A list of popular target locations, and why/how you should hit them:
Feet and Lower Legs
Excellent targets for limiting an enemy's mobility and forcing them prone. Cutting and Bashing weapons are generally most effective as these areas are thinner and are likely to be crushed or amputated more easily than most other targets. Against humanoid targets, critical damage to a single foot is often sufficient to force them to the ground, which limits both their offense and mobility.
Keep in mind, against 4+ legged creatures, you'll often have to disable 2 or 3 legs before you can force them down.
Hands and Lower Arms
Good targets for limiting an enemy's offense. Though they aren't quite as crippling, they are harder to armor than the legs and feet and somewhat more vulnerable, esp to crushing weapons. Crushing and slashing weapons are best. It's often worth taking a quick look at your opponent before attacking to see which hand they are holding their weapon in.
Upper Arms/Upper Legs
These targets are not as effective for disabling, as they are considerably thicker and the bones better protected. You're less likely to get crippling or amputating shots, though attacks to these locations are more likely to hit an artery and cause bleeding - but there are better targets for that.
Lower Torso
Stabbing weapons are the most effective. Shots against most internal organs here will cause severe pain and bleeding. A solid hit to the guts will trigger NAUSEA which will cause your opponent to retch and miss turns for the rest of the fight.
This is one of the easiest target locations to trigger an immediate disabling effect against a giant opponent. There are usually no ribs to protect the lower torso, but thick layers of fat may do so. Against human or smaller opponents a very powerful slashing attack can sometimes cut the enemy in half, resulting in instant death.
Upper Torso
Stabbing or Crushing weapons are generally the most effective. Stabbing weapons will penetrate and stab key organs, namely the heart (massive bleeding) or lungs (bleeding and suffocation). Crushing weapons may shatter the ribs, causing fragments to fly inwards for a similar effect.
Upper torso shots inflict wounds which are very likely to be FATAL, but they aren't necessarily the best way to quickly disable an opponent.
Head
Needless to say, a good shot to the head is very often instantly crippling or lethal, regardless of what weapon you are using. Stabbing a slashing weapons may impale the brain directly, crushing weapons destroy the skull causing it to fragment into the brain, slashing weapons may simply remove the offending head altogether.
The target isn't available that often, but always watch for openings. Bear in mind that against multi-headed opponents such as an Ettin or Hydra, you must cause brain damage to ALL the heads in order to ensure a kill.
Grappling Targets
There are a few targets of particular importance when wrestling:
Throat
As a regular target in combat, a throat attack doesn't actually appear to cause suffocation, but it is likely to cause very heavy bleeding. More importantly, grappling a human sized or smaller opponent on the throat can result in a choke-hold which will cause your opponent to fall unconscious in a round or two, for a skilled wrestler this can be the fastest way to guarantee the death of an opponent, though in order to get a proper opening it's often necessary to land some kind of crippling blow first.
Note that actually strangling an opponent to death takes dozens of rounds. If you need a quick kill simply release them and smash them in the head before they regain consciousness.
I haven't tried putting a choke hold on a Hydra or Ettin - I don't advise it. Wrestling with giant opponents is often a bad idea in any case.
Lower Arms and Legs
If you can overpower your opponent, you can lock and then very severely break an arm or leg. This is a heavily disabling move that will cause most opponents to immediately fall unconscious from pain, never mind the actual disabling effects on the limb in question - however, you must be a more skilled wrestler, and generally stronger then your opponent to execute this move. Very difficult to pull off against large opponents.
Other
There are lots of other targets you can select such as the eyes, mouth and so on. More often than not they are almost impossible to hit, but if your enemy is particularly vulnerable for a moment (stunned, fallen, grappled), you may find that you have an open shot against one of these, and they are often quite vulnerable to damage.
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Topic: Target Locations (Read 881 times)