Strike Location

In the movies, the hero always manages to get shot in the shoulder, the leg, or just grazed in the side. Regrettably, adventurers aren’t always that lucky, and even a fairly minor critical strike—say, a magic missile—could be extremely dangerous if it strikes the character in the eye or the throat. The location of a critical strike is determined by rolling a d10 and comparing it to Table 46 : Critical Strike Location.

For your convenience, the hit locations are numbered on each subtable in the critical strike charts.

Called Shots: If a spell or special attack uses a normal attack roll, the attacker may choose to use a called shot. A called shot forces the attacker to take a –4 penalty on his attack roll, but if it hits and inflicts a critical strike, the strike automatically affects the location the attacker was aiming for. Spells that do not use attack rolls do not permit the caster to attempt a called shot.

Whole-Body Injuries: Unlike most weapons, spells and special attacks create the possibility for whole-body injuries which damage a creature in several places at the same time. This is a function of the spell’s size or area of effect.

Huge creatures treat critical strikes as if they were one size smaller, so a frost giant struck by a fireball would suffer 1d3 separate critical strikes, not 1d4. Gargantuan creatures reduce the strike by two size categories. Regardless of the size of the strike, the victim always suffers a critical strike in at least one hit location.

Terthan, a human warrior, is struck by a lightning bolt and blows his save badly enough to qualify for a critical strike. The DM rules that the bolt is a large attack (two to nine targets reasonably approximates a lightning bolt’s area of effect) so Terthan will suffer 1d3 strikes. He rolls a 2, or two separate hits, and refers to Table 46 . Naturally, Terthan is a humanoid; two 1d10 rolls result in a 5 (abdomen) and an 8 (right arm). Now Terthan will go on to determine the strike’s severity and see what kind of injuries he suffers.

Whole-body injuries can be ignored if the DM wishes; one roll on the hit location table should be enough for anybody. Whole-body injuries are a little more “realistic,” and they make critical strikes much more deadly, but the game works fine without them.

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