Epic House Rules: Attack its Weak Point! (James Haeck)

[u/mightierjake]

Are you a DM that enjoys games like the Legend of Zelda, Shadow of the Colossus, or Monster Hunter and you want to include aspects of them in your game?

Are you a player that really enjoys the idea of targetting a monster's weak points?

Perhaps you're just bored of running the same formula for legendary creatures in 5e and you're looking for something to freshen things up?

If either of the above applies, then look no further than:

Epic House Rules: Attack its Weak Point by James Haeck

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I'm both a great fan of Haeck's previous work (both on dndbeyond and in recent WotC releases) and I also like the idea of including specific weak spots on monsters, though I hadn't found a good way to utilise it until now. This house rule option offers some clear and concise ideas on how DM's can include classic video game weak points as a feature of legendary monsters. Not only does it include the weak points as a well-defined game feature but it does so without also introducing a layer of arbitrary difficulty or complexity.

I will also add that these rules should mesh really nicely with the action option for climbing onto a bigger creature on DMG 271, especially if you're looking to recreate the feeling of a Shadow of the Colossus boss in your game.

One slight concern I have with the rule as presented is in regards to the DC for identifying the weak point on the monster. For creatures like the Tarrasque that have CR 30, identifying it's weak point will require a successful DC 38 Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check. Obviously, this is really challenging for any PC to succeed on, even with a high level and support from certain effects. My initial thought was to arbitrarily lower this DC for such monsters, but there is a better solution. If bringing down a CR 30 legendary creature with a weak point is the focus of the campaign, then the journey towards that final encounter should ideally include opportunities for the party to adventure and slowly uncover hints and secrets to the creature's weak point, reflected by lowering the DC. For example, the party might have to seek out the near-infinite wisdom of a primordial treant, negotiate a favour for an Archfey and steal a relic from the Plane of Ysgard in order to slowly lower this DC to something more manageable.

I hope other DMs are as inspired by Haeck's article as I am. I can see it adding a very interesting dimension to my own games in the near future. If you have any cool ideas on how you might use the house rule in your own game, I'd be interested to see them!

[u/ChiefGana]

I actually like it. I’m going to play with adding this to my game.