Attacking body parts?

[Threeshades]

So I've recently got my party going and i've thought about fleshing out the combat system a little, specifically i thought all that was missing was a proper system for attacking specific parts of an enemy.

Before I try to start writing anything, I thought I'd ask around if someone already has done something like that, or has some good ideas how to make it work (melee, ranged and unarmed). So any suggestions are welcome!

[Morgen]

My suggestion, if a little harsh, is that you don't include something like this into your game. Systems such as this tend to either heavily favor the monsters, who don't suffer as much that they lose a limb compared to a PC, or end up with a constant barrage of always attacking the eyes/neck/head/etc.

Your adding another combat mechanic on a system not build around that kind of thing.

Also, your free to describe fights and battles however you like, don't give that power up to your players.

[Stebehil]

The D&D/PF system is not well suited to this kind of rules. You need to think up rules for hitting specific parts, and you need to think about consequences of doing so. I´d rather go for something like the Critical Hit Deck, which has things like specific hits coming up from random crits.

That said, you would have to make a ruling about how hard it is to hit, say, an arm (perhaps using the size mods already in the game, and depending on the benefit of a hit, ruling that attacking a specific body part is a full-round action or that it provokes AoO). Then, if the arm is hit, what does that mean ? Is it incapacitated? Hacked off? How do you heal these specific injuries? Do the limbs have separate hps? How do you avoid everyone aiming for the head all the time? It is quite complicated and will probably require some extra bookkeeping. I really don´t know if that is worth it.

Stefan

[Threeshades]

Well, I guess that'S true, since it would render things like sneak attacks obsolete. So I guess I'll stay away from it.

[Rhubarb]

you could allow a player to make a limb specific hit or "called shot" and only allow it if the player scores a crit, or just give a - 5 to hit limbs and a -10 to hit a head, and the player has to do damage equal to 1/4 the monster's hit points to sever the part, and also you could allow a reflex save DC 15 so its not happening all the time, as for monsters using the called shot, well just don't have the monster use it.

[wraithstrike]

Rhubarb wrote:

as for monsters using the called shot, well just don't have the monster use it.

That is one sided and not realistic. Why would a monster not use a valid tactic assuming it has decent intelligence?

[Rhubarb]

cuz its a game and the players shouldn't see what your doing behind the screen, besides i would use this for certain monsters like a t-rex, so i guess what i meant was not every monster would use it. does that make more sense?