D&D 5E Critical Hits and Fumbles

[Pickles JG]

So the greatest warrior in the world a 20th level fighter who action surges will fumble almost half the time? Still seems moronic to me.

 

[Paraxis]

So lets look at this fumble house rule.

You fumble an attack and your next attack has disadvantage.

What if your next attack comes 2 rounds later? Why would your fumble mess you up after you have already moved, dashed, and cast a spell?

Why does getting better at fighting, and thus extra attacks increase the odds that I am such a clutz that I will fumble on my tun?

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

How about...
Roll a 1: You miss and may fumble: quick, Roll d20.
Get your Level or less: phew, it's just a miss. An ugly one, but just a miss.
Roll over your Level: whoops, your weapon is tangled/embedded in the fence post/whatever (adapt to suit the locale as you see fit).
On your next turn you can EITHER spend that turn's movement/actions freeing or recovering it (and thus have Disadvantage on that turn), OR you can choose to abandon/drop the weapon and draw a new one (no Disadvantage) next turn.
Roll a natural 20: double whoops, you hit a compadre: roll damage as normal.
If you wanted to, you could say that a level 19, 20 or higher character would be so skilled they forego the hit-a-friend and only suffer the stuck weapon instead on a 20.
That way, the higher level you are, the less chance you will fumble at all, and even at lower levels you'd only have a 5% chance of accidentally stabbing your buddy.

 

[Mavkatzer]

Roll a fumble and you have disadvantage on your next attack... brilliant! One more idea from ENWorld added to my game! Thanks!

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

IMHO, Fumble rules generally clash with the high fantasy heroic tone most players expect from D&D.

Furthermore, there seems to be a skewed obsession about adding complexity and more random swings to what is already the most dice intense and swingy-est aspect of the game. Missing an attack is already its own reward. And that offers my enemies another chance to get a luck crit against me. What more do I need?

If Fumbles and uncertainty were REALLY about fun, then were should add a 5% chance of the dragon choking on a hairball when he attempts to breathe fire on the party, or a 5% chance the Wizard hits himself in the foot with a Fireball, or a 5% chance that the Evil Priest curses himself when he attempts to do bad against the heroes.

If "realism" is good for the goose, then it is good for the gander.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I dunno, even Conan gets his sword wedged into the scenery from time to time.
And the rules would apply equally to the bad guys, too.

 

[Bupp]

IMHO, Fumble rules generally clash with the high fantasy heroic tone most players expect from D&D.

Furthermore, there seems to be a skewed obsession about adding complexity and more random swings to what is already the most dice intense and swingy-est aspect of the game. Missing an attack is already its own reward. And that offers my enemies another chance to get a luck crit against me. What more do I need?

If Fumbles and uncertainty were REALLY about fun, then were should add a 5% chance of the dragon choking on a hairball when he attempts to breathe fire on the party, or a 5% chance the Wizard hits himself in the foot with a Fireball, or a 5% chance that the Evil Priest curses himself when he attempts to do bad against the heroes.

If "realism" is good for the goose, then it is good for the gander.

Actually, I apply crits and fumbles to spell attacks as well.

Also, It appears I'm guilty of nerfing. I just went back and re-read the rule on critical hits and I had it wrong.

When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.

For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the rogue’s Sneak Attack feature, you roll those dice twice as well.

Use crits as RAW, but I'm going to still give advantage on the next roll, just for fun.

 

[Psikerlord#]

deleted!

 

[Lanefan]

If Fumbles and uncertainty were REALLY about fun, then were should add a 5% chance of the dragon choking on a hairball when he attempts to breathe fire on the party, or a 5% chance the Wizard hits himself in the foot with a Fireball, or a 5% chance that the Evil Priest curses himself when he attempts to do bad against the heroes.

If "realism" is good for the goose, then it is good for the gander.

And that's just the way we do it.

Anything requiring aim (and that includes a whole bunch of spells) needs an aiming roll or to-hit roll, and on any such roll fumbles are possible.

However, it's not a 5% chance of a full fumble but is in fact somewhat less. Roll a natural '1' and you automatically miss; roll something low enough that negative modifiers bring down to 1 or below and you threaten a fumble but if you don't fumble then it's checked as usual to see if you hit. Then, to confirm a fumble roll a d6; if it comes up '1' then you've fumbled. A melee fumble can lead to any number of things via rolling on a chart held by the DM:
- common - minor (d4) damage to self or an ally; or drop weapon nearby; or damage weapon (save applies if magic); etc.
- uncommon - trip or slip and give your foe a free attack; or throw weapon; or full damage to self or ally; or drop shield
- rare - critical damage to self or ally; or some cascading combination of some or all of these
Missile fumbles usually involve either breaking the weapon, breaking the ammo, or hitting a friend
Spell or device or spell-like ability fumbles can involve all kinds of things most of which are not much fun for the caster.

Lan-"of all our thousands of 1e house rules this one might be the longest-surviving without alteration"-efan

 

[SirAntoine]

Not doubling all extra damage dice is a big nerf to rogues, and not such a big nerf to rangers, paladins, and warlocks or other classes that commonly use extra dice to modify weapon damage.

Why add fumbles, they are not part of the game, never have been in the standard rules, they harm the players way more than the monsters.

Fumbles are a good balance if you allow critical hits.