2) If the fundamental property is its physical form (sharp, fairly thick, and capable of really destroying the heart), then an iron spike would work or even a large knife, but an arrow might not be massive enough.
Then a Hollow Point slug from a large caliber weapon should work just as well, but we've seen the modern vampire stories and know
that's not the case.
When you take into account the extremely abstract nature of HP in the game, reducing a warrior from 65 to 25 HP with one blow IS incapacitating.
He's gone from being able to fight "all day" to wondering if he can take the next blow...
Heck, it almost triggers the death by massive damage rule.
No, it's not. The fighter in question has been wounded severely, but not incapacitated. He has no penalty to any of his actions. His movement rate is not impaired. If he then kills the rogue before he can get hit again, he will not die, even without healing. If the sneak attack were an attack to an organ, he would be impaired in combat, his movement would be reduced and he would die without magical healing.
Again, that's due to the highly abstract nature of damage mechanics in D&D.
Otherwise you'd have rogues (and really, fighters as well) hamstringing opponents, slicing tendons in their wrists or even femoral arteries in the legs or carotid & jugular of the neck and dropping opponents with single blows. The accumulation of strikes would hinder att and dam mods, initiative, AC, etc.
In every combat.
Instead, there are no crit location tables and almost no way to cripple someone in that fashion.
That loss of 61% of his hp in a single blow represents a great degradation in the fighter's capability, especially if you consider that is approximately what the fighter should expect to lose in 2 encounters (or so I'm told).
And as it so happens, I just thought of a RW example. I recently watch a mixed-martial arts bout in which one of the guys was struck in the lower right side of his torso. Despite his training, he had obviously suffered a major blow- his defense on that side dropped immediately, followed by his left hand covering the spot of the blow. He winced in visible pain as he retreated and doubled up. Here was his opponent's chance- he charged in to finish the bout...and before he could administer the "coup de grace," he was K.Oed by a right to the jaw. The winning boxer collapsed seconds after the ref declared the bout.
Clearly, the man had been struck in a vital area- perhaps a broken rib, perhaps even that rib piercing an organ- but he still had the ability to put away a similarly proficient opponent (they were, in fact, training partners) with a single blow despite being seriously debilitated.
Even if a construct doesn't have vital organs, it has joints, a neck and most likely fractures within the stone that could result in massive damage from such a hit. Just ask any beginning sculptor or stonemason (assuming you can find such a person in this modern world).
I've done some sculpting in my past as part of getting an Art/Art History minor.
Most artistic interpretations of constructs such as stone or iron golems
lack visible joints- texture and sculpting features exist that may resemble armor, but not true joints. I would assume that the magic that animates them prevents them from cracking or bending with metal fatigue when their limbs flex or their necks turn, etc.
