Roleplaying Damage

[Zhentarim]

Lets say one of your players shoots somebody with a crossbow in the face, achieving a natural 20 on the attack roll, but only rolling 1 damage. Do you even say it hit the enemy's face? It seems like a face shot would be lethal.

[OldTrees1]

A nat 20 -> A moment of luck grants an unavoidable shot
A critical hit (reminder, this is after a successful confirmation check!) -> Hit a more sensitive area
Minimum damage roll -> As glancing of a hit as to still be a hit


So that crossbow to the face? Well it didn't hit the face since you mentioned nothing about a critical confirmation(and I would consider the face to be a critical hit). So the minimum damage would be a glancing but unavoidable blow of the torso(or maybe an earlobe?).

But what if it was a critical? Well then the damage is more than just 1 and they were lucky/skilled vs AC at least twice. In this case I would describe the minimum for a head(I consider head to be critical) hit(glanced off the skull with a sickening thunk).

So depends. If I can describe it as hitting where they aimed, or if they just demonstrated precision, then I would give a reasonable description for hitting near where they aimed.

However I did just name 2 non mortal head wounds one could get from a crossbow, so...

[Mordaedil]

Maybe it just gives them a facial scar, hit points are an abstraction, not to be interpreted literally. You don't have more blood in your body as a fighter than a wizard does.

A hit doesn't even need to mean you "struck" the opponent, the damage could be entirely internal, throwing the opponent off-balance. This is why taking damage in D&D doesn't correlate to your robes or armor getting destroyed after a few swings. Even dropping below 0 doesn't necessarily mean you've been struck through the ribs or been decapitated; you can recover from negative hit points so it wouldn't make much sense.

The only time I think where it makes sense to count a hit as definately murdering is when struck by a a hit dealing massive damage, because it's just instant death. Even getting killed by being immediately dropped to -10 has to be carefully interpreted by a DM, because Raise Dead can't revive someone decapitated.

[Pleh]

People survive bullets to the head all the time (there are some WEIRD stories about people failing to commit suicide with a gun to the head). The body can be weird about surviving injuries.

So, sure. A shot to the face might still be fine.

[hifidelity2]

If someone does a verified critical and if you use locations (so rolled head) and then only 1 damage as a DM I might allow a secondary effect
We do roleplay / add descriptions when we do high damage hits / critical hits

e.g. The target turned his head at the last moment and the arrow scored across this brow (1 HP Damaged). Blood dripping into his eyes gives you +x to your initiative next round

or if a BBEG that is meant to survive

The BBEG’s helm deflected the arrow scoring his cheek – as he escapes he swears revenge for the permeant scar you have caused – this might make him easier to trace later on

etc