Cobwebbed Dragon wrote:
WodenKrait wrote:
I'd put a hit to an eye at approximately the same as hitting a coin, +10. Like a spitting cobra, I'd say the winged snake is just extremely skilled at that one specific form of attack. This is a bit harsher than the penalty given in Phylactery, but to me it feels right.
I'm not sure I'd allow my players to deliberately aim for an eye - an injury to the eye would result in a permanent disability, which I reserve for major wounds (
http://cobwebbedforest.co.uk/library/Do ... Wounds.pdf) and would only happen in the narrative of the attack, not just by rolling dice (i.e., the attack would have to cause a Major Wound before an attack could strike somewhere like an eye). Imagine how a player would feel if their character permanently lost an eye because an NPC got a lucky roll.
Life, death, and cool eye patches are only a dice roll away!
More seriously, I don't know if the NPC scenario is entirely realistic. Firstly, I don't think many people will stand still while somebody is lobbing arrows at their face, so I'd at least apply the penalty for moving slowly (if not quickly) when firing on a non-stationary target. That would reduce the chance from 35% to 25% for the Knight. The players would be insane to attempt to cross the bridge single file to reach the bandits too; if they pursue that approach they'll probably be shot to death whatever they do. Anyway what do the bandits need to roll to hit the eye?
Most enemies are not going to be shooting at their enemies' faces because they know they probably won't hit; they'll do what generally really happens in this kind of situation (and happened throughout the long history of human conflict) and aim approximately for the centre of the body. Only a significant NPC will attempt the King Harold manouevre and then I would expect the GM would have a specific story reason in mind - if not, he's a peevish jerk. If a player lost an eye in this context they may be annoyed, but players get annoyed about everything anyway. Its the stakes that make the game fun, and now the player has a vendetta to pursue, and perhaps they'll need to spend some of their time tracking down a sorcerer who will restore their eye with Miracle Cure. Sounds like a promising side-quest.
Anyway, we know you can chop the ring off somebody's finger with a mere -8 modifier (you cannot tell me you can destroy a ring on somebody's hand without taking out at least a couple of fingers), so Pandora's box is already open. Do we truly think that since the Player's Guide was published NPCs have been turning all our cherished adventuring parties into hordes of Ser Davoses?
Cheers,
-Kyle