, shield)
DEX: +2

10 + 1 armor + 2 DEX + 2 shield = 15 AC

On my battle matrix, I have slots for total AC, Dex bonus, armor, shield, spells, and magic items. For this gobbo, that would look like:


Total AC:
DEX Bonus:
Armor Bonus:
Shield Bonus:
Spell Bonus:
Magic Items:


15
2
1
2
0
0




If the attack roll was exactly 15, then the smallest bonus the goblin would have to lose in order to get hit would be the +1 from his armor. Therefore, the attack hits the goblin's leather armor. If it had been lower, the goblin would have had to lose his dex bonus, shield, or some combination of the three factors. In this case, if an attack hits, I start subtracting to-hit bonuses from the attacker until the attack would have missed. Then, the attacker makes a STR check, using the remaining bonuses, opposed by the Goblin's DEX check. If the attacker wins the contest, then I roll for lingering injuries.