I'm building an armorer artificer player character that is missing a leg and an arm, having turned to arcane armor crafting to try to return their mobility and defend themselves.
The details of the Arcane Armor feature are clear, including "The armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to the limb it's replacing."
So, my question for the sake of the argument, is whether or not it would be realistic to take full damage for attacks landed on those missing limbs? If an orc hits the arm of the armor with a great axe, obviously the armor is going to take some level of harm from it, but is it reasonable to deal that full level of damage to the PC's HP as well, when there literally isn't a limb there to be damaged? Not trying to ask the question for the sake of making an OP build or so on, just curious to hear the opinions of other GMs and players and how they would handle it personally, treating the missing limb as having resistance, having a damage reduction of a couple points, having some kind of damage threshold, or otherwise.
If an attack hits you, then they didn't hit one of your missing limbs. Called shots aren't a standard rule in 5e, which applies to both PCs and NPCs/enemies. Damage to armor and other worn gear also isn't a standard rule, unless you're dealing with a rust monster or such. Your DM could flavor a very near-miss to hitting your AC as them making a solid hit on the armor where a missing limb was.
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Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
I'm building an armorer artificer player character that is missing a leg and an arm, having turned to arcane armor crafting to try to return their mobility and defend themselves.
The details of the Arcane Armor feature are clear, including "The armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to the limb it's replacing."
So, my question for the sake of the argument, is whether or not it would be realistic to take full damage for attacks landed on those missing limbs?
Yes.
RAW (which clearly states that "the armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to the limb it's replacing", which includes HP loss) aside, one must remember taht Hit Points isn't merely the amount of blood you can lose before you die, HP represents "a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck". This means that you could technically not be physically touched by your opponent's weapon (it glancing of your breastplate or an arrow going through your cloak) but you would still lose hit points. In the case of your armorer it would probably mean that if the missing limb was hit they'd think "holy shit! that almost got me!" and they lose the appropriate amount of HP.
I expect that to "function identically" means that any pain from an attack would be replicated (maybe the only way to enable feeling/touch means pain can be perceived too).
Or, if you wanted fun with it, you could RP that an attack that missed "hit" your armour where there is no arm or leg?
I expect that to "function identically" means that any pain from an attack would be replicated (maybe the only way to enable feeling/touch means pain can be perceived too).
Good point. I hadn't even thought about that. Makes sense.
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I'm building an armorer artificer player character that is missing a leg and an arm, having turned to arcane armor crafting to try to return their mobility and defend themselves.
The details of the Arcane Armor feature are clear, including "The armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to the limb it's replacing."
So, my question for the sake of the argument, is whether or not it would be realistic to take full damage for attacks landed on those missing limbs? If an orc hits the arm of the armor with a great axe, obviously the armor is going to take some level of harm from it, but is it reasonable to deal that full level of damage to the PC's HP as well, when there literally isn't a limb there to be damaged?
Not trying to ask the question for the sake of making an OP build or so on, just curious to hear the opinions of other GMs and players and how they would handle it personally, treating the missing limb as having resistance, having a damage reduction of a couple points, having some kind of damage threshold, or otherwise.
If an attack hits you, then they didn't hit one of your missing limbs. Called shots aren't a standard rule in 5e, which applies to both PCs and NPCs/enemies. Damage to armor and other worn gear also isn't a standard rule, unless you're dealing with a rust monster or such. Your DM could flavor a very near-miss to hitting your AC as them making a solid hit on the armor where a missing limb was.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
Yes.
RAW (which clearly states that "the armor replaces any missing limbs, functioning identically to the limb it's replacing", which includes HP loss) aside, one must remember taht Hit Points isn't merely the amount of blood you can lose before you die, HP represents "a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck". This means that you could technically not be physically touched by your opponent's weapon (it glancing of your breastplate or an arrow going through your cloak) but you would still lose hit points. In the case of your armorer it would probably mean that if the missing limb was hit they'd think "holy shit! that almost got me!" and they lose the appropriate amount of HP.
I expect that to "function identically" means that any pain from an attack would be replicated (maybe the only way to enable feeling/touch means pain can be perceived too).
Or, if you wanted fun with it, you could RP that an attack that missed "hit" your armour where there is no arm or leg?
Good point. I hadn't even thought about that. Makes sense.