If I hit someone while he is vulnerable is it instantly death?

If I hit someone while he is vulnerable is it instantly death?

A NPC grabbed my character from behind, then put his sword on my neck. He then said that if I moved he would slit and instantly kill me. Is this true?

Depends on system, and on how "muh rules" your GM is. I'm also assuming you don't have armour over your neck.

A shit GM would make your example a regular sword attack doing regular damage. Butthurt players who want to try to grasp at any straw to 'win' in their current situation would also insist it was just a normal sword attack (say, doing 1d8 damage if DnD). Shitlord players will defend this.

Really it ought to be a coup de grace against a helpless opponent. Good players and good GMs would recognize this.

Thanks to the fact that you're playing a superhero, no. This situation resolves more like it would in an action movie rather than real life, and you'd simply be Grappled. If you moved, instead you'd attempt to shake him off of you and the two of you would get into a close-range knife-fight as he stabs at you and you attempt to either break the grapple and escape or gain the upper hand.

And depending on edition and the like, he could attempt to pin you and then dispatch you, but it'd just be a critical hit which rarely is enough to actually one-shot a character with a few levels.

So if I go 'grab' and then 'slit' I can kill any NPC? Because technically it was the entire battle: he grabs you, I try to break free, he puts sword on your neck.

Yeah, I could see it being a critical hit. I just think it's unfair to potentially kill a PC with only two rolls.

Well, edition and system matters a lot for shit like that. 5E has uses more or less the same vastly simplified rules for grappling that 4E came up with, where it's pretty much just about locking down an enemy's movement. 3.5, meanwhile, has a whole list of special rules affecting what can be done in the Grappled state which leads to a whole lot of cheese, a lot of unnneccessary crunch, but a much more Action Movie feel of using an opponent's weapon against them, pinning them to the ground and silencing them, etc.

If you want to talk about hilariously broken Grappling, though, look no further than Shadowrun. My street sam can waltz up to someone, hit them with an 18 dice Unarmed Combat attack, lock them up in a grapple that's nearly impossible for them to escape, and then just choke them unblockable lethal damage every subsequent turn.

But you are not helpless you're just Grappled. You can always fluff the dagger not killing you instantly by saying your character distracted the NPC and elbowed him, struggling against him etc. and the d4 damage the dagger makes reflects this. It's cinematic realism.

You don't have a gorjet or mail aventail on your neck? Who are you? Some pansy wizard?

Even a proper wizard should have an enchanted cravat. Unless he's one of those unkempt, dress-wearing nancies.

>dm didnt even roll a grapple check
nah youre in cutscene mode so you can die in one hit from a dagger

Wait till gameplay starts again and you will suddenly becable to survive half a dozen stabs to the gut from a greatsword

Heh. Dresses are for formal occasions. When things turn sour wizards get into pants, load up on bags and scroll-cases and go to war.

>If I hit someone while he is vulnerable is it instantly death?

I would say it depends on how helpless they were. Fully restrained, immobilized, or unaware yes but in the scenario you described I would say no due to your character still being able to move and being aware of the attack allowing them to attempt to mitigate the damage a bit.

You would still probably be alive but not completely unharmed without a great dexterity or charisma roll.

>cutscene mode

I hate this so goddamn much.

>cutscene mode
Top kek.

Sadly with some DMs it really is like this.

you realize you have to do multiple resisted things to manage to make an NPC helpless enough that you can just sink the knife in, right?

i'm gonna assume either:
A) your GM is forcing you into it, or
B) you had your chance and rolled to try to escape and fucked it up

either way it sounds like the GM's forcing it to introduce plot bullshit then have the guy drop the knife and run, if they're going for idle threats.

>A NPC grabbed my character from behind, then put his sword on my neck
acceptable if the NPC successfully grappled against you
>He then said that if I moved he would slit and instantly kill me. Is this true?
Really depends on the system, but instant death sounds stupid to me. A critical hit, or maybe an extremely serious bleeding wound.

Basically:
>smug jerk knight appears and starts bragging to the party
>I respectfully tell him to leave(paladin so play nice)
>he calls the people to see as he challenges me to a duel or go home humiliated
>okay I accept it
>he charges and grapple, roll 17 and succeed
>I try to break free, I roll 14 and fail
>he immediately puts himself into position, putting his blade on my neck like pic related
>tells me to drop the fight or die
>I ask the GM if this is how it works, he confirms he can coup de grace me without rolling
>I drop out
>He takes all my gold and goes away laughing

I guess I'm still kinda salty. But I don't think this was a fair fight.

Instant crit with sneak attack damage equal to a level 9 rogue. You are now silenced from not having a functional throat and you are still grappled.

Okay, now roll initiative.

Yeah that is bullshit, among other things he's drawing a weapon in a grapple by the sound of things and pinning with no effort.

>he confirms he can coup de grace me without rolling

In dnd? 1 contested roll to put you into helpless Lol no

Looks like you have a small problem of dms wanting his favorite npc to look "badass"

Its not cheating because he is the dm but he sure as hell aint following the rules in the book.

That's the most bullshit idea of a duel I've seen, and that's not even getting into how wrong he's doing things.

>one good grapple = kill
Yeah, that's railroading bullshit.

>fail one grapple check
>get instakilled
Makes sense

I'd start doing this, instant kill on anything with a weak spot seems like a useful tool. On the offside you can't do this on an NPC your Dm is a tool.

Yeah this confirm it to me.

I will keep on watch next time his 'sir better than thou' appears.

Tell your dm that you want to Spec into grapple and start doing this to your enemies. Hell change his tune right quick.

I mean 1 grapple check=instakill means it is now THE most efficient way to dipatch humanoid enemies.

Huh... doesn't make sense.

In D&D, afaik, there aren't rules for insta-kills, except for some rule abut massive damage, which doesn't apply here because the other guy is holding a sword, not a giant boulder or massive breath attack.

So, yeah, you could have rolled for attacks and so on, under grappling rules. Yes, the other guy would harm you, but as a regular sword attack, that would apply a bleeding effect which would lead to 0 hit points, which in most instances doesn't mean death, just unconsciousness.

Shit DM, imo.

I second this.

I didn't seen many times when a hero of action move escapes from the knife pressed against his neck on their own, without outside help or rapid change in circumstances out of their personal control.

So no, nope. Any appeal to "cinematic realism" or whatever is failed. "Cinematic realism" in itself is ok, awesome even, but people are trying to use this card in situation where it doesn't really apply all too often to justify their crap.

I mean, this is pretty much how it works irl. Most battles ended with one person grappling another, trying to stab them with their finishing implement of choice.

It really depends on the NPCs reflexes. Since it's a sword and not a knife you could reasonably force the blade away from your throat with your hands, assuming you caught the NPC off guard. They didn't take the opportunity to kill you, so odds are they want something other than you dead. During whatever dialogue you have I think it would be easy, if risky, to do.

That's a pretty fucking sharp sword though if they can slice your head off with no momentum. Or it's fucking serrated.

I think there was a variant rule in adnd or 3rd where rolling 3 20s in a row caused an instant kill.

That was a house rule

The whole, pressing the knife to your neck is flashy, but it's actually possible that if the blade is thin enough, that it would slice clean through the vein and artery and they would seal themselves. Now this is rare and only with extremely thin blades, now you could get a thicker blade, but it's harder to cut in the manner of dragging a thick blade across someone's throat, that's why in combat, it's taught to actually stab into the side of the throat and rip forward and out, of course you're not taking hostages in combat.

Tl;Dr knife to the throat is stupid and you're less likely to die from there than if they stabbed your kidney or the artery under your arms.

It's seriously overplayed in media.