Hi people,
I've see some people doesn't like the way the 5ed handle the natural healing of Hit Points. The rules makes sense if we consider the Hit Points are like concussion hits only, and the only real wound appear when the character reach 0 HP.
For my part, I've played Rolemaster for many years, and in Rolemaster, Hit Points are separated to Flesh Wounds completely, because of a critical table. I explain a bit : When a character is stuck by an attack, he loss HP and make a D100 critical test on an appropriate table. The results is in this form :
- Krush "A" Critical : Blow to foe's forearm, +5 hits. Foe is stunned 1 rnd. Add +20 to your next swing.
- Puncture "D" Critical : Strike to shield arm. Arm is useless. Foe is stunned for 6 rnds. Foe takes 3 hits/rnd.
- Slash "C" Critical : Shatter foe's knee. Foe is knocked down. +6 hits. For at -90 and is down for 3 rnds and cannot parry.
The idea behind this type of critical table is to add flavour (foe can be stuned, can lose his weapon) and add real wounds who NEED a Magic Healing of some sort for healing properly (and fast).
I want to add this tables for Dungeons & Dragons, so I've made the following house rule for my players (who enjoy really criticals). Obviously, I need to ajust/change the results of criticals for scaling with D&D rules (Rolemaster is played in D100 base, not D20).
CRITICALS
Each character have a table who indicate the critical severity, and it's based on its HP max. For exemple, for a character with 14 HP :
HP Loss - Critical Severity
1-3 = No critical
4-6 = A
7-8 = B
9-10 = C
11-12 = D
13-14 = E
When a character loss HP, if the table indicate a potential critical, he must roll 1d100, and the DM consult the appropriate table. Result can varry from nothing to insta-death, including a vast range of desarming, drop, stuns, modifiers and flavoir text). In the severity, the E severity is really dangerous for the character, and result very often in bones shattered, massive bleeds, etc.
Lasting and real wounds are indicated in the critical table with a malus (for exemple -4 is a major wound who minus all the physical actions by 4 if the wound is not healed). A short or long rest cannot restore lasting wounds, and need a long period (days or weeks) or the intervention of a Divine Healer.
What do you think about this ? If it's interresting for you, I can create this sort of tables for D&D5 
PS : It's definitely not for Dungeon Crawling adventures, it runs better on more realistic/dramatic campaigns.
Hi there, and welcome to the forum.
I can understand some group might be more into seeking a deeper realism, but I'm really afraid your idea to be unpractical, adding complexity before adding realism. Are you sure you're bringing more entertainment at your table with this? Are you sure your players will enjoy trading the combat pace for this? Combat speed is one of the most important components into building fun at your table (don't get me wrong, what I mean is that if your go under a threshold turn speed the fun will be screwd, people start to distract and so on).
Fisrt, are you using this system for every combat? Might be better to use it just for the central plot battles? Also, I don't know Rolemaster and your whole tables, but what you've written looks like deadly strong effects for D&D... TPK alert!
I might suggest to start with something more easy. After identify some thresholds (say 50%, 25%, 20% of the character's HP and so on...) and associate them to some kind of simple effects and conditions. They might suffer disadvantage on attack rolls, taking ongoing damage because they are cut open and are starting bleeding, etc... You can came up a bunch of effect of the same severity and arrange them in more tables to randomize if you like (this is the major risk of ruining your combat pace though IMO).
In fact I want handle this in a simple way than Rolemaster do ^^
But after a 4 years campaign with a critical system, my players love it because this system add some fear to be hit. It's not just about HP, but it's about the physical integrity of the character, and even a small combat can be dangerous. It's not a matter of realism (I play GURPS for that), it's a matter of mood and ambiant. When a character is hit, I want it to have a chance to fall, to be stun, bleeding, or anything else
I try to think for a good method to implement it, without using tables for reference (or just a little). And yes, it slow down combat, but if we make very few combats, it help to render the combats more hazardeous, so the PC think twice (and so the player do the same ^^)
Thank for your answer, I will think about all of this seriously (and try several methods, in the next few days)
I use a similar table that really helps to add a constant sense of fear and excitement in that if you are lucky enough you can 1hit kill anything. I also use the same rules for my monsters. The table I have is from 3e so not all the terms match up exactly so you will probably have to fudge some of the stuff, but its a great starting point.
The way it works is if somebody rolls a natural 20, I have them make a second attack roll if that attack is a hit then they get a chance to roll on the special table. If the second roll also comes up as 20 I have them roll a third time, if they manage to get 3 20s in a row it is an instant kill.
The table also includes critical fumbles which work the same way with 1s and missing. I will post a link to the PDF on my OneDrive.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5DDBABE81E7E8491!607&authkey=!AKnV...
2nd Ed Players Option had such a table. It was funny to read, but I don't know anyone who ever played with it for long.
FWIW, I'm working on a much simpler idea:
When a player drops to 0 hit points he suffers a Wound (described appropriately). A Wound adds a level of Exhaustion until healed. Wound healing could require a Long Rest, magical healing or maybe a week of game time, depending on your preference.
If you wanted more you could add a Major Wound, which would add two levels of Exhaustion and require more serious healing.
Exhaustion is a great tool to use for house rules - avoids unnecessary complexity and fiddlyness.