Chapter Six:

Critical Hits

Fantasy literature is full of mighty blows and grievous wounds that change the course of a battle. Characters such as Robert E. Howard’s Conan, Beowulf, or any of the heroes of the Arthurian legends wreaked havoc among their enemies—cleaving skulls, severing limbs, and otherwise smashing their foes into red ruin. Every fan of heroic fiction is a little fascinated (and sometimes horrified) by blood and gore. You only have to go out to the movies to see that this is true.

However, the purpose of this chapter is not to overwhelm AD&D players with sickening displays of pointless violence. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the AD&D game with a more realistic system for simulating telling blows and specific injuries. At its most basic level, the AD&D combat system is a contest of attrition that all boils down to who runs out of hit points first. Critical hits can change that.

This chapter presents two critical hit systems. The first is extremely simple: if you score a critical hit, you get to roll double damage. The second system is more involved and takes into account the location of the injury, the severity of the wound, and the power of the attacker. Last (but certainly not least!) this chapter concludes with a few notes on the effects of specific injuries and how they can be healed.

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