Well, I like the idea from the DM's perspective.
The implementation? It's mathematically not that impressive because it is such a severe step function.
The concept of a soft hit requires an extra layer of bookkeeping in order to know whether to check off a soft hit, or to check off a hard hit because a second soft hit has occurred.
I also have a bit of an issue with the fact that the system sometimes significantly favors players with just a bit more umph to their PC over other PCs. A 10th level Striker that averages 40 points of damage is often going to get 3 hard hits against a 10th level skirmisher foe, whereas a 10th level Striker that averages 35 points of damage is often going to get 2 hard hits against that foe.
When the player of one Striker PC is often getting 3 hard hits and the player of a different Striker PC is often getting 2 hard hits at the same level, there's a bit of an issue here. I'd be a bit ticked if my Ranger Striker using two weapons was often getting two 1 hard hits, even though the primary weapon should be doing more damage, whereas the Slayer Striker using one weapon were often getting 3 hard hits. The DM could hide this information from the players, but I suspect that they'll slowly figure it out anyway. The Leader and Striker 1 bloody a fresh target nearly every time whereas the same Leader and Striker 2 often don't bloody a fresh target, but Striker 1 is only doing a couple of more points of damage usually than Striker 2.
Also, instead of there only being wasted damage on the very last attack on a creature, there is almost always wasted damage on every single attack. That means that every single encounter will be longer because nearly every monster has the equivalent of more hit points. A 10th level PC doing 36 points of damage will kill a 10th level Skirmisher in 3 hits in the normal system (that NPC typically has about 104 or so hit points). The same 10th level PC will do 4 x2 hard hits in this system because he is wasting 10 hit points of damage on every hit.
The designer should have lowered the overall number of hit points per column per level to balance this. This isn't a problem with the idea, just with the implementation.
There are times that the system favors a player that does less damage because the player doing more damage wastes all of the extra damage.
Finally, this system makes the game too easy to metagame if the DM lets the players know how many hard hits that have been handed out. If the players know that 7 hard hits have been handed out, then the normal PCs will finish off the foe and the Striker PC will look for other targets.
This is an ok system for the DM and could speed it up for him, but I don't see that the gain is necessarily balanced. Insubstantial creatures, for example, do not have 50% of the hit points of normal creatures. They typically have 55% to 75% (and sometimes as much as 90%) of the hit points of normal creatures, so this system lets PCs blow through insubstantial creatures. So although an encounter with normal creatures should last longer, an encounter with insubstantial creatures should end quicker.
I don't actually see where it speeds up play too significantly unless the DM has problems adding two 2 digit numbers together. The players still have to calculate their normal damage.
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