D&D 5E Critical Fumbles a core rule?

[Ravingdork]

I have a GM who insists that his critical fumble rule is an actual rule somewhere in the books, since he claims to have never played under any GMs without it, but I can't find it, and he has so far refused to show it to me.

Essentially, if you roll a 1 on an attack, you not only miss, but something bad happens as you fumble about with your weapon.

This GM seems pretty light-handed with it, so I'm not too concerned even if it's a misunderstanding and becomes a house rule, but I would like to know if it's actually in the books somewhere.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Nope. Not a core rule. Might possibly be an optional rule in the DMG, but I don't recall it even being there, but don't have my book near to check.

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[TheNoremac42]

tl;dr - A critical failure or success doesn't normally have any special effect, but a DM can choose to give it one.

DMG, page 242

CRITICAL SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Rolling a 20 or a 1 on an ability check or a saving throw doesn't normally have any special effect. However, you can choose to take such an exceptional roll into account when adjudicating the outcome. It's up to you to determine how this manifests in the game. An easy approach is to increase the impact of the success or failure. For example, rolling a 1 on a failed attempt to pick a lock might break the thieves' tools being used, and rolling a 20 on a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check might reveal an extra clue.

PHB, page 194

Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless o f any modifiers or the target’s AC. In addition, the attack is a critical hit, as explained later in this chapter. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.

 

[Oofta]

No, and it never has been part of the core rules of any edition that I know of. In addition, it heavily penalizes classes that rely on multiple attacks.

 

[KahlessNestor]

tl;dr - A critical failure or success doesn't normally have any special effect, but a DM can choose to give it one.

DMG, page 242

CRITICAL SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Rolling a 20 or a 1 on an ability check or a saving throw doesn't normally have any special effect. However, you can choose to take such an exceptional roll into account when adjudicating the outcome. It's up to you to determine how this manifests in the game. An easy approach is to increase the impact of the success or failure. For example, rolling a 1 on a failed attempt to pick a lock might break the thieves' tools being used, and rolling a 20 on a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check might reveal an extra clue.

PHB, page 194

Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless o f any modifiers or the target’s AC. In addition, the attack is a critical hit, as explained later in this chapter. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.

And none of those address crit fails on attack rolls other than auto miss.

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[ccs]

No, and it never has been part of the core rules of any edition that I know of. In addition, it heavily penalizes classes that rely on multiple attacks.

And yet no one cries about crit successes heavily rewarding those same people beyond always hitting.

 

[nswanson27]

And yet no one cries about crit successes heavily rewarding those same people beyond always hitting.

Including the enemies.

 

[Caliban]

And yet no one cries about crit successes heavily rewarding those same people beyond always hitting.

Well yeah. Because we play for fun and the game is biased in favor of the PC's winning.

 

[Oofta]

And yet no one cries about crit successes heavily rewarding those same people beyond always hitting.

Other than rolling damage dice a second time, critical successes aren't part of the game either.

It also seems to balance out - a fighter may get multiple attacks and a greater chance of a small increase in damage but when a rogue crits they reroll weapon and sneak attack damage. It adds up.

Fighters tend to be slow and steady damage, other classes tend to be have bigger spike damage. I don't see a problem with that.

 

[TheNoremac42]

I remember one campaign we did the DM tried a different system for critical hits.

If the hit was 10 over the AC, you got advantage on the damage roll. 15 over, double damage. 20, double damage with advantage. 25, triple damage. Etc.

It ended up really breaking non-magic combat. Our Ranger/Assassin was doing damage in the triple digits per round at level 14.