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Message: <blockquote data-quote="El Mahdi" data-source="post: 5850782" data-attributes="member: 59506">Ahhh, but now you've revised what you said with it's a well-designed pit trap.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  I agree, not all pit traps are created equal. Your statement however was that it was just as logical or illogical to make falling into a pit trap (period, no qualifier), result in instant death just as it would be to fall in lava. Obviously a well-designed pit trap will have a higher DC than a less well-designed one.  But I can still see someone surviving even a well-designed pit trap, although likely seriously injoured.  Not so for falling into (onto) lava.  It is feasible for someone to continue fighting after falling into a pit trap.  Damage from a pit trap that didn't reduce one to zero or less (incapacitation or death), is easily explained as serious piercing wounds to limbs or even the torso.  Wounds which people can and have continued fighting with even in the real world. The wounds which Anakin suffered, which is likely the best case scenario for an encounter with lava, does not leave one able to continue fighting in any way shape or form.  That's an automatic reduction to 0 Hit Points (Complete Incapacitation or Death). They aren't the same thing...<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   I understand and agree.  But this post isn't discussing whether a Critical Hit causes Instant Death or not, it's discussing the definition of a Critical Hit.  And that's not the point you made in the post of yours I quoted. In the real world, a coup de grace would accomplish what you're saying.  But according to the RAW of D&D, it does not.  As illogical as you and I may feel that to be, and as much as we may change that in our games, it's not the rules of D&D. If you want to use your definition of a Critical Hit to support your position that this is comparative in logic or illogic to instant death from lava, then so be it.  Just remember the rest of us are likely using the game rules as the standard for this discussion, and not someone else's personal definition that we can't possibly have known.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm    :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" /> But I understand your point.  A coup de grace should be instant death also.  And I agree. However, not all Critical Hits are coup de grace.   You're describing a default assumption of the game that is not a constant at all tables, nor is presented in the rules as a default assumption. I agree with most of what you're saying.  But it's not the dafault assumption of D&D.  It's much more varied and flexible than that.  (I'm not speaking of mechanics, but of what the game is...super hero, gritty, sword & sorcery, standard fantasy, etc.) But that is in essence, the same thing I and others are saying about Lava.  So, I understand your point.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />   True.  But until that happens, he's at 0 Hit Points or less, automatically.  Falling into Lava means Death (most likely), or Incapacitation (best case).  There is no other possible realistic outcome. Until he get's that magical healing, he cannot fight. That's what people are talking about when they say that Lava should be instant death.  D&D RAW disagrees, but that's a change some people want.  Whether that would be good for D&D as a game, I don't really know.  But I'd like that included, and some of the things you brought up as well. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/glasses.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt="B-)" title="Glasses    B-)" data-shortname="B-)" /></blockquote>

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