Over on Akratic Wizardry the anonymous author (”Akrasia”) is thinking about Critical Hits and pondering the possibility of critical hits reducing Constitution instead of Hit Points.
In response, I asked: What’s the point of critical hits? Make combat more dangerous for all? Make it a lot more dangerous to high-level characters since their Constitution doesn’t go up? Get people to cheer when they roll a natural 20? Also consider that making things more random will generally make combat more difficult for players, skewing the general balance of fights. You will have to take this into account if you’re using Challenge Ratings or Hit Dice to eyeball encounters.
Then again, if you’ve been eyeballing encounters before because there is only a very rough estimate based on hit dice, or if your players are eyeballing encounters for you by picking their fights in a sandbox, there is no problem.
For me personally, I just want to encourage that happy *cheering* at the table when a natural 20 is rolled. In order to do that, I don’t need critical hits to do extra damage, or do Constitution damage, or max damage. I’m not interested in critical hits as a simulation of anything. I’m just interested in random happy moments at the table.
In a rules-light combat system like classic D&D, I would love to add little effects that give players *choice*. The simplest effect might be “you shove your opponent back – now’s an excellent opportunity to disengage” – if that’s what the players need. Or “press on and gain a +2 next round” if that’s what the players need. Just let it be something small and cool.
#RPG #thoughts
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Interesting take on Critical Hits...I think that different people like different “grit” in terms of combat though. In other words, I’ve got a good friend that I often play with and he loves the fact that a 9th level character could die from one well placed (or lucky) dagger to a vital organ. And I think that that’s what the constitution-based critical hit system dutifully represents. It’s certainly a different mentality, one that���s very akin to the save or die poison _ trap school of old._
– Gamer Dude 2009-08-21 15:15 UTC