Called shots

[steveflam]

Ive looked in the PHB and DMG with no sign of a "called shot", am i missing something? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? Help me out , friends

[Mangrum]

What do you mean by called shot, exactly?

[steveflam]

say a pc says "Im going to chop his head off" or arm off or etc ....

Thats what i mean, he ir she is stating they are trying that (isnt that a called shot?)

[Nathan of the FoS]

In a normal combat situation it's not possible; the guy's not just going to stand there while you try to chop his arm off, much less his head. Do you have a specific case in mind?

[steveflam]

k pc says im trying to chop his head off that kind of thing

[Nathan of the FoS]

Unless the PC has a vorpal sword, all that means in game terms is "I'm trying to kill him"--so, normal attack roll, normal damage. (Even if he does have a vorpal sword, all he can do is hope for a critical--he still can't "call his shot" in the sense you mean.)

Nobody ever said it was a detailed combat system, much less a realistic one, but it does have the virtue of simplicity.

There are rules for disarm attacks and trip attacks, if you need those, and someone somewhere might have put out rules for staking vampires in 3.5; but, generally speaking, there really isn't any provision for "calling shots" in normal combat.

[steveflam]

think maybe this works more in 2.0 or castles n crusades m you're right n thanks

[Jack of Tears]

Well, in other systems you receive a negative to you "to hit" roll dependant upon what you're striking at and then damage is used to determine if you remove the offending limb.

Not sure about the numbers in 3.5, but in 2E you suffered a -4 for arms, legs, torso; -6 for hands, feet; and -8 for eyes, fingers, heart, neck. etc.

Occording to rule varients I've read, you can be assumed to automatically destroy something like an eye if you hit it, or lop off a finger, but for arms, legs, or necks you need to do a minimum of 25% the victims total hp in that strike. Otherwise you merely damage the chosen limb without destroying it.

Should you fail to remove a limb, one could easily apply a negative to the victims actions based upon how much damage you've done. Say, -1 to using said limb for every five percent of its total hp the target suffers. (thus if the target had 100 hp, and you should strike at its arm, he would suffer a -1 to all actions with that arm for every 5 points of damage you did. Should you do 25 dmg to said arm in a single strike, you sever it completely)

That's a simple enough system, which adds the possibility for dismemberment for players willing to take the negatives involved.

If you fealt it necessary, you could make it a feat.

[steveflam]

Thanks

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

The reason that scheme it got removed from 3e is mainly the spell True Strike. With a quickened true strike spell and called shots to the neck, most combat would end in one round, whoever got initiative first.

[wolfgang_fener]

AD&D have never been a realistic system, whatever the edition.

Personally I play with second edition. There's a few nice rules in the skills&powers and combat and tactics books and we have a growing binder of home rules and modifications on official rules to fit various situations.

Generally a called shot impose a +1 penality to initiative and a -4 to hit (DMG 2nd edition chapter 9). Then you can't do more damage than specified for teh weapon but if you're lucky and strike a critical hit, the location is already known and not rolled randomly.

For exemple, called shot are usefull when striking a stupid warrior who doesn't wear an helmet whit his plate-mail armor... The head ac is 10 minus any magical or dexterity bonus. Even with the -4 to hit, it is still worth making a called shot because it's better than striking through the AC of the plate mail.

There's also a few optional rules in the fighter's handbook. Some are nice some are stupid. Pick what you want. In there they sugest various effects of specific location for called shots and additional to hit malus for some difficult to hit locations. Combined with the critical hit system in the combat and tactics book, this makes for a nice set of rules that will make your combats more realistics (and usually much more longer to run).

[Jester of the FoS]

In 3.5 I'd use the rules for attacking smaller tagets. Most limbs or body parts would be tiny and a couple fine tragets. Adjust AC accordingly but damage is the same.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I don't think I'll ever allow called shots to be made, purely at an attacker's request. It's not as if a perfectly ordinary attack is being directed away from the best available target, after all: every attack should, logically, be the best possible one (i.e. most lethal and/or incapacitating) that the attacker currently has an opportunity to attempt. That includes striking at vulnerable parts like eyes, bare heads, etc.

However, if a character should land a felling blow on an opponent (i.e. the one that takes the target below 0 hp), I might allow them to forego doing the usual hp damage, in favor of striking a specific body part. Taking them down to 0 hp, as I see it, represents a wearing-away of the target's defenses -- agility, hardiness, luck, etc -- to a point where they can't keep evading a terminal injury. So if (and only if) the opponent is already so battered that they're going down anyway, and if the player has specifically said the PC is trying to target a certain body part, I'll give the player that choice immediately after the PC's attack-damage is rolled.

This, among other things, lets me keep a PC alive whom the bad guys would otherwise massacre, if the opponent should opt to strike to maim rather than kill. Resurrection is a rare thing IMC, so surviving at the cost of an eye is usually worth it for the PC.

[vipera aspis]

when my players or NPC's wish to do called shots, i have them do natural rolls against particular AC's. for instance "Vittorio the archer" decides he wants to shoot the evil cultist(doing a ritual) in the mouth with an arrow from thirty feet away. i would have him make a straight roll of no less then a natural 19. anything less and he would miss completly. if he did manage to connect though; the cultist would die within 1d3 rounds if three hit die or less, if five or less hit die, take critical damage and be stunned for 1d3 rounds plus penalties that come with not being able to use his mouth, if eight or less hit die, apply max damage on a non-critical hit and become stunned for one round with all the penalties of not being able to use his mouth. With 9+ hit die creatures, damage is rolled normally and the creature may make a fort save(dc10 plus damage delt) to avoid being stunned for one round, and lack of mouth penalties apply. i would, in genaral; do this with most called shots to possibly lethal targets(ie, eye sockets, throat, heart, femoral artery).

[Pariah]

AH, called shots seem to be the staples of many of my characters!

No one forgets the 200 foot shot that splits the evil bard's flute and breaks his control over rats or the criminal who tries to get away only to have his knee blown away by a casual pistoleer. I think the real problems start occuring when PCs try to get away with TOO much using called shots. I think it requires a special situation.

I had a PC once who called shot everyone's head in order to instantly kill them, and whined endlessly when an arrow to the head failed to kill a man...as if every one of his arrows was going to penetrate a skull and stake the brain. You just have to tell your players that every called shot to the arm isn't going to take it off, it doesn't matter if you're using a great sword or not...you could simply take a butcher's slice out of it or the guy could simply turn so only the tip gives a shallow cut.

In my never-so-humble opinion, called shots add quite a bit to gameplay and add a sort of strategy element to the combat system (expert swordsman? No good with a shattered arm...) It makes swashbucklers more impressive in combat, pistoleers more stunning and gives you more memorable moments!

You just have to keep a close eye on it.

Rules wise, I think Jester has it best by applying the size modifiers to each limb, as it can be applied across all sizes vs a simple -4 to arms/legs and so on. Though perhaps you might want to increase the penalty or just give an additional -4 to the attack roll, as hitting a moving person is one thing, but hitting a specific moving arm is another..