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Jun 27, 2012 -- 10:21PM, Reyemile wrote:

Wait, so now I hae to separately track my damage upon each creature in the combat?

Also, I can't make heads or tails of the timing--does this take one action, or two? or are you reacting to the damage? 

K.  Two things.  Yes, if you want to do an 'instakill', you need to track separate damage on your own.  This means that -typically-, this is something that won't happen to the big party-wide monsters, but more the individual challenges a skilled warrior might face.

As for the timing, it's 2 distinct attacks although if you have multiples they are 'chained' (attack 1 is the stun, attack 2 is the decapitate).  If you do -not- have multiples, then one round is the stun and your next attack -must- be the connect (which means no reaction actions between the stun and the attempted decapitation -- yes, it's a limiter).

Edit: -- Do bear in mind I made this particular set of actions off the top of my head, and the ruling that went with it.  I did the same with what I put in this post, so cut me some slack, neh? =)

Jun 27, 2012 -- 10:31PM, Akoo wrote:

this takes 2 actions, 1 action to stun and the other for the -8 attack roll to kill.
oh and the actions it takes to reduce the monster by 50% 

Not sure if i like the personal dmg now that I think about it some more. My players are usually pretty good about "i dealt x amount+his y" but that's not really an easy mechanic to deal with. 

My thought on it was this: since I think the intent is to showcase the martial's talent, it helps him clear enemies in sprawling melees where the combatants aren't tiny...but aren't whole-party monsters either.  Like Ogres, for instance.  And although an individual person might not be tracking their damage, the DM can see that a monster is under 50% and if only one player has attacked it, well...it's easy to know it's personal damage. =)

Without the 'personal' being attached, 50% is -far- too high imo.

Jun 27, 2012 -- 10:50PM, souldoubt wrote:

While I don't agree with the implementation, I do agree that if one class gets an ability that's SoD, everyone should get such an ability.

For a fighter, something like this, perhaps...

Executioner's Strike
Once per day, when you hit a prone or stunned opponent with a melee attack, you can force the target to roll a Saving Throw; on a failed save, the target dies.

Just throwing something out, not really my ideal mode of implementation (I actually don't like daily resources), but the suggested ability struck me as overly complicated.

While I get that it's a bit complicated (one of the reasons we reposted it was to maybe try to find someone who can word things better, I know -I- tend to get really rambly lol), I think the important part is that it requires 2 rolls.  Something like the one you present is -far- too easy.  Remember, this is something monsters would be able to do too!  I would think we want it to be substantially more difficult than any single standard effect, else it would be the only move tried in every fight (pending, of course, a person's ability to identify 50% hp, something that is largely dependant on a DM's descriptions at the moment).