Bypassing Armor

This option is not present to let heroes bypass or ignore the AC value of normal armor. If that were allowed, all PCs and all monsters would be using the Called Shots maneuver almost exclusively, which would be very annoying.

No, the Bypassing Armor option is used when the DM has introduced a monster or enemy which can't be beaten any way except through the discovery and exploitation of its "weak spot." Like Talos, the invulnerable bronze man of Greek myth, these monsters are impossible to damage (this is usually expressed as a monstrous AC and an invulnerability to any but the most powerful of magical weapons—+4 or better); however, each one has a weak spot.

These weak spots are always visible to the eye, if the hero thinks to look for it and can see the body part where it is. (For example, a dragon might not want to fly; this is so that it can keep its wings folded down over its unarmored spots.) A clever warrior will realize that it's covering up for something and try to trick it into moving its wings.

If a hero is bright enough to look for the weak spot, and perhaps trick a monster into showing the weak spot, the warrior can then take a Called Shot and hit it. He'll do the monster great damage (or perhaps kill it outright; that's for the DM to determine).

Examples: A dragon which has invulnerable hide (but which, suspiciously, never opens its mouth to breathe flame . . . because its inner mouth is not armored); a mechanical man with a small, nearly-invisible slot used by the inventor to open it up (but which a hero with a knife can use to damage its internal machinery); a warrior with armored skin but an unarmored ankle; a mummy which keeps one arm crossed over its chest to protect its otherwise undefended heart; a 9' high golem whose weak spot is the unseen top of its head.

Again, this only works when the DM has created a monster which can (or must) be defeated in this very way. If a fight isn't going the characters' way but the characters are gradually doing damage to the monster, then the monster probably isn't one of these invulnerable-beasts-with-weak-spots, and it's pointless to take lots of called shots at random body parts "just in case."

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