this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Once when my sister and I were teenagers, she was hogging the computer and so I just picked up the chair with her in it to move her out of my way. As I walked past, her friend (whom I hadn't touched) used her bite to make an attack of opportunity against me. It wasn't gentle - there was no blood but there were tooth-marks.
I had mixed feelings afterwards. On the one hand, it hurt. On the other hand, a girl touched me. With her mouth. I had never been kissed at that point but being bitten was close...
(I didn't end up marrying her.)
Also a d6 bite is nonsense. The average commoner has 4 hp and 10 strength, so one commoner would be able to kill another commoner with a single bite 50% of the time. I'm not saying a human bite can't be lethal, but it's not "stabbed with a shortsword" lethal. Meanwhile, even a d4 bite from a level 1, 16-str barbarian is already invariably lethal to a commoner.
(Yeah, I know, HP isn't supposed to be realistic, etc. I just hate fun.)
Given the nastiness of the human mouth, "fight bite" (hand cuts from accidentally punching teeth) is often treated with antibiotics. On that basis I'd stick with at most 1d2 damage, plus lingering status effects to the hand unless you have disease curing abilities or medicaments. Maybe the damage sticks unless specially treated, and untreated you can lose the hand to infection?
Yeah, but that would be treated like poison damage at a later time with a savings throw.
Haha, I'm glad you liked it. I was a little bit drunk and worried it might not be as funny to everyone else as it seemed in my head at the time.
I mean, if you're going to attempt to kill with a bite, I'd assume they're going for the neck or other particularly vulnerable place. I'd argue commoner bite attacks should have very low chance to hit, but could plausibly be lethal. Most places they get a good bite won't be able to do any damage, except maybe cause a Con save for disease.... I'd say an improvised attack with Disadvantage for 1d6 damage probably works pretty well.
Yeah, a bite is more like a dagger than a short sword. Plus barbarians already get an extra +2 damage while raging, which makes their bites average more than a d6 plus strength with the same max damage.
Beast barbarians can even cause their teeth to grow during a rage giving them a d8 bite attack.