Ripping Out Someone's Heart

[Mr_Sandman]

You could use Lethal Strike from Martial Arts to target vitals and do enough damage to kill. Ripping the heart out would be a special effect, like decapitation.

Or you could do this with Affliction (heart attack +300%, melee attack C - 30%)

[David Johnston2]

Most of the people who do that are using exotic chi or magic power to cheat. But really you can determine it by determining how much strength it takes to deal a certainly lethal attack in two or three blows. About 30 points should be enough to do it to an average person in two moves.

[Gnomasz]

Originally Posted by Mr_Sandman

You could use Lethal Strike from Martial Arts to target vitals and do enough damage to kill. Ripping the heart out would be a special effect, like decapitation.

Lethal Strike is actually in Basic Set on p. 404. But for this kind of cool move I'd call for Pressure Secrets (p. B215). It has wounding modifier, is harder than just hitting the heart, and has an awesome description. And it requires TBaM, which costs suggested above 30 points. It's destiny!

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

Also, ignoring RAW, because it doesn't like insta-kill attacks and I'm less hostile to the idea of them, how much damage does the heart really need to "cripple" or destroy it? For instance, the eye takes HP/10 to be blinded, and double that to be destroyed. As a house rule, if I wanted to treat the heart in a similar manner, for the purposes of injury (including being ripped out), what would be a reasonably realistic way to do this technique then, and how much HP of injury could a heart withstand?

Well, I have no idea about heart's real endurance, but with mass of half a pound I'd give it only 1 HP. To break through the ribcage, I'd call for 2 points of damage, just because a skull gives 2 DR. As an effect you need to deal 3 points of damage, which translates to 9 points of actual injury while using Pressure Secrets. To make it look nicer and more in line with crippling injuries, I'd say you need to inflict over 1×HP points of injury.