Anyone plays with instant kill?

[brun]

On page 64 of the DMG, there is a variant of the critical hit rules that goes like this:

- On a natural 20 o an attack roll, a critical roll is made to see if a critical hit is scored. If that critical roll is also a natural 20, it is considered a threat for an instant kill. Now a third roll is made, if that roll scores a hit on the target, the target is instantly slain.

Anyone uses this variant? Any interresting stories regarding it?

 

[Crothian]

Ya, we used in one camapign. My bard killed a very tough cloud giant (had like ten levels of fighter) with my whip dagger. It was in the first round, and I had the first attack. Very, anti climatic. This encounter was supposed to be the big bad boss guy. I needed a nat 20 just to hit him.

 

[DM with a vengence]

I did, but now I use multi-crit rules.

If, in confirming a critical, you score another critical hit, then you do another critical's worth of damage. This continues until you fail to confirm a critical hit.

Example, Tordek, iconic fighter attacks a Dragon with his dwarven waraxe. He rolls a 20, 20 and 17. Since this is a double crit and he normally deals 1d10+5 points of damage, he deals 5d10+25 (1d10+5 (3x)3x) points of damage on this attack.

 

[Kai Lord]

Ya, we used in one camapign. My bard killed a very tough cloud giant (had like ten levels of fighter) with my whip dagger. It was in the first round, and I had the first attack. Very, anti climatic. This encounter was supposed to be the big bad boss guy. I needed a nat 20 just to hit him.

Holy crap, that means you rolled 3 natural 20's in a row. That's the time when the DM immediately thinks up a new main villain to work into the story and you just became the badass henchman slayer of all time. I can only imagine the looks on the fighter PC's faces when your bard took him out with his first attack.

I sure hope you had something profoundly cocky to say as the giant fell....

 

[Crothian]

Holy crap, that means you rolled 3 natural 20's in a row. That's the time when the DM immediately thinks up a new main villain to work into the story and you just became the badass henchman slayer of all time. I can only imagine the looks on the fighter PC's faces when your bard took him out with his first attack.

I sure hope you had something profoundly cocky to say as the giant fell....

After that we looted and went on to set up the next week's game. I got first dips on the best loot. I earned it.

Ya, I always had something cool to say with that Bard. He was very cocky, I just wish I could remeber what it was.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

We use it. It has almost killed my Wizard twice, and did get our Barbarian/Dragon Disciple. We also got a few badies with it, the best was a group of fleeing orcs. My wizard just made a snap shot on one, with the Barbarian in chase it didn't matter if I hit. Then "WHACK",... ewww!

With the way we roll, it comes up very rarely.

 

[Scarab]

It's used against any non-PC. They're supposed to be heroes, after all. (It's not like they don't take a whole bunch of damage versus the Evil Villain anyway...)

 

[brun]

In our game, we use the rule. I'm kind of loose as a DM and the players figured that since they ars 5 and I'm alone, they had more chances of using it.

Well, as the party was dealing with a few abishais in a demon outpost, the first use of the rule came into play.

The wizard was boosting the party, the druid was doing what he could, the shadow dancer was sneak-attacking as he could and the 2 ubber-fighters were doing fine (read killing by the dozens) while the thief was "guarding the rear".

Then the SD got scared for his hide and popped away, the druid ran out of spells (but he was out of the demons' reach) and the wizard was occupied with something else. That leaves the 2 fighters alone (the thief, well...).

There's 5 abishais left against the 2 fighters. We're talking 13th level character: one warrior of resolve (a tank that gets stronger as he gets hit) and a dwarven falchion master (can every one say *power-gamer*?). The dwarve got hit one time, the other only 2, and both have stonesking and bullstrength and have disposed of about 13 demons. I roll in plain sight, as they all have guest their ennemies' stats and the outcome is so evident.

But I roll a 20, and then a 20 (I needed 19 or 20 to score a crit), and then another 20...

All look at me while I slowly says that the dwarf has been killed...
And then I score a crit against the remaining fighter...

It was so great!

 

[Dinkeldog]

I did, but now I use multi-crit rules.

If, in confirming a critical, you score another critical hit, then you do another critical's worth of damage. This continues until you fail to confirm a critical hit.

Example, Tordek, iconic fighter attacks a Dragon with his dwarven waraxe. He rolls a 20, 20 and 17. Since this is a double crit and he normally deals 1d10+5 points of damage, he deals 5d10+25 (1d10+5 (3x)3x) points of damage on this attack.

Wow. Finally a reason to take a keen scimitar.

 

[Piratecat]

We tried it, and rejected it. It was too deadly for the PCs, in my opinion.