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Using Hit Location, you are likely to have instant kills. The head itself only has a small percentage of the total SDC and Hit Points, so it makes the points disappear rapidly. There is a breakdown on Hit Location and the amount of points percentage per area in Palladium's Compendium of Contemporary Weapons, I believe.

First off... why is he shooting someone who's already tied up? That sounds like good knife work to me.

Regarding bows and arrows, there are a number of book options for superior bows and arrows.

The highlights:
Core book: Lightning Arrows made by Cyclopses. (up to 6D6 damage per arrow, but cost 1200 gold+ a pop)

Western Empire:
Special arrowheads used by a longbow cavalry unit (I don't remember where) add an extra 1D6 to damage.
Vaquerrel Woods region has a bow-maker that can custom-make a bow for extra 100 ft range, +1 to strike, and an extra attack in your rate of fire.

Eastern Territory:
Everall's Bows in Greenbough sells longbows that +3 damage and +1 strike arrows +40ft range
The danzi also have the ta'thain arrows that do +1d6 dam, +2 strike and halve the natural AR of supernatural beings
Or go visit the big tree and get the BEST BOW IN THE GAME: Millennium bow. +2 rof, +1d6 damage, and +200 feet to the usual range. Against mortals: +2 to strike. Against the supernatural: +6 to strike, and double damage. Unlimited ammunition; just pull back and release the arrow that magically appears. The magic arrows only disappear if you release the tension or pull them out of the intended target, and they are wood, so they work for staking vampires.

Or, if you import the Scathach druids from Rifts: England, you can have
+an enchanted pine bow that is +1 to strike and +1 on initiative,
+Enchanted oak arrows that double your range and are+1 to strike and +6 to damage.
+Specialized arrows that do a lot of damage to vampires/undead, air elementals, or energy beings/entities (2d4 to everything else).

I'm not aware of any other special archery items in the other books, but I'm not that well-versed with Yin-Sloth or Baalgor.

i think a called shot you have to get 16 or higher and headshots are -4 or -8, cant remember.

Allow headshot insta kills
from that point make the bad guys only do headshots (because why would you do something else), they will get sick of the insta deaths
then allow double damage for headshots (peoples head armour is usually lesser unless you're wearing fullplate).
then keep hitting em with goblin archers in grouos that only go for the head, when they get sick of rolling up characters say you will allow called shots to the head to do double damage if the situation calls for it (bad guys about to get the last couple of syllables off of that world ending spell etc) and if they do it more then once or twice a session, keep hitting em with goblin archers, usually they get the idea.

or you can make armour a little better by saying if you dont have a helm and you are headshot you take double damage, if you do have a helm and get headshot you take normal damage, even if they penetrate (the helm absorbs some of the blow).

This is the ranged combat i use, with minimum numbers to hit, dont make the number, you miss
Combat Modifiers – Ranged Combat
Range Numbers to hit a stationary person in no wind and no cover if you have appropriate WP.
Add 5 to the to hit numbers if no WP.

Point Blank: 5+ You can pick his nose with your weapon.
Short: 8+ Within %10 of weapon range.
Medium: 12+ Within %50 of weapon range.
Long: 16+ Within %100 of weapon range.
Extreme: 21+ Within %120 of weapon range.

Target Speed Modifiers
5 +2 to target number.
12 +4 to target number.
18 +6 to target number.
24 +8 to target number.
30 +10 to target number.
Cover Modifiers
Soft Cover, %25 +1 to target number.
Soft Cover, %50 +2 to target number.
Soft Cover, %75 +3 to target number.
Soft Cover, %90 +5 to target number.
Hard Cover, %25 +2 to target number.
Hard Cover, %50 +4 to target number.
Hard Cover, %75 +7 to target number.
Hard Cover, %90 +10 to target number.

Size Modifiers
Miniscule (20 cent coin size or smaller): +16 to target number.
(Extra +8 if called shot)
Tiny (30cm or smaller): +8 to target number
(Extra +4 if called shot)
Small (3ft or small): +4 to target number
(Extra +2 if called shot)
Medium (Man size or smaller): No modifiers

Large (7ft to 9ft range): -2 to target number
(-1 if called shot)
Huge (9ft to 15 ft): -4 to target number
(-2 if called shot)
Gargantuan (15ft to 30 ft): -6 to target number
(-3 if called shot)
Freakin Hooge (30ft+): -10 to target number
(-5 if called shot)
Wind Modifiers (Point Blank Halves these modifiers)
Light Wind +2 to target number.
Medium Wind +4 to target number.
Strong Wind +8 to target number.
Storm Winds +12 to target number.
Cyclonic Winds +20 to target number. (Note, PC’s, hell even Dragons would be hard pressed to do anything in 120mph+ winds).

Apollyon7 wrote:I came into a problem while running a game the other day. A player wanted to use his longbow and use a called shot to basically point blank orcs in the face as his companions held them at bay. The FAQ says that rules from Rifts can be applied, so penalties of -3 or -4 or higher to something like the head, and anything under 12 hits the main body. None of this deals with the damage inflicted on someone's head. Does a 2D6 weapon become an automatic killing machine? Does one treat it like a death blow, taking straight from their hit points? Bows are not that powerful, but after three arrows to the face, it's difficult to tell the player the enemy is still alive. For Dead Reign, it makes sense that they could still function after a blow to the head, but when it's a living being, human or otherwise, a sword or arrow to the head seems would be more severe. The only thing I could think of is how is a player's SDC distributed across their body? Then if the head only has a hand full of SDC, one or two arrows could deplete their SDC and HP quickly. I have not found any rules for distributing SDC by location. I want there to be as much realism in the battle, but on the flip side, I don't want insta-kills from a 1D6 or 2D6 weapon.

On a semi-related note, there are dwarven made weapons, but nothing for bows or crossbows. Is there any cases of bows being of a higher quality and doing more damage? I'm already aware of the special arrows in Dragons & Gods.

I wouldn't make it too complicated. Compendium of Modern Weapons does have rules about apportioning S.D.C. & Hit Points among the various parts of the body, but then you'd have to determine what the equivalent "PV" of an arrow would be compared to gun rounds. I'm also assuming that what we're talking about here is a situation where your friend's warrior is using some short of chokepoint to keep the orcs away from you, allowing you to take headshots at them. Nothing wrong with that....although most arrows aren't any more powerful than swords, so there's no benefit beyond the ability to target a particular location.

The easier method is to combine the RUE/Shadow Chronicles combat rules for Aimed Shots with the Conversion Book 1 optional rules for attacks hitting particular body parts:
-- Treat it as a "ranged attack" like with firearms, so base is 8 or better [RUE], plus a penalty for hitting the head of -5 [Compendium].
-- Called shots take 2 melee actions to complete; if you want to make it an "Aimed' Called Shot (to get the +2 bonus for careful aiming), it takes 3 melee actions [RUE].
-- Shots within 10ft/3m are considered "point-blank", and will do full damage to S.D.C. as well as half damage directly to Hit Points [CB1]. They will probably have additional effects as well, either continued "blood loss" [Compendium] or knocking the orc unconscious/putting them in a coma [CB1].

In any case, they're going to be seriously messed up.

green.nova343 wrote:

Apollyon7 wrote:I came into a problem while running a game the other day. A player wanted to use his longbow and use a called shot to basically point blank orcs in the face as his companions held them at bay. The FAQ says that rules from Rifts can be applied, so penalties of -3 or -4 or higher to something like the head, and anything under 12 hits the main body. None of this deals with the damage inflicted on someone's head. Does a 2D6 weapon become an automatic killing machine? Does one treat it like a death blow, taking straight from their hit points? Bows are not that powerful, but after three arrows to the face, it's difficult to tell the player the enemy is still alive. For Dead Reign, it makes sense that they could still function after a blow to the head, but when it's a living being, human or otherwise, a sword or arrow to the head seems would be more severe. The only thing I could think of is how is a player's SDC distributed across their body? Then if the head only has a hand full of SDC, one or two arrows could deplete their SDC and HP quickly. I have not found any rules for distributing SDC by location. I want there to be as much realism in the battle, but on the flip side, I don't want insta-kills from a 1D6 or 2D6 weapon.

On a semi-related note, there are dwarven made weapons, but nothing for bows or crossbows. Is there any cases of bows being of a higher quality and doing more damage? I'm already aware of the special arrows in Dragons & Gods.

I wouldn't make it too complicated. Compendium of Modern Weapons does have rules about apportioning S.D.C. & Hit Points among the various parts of the body, but then you'd have to determine what the equivalent "PV" of an arrow would be compared to gun rounds. I'm also assuming that what we're talking about here is a situation where your friend's warrior is using some short of chokepoint to keep the orcs away from you, allowing you to take headshots at them. Nothing wrong with that....although most arrows aren't any more powerful than swords, so there's no benefit beyond the ability to target a particular location.

The easier method is to combine the RUE/Shadow Chronicles combat rules for Aimed Shots with the Conversion Book 1 optional rules for attacks hitting particular body parts:
-- Treat it as a "ranged attack" like with firearms, so base is 8 or better [RUE], plus a penalty for hitting the head of -5 [Compendium].
-- Called shots take 2 melee actions to complete; if you want to make it an "Aimed' Called Shot (to get the +2 bonus for careful aiming), it takes 3 melee actions [RUE].
-- Shots within 10ft/3m are considered "point-blank", and will do full damage to S.D.C. as well as half damage directly to Hit Points [CB1]. They will probably have additional effects as well, either continued "blood loss" [Compendium] or knocking the orc unconscious/putting them in a coma [CB1].

In any case, they're going to be seriously messed up.

The 8 or better only pertains to Rifts. For PFRPG, it is 12 or better. And, yes, a called shot requires you to aim (duh) but I don't see why it would take three actions rather than two. Some would also argue that a shot to the head is also full damage direct to Hit Points rather than half.

Stone Gargoyle wrote:

green.nova343 wrote:

Apollyon7 wrote:I came into a problem while running a game the other day. A player wanted to use his longbow and use a called shot to basically point blank orcs in the face as his companions held them at bay. The FAQ says that rules from Rifts can be applied, so penalties of -3 or -4 or higher to something like the head, and anything under 12 hits the main body. None of this deals with the damage inflicted on someone's head. Does a 2D6 weapon become an automatic killing machine? Does one treat it like a death blow, taking straight from their hit points? Bows are not that powerful, but after three arrows to the face, it's difficult to tell the player the enemy is still alive. For Dead Reign, it makes sense that they could still function after a blow to the head, but when it's a living being, human or otherwise, a sword or arrow to the head seems would be more severe. The only thing I could think of is how is a player's SDC distributed across their body? Then if the head only has a hand full of SDC, one or two arrows could deplete their SDC and HP quickly. I have not found any rules for distributing SDC by location. I want there to be as much realism in the battle, but on the flip side, I don't want insta-kills from a 1D6 or 2D6 weapon.

On a semi-related note, there are dwarven made weapons, but nothing for bows or crossbows. Is there any cases of bows being of a higher quality and doing more damage? I'm already aware of the special arrows in Dragons & Gods.

I wouldn't make it too complicated. Compendium of Modern Weapons does have rules about apportioning S.D.C. & Hit Points among the various parts of the body, but then you'd have to determine what the equivalent "PV" of an arrow would be compared to gun rounds. I'm also assuming that what we're talking about here is a situation where your friend's warrior is using some short of chokepoint to keep the orcs away from you, allowing you to take headshots at them. Nothing wrong with that....although most arrows aren't any more powerful than swords, so there's no benefit beyond the ability to target a particular location.

The easier method is to combine the RUE/Shadow Chronicles combat rules for Aimed Shots with the Conversion Book 1 optional rules for attacks hitting particular body parts:
-- Treat it as a "ranged attack" like with firearms, so base is 8 or better [RUE], plus a penalty for hitting the head of -5 [Compendium].
-- Called shots take 2 melee actions to complete; if you want to make it an "Aimed' Called Shot (to get the +2 bonus for careful aiming), it takes 3 melee actions [RUE].
-- Shots within 10ft/3m are considered "point-blank", and will do full damage to S.D.C. as well as half damage directly to Hit Points [CB1]. They will probably have additional effects as well, either continued "blood loss" [Compendium] or knocking the orc unconscious/putting them in a coma [CB1].

In any case, they're going to be seriously messed up.

The 8 or better only pertains to Rifts. For PFRPG, it is 12 or better. And, yes, a called shot requires you to aim (duh) but I don't see why it would take three actions rather than two. Some would also argue that a shot to the head is also full damage direct to Hit Points rather than half.

For Rifts Unlimited Edition, as well as later books like BTS2 & Robotech: Shadow Chronicles, it's moved from a "called shot = 12 or better" to "called shot needs 2 melee attacks to perform".

As far as the difference between Called vs. Aimed shots, I think the idea is that the Called Shot is just trying to hit a particular location on a target, while the Aimed Shot is trying to make sure that you hit the target as accurately as possible (no matter whether it's just the "main body" or a particular location). I think it also fits better into real-world situations, like when you see a sniper getting ready to take the shot. If he's not concerned about where he hits the target, and he's more concerned with the number of shots he can make, he'll do the standard "one shot, one melee attack"; focusing his aim on a particular part of the target, focusing intently on the target to make sure they're hit, or especially to combine the two, is going to take more time.

Mainly, though, I was trying to aim for as much of a universal rule as possible that could apply to all of the game settings.

if your applying Rifts rules for called shots, then those same rules in the conversion book one (unrevised) page 17 gives the results for head and heart shots: full SDC damage and half damage directly to hit points, followed by a roll on a tabel. even the best roll still KO's you for several minutes, taking them out of the fight even if it dosn't kill them outright.

We are playing 1st edition and we usely make it simple. The Ranger or Long Bow man have to have the Sniper skill located in Yin Sloth book. This skill make you call shots when you are ambushing and the target is not aware of the shot. The skill gives then double damage on 2 shots if I remember right.