I'm a D&D eterna virgin and I recently got into an argument

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>weapon experts

disregarding magic, from 3 feet, an arrow could penetrate an elephant's skull.

>>33977850
Sounds like you are doing HP wrong.

you arent really "hurt" beyond scrapes until you are at 10hp or less. HP is an abstraction of fate, lucky misses, and fatigue. Gary Gygax explained it well way back when, and the old Dungeon Master guide explicitly addressed this topic. "A dagger to the eye is a dagger to the eye".

This is why coup de graces exist in dnd.

>>33977850
Not including whatever magic hocus pocus, an arrow will certainly penetrate an elephants skull from ~3 feet away.

The magic hocus pocus is the only real deciding factor.

Imma go with that you die. Unless you stopped the arrow from ever actually hitting you.

You sound like you don't play d&d. If you could tank the shot according to the rules then you are still alive. D&d takes place in a fantasy universe.

>now has to update character sheet and rp hero as a newly handicapped fighter who can no-longer speak or properly run straight
Nice job, your hero is now mentally disabled.

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>>33977874
>This is why coup de graces exist in dnd.
Heresy

>>33977889
Kind of a shitty DM if he'd allow such a blatant self insert...

>>33977899
it uhh was a joke.

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>>33977867
>an arrow could penetrate an elephant's skull.

No it couldn't. An arrow has about 65 MPa, an elephant skull can withstand up to 200 MPa.

>>33977850

Expanding on >>33977874, heres an illustration.

Beefcake the Barbarian has 80 HP. Charlie the chronic masturbator with insane grip and a mutant arm shoots Beefcake with a +2 Compound bow and gets a critical.

So 2d8 (1d8 doubled from the crit), +5 (strength bonus from Charlie) +2 (magic enhancement).

Lets say Charlie rolls max. 16+5+2 = 23 HP. lets ignore any barbarian damage reduction to make things easy.

80-23 = 57 HP. Wow, Beefcake lost a quarter of his HP, he should have an arrow sticking in his shoulder, right?

no. The DM should say "the arrow flies at beefcake, getting bound up in the barbarians loose furs and slamming into his worn assortment of skull trophies, briefly knocking the wind out of Beefcake."

Alternatively "The arrow flies, just narrowly grazing beefcake's upper arm".

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>>33977921
So was mine.

>>33977850
fucking normies coming to humble brag about having friends. you're still a nerd.
also no, the pistol crossbow wouldn't of killed your dork character unless he scored a critical die roll to hit a weak area of the skull.

>>33977850
Ask the DM and/or whoever made the game's setting. It is D&D, it doesn't have to comply with our laws of physics and any attempt at doing so is a) fucking retarded and b) increasingly wrong the higher levels your characters are (though that depends on what edition you play).

However since your friend insist on the argument despite you providing an - IMO - adequate explanation why not (magic) there are so many factors regarding the crossbow and bolt that affects this that you'd need to provide us with more information.

For example the crossbow string alone; I could easily construct a one handed crossbow using a weak elastic that if I fired literally anything from it at three feet and yet nothing would happen. While a strong enough string and frame theoretically could fire a blunt object - like a dildo - at a head from three miles away, penetrate the skull from one side and exit on the other.

So yeah, your friend is an utter retard and That Guy for even contemplating this whole ordeal. Shit like this is why DMs are necessary to function as arbiters and rule 0 exists (though that doesn't apply in this situation), otherwise it devolves into nu-huh/yu-huh arguments.

If your friend is your DM (you referred to his character, but DMPCs would be nothing new) then you need to either shut up and reroll a new character or leave the game immediately since he disregards the game rules.

>TL;DR: I can't answer your question due to insufficient data, but has more than enough to conclude your friend is retarded.

>>33978253
why would they even be attacking one another during a campaign? Even if they're evil aligned it sounds fucking dumb. I have hard time believing this isn't just bait.

>>33977850
Roll a 20 sided die. If 19 you get 0 hp but chance or revival. If he rolls a 20, it's a critical, your character dies.

>>33977850
>>33977881
>>33977929
>>33977966
from 2 feet away when you arent dodging, or in combat, you dont roll damage, its a coup de grace retard. That compounded it Called shots (Dunno what ruleset your using, but that makes a difference) means your one dead faggot for letting him do that to your character.

Player to Player interactions often end up like this, but your a faggot and let another player do that to you, even with magic bullshittery (He probably has magic bullshittery too) Your still one dead homo.

>>33979112
Coup De grace requires the target to be helpless to the attack, which requires the target to lack their dex bonus to defense. Face to face it can be argued he still has his dex bouns to defense and flinched away from the attack. Alternatively, the dm should have called for initiative. At least to determine whether the mage had his dex bonus, denying the crossbow faggot his coup de grace.

>>33979338
It sounds like he didnt flinch away on purpose, denying his dex bonus anyways because he thought it couldnt kill him. And that is the biggest reason it could kill him.

>>33977850
Did he roll the attack with disadvantage because he was making a shot within 5 feet of a target without the crossbow expert feat? If not he can fuck off.

>>33979357
probably not since op thought he could tank it and didnt take advantage of teh AoO.

This is exactly like when that one body builder thought he could stop a knife with his muscles, and asked his buddy to stab him and then almost died when he was stabbed.
https://www.viralthread.com/russian-bodybuilder-claims-to-have-knife-proof-abs-gets-stabbed-in-stomach-at-party/

pistol crossbows are weak as fuck.
I would garner that it might fuck up your face a bit but it wouldn't pen your skull.

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>>33977898
>Playing 3.0
>Not 3.5
>Or the actually good 3.X game, Pathfinder

>>33977850
>>33977850
> a pistol crossbow in the forehead.

Fist off

>The corresponding total energy expended was 10.7 and 11 J, respectively. The recurve factor was calculated to be 0.705 and 1.044, respectively. Average bolt velocity was measured 43 up to 52 m/s. The efficiency was calculated up to 0.94. To conclude, this work provides the pending ballistic data on this special subgroup of crossbows which operate on a remarkable low kinetic energy level. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the nominal draw force pretended in the sales brochure is grossly exaggerated.
On /k we talked about the subject of hand crossbows a few months ago. The summary of it was it can breach the human skull SOME of the time but can get rather questionable results based on the angle & placement of attack. The forehead is by far the strongest area of the human skull.

>>33980573
Considering tthis is a fantasy setting and the pistol crossbow has a damage of 1d4, a +2 modification increases its damage potential by 50%, so its not hard to think itll go right through OPs retarded skull if you say a regular one could do that some of the time

>>33978317
>why would they even be attacking one another during a campaign?
Role playing. Last session I played, another character forced me to hand over some of my stuff to an NPC. I ended up complying because, hey, necessary to get the story going.

But I'll be damned if my character didn't threaten to do something painful to the other character.