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<blockquote data-quote="Bismark" data-source="post: 1292704" data-attributes="member: 11922">To answer the question of 'why can't they be criticalled', I'm not sure it's something you can answer in terms of real world logic or rules. My best answer is, 'it's too complicated'. Plus, it doesn't fit in with the concept of hit points. Sneak attack doesn't entirely either, but it does scale in damage along with hit points, so it makes more sense.Hit points are an abstract. I don't know offhand exactly how the book describes them, I will admit. I also admit that this is just interpretation on my part, and not rule or fiat. In the games I play in, losing hit points doesn't always represent being hit, to us. It can represent fatigue, or a blow that would have hit you, or just a finite amount of heroic luck. Maybe when Rambo is running from a helicopter blazing machineguns at him that just leave twin trails in the dirt, he's really losing hitpoints.The reason I say this is that it is hard to imagine a 20th level fighter taking dozens of arrows doing 5 or 6 damage, and not falling, no matter how tough or experienced he is. To keep some sense of consistency and reality in our games, we assume that for whatever reason, a lot of those arrows are just plain missing him when they wouldn't miss a lower level fighter.I guess my end point is that no one description or explanation of hit points will work and make sense in real life/world terms. Whether you view this as a flaw in the system, or a nice simplification of what would otherwise create dozens of more rules, is just a matter of personal choice.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bismark, post: 1292704, member: 11922"] To answer the question of 'why can't they be criticalled', I'm not sure it's something you can answer in terms of real world logic or rules. My best answer is, 'it's too complicated'. Plus, it doesn't fit in with the concept of hit points. Sneak attack doesn't entirely either, but it does scale in damage along with hit points, so it makes more sense. Hit points are an abstract. I don't know offhand exactly how the book describes them, I will admit. I also admit that this is just interpretation on my part, and not rule or fiat. In the games I play in, losing hit points doesn't always represent being hit, to us. It can represent fatigue, or a blow that would have hit you, or just a finite amount of heroic luck. Maybe when Rambo is running from a helicopter blazing machineguns at him that just leave twin trails in the dirt, he's really losing hitpoints. The reason I say this is that it is hard to imagine a 20th level fighter taking dozens of arrows doing 5 or 6 damage, and not falling, no matter how tough or experienced he is. To keep some sense of consistency and reality in our games, we assume that for whatever reason, a lot of those arrows are just plain missing him when they wouldn't miss a lower level fighter. I guess my end point is that no one description or explanation of hit points will work and make sense in real life/world terms. Whether you view this as a flaw in the system, or a nice simplification of what would otherwise create dozens of more rules, is just a matter of personal choice. [/QUOTE]

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