p.s.l. for hit location

[steph]

question for gm: do you have a problem with players who have a +8 p.s.l. with the hit location ..... this players always attack head or vitals.....do you have a good house rule for this thanks

stef

the french canadian

[Old Man]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Suggest that it might be a bad idea.

 

If done anyway, send over a few bad guys with the same training.

[Talon]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I generally just don't allow it, just like anything else that negatively impacts campaign balance.

[Yesman]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I ran a game and allowed it. The one character that really went whole-hog with the PSLs vs. hit loc. was one of the biggest damage dealers for a time. That seemed to be offset by the maneuvers, attributes, and other CV levels that were bought by other's in the group however, and it turned out to not be so bad... In the end PSLs aren't that much cheaper than some of the more specialized CV levels (which are a lot more useful).

 

I should probably add, that this character's tendency to call head-shots was one of the factors in my move from an all-shots-hit-the-body-unless-aimed-somewhere-else-specifically campaign to one that embraced the hit location rules as written. Somehow that did seem to help with the notion that the head shots were a little unbalanced...

 

The damage by hit location thread (below) kinda touched on this a little bit.. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20893

[arcady]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

That's 24 points... unless they can only use it with specific attacks, like only with their 'martial sweep' or something...

 

At that kind of cost, why worry... the character has built in a shortcoming -somewhere-. Exploit like an American corporate CEO.

[Legendsmiths]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Just limit it to 4 levels. That means when the target is surprised/stunned/entangled the headshot is no penalty, otherwise it's still -4. Possibly only limit it to 2 levels. They can still by other CSLs. This is really more for flavor than anything. If you allow the 8 levels I think it would be too unbalancing.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I don't necessarily find it unbalancing, just unrealistic. It should always be more difficult to hit a small target (a head) than a larger target (a whole body). Therefore, I usually rule that a hit location penalty can only be reduced by up to half. (Except perhaps in certain circumstances that make the shot easier, such as if the target is immobile.)

[Slim_McCoy]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Suggest that it might be a bad idea.

 

If done anyway, send over a few bad guys with the same training.

 

Outstanding answer! And if the players whine, remind them EVERYTHING works both ways when it comes to game mechanics.

[cutsleeve]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Maybe he wanted to play the Fist of the North Star and do headshots that made peoples skulls explode.

 

or maybe he came from oz and a long time ago a house dropped on a witch outside his villiage and squished her which traumatized him and now he feels the need to stab people in the head. while singing the fact that he represents the lolipop guild.

 

 

ok you can stop hiding my silliness is over

[CourtFool]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Yes, 8 levels can cause balance and reality issues. However, even as a GM I love P.S.L.s vs. Hit Locations. They do not make it any easier to hit the target. They just allow you to be a little more vicious. 4 levels would probably be more reasonable and still allow no penalty to hit the head on a surprised opponent.

[Talon]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I was going to suggest the "make NPCs with the same PSLs" thing, but to me that's taking what should be an out-of-game issue and putting it in game. If you as GM find it unbalancing, it shouldn't be making it to the table; and if it did (or you didn't find it unbalancing until it hit the table ), you need to talk to your players about correcting the problem.

[Turin]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I agree with Talon, most players will respect that approach.

[Gunrunner]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

Another thing you could do is to let players take as many PSL's as they want, but they cannot reduce this penalty below -2 (or -1) for any called shot. So even with 8 PSL's they still take a -2 penalty to target the head (which will cause players to only buy 6 PSL's, but who cares?).

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I run it thusly -

You can buy as many PSL as you want, but the penalty to hit locations can never be more than halved.. So a head shot is still -4, but a chest shot is only -1. I also run it that the halving is only for full penalty, so if you have an archer with a surprise shot (where locations penalties are halved anyway) and he has 4 PSLs he can hit the head at full OCV.

 

I played a character with 8 PSL as described and he unblanced things so much I decided to voluntarily reduce them. After that, I came up with the above rule for my games.

[arcady]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

This ability is present on page 107 of Dark Champions actually, where it was priced at 2 points per OCV bonus, but with firearms only. That book takes it out to +8 and doesn't limit it to a specific hit location.

[BNakagawa]

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

 

I got away with 3 such PSLs on a pc once, which had an extremely high CV and lots of other levels.

 

On the balancing side, the PC generated 3 damage classes and had a style limitation that precluded converting levels into damage.

 

Awfully useful against archers (bowstrings don't have much def), not very much so against armored targets.

 

Previous to the events of the campaign, the PC had been trained to aim AT the armor (breastplate) and had a CVK. (hence the three PSLs)