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<blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5206348" data-attributes="member: 704">D&amp;D uses hit points.&nbsp; The entire purpose of HP is to provide an abstraction for the accumulated damage suffered in combat.&nbsp; A critical hit location table does tend to run entirely counter to that reasoning.The only benefit such tables will apply is for a small level of narrative embellishment, and possibly for having a player accumulate penalties so that his overall combat effectiveness does not go from 100% effective at 1 hp left to dead / dying at zero hp.2nd Edition D&amp;D did provide for a critical hit table with the Advanced Combat and Tactics book.&nbsp; That book basically had the same kind of crits as 3rd edition + series of hit location tables based on piercing / slashing / bludgeoning damage.That did lead to one spectacular moment where I landed a natural 20 critical hit on a lance charge on a PC.&nbsp; The pc had full hp, somewhere around 35 to 50 hp.&nbsp; The damage alone put him past -10 hp from the Charge multipier and the crit multiplier.&nbsp; The critical hit table came up with Location, Chest, Severity 12 (on 1d12).&nbsp; That result was &quot;'Chest destroyed, target dead&quot;.&nbsp; The character was very emphatically dead.In any event, a critical hit table or system of any sort is a much greater risk to the players.&nbsp; Most monsters have less HP and are generally less durable then the players.&nbsp; The DM will land many more crits on the PC's then not.&nbsp; If the critical hit table used has some nasty penalties, you will mostly be applying them to the players.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lord Zardoz, post: 5206348, member: 704"] D&D uses hit points. The entire purpose of HP is to provide an abstraction for the accumulated damage suffered in combat. A critical hit location table does tend to run entirely counter to that reasoning. The only benefit such tables will apply is for a small level of narrative embellishment, and possibly for having a player accumulate penalties so that his overall combat effectiveness does not go from 100% effective at 1 hp left to dead / dying at zero hp. 2nd Edition D&D did provide for a critical hit table with the Advanced Combat and Tactics book. That book basically had the same kind of crits as 3rd edition + series of hit location tables based on piercing / slashing / bludgeoning damage. That did lead to one spectacular moment where I landed a natural 20 critical hit on a lance charge on a PC. The pc had full hp, somewhere around 35 to 50 hp. The damage alone put him past -10 hp from the Charge multipier and the crit multiplier. The critical hit table came up with Location, Chest, Severity 12 (on 1d12). That result was "'Chest destroyed, target dead". The character was very emphatically dead. In any event, a critical hit table or system of any sort is a much greater risk to the players. Most monsters have less HP and are generally less durable then the players. The DM will land many more crits on the PC's then not. If the critical hit table used has some nasty penalties, you will mostly be applying them to the players. END COMMUNICATION [/QUOTE]

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