An update on Hit Locations

A while ago (almost a year, time flies!) I wrote a post asking whether we should bring back Hit Locations, including an example of a Dragon modified for this idea, the "final boss" of the Icespire Peak campaign I was running online, using Owlbear Rodeo as VTT.
I can finally announce that I've been able to use that stat block, as I've finally managed to finish that campaign! So I can now return to you with my impressions of how the fight went and whether I find it actually usable in play. Let's get to it!


First things first, before getting to this fight I added another bit to this stat block, after the Legendary Resistances and Actions, Lair Actions and Hit Locations: borrowing the idea from Nimble 5e, I added a Last Stand to the Dragon, something that would trigger once it reached 0 HP, giving it 40 more HP and adding a bit more damage to its attacks.

Now let's get to the fight itself: although it covered most of the last session (after quite a bit of planning time from the players) it actually only lasted about 3 rounds...which is par for the course for 5e, and it felt dangerous to them, even though no one was even downed during the fight.
The Legendary Resistances never came into play, while the Legendary Actions helped balance the action economy (in this also the ice imps summoned by the dragon helped) and had the players always be cautious with their positioning, not knowing when it could attack or reposition itself.
The Lair Actions were actually quite useful, both for summoning ice blocks to keep the battlefield changing and interactive and for summoning ice imps to give my players alternative targets and something else to worry about.
The Hit Locations worked really well: my players never dared trying a called shot to target a specific body parts, but the dice decided to target the wings on an early crit and another big attack, keeping the dragon grounded for most of the fight.
Shortly after unleashing his first (and only) breath attack the dragon ran out of HP, which triggered the Last Stand...though it never made use of the extra damage as it used a Legendary Action to recharge his breath attack and then fell prey to the barbarian's attacks before it could attack again.

So, after all of this, what's my opinion about Hit Locations now that I've tried them myself?

I think they can work, at least in 5e or similar games; it might work in more OSR games, but I'd have to try that first. For sure I'd keep it as a mechanic reserved only for BBEG or similar level enemies, because if used for every single combat it'd make things tedious.

So, in conclusion: yes, I'd use it again and I probably will in the future.

Have you ever tried to use Hit Locations in your game? Or did this article make you wanna try them? If so, please let me know! I'd love to gather more experiences about the topic.

This is all for this week, see you next Sunday for my next post!

May your dice never betray you,
Kirhon

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