Any Narrative Style Critical Charts Out There? Including for Spell Criticals?

[joethelawyer]

by that i mean, charts that describe an effect on the person other than one resulting in a numeric penalty to something.

something along the lines of "the club breaks the right arm, and you can't swing a weapon or hold a shield up."

not "the enemy suffers -2 to his attacks."

also, ones that handle various types of attack, like slashing, piercing, or bludgeoning would be great.

even ones that detail damage done to armor pieces , or different effects depending on one was wearing an armor piece on that body part, would be interesting.

are there any similar critical charts for spell criticals for basic types of attacks? fire, cold, sonic, etc?

something like "the fireball heat is so intense that all your body hair is burned off."

are there any rules for spell criticals that anyone knows of?

if anyone knows of any resources like this, whether from any published source, or house rules, or website, that would be great.

thx

 

[Psion]

I used to use Rolemaster crits for this sort of thing, but found that the insta-kills rather changed the nature of the game. It had rules for spell criticals. It's written for the Rolemaster system, so you have to dream up your own way of how to integrate it with d20/etc.

Paizo's critical hit deck is about what you are looking for. Each card has entries for Slashing, Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Magic. It's easy to use, but I'm not sure it has quite the level of descriptiveness you are looking for.

Torn Asumder by Bastion Press is also good in this vein, but a bit harder to find a hardcopy these days.

In my own game, I had been using a system that grants special attacks for all sorts of events that cause HP damage. Basically, instead of triggering of a crit roll, it's triggered off of damage. It you took half your remaining HP in one hit/spell/effect, you had to make a save or suffer a crit effect.

 

[Gothmog]

Yep Joe, there is a new book for 4e called Combat Essentials 1: Critical Matters by Final Redoubt Press. I ordered my hard copy from Noble Knight Games, but you can get a PDF at (RPGNow.com - The leading source for indie RPGs). The writer even gives credit to the writers of Rolemaster's crit tables as the main inspiration for this book. The book has crit tables for blunt, slashing, piercing, brawling, grabbing, martial arts, acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and thunder. I just got mine in the mail on Friday, and it looks really good. Basically, anytime you roll a crit, you also roll % on the suitable table, and get a narrative result. For example:

Slashing 68: Hack foe's sternum. The bone is broken, but it did its job. Foe is at -6 to all actions and is stunned for 2 rounds. Bleed 1 hp/lvl every 10 minutes. This wound would be convenient for direct heart massage.

Brawling 81: Falling backward, you kick foe in the knee. There is a sickening crack. Foe stunned 6 rounds. -4 to all actions. -2 squares of movement (permanent -1 movement).

Acid 42: Acid splashes on foot, eating through the instep but not quite severing it. Foe can no longer run and is at -1. Stunned for 1 round. Ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends).

Fire 66: Flames burn into abdomen, searing organs. Foe recieves -1 penalty next round from pain. The penalty increases by -1 per round until it his -9, then drops by -1 a round are that. Ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).

Lightning 90: Current chars scalp and electrocutes brain. Victim is paralyzed from the neck down. He changes radiacally in personality (or alignment). Foe is dazed (save ends). Foe is helpless.

It looks pretty well done, and I'll give it a shot in my 4e game tomorrow night. Hope that helps.

 

[joethelawyer]

Yep Joe, there is a new book for 4e called Combat Essentials 1: Critical Matters by Final Redoubt Press. I ordered my hard copy from Noble Knight Games, but you can get a PDF at (RPGNow.com - The leading source for indie RPGs). The writer even gives credit to the writers of Rolemaster's crit tables as the main inspiration for this book. The book has crit tables for blunt, slashing, piercing, brawling, grabbing, martial arts, acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and thunder. I just got mine in the mail on Friday, and it looks really good. Basically, anytime you roll a crit, you also roll % on the suitable table, and get a narrative result. For example:

Slashing 68: Hack foe's sternum. The bone is broken, but it did its job. Foe is at -6 to all actions and is stunned for 2 rounds. Bleed 1 hp/lvl every 10 minutes. This wound would be convenient for direct heart massage.

Brawling 81: Falling backward, you kick foe in the knee. There is a sickening crack. Foe stunned 6 rounds. -4 to all actions. -2 squares of movement (permanent -1 movement).

Acid 42: Acid splashes on foot, eating through the instep but not quite severing it. Foe can no longer run and is at -1. Stunned for 1 round. Ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends).

Fire 66: Flames burn into abdomen, searing organs. Foe recieves -1 penalty next round from pain. The penalty increases by -1 per round until it his -9, then drops by -1 a round are that. Ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).

Lightning 90: Current chars scalp and electrocutes brain. Victim is paralyzed from the neck down. He changes radiacally in personality (or alignment). Foe is dazed (save ends). Foe is helpless.

It looks pretty well done, and I'll give it a shot in my 4e game tomorrow night. Hope that helps.

thanks for the responses guys. that critical matters book looks like it is esactly what i was looking for. is it just for 4e? or do you think 3.x users can use it too?

 

[the Jester]

I have what is, imho, a great homebrewed system for "colorful critical hits". It's posted here. One of the things that makes my system shine (again, imho) is the fact that you won't be decapitated unless the damage is going to kill you, and you won't suffer horrible maiming wounds unless a blow almost kills you. Yet, from time to time, critical hits will add character to your character... such as the story behind that eyepatch, or what happened to your teeth.

 

[defendi]

I answered this to Joe directly, but thought I'd pop it out here as an official answer. Critical Matters is a 4e book, but I use it in my current 3.5 Dragonlance game and my friend Howard Tayler (of schlockmercenary.com) uses it in his 3.5 Iron Kingdoms game. It's really easy to convert on the fly, if you know what conditions mean in both games (for instance a stun in 4e is equivalent to a daze in 3.5). For the most part, it's about descriptions anyway, so all the effects have context.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post that officially.

 

[joethelawyer]

thx defendi. i got your email---turned up in my spam bucket. thx for responding! you ought to have my group's order soon i think...

 

[defendi]

Heh. Feel free to get you FLGS to stock it too.

We're moving this weekend but I'll keep a box of product handy to fulfill orders.

 

[Aus_Snow]

If you want something that was designed for 3e, you might want to look at Torn Asunder:Critical Hits (for just the combat side of things, but done very well indeed) and/or the Advanced Player's Guide, from Sword & Sorcery Studios (this one covers weapon damage types, spell damage types, and other spell effects, to boot.) Not to be confused with the Advanced Player's Manual, from Green Ronin Publishing.

The APG (also not to be confused with the 4e book of the same name and therefore acronym, from Expeditious Retreat Press, or XPR) also deals with a lot of other subjects. Some of it is pretty decent, actually. Not sure how hard it is to find nowadays - that's the only serious problem that might exist. . .