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Critical Hits - why, and why not?
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<blockquote data-quote="Cleon" data-source="post: 6686776" data-attributes="member: 57383"><p>From a narrative viewpoint I'd prefer a critical injury to actually be life threatening, which from a purely hit point view in D&D usually means the target's in the negative HPs.</p><p></p><p>Some version of the <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/injuryandDeath.htm#massiveDamage" target="_blank">Massive Damage Rule</a> like you suggest is a possibility, but as has already been mentioned on this thread that may make it impossible for a low hit point character to take anything more severe than a light wound. (e.g. if a "moderate wound" is, say, 20 hit points, a creature with 9 or fewer hit points would never take one, since a 20 damage hit will kill them instead).</p><p></p><p>Also, I'd prefer it if to be <strong><em>very</em></strong> difficult to inflict a critical wound on a high CR creature with full hit points "right off the bat", since it'd cut down their screen time to a round or two. It's a similar issue to save-or-lose spells, where it's rather anticlimatical if the final boss monster goes down to the first spell it's hit by.</p><p></p><p>Whichever approach is used, it's important to consider how critical hits tend to make combat way more swingey.</p><p></p><p>A friend of mine once told me of a campaign he'd been in which revolved around a Demon leading a monstrous army invasion. The DM obviously wanted them to see the army in the first session, then spend many adventures levelling up with secondary adventures before having a grand finale fight against the Demon. The PCs launched a frontal attack against the Demon at the head of his army in their first encounter. They were very low level, so in normal D&D they'd have had no chance, but the DM had introduced a homebrew critical system which led to the party slaying the Big Bad with a few lucky crits and ending the entire campaign before it had even begun.</p><p></p><p>Whether that's a bug or feature is up to individual tastes, but having major criticals usually only occur after you've "whittled down" an enemy's hit points ought to make for more protracted and, hopefully, interesting combats.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cleon, post: 6686776, member: 57383"] From a narrative viewpoint I'd prefer a critical injury to actually be life threatening, which from a purely hit point view in D&D usually means the target's in the negative HPs. Some version of the [URL="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/injuryandDeath.htm#massiveDamage"]Massive Damage Rule[/URL] like you suggest is a possibility, but as has already been mentioned on this thread that may make it impossible for a low hit point character to take anything more severe than a light wound. (e.g. if a "moderate wound" is, say, 20 hit points, a creature with 9 or fewer hit points would never take one, since a 20 damage hit will kill them instead). Also, I'd prefer it if to be [B][I]very[/I][/B] difficult to inflict a critical wound on a high CR creature with full hit points "right off the bat", since it'd cut down their screen time to a round or two. It's a similar issue to save-or-lose spells, where it's rather anticlimatical if the final boss monster goes down to the first spell it's hit by. Whichever approach is used, it's important to consider how critical hits tend to make combat way more swingey. A friend of mine once told me of a campaign he'd been in which revolved around a Demon leading a monstrous army invasion. The DM obviously wanted them to see the army in the first session, then spend many adventures levelling up with secondary adventures before having a grand finale fight against the Demon. The PCs launched a frontal attack against the Demon at the head of his army in their first encounter. They were very low level, so in normal D&D they'd have had no chance, but the DM had introduced a homebrew critical system which led to the party slaying the Big Bad with a few lucky crits and ending the entire campaign before it had even begun. Whether that's a bug or feature is up to individual tastes, but having major criticals usually only occur after you've "whittled down" an enemy's hit points ought to make for more protracted and, hopefully, interesting combats. [/QUOTE]
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Critical Hits - why, and why not?
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