Instant Kill Rules

What do people think about these rules for wounding?

Lethal Damage:
19-20/20 - Instant kill.
17-18/19 - Instant critical hit.

The numbers on the left are for extended critical damage range, the numbers on the right are for the normal critical damage range.

Non-lethal Damage:
19-20/20 - Instant knock out.
17-18/19 - Instant critical hit.

As per the above, the numbers on the left are for extended critical damage range while the numbers on the right are for the normal critical damage range.

that sounds a bit too easy. a 1 in 400 chance if my math is correct.

our group uses 3 20's to determine instant death. that's a little bit better, imho...
no one, including the DM, likes to see the fight won by a fluke

yeah, we go with critical threat, critical hit, instant kill > so 3d20's for that. only 2 is a bit easy, IMO

Just a thought.

the way i go is a threat, a nat 20, and a confirm. So you crit threat, and in confirming it you roll a nat 20 and death threat, and then u confirm it. It makes the odds of getting a death threat anywhere from 1/67 (keen scimitar) to 1/400 (quarterstaff). To confirm it you just have to hit. So for an instant death regardless of HD, AC, and everthing else, the odds would be 1/222 (keen scimitar) or 1/8000 (quarterstaff). It is a rare sight, but a possible one to see a wizard run up and in hitting that dragon in the throat just happens to crush it's wind pipe and ruptures its fire gland! It's like hitting the lottery D&D style. It will happen once a campaign, but it's great for roleplay.

To insta-kill in my group you need two natural twenties followed by a succesful confirmation (3 20s and confirm equals disentegration, 4 20s and confirm equals eternal damnation plus above and 5 20s and confirms equals non-existence; only ever happened once).

Yours look a little easier to insta kill with. Which is fine depending upon the flavor you're going for.

I think people are right that my ideas are too tough.

What do people think are best?

• Using the same rules as my first post, but adding a save against instant death. If save then triple damage (maybe double).
• Using the same rules as above, but instead of instant death it is an instant death threat and if hit when reroll instant death occurs (maybe adding a save as above).

The best - i.e. the simplest and the most fair - "instant kill" rule I've seen is this:

When a critical hit is confirmed, first the multiple damage is rolled. Then, if the victim is still alive, he makes a Fort save. The DC for this save is 10 plus half (rounded down, as always) the damage taken. If he fails this save, he is slain. (Or, if he's a PC and the DM is willing, he is instantly knocked down to negative hit points, and thus he is dying.)

This way, it's possible for even a halfling with a dagger to instantly slay an ogre with an extremely lucky strike.

Since this rule takes affect only when a critical hit is confirmed, creatures that are immune to criticals are not subject to this rule.