Critical hit system

[Melhaic]

What critical hit system do you use? Straight up natural 20, double damage? Or 42 charts?

I'm more more the latter. I like combat grim and brutal, so I use the system from 2E Combat & Tactics. With the 3E ranges. Yeah, I like dismemberment.

Any "threat" is a crit: none of this cockamamey confirmation roll BS. Damage and effect are based on weapon size relative to the critee (a hobbit critted by a greataxe is ogre jelly). The critee makes a fort save equal to damage dealt, and if it fails he/she/it/they suffer a specific injury. This is where the charts come in. They are based on weapon type vs. area (ie "right arm"), and the severity determined, once again, by size. Weapons with a crit modifier of more than x2 are treated as a category larger. Location is determined by the desciption given by the player

The fun part about this system is that the heroes leave a trail of severed limbs and sucking chest wounds behind them. It really adds a new side to weapon choice: crit become much more important. Improved critical is taken by all of the party members. Since I run a pretty low magic world where a flaming sword would be more than legendary (think more like Durandal or Narsil), keen weapons are available from the greatest of smiths and dwarven dragon hordes. The players end up ctitting much more than the monsters, but sometimes a player is tagged.

The players are cool with it , and it adds real danger in every combat. We even assign scars... even the occasional maiming is nice. It makes the best stories...

One player got on a kick that he wanted to play a catfolk (I dread every handing him races of the wild), and I hated it, but allowed it. He lasted about four adventures, then had his face bitten off by a bar-lgra(sp?)

Another tried to tear a warg's jaws apart. He rolled a 2. The warg 20. High severity roll=stumpy fingers. Luckily, he was a high strength barbarian an he became a Reaping Mauler, and was cool because of it.

The rogue girl sniped a BBEG through the eye .

And last but not least one of the best entries on the chart, on the party paladin. Bludgeoning Vs. Head, on a roll of eleven: "Skull crushed,reduced to 0 Hp, major bleeding. Int, Wis, and Cha all drop 1/2 permanently." He is still around, as the now comical noble twit that lives at the castle...

Any good maiming/crit stories out there?

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I use the standard 3.5E threat/confirmation roll with a little twist. If the confirmation roll is a 20, roll again. If that extra roll would have hit (using the same rules as the confirmation roll) then you do an extra multiplier of damage (so x2 becomes x3 damage, x3 damage becomes x4 damage, etc.,).

If the extra roll is also a 20 then roll again. If the second extra roll hits the the damage multiplier increases again. Repeat until a 20 isn't rolled.

So it's basically like the 3.5E critical rules, except that you can get even more damage if you roll a few natural 20's in a row. I like it as it gives extra damage but without the insta-kill that many groups have if you roll 3 20's in a row.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I prefer not to use critical hit systems in D&D (although I enjoy them in other games, like Rolemaster). However, I do use them, sometimes.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Usually? Either Torn Asunder: Critical Hits, from Bastion Press, or the Critical Hit Deck and the Critical Fumble Deck, from Paizo. Depends on what's being run, and by whom.

Sometimes, neither of the above options, and something else altogether. D&D / d20 ain't the only thing goin' round here.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Paizo's Dungeons & Dragons Dragon Compendium has an article titled "Good Hits, Bad Misses" that includes some decent options.

 

[DragonLancer]

I did try out a criticical hit chart that was pointed out here on ENWorld a while back, but I think in future that I'll stick to our usual nat 20 with a crit check only if the target is larger in size than the attacker.

 

[Jhaelen]

I used to get wild with crit (and fumble!) tables in the past. As of D&D 3.5 I'm using the crit rules exactly as written. I intend to do so in 4E.

The sidebar in the 3.0 rulebook convinced me it's not a good idea to overemphasize these things.

 

[an_idol_mind]

Nat 20 is a crit for double damage. No threat ranges, no confirmation rolls. Has the disadvantage of making some weapons, like the scimitar, less useful, but it's easy and I like it.

I tried the critical hit charts from Combat & Tactics once, and I don't think they're all that bad if limited to certain climactic battles. It kind of drains a lot of the energy out of an adventure if a character loses a limb or shatters his kneecap during a random encounter in the middle of a dungeon, though.

 

[Frost]

I use Paizo' Critical Hit Deck. So far, I have found it adds a lot of fun and the players like it. However, I make it optional... the players can do the standard crit. damage or use the deck, they just have to choose before drawing a card. It is also a "player's only" option in my campaign. Critical hit systems tend to favor the bad guys anyhow, so I figure no need to pile on.

 

[el-remmen]

I have used crit and fumble charts of one form or another since 1E days, all based on the original "Good Hits, Bad Misses" article (well, originally reprinted in Best of DRAGON Vol. 2? (or was it 3?)).

Currently, we use the determination of crits in the same method as the core rules with confirmation rolls, with a confirmed roll meaning a roll on the appropriate chart. Critcal Fumble results work the opposite way with the confirmation of a miss on the roll of a natural '1'.

Most of the deadly effects allow for a save to avoid them (though you still take extra damage) which are usually a FORT or REF save (the chart lets you know which) against 10 + 1/2 the total damage.

Sometimes a critical hit (or fumble) can result in 'no effect' (save normal damage) depending on what is rolled and the current situation, and sometimes a certain condition can make them worse. For example, if the crit result says "Helm Removed" and you don't wear a helm then you are directed to the result for a head crit instead (doing awful damage) - Other times a crit can be mitigated by use of a helmet - for example a full helm gives +10 on saves against head results.

Also, with these rules we use, some creates listed as immune to crits are only partially immune. For example, while zombies don't take extra damage from crits, they can still have limbs removed - however, they continue to attempt to attack the best they can. A few times we have had PCs fighting against a headless zombie!

Anyway, here are my charts:

Critical Hit Results - Slashing
Critical Hit Results - Piercing
Critical Hit Results - Blunt
Critical Fumble Results - All Weapons
and this page should help, too: Applying Critical Results

I usually just make up a ruling on fly when crits are made against monsters with strange bodies.

As for memorable crit results: There was the time the barbarian 'Skurge of the North' and the rest of this party were fighting bugbears in the courtyard of the ruined fortress atop Bone Hill and he took a morningstar to the throat puncturing his larnx. Despite being told that continuing to fight and exerting himself would shorten the amount of air he had before having to check to see if he dies, the player had his character fight on true to form, trying to take out as many bugbears with his last breaths as he could. It was a spectacular massacre and he scored some awesome crits of his own allowing the rest of the party to retreat and regroup before finally succumbing.

In the 'Out of the Frying Pan' campaign, Ratchis the party's ranger/priest scored a decapitation crit on his first attack against this weakened ancient vampire that was about to start feeding on the party (in my homebrew vamps can be killed by means of decapitation). The thing rose from its sarcophogus. The party gasped, knowing the threat was likely beyond them, and then the half-orc rushed forward and just chopped the sucker's head off!