Anyone use instant kill criticals?

[The Furious Puffin]

We tried

But Failed

We gave it a "dry run" ie rolled the dice but didn't apply the effects to see how it would work in our game. We rapidly discovered that casulties increased markedly on both sides (One PC would have died and important villian in addition to sundry others.) This wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't normally play with small groups - 2 or 3 players. The lost of one PC means that serious fudging has to occur to prevent total distruction of the party. So we eventually decided agaist it.

However I may consider trying to introduce Joker's maximum critical idea, as it will add an extra element of chance to encounters while not being so - nasty

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The only Rule for "Instand Death" we use is the Standard 50 points of Damage per one Attack -> Fortitude Save DC 15 failed -> Bye Bye...

I think that is enough. Don`t forget that the Chance for 50 points of damage per round increase with higher levels and better criticals... And remember Murphy`s Rule, which especially applies to Fighters making Fortitude Saves and Rogues making Reflex Saves...

 

[UD]

Yeah I use the 20 20 insta-kill roles. Ive lost two PC's to it. I also lost about 3 NPC's in a row when the PC's were rolling lucky.

 

[UD]

Oh yeah, the 20-20 rule dosnt apply to things that are immune to crits...

 

[Ruvion]

My instant kill rule is as follows:

A natural roll of 20 followed by a critical roll of 20 is considered a threat for an instant kill. If the third roll, an instant kill roll, scores a hit on the target in question, the target is instantly slain provided that the target¡¯s current hit points are lower than your own. Otherwise, a failed instant kill (due to lower current hit points) results in a critical hit with critical multiplier increased by one. Each consecutive extra 20¡¯s after the first 20, increases the critical multiplier by one each time. Instant Kill only works on creatures that are 2 sizes larger than you or smaller. Instant Kill ignores 50% of the fortification effects endowed in magical armors: hence, Instant Kill ignores light fortification, medium fortification has 25% fortification, and heavy has 50% fortification against it. Instant Kill does not affect creatures normally immune to critical hit.
A roll of 20 is always a hit, but not when you are confirming a critical.

 

[Dieter]

20-20-kill is the norm for my group. In the 10 months or so of gaming, it's never happened.

 

[Ruvion]

In the twelve months of gaming, I've seen it happen a total of three times.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I've thought about changing it to give the target a Fort save with a DC of the amount of damage rolled.

 

[mmadsen]

Using a natural 20 followed by a natural 20 as a special "instant death" crit just means that every 400th attacks or so -- from anyone, using any kind of weapon, against anyone, using any kind of defenses -- is instant death. Those cannon fodder orcs are just as likely to insta-kill our heroes as the other way around -- only there are hundreds of orcs to fight (not at once, of course), and only a few heroes to fight them.

Ideally, special crit rules would favor our skilled heroes, not cannon fodder, and not big, dumb monsters.

To that end, I recommend stacking crits -- if you roll a crit threat, then another crit threat, you keep rolling and racking up additional damage multipliers.

E.g. Your to-hit is 15 and your crit threat is 19-20. You roll 19 and hit with a crit threat. You roll again and get a 20 -- second crit threat. You roll a 16 and cement that second crit. Instead of just doing x2 damage, you do x3.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I don't want to add anymore dice rolls to the combat really. Two rolls is enough.