u/Crafty_Woodpecker_99

Drowners still use the classic area-of-effect approach for their sweeping attacks. But the swing angle is narrow and the attack is well telegraphed. The only visual downside is that the damage is applied almost at the end of the animation. The Drowner first collides with Geralt’s capsule, slides downward along the capsule wall, and only then triggers the damage pipeline.

• Hit Detection Type: Area of Effect
• Trigger Moment: single hit check at the very end of the damage phase
• Advantage: remains reliable even at low FPS and is extremely cheap performance-wise
• Drawback: hit detection is delayed despite visible collision between both character models and their invisible collision capsules.

Dogs are a rare breed among enemies in The Witcher 3. Unlike most monsters and human NPCs that rely on area-of-effect attacks, dogs use real collision capsules for hit detection — basically the same approach used in Dark Souls. Ironically, despite using more “real” hit detection, they are also some of the most annoying enemies to fight.

Why? A few reasons.

First, most enemies in The Witcher 3 use area-of-effect attacks where hit detection happens only once, usually at the very end of the damage phase. Collision capsules work differently. Hit detection is checked every frame during the damage phase, meaning the hit can happen much earlier than the player expects. For players used to delayed AOE attacks, it can feel weird and unpredictable.

Second, dog attacks barely telegraph anything. Almost no wind-up, no clear swing, nothing. The damage phase starts extremely early. So if the player is already standing close to the dog when it decides to attack, there is very little time to react.

It is also a good example of why mixing completely different hit detection technologies in one combat system can easily create inconsistent combat experience. And technology itself does not provide ready solution, fine tuning and extensive testing is still a major part of any combat system.