I allow them if it's suitable for the story, rather than a stats thing.
For example, I don't want my players regularly every fight, "I strike his hand, so he drops his sword."
I do however want to be flexible such that when a bad guy on high health is standing over a fallen party member or npc and about to deliver a deathblow, one of my players can try heroic things that you might see in the movies like, "I want to shoot my arrow through his hand, so he drops his weapon and can't kill my friend."
The mechanic I use for such things is allow a player to trade in their inspiration to do this and I'll usually give them advantage on the roll as well. Why? Using inspiration should mean something - it's a pivotal story moment.
GURPS has a really detailed system for this, but we're talking about D&D 5e. So, in D&D 5e, I just have something like that happen whenever someone scores a crit.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I've liked using called shots in my campaigns. Does anyone have a mechanism for it in 5e? How does it work with critical hits?
I allow them if it's suitable for the story, rather than a stats thing.
For example, I don't want my players regularly every fight, "I strike his hand, so he drops his sword."
I do however want to be flexible such that when a bad guy on high health is standing over a fallen party member or npc and about to deliver a deathblow, one of my players can try heroic things that you might see in the movies like, "I want to shoot my arrow through his hand, so he drops his weapon and can't kill my friend."
The mechanic I use for such things is allow a player to trade in their inspiration to do this and I'll usually give them advantage on the roll as well. Why? Using inspiration should mean something - it's a pivotal story moment.
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GURPS has a really detailed system for this, but we're talking about D&D 5e. So, in D&D 5e, I just have something like that happen whenever someone scores a crit.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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