Vorpal vs. Monsters with More than one head.

[Lavenrost]

In a recent game of Kingmaker one of my players rolled a natural 20 with a vorpal weapon verse a Ettin. After a few moments of discussion i decided the ettin was still alive. I was wondering if anyone has encountered this before or has a clear read on the rules for this.

[Rynjin]

It wouldn't kill the Ettin (each head is independent), but it would hinder its ability to fight (each head controls one of the arms).

[Scythia]

That sounds reasonable. Much like cutting one head off of a hydra won't kill it.

It's not anything official, just my own take, but I'd probably halve the hp to show the trauma.

[Lavenrost]

thank you. I did take one of its attacks away for just the reason you said Rynjin.

[Atarlost]

The carotid arteries are pretty big so that would also inflict a lot of bleed. It'd probably also constitute a higher multiple crit.

[blahpers]

Hmm. Which head controls which arm? Is it like brain hemisphere, where one side controls the other side's limbs? Would the ettin take a move speed penalty due to having a dead leg?

[Bizbag]

blahpers wrote:

Hmm. Which head controls which arm? Is it like brain hemisphere, where one side controls the other side's limbs? Would the ettin take a move speed penalty due to having a dead leg?

From what I know about the brain, it's not quite that simple. At least as it pertains to eyes, the left side of both eyes is hooked up to the right brain and vice versa. Split-brain patients (like emergency-surgery treatments for severe epilepsy) sometimes have difficulty reconciling what's on their left versus their right.

Ettins, however, well, I dunno. Controlling the opposite side would make it very easy to punch the other side, which wins points for being amusing.