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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 6066386" data-attributes="member: 3400">It's a serious injury that doesn't happen to kill the target. It could be a spike in the head, a blade thrust that deeply penetrates the thigh but misses the artery. A central conceit of hit points and gaining more is that the PC gets better at turning injuries that would be lethal into ones that are not. The blade that would have severed the femoral artery is dodged or blocked enough that it just cuts deep. Now to go back to context, you were also talking maximum, not critical, damage. Maybe you really do need (or even should need) a critical to have the chance of one-shotting that PC because that's what turns that high rolling damage from being a severe injury into and even higher damage mortal one. Ultimately, this is part of the fun of the random roll, both for hit points and for damage. Some people can't take the punishment as well as others. Some injuries are worse than others. Make the recovery of those hit points slow, and you can have plenty of grim and gritty fun even while PCs take a few shots to actually kill.</blockquote>