Talk:Garrote (3.5e Equipment)

I will point out that, according to this design, if we imagine trying to garrote a 12th level fighter with decent constitution, caught napping, with a piano wire garrote that you could expect to average about 4.5 + STR points of damage (a bit more, given the chance for a critical). That fighter should average a bit more than (5.5 + CON) x 12 hit points.

Put another way, assume you have a 14 STR and the fighter a 14 CON. You'll be trying to inflict 12 (1st lvl) + (7.5 x 11) hit points (94 hit points) doing an average of around 6.8 (factoring in criticals) points of damage per round. Doing the math.... 14 rounds... 1 minute, 24 seconds.

A minute and a half is a bit unlikely for a wire garrote. That might not be so bad for a leather cord, if the defender has neck muscles strong enough to resist or gets a hand or something else inside the ring of the garrote to preclude cutting off the air supply. For a wire garrote, putting a finger or hand in there will slow it down, but it won't do your finger or hand any good. And left alone even on a muscular neck, in short order many key bits (windpipe, arteries, veins) will be severed.

I understand you are trying to balance the garrote for the game. Your design works well for lower level characters, but fails for higher level ones, to whom the garrote should still be fearsome.

To my mind, this should work more as some form of CON check or some form of FORT save. As you fail these, round by round, you get worse and worse state conditions (possibilities include fatigued, exhausted, dazed, stunned, etc). After some number of failures, you are suffocated or decapitated. You'd better hope you, or somebody else, can break you free before you get to that state or you are just plain dead.

(Note: There are forms of garrote that are even self-tightening and locking... even if the attacker lets go, you'd have to make some sort of DEX check to undo them as they're still stuck round your neck constricting...)

Also, against a melee trained opponent, good luck *ever* getting a garrote hit if it isn't from behind and with surprise. I think catching the opponent flat-footed should be a requirement to even attempt it (that's part of the check and balance).