Utililizing a few ideas from the DM's guide and what i read in a review of the critical hit rules in the Quintessential Fighter book, I am considering using the following as a method for specific injuries in my campaign:
A specific injury may occur to an opponent whenever a character scores a critical hit, if desired.
To inflict a specific injury the character must sacrifice one or more of his damage die along with the appropriate modifiers for that die, using spent die to 'purchase' possible effects. A 'basic' critical hit may affect the arms, hands, legs, or feet, incurring penalties as described in the Damage to Specific Areas chart of the DM's Guide, providing the targeted character fails a Injury resistance test versus the DC of the possible injury.
The DC of a possible injury is 10 + the damage rolled for the injury effect.
For example, Bob the Fighter uses a longsword, for a base damage of 1d8 + 2 from specialization, + 2 from strength, and +1 from enchantment bonus (1d8+5). On a critical hit he normally inflicts x2 damage (2d8+10) but instead may opt to use one of his damage die for a specific injury check. Bob decides to attempt to inflict an injury on his opponents sword-arm, so he allocates one damage die to the injury test and keeps one to inflict some generic hp damage. For the hp damage Bob rolls a 3 on his d8 then adds +5, inflicting 8 points of damage to his opponenet. To determine the DC for possible injury he rolls the other d8, coming up with 5. After adding in his +5 damage modifier and the base of 10 for an injury check, the DC for resisting the effects of the specific damage to his arm is set at 20.
Now Bob's opponent must attempt to resist the injury by making an Injury Resistance Check.
An Injury Resistance Check is made by rolling a normal Fortitude Save with a armor bonus equal to the characters armor modifier to AC (enchantment bonuses to armor count, as does natural armor bonuses, but shield bonuses do not affect the roll in any way-their effects on specific injuries are described later). Bob's opponent has a Fortitude Save of +5 and is wearing a chainshirt +1 (+5 to ac) so he rolls a d20+10 for his Injury Resistance Check. Unfortuntely, he rolls a 8, modified to 18, which doesn't quite beat the DC for Bob's injury, so he now suffers a -2 to actions done with his sword arm, as listed in the DMG. This injury lasts a number of hours equal to the DC of the injury test, until the character recieves at least a cure light wound spell, or until a heal check DC 15 is made upon the wound.
*Characters may opt to spend additional damage die to upgrade the type of injury inflicted as follows:
Each additional die raises the DC by the rolled amount. For example an unmodified crit with an axe inflicts 3d12 damage. The player may decide to allocate one, two, or all three die to the injury test. Note that if all the available die are allocated to the injury test that the attack inficts no hp damage but the DC will be 10+3d12. While heavy weapons such as the axe don't crit as often, when they do the injuries inflicted can be devestating.
One damage die may be used to affect the head or another area which affects the character more severely then normal arm/leg shots do. For example a longsword can inflict a possible head injury DC10+1d8 for 0 hp damage while a battle axe can generate a DC of 10+2d8 for 0 hp damage or a DC of 10+1d8 for 1d8 hp damage. The reasoning behind this is that people protect their head better then other parts of their body, and to provide a game mechanic to disallow the 'I hit him in the head so he's dead' kind of called shot.
One damage die may be used to increase the injury's duration from hours to days. This type of injury only heals naturally, or with the application of at least a cure moderate wounds spell or better.
*The target of the injury may opt to defend himself by using his arm or a shield to provide cover to the targeted area, granting him a cover bonus to AC equal to the shield's AC bonus, or +2 for arms. Check the hit roll versus the new AC, if it still hits, it affects the targeted area normally. If it misses due to cover, it affects the target's arm, or if he is using a shield, will damage the shield instead (at this point, roll damage normally-remember you can't crit an item-and subtract the damage from the hp of the targets shield, taking the shield's hardness into account). This makes shields useful, and also provides a mechanic on how they break.
This is the basics of the idea, I will probably add more options for injury die and integrate armor damage rules into this system. I am also considering allowing sneak attack to count as damage die, but I am currently not sure if this would be overbalancing-need to play test.
I also like this system because it gives a reason for PC's to opt for heavy armor (higher bonuses to the Injury Resistance Test). Currently I am not sure if bracers would count as armor for these purposes, maybe, maybe not, what do you think?
And finally, please excuse the rambling of this post (it's late) and feedback on the subject would be appreciated.
A specific injury may occur to an opponent whenever a character scores a critical hit, if desired.
To inflict a specific injury the character must sacrifice one or more of his damage die along with the appropriate modifiers for that die, using spent die to 'purchase' possible effects. A 'basic' critical hit may affect the arms, hands, legs, or feet, incurring penalties as described in the Damage to Specific Areas chart of the DM's Guide, providing the targeted character fails a Injury resistance test versus the DC of the possible injury.
The DC of a possible injury is 10 + the damage rolled for the injury effect.
For example, Bob the Fighter uses a longsword, for a base damage of 1d8 + 2 from specialization, + 2 from strength, and +1 from enchantment bonus (1d8+5). On a critical hit he normally inflicts x2 damage (2d8+10) but instead may opt to use one of his damage die for a specific injury check. Bob decides to attempt to inflict an injury on his opponents sword-arm, so he allocates one damage die to the injury test and keeps one to inflict some generic hp damage. For the hp damage Bob rolls a 3 on his d8 then adds +5, inflicting 8 points of damage to his opponenet. To determine the DC for possible injury he rolls the other d8, coming up with 5. After adding in his +5 damage modifier and the base of 10 for an injury check, the DC for resisting the effects of the specific damage to his arm is set at 20.
Now Bob's opponent must attempt to resist the injury by making an Injury Resistance Check.
An Injury Resistance Check is made by rolling a normal Fortitude Save with a armor bonus equal to the characters armor modifier to AC (enchantment bonuses to armor count, as does natural armor bonuses, but shield bonuses do not affect the roll in any way-their effects on specific injuries are described later). Bob's opponent has a Fortitude Save of +5 and is wearing a chainshirt +1 (+5 to ac) so he rolls a d20+10 for his Injury Resistance Check. Unfortuntely, he rolls a 8, modified to 18, which doesn't quite beat the DC for Bob's injury, so he now suffers a -2 to actions done with his sword arm, as listed in the DMG. This injury lasts a number of hours equal to the DC of the injury test, until the character recieves at least a cure light wound spell, or until a heal check DC 15 is made upon the wound.
*Characters may opt to spend additional damage die to upgrade the type of injury inflicted as follows:
Each additional die raises the DC by the rolled amount. For example an unmodified crit with an axe inflicts 3d12 damage. The player may decide to allocate one, two, or all three die to the injury test. Note that if all the available die are allocated to the injury test that the attack inficts no hp damage but the DC will be 10+3d12. While heavy weapons such as the axe don't crit as often, when they do the injuries inflicted can be devestating.
One damage die may be used to affect the head or another area which affects the character more severely then normal arm/leg shots do. For example a longsword can inflict a possible head injury DC10+1d8 for 0 hp damage while a battle axe can generate a DC of 10+2d8 for 0 hp damage or a DC of 10+1d8 for 1d8 hp damage. The reasoning behind this is that people protect their head better then other parts of their body, and to provide a game mechanic to disallow the 'I hit him in the head so he's dead' kind of called shot.
One damage die may be used to increase the injury's duration from hours to days. This type of injury only heals naturally, or with the application of at least a cure moderate wounds spell or better.
*The target of the injury may opt to defend himself by using his arm or a shield to provide cover to the targeted area, granting him a cover bonus to AC equal to the shield's AC bonus, or +2 for arms. Check the hit roll versus the new AC, if it still hits, it affects the targeted area normally. If it misses due to cover, it affects the target's arm, or if he is using a shield, will damage the shield instead (at this point, roll damage normally-remember you can't crit an item-and subtract the damage from the hp of the targets shield, taking the shield's hardness into account). This makes shields useful, and also provides a mechanic on how they break.
This is the basics of the idea, I will probably add more options for injury die and integrate armor damage rules into this system. I am also considering allowing sneak attack to count as damage die, but I am currently not sure if this would be overbalancing-need to play test.
I also like this system because it gives a reason for PC's to opt for heavy armor (higher bonuses to the Injury Resistance Test). Currently I am not sure if bracers would count as armor for these purposes, maybe, maybe not, what do you think?
And finally, please excuse the rambling of this post (it's late) and feedback on the subject would be appreciated.
