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What Exactly Is A Critical Hit?
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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 8213725" data-attributes="member: 6775477"><p>This really depends on how the group (especially the DM) handles HP. In 5E, you take nothing but nicks and scratches from anything above half HP, with the one taking you to 0 HP as a serious wound (since it can kill you), however the "meat points" argument has been around forever. Since HP are abstract, it leaves the specifics entirely up to the imagination, and no matter how much you try to describe them in the books, each person is going to imagine them differently.</p><p></p><p>As a DM, I generally follow the notion for players that you suffer only minor impacts at less than half HP ("tis but a scratch!"), but enemies are treated as bags of meat. If a player hits, the creature bleeds or suffers some appropriate visible injury. This is partly to let the players know they were successful (and hint to resistance/vulnerability), to let the players feel more important (their hits are meaningful, but they shake off enemy hits), and because nobody really cares about the healing of enemies after the fight (unlike the PCs and allies). In the case of a critical hit, however, the PC takes a wound they normally wouldn't take until at half HP. This makes those feel as bad as they actually are.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 8213725, member: 6775477"] This really depends on how the group (especially the DM) handles HP. In 5E, you take nothing but nicks and scratches from anything above half HP, with the one taking you to 0 HP as a serious wound (since it can kill you), however the "meat points" argument has been around forever. Since HP are abstract, it leaves the specifics entirely up to the imagination, and no matter how much you try to describe them in the books, each person is going to imagine them differently. As a DM, I generally follow the notion for players that you suffer only minor impacts at less than half HP ("tis but a scratch!"), but enemies are treated as bags of meat. If a player hits, the creature bleeds or suffers some appropriate visible injury. This is partly to let the players know they were successful (and hint to resistance/vulnerability), to let the players feel more important (their hits are meaningful, but they shake off enemy hits), and because nobody really cares about the healing of enemies after the fight (unlike the PCs and allies). In the case of a critical hit, however, the PC takes a wound they normally wouldn't take until at half HP. This makes those feel as bad as they actually are. [/QUOTE]
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What Exactly Is A Critical Hit?
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