Damage levels rather than absolute values

[Razorlance]

What I'm suggesting is similar to skills and strength which have 5 levels of range, apply the same method to damage inflicted. So for instance, when attacking an animal instead if seeing

'you effeciently hurt a cow using a steel sabre, which loses 20 strength'

you would see...

'you efficently hurt a cow using a steel sabre, you lightly wound it'

or maybe...

'you efficently, lightly wound a cow using a steel sabre'

The 5 ranges would be based on the percentage of the maximum strength of whatever (or whoever) you've attacked as follows

01 - 20% Very lightly wound
21 - 40% Lightly wound
41 - 60% Wound
61 - 80% Heavily wound
81 - 99% Very heavily wound

I think this would solve the RP problem of having values visible, and make it a little better to gauge how well your attack was against animals, as we don't know what their strength is. Against humans we can still tell the damage value by looking at their damage bar, if you really need to.

[SekoETC]

You efficiently hurt a cow using a steel sabre, dealing heavy damage.

I don't think all animals have 100 hp so damage should be scaled based on how many percent it's of the actual maximum. Isn't it possible to kill critters like pigeons and rabbits and lemmings with a single blow if your weapon is good enough?

For animals:

barely scratching it. 1 - 4%
dealing a small amount of damage. 5 - 14%
dealing a moderate amount of damage. 15% - 29%
dealing quite a bit of damage. 30 - 49%
dealing heavy damage. 50 - 74%
dealing severe damage. 75 - 94%
totally crushing the poor critter. 95 - 100%

These are NOT affected by the previous amounts of damage dealt by other characters.

[Razorlance]

Thats what I meant with percentage of maximum strength, so if a deer say has 50hp full strength, then a blow causing 25hp would be 50%. If it was hit again for say 10hp then this would be 20%. This agrees with your last statement.

I was using 5 levels to match the way skills and strength are broken down at the moment, therefore keeping it consistent.

[Crosshair]

I like it, actually... away from numbers! *whipcracks*